Some Thoughts ...

Just prior to the Christmas break, a colleague blessed me with a reading recommendation: Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. I am one of those people who loves to learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before me and thoroughly enjoyed the insight of the Clarksons.

As I spent time reading, I felt God speaking to me in the area of peace. Peace within my home. Peace within my relationships. Peace within my conversations. Peace within my attitude.

Right alongside the desire for peace was the reminder of my need for Grace.

Daily Grace.

Grace to make it peacefully through this day, this week, this term, this year.

In God's perfect timing, He had another fellow colleague send me an email that directed me to this beautifully written excerpt on how to maintain Peace within a homeschooling home. I encourage you to take some time when your home is quiet and your mind is still, to read these words of encouragement: How to Parent: Just Guide Gently

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all. ~ 2 Thessalonians 3:16

My Reading Nook

Sally Clarkson's inspirational blog: I Take Joy

A New Coat for Anna - Harriet Ziefert

Memory Verse: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth ... but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~ Matthew 6:19-21

Lots of great discussion! We discussed:
~ being poor
~ families during war times
~ giving to those who are in need
~ being content and worry free no matter what the circumstance
~ patience - how Anna waited a whole year to get her new coat
~ the seasons (through the illustrations and text)
~ the difference between buying with money and bartering

Our favourite activities:
~Role playing through the story
~ Sequencing the story using picture cards (I used my scanner to scan key illustrations from the book and then my daughter put them in order, dictated what was happening and then put together as a little book)
~ Planning, purchasing items for and putting together a package for a Thanksgiving food hamper for new moms with babies.
~ Sewing a small bag.
~ Measuring various parts of our bodies.

Here are a couple of photos of the paper pencil type activities:


~ back and front portraits, narration, body measurement booklet


~ directed drawing, sequencing booklet, scripture reference, swatch of material used for sewing project

Calendar Time

Here's a great way to get your children learning through living. I hear that ALL calendars are on sale right now - everywhere! My kids are loving this one so far. They can design their own page and add stickers for special dates - How fun is that?!?!

Nature Walk Extravaganza

Instilling a LOVE of nature in my children is a priority since nature is a reflection of God's awesomeness. I like to take time to be awed at His creation and I like to bring my kids alongside in this experience.

Tomorrow I have an autumn nature walk planned. To help with our discoveries, I am going to have the girls use this picture checklist from abcteach : Nature Walk Checklist

Recently I came across some other neat ideas to use while exploring nature:
Painted Egg Carton Discovery Chest

Using your 5 Senses

Top 10 Things to Do on a Nature Walk


Awe-Tumn
When summer's seams
Have come undone,
Then greens to reds
And purples run.
A palette falls
To forest floor,
And autumn leaves
Leave me in awe.

~ Douglas Florian ~ "Autumnblings"

A Milestone

Get Ready for the Code - Explode the Code Primer Book A is officially completed - October 24, 2008.

There were moments of "letter writing trauma" as m's looked like seagulls flying across the page and k's's looked like flat-headed crocodiles with their mouths wide open. But truth be told, my heart delights and the corners of my lips curl up in response to the flying m's and wide-mouthed k's.

I'm not sure if I should be aiming for "perfection" in the area of writing or not. But so far, I'm not. - I'm aiming for legibility.

This is my daughter's first attempt at a workbook and to be honest I'm pretty proud of her. She showed perseverance and looked almost studious at times while working away at the exercises. Next week we'll bring on Book B ... Get Set for the Code!

We're not trying to do School at Home. We're trying to do home school. These are two entirely different propositions. We're not trying to replicate the time, style or content of the classroom. Rather we're trying to cultivate a lifestyle of learning in which learning takes place from morning until bedtime 7 days each week. The formal portion of each teaching day is just the tip of the ice burg. ~ Steve and Jane Lambert

A Forest Scavenger Hunt

This is a fun little scavenger hunt that I came across in a local environmental magazine:

~ a mushroom
~ lichen (like hanging hair)
~ a cedar tree
~ a seed
~ a feather
~ a non-native species
~ a sign of the season
~ a sign of humans
~ a branch or stick shaped like a letter
~ a squirrel or chipmunk chattering
~ something red
~ something round
~ a conifer cone (like a pine or fir cone)
~ a scat (animal droppings)
~ somebody's home
~ a bird song
~ a stream or creek
~ a nurse log (a log with plants growing on it)
~ a wildflower
~ a sign of a woodpecker
~ a rotten log
~ a worm or an insect
~ something yellow
~ a river worn rock (smooth and round)
~ moss on a tree trunk or log
~ an old growth tree (takes 3 kids arms to wrap around the trunk!)

Wee Gillis ~ Munro Leaf ~ FIAR Unit Study

Memory Verse: Proverbs 9:9 ~ Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still.

Day 1
~ listened to bagpipe music
~ talked about the months of the New Year and January
~ went through a calendar learning the names of the months and an occasion that corresponds with each
~ sung the months of the year (made up a tune)
~ compared "oatmeal eating" pictures
~ made homemade oatmeal

Day 2
~ looked at the picture of Wee Gillis blowing the bagpipes and talked about how the "cross-hatching" lets us know that his cheeks were red
~ tried cross hatching on a square piece of paper
~ glued pictures of a hairy-cow and a stag into our animal classification chart

Day 3
~ looked at the shadows in the illustrations and discussed where the sun was coming from (my daughter also looks for her shadow and the direction of the sun when outside)
~ completed a directed drawing of a hairy-cow and it's shadow




Day 4~ placed a sticker on Scotland on a world map
~ created a Scotland flip book - the pages included a flag of Scotland and of our own country, pictures and labels of a kilt (and a swatch of plaid material), bagpipes, a hairy-cow and a map of Scotland




Day 5
~ narrated the story of Wee Gillis ~ my daughter dictated and I typed (she needed a little prompting but for the most part it is her interpretation)
~ cut and assembled scrapbook pages with the completed Wee Gillis activities

And the Winners are . . .

Here are the curriculum winners for this school year(Kindergarten):

Unit Studies - Five in a Row (presently working out of Volume 2)

Math Bags and Activities - I am making these up. Each bag/activity will focus on a specific Math skill (e.g. number correspondence, numbers up to 100, patterns, 2-D shapes, measurement, sorting, adding and subtracting).

Get Ready for the Code, Get Set for the Code, and Go for the Code - The Primers for the Explode the Code Series.

I have also picked up Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock so that I can participate in:

Enjoying the Classics

Here are a couple of tried and true picture books that we have been enjoying lately:



The illustrations are excellent and allow for imaginations to go to another place. The relationship between the mother bunny and the child bunny allows kids to relate to the story even more. There is a text pattern and rhyme that can be used as a model to guide children in adding their own verses to the story. A very sweet read.



I love this book. There is so much learning that occurs by simply reading the text and discussing the illustrations. The illustrations are not in color but somehow they captivate the hearts and minds of both children and adults.
As we have read through this book several times, we have:
~ learned the difference in appearance between a mallard and a drake
~ counted the baby ducklings on each illustration to make sure none has been lost
~ recognized the need for a mama duck to find a place to nest and sit on her eggs
~ learned what molting is
~ compared the park in the book with the park that we go to to feed the ducks
~ established who a cop is
~ reviewed along with the ducklings the rules of safety when walking near traffic

A wonderful read!

A Poem, Two Quotes, and a Verse

I took a piece of living clay
And gently formed it, day by day
And molded with my power and art
A young child's soft and yielding heart.

If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder . . . he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in. ~ Rachel Carson

The imagination should be allowed a certain amount of time to browse around. ~ Thomas Merton

Be an example . . . of good deeds of every kind. Let everything you do reflect your love of the truth. ~ Titus 2:7

Summer Lessons

Song of Summer by Margo Petterson
Summer is quickly approaching and even though the school doors are closing, the curious minds of our children never shut down! As I look ahead to July and August, I am starting to think about the lessons that I will be teaching my children during the lazy, but inevitably crazy days of summer. Here are some of the lessons that have come to mind:

How to pick strawberries without smooshing them.
How to pack a healthy picnic lunch.
How to paddle a canoe.
What the summer solstice means.
How to make others feel special on their birthday(we have a lot of summer birthdays).
How to swim safely at the lake.
How to make a bird feeder out of a giant sunflower.
How to spot the Big Dipper and Ursa Minor.
How to make homemade ice cream.
How to pack a backpack for a sleepover.
How to can peaches.
How to make and sort a collection of rocks, shells, and flower petals.
How to build a stable sand castle.
How to play hopscotch.
How to jump rope.
How to pit a cherry and make a fresh cherry pie.
How to keep our petunias and marigolds alive and well.
How to harvest lavender.
How to count their many summer blessings.

Truth to Cling to

Mother and Child by Francis Coates Jones

She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household,
And does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her.

~ Proverbs 31:26~28

Tidbits and Tips: A Homeschooling Binder

Every homeschooling parent needs a "homeschooling binder" - a place to stash (I mean carefully organize) all the homeschooling paraphernalia that inevitably will come your way. Paraphernalia that you don't want to throw into the recycling because you just might need it. . . one day.

I have recently designated a lovely orange binder to be my official homeschooling binder. I already have a few homeschooling tidbits that need a home. Some of the tidbits are from a homeschooling convention that I attended in the Spring. The other resources are outlines from some of Susan Wise Bauer's convention workshops - nuggets of information about instilling the love and skills of language into children at the K-4 level.

The cover of my homeschooling binder houses my personal homeschooling convictions. As well, I plan to include some of my favorite Bible verses relating to the training, discipleling, and raising up of my children.

Blessings!