Living, Laughing and Learning with Diana Waring

Australian Tour:  22 September 2009 - 24 October 2009

Families will be treated to one of the homeschool community’s best loved speakers. Diana’s rapid-fire workshops are renowned for being packed with many personal snippets of her life experience, historical characters and memorable illustrations.

She will deliver a number of workshops covering parenting, homeschooling, learning styles and teaching world history. One of her signature talks is “Beyond Survival” titled after a best selling book she wrote. In this talk she transparently describes her struggles and failures to create a school for her three children at home before she broke through the paradigm shift to the pure joy of a lifestyle characterised by one-to-one mentoring. This is what makes home education so successful.

As well, several of your favourite suppliers will be in attendance at the seminars:  Adnil Press, Homeschool Favourites, Down Under Literature, Chariot Press, Credo Trust, Always Learning Books, and more - click on the link below for full details and dates.

Living Laughing and Learning with Diana Waring

Book your ticket now, and be part of the adventure!

From Matthew 10, vs. 11-16:

¹¹"Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. ¹²As you enter the home, give it your greeting. ¹³If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. ¹⁵I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. ¹⁶I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

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We are called to ‘fight the good fight’ - to spread the news, to love each other.

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Sometimes, though, we need to let things go.  To let some people go.  For, although we’d dearly love to take them and sometimes, shake them, there are those who simply will not listen, not even when, or maybe especially when, they are quite simply, wrong.

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Oh, I get so frustrated, when people who claim to be Christian turn out to be the most judgemental of all.  They make statements about others, criticize others, and judge others.  They take another’s words, and twist them, and try to push forward the idea that they are innocent victims of another’s attack, when the opposite is, in fact, the truth.

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Let us be humble, and let us take care.  We will not always agree on certain points, nor will necessarily like everyone we come across.  But we are called to love each other.  Even when a friend or an acquaintance refuses to listen or to see the truth.  Sometimes, we must say good-bye to someone who has been in our lives.  For the sake of all involved, we must move on, and move onto different friends, and allow the seeds of God’s word to take hold in His time, and not ours.

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Recently, after making a simple comment, I was judged as un-Christian, and despite my efforts to gently point out that this was untrue, my words were twisted, and I was slammed as, basically, a horrid person.  The comments were unfair, but, sometimes, we just have to take it.  I had my say, but, with someone who has judged you as one thing and who refuses to listen, what can you do?  

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I see this as a great concern, over the Internet, when well-meaning Christians judge others, whom they have never even met, so harshly.  My son came across a comparison chart today.  Did you know who are the most likely people to bag Christianity?  Those on the Internet.  This percentage was much, much higher than those who are gay, or who are gay activists, and those who are non-religious at all.  Simply being on the Internet means you are very likely, at some stage, to send a blow to someone who is a Christian. 

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So, please be careful.  Whenever we leave a comment that judges someone or puts someone else down, remember that on the other end of the ‘line’ is a real, live person.  Someone with a heart, someone who has feelings.  The Internet can be a wonderful source of encouragement and inspiration, but can also be a place where our confidence is shot to pieces.  

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For me, I’m staying off of message boards for a while; actually, I’m reducing my entire time in front of the computer, and  getting back to spending time with the people in my life who are here, right here, physically in front of me.  That’s not to say I don’t have any cyber-friends out there who really are my friends - I do!  But I need time to distance myself from cyber bullies who will chuck out derogatory comments in a flash, just because ‘they can’.

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Let us be as be as ‘shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves’, let us love one another, and yes, when need be, let us ‘shake the dust off our feet’ if some will not listen, and move on .

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Linda 

It's been a while since I blogged here - I've been using my blog on the AP site, but, I miss this blog!  So maybe I will pop in time to time and update it.  Chuck in a 'think-piece' here and there.

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You know, I spend a lot of time thinking.  Pondering the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to do things.  I spend many hours planning, researching, etc. how to home educate, looking at all the vaious approaches, and hunting through all the myriad of resources out there.

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And, with time and effort, I come up with our ‘plan’.  I listen to what others suggest, try things out, but ultimately, we settle upon what works for us.  In our home, with so many of us, this usually does include text books and work books, and yes, the huge marking pile at the end of the day.

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But not always.  Sometimes, despite the wonderful timetable each child has in front of them, we’ll get part way through the day, and just think, ‘nope, not today!’.  Like yesterday.  We did some basic Maths, Copywork, English, etc.  But my youngest simply sighed at the bookwork - she wanted to play a game.  At first I resisted - after all, it was ‘school-time’.  But then, I thought, ‘why’?  Why struggle over a pile of books, when we could be having some fun, and ‘really’ sharing time together.

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So, that is what we did.  The board game came out, the books went away, and we did have fun!  There was laughter, chatting, playing, and even those who were not playing the game became caught up in the conversation, which covered many topics by the time we were done. 

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I forever question the right and wrong way to do this whole homeschooling thing.  Sometimes, It’s full-on bookwork - you MUST learn those Math facts!    Other times, I think we should just have some fun, and enjoy being together, for this time with our children is very short.  Soon they will grow into adults themselves.  Do I want them to look back and shudder over all that bookwork, or look back and smile over the time when they had the delight of thrashing Mum in a game, or the time we took the day off, and wandered through the local forest?

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There does, of course, need to be some formal learning, but it’s an interesting challenge to find the right balance.  Hopefully, in our patchwork of various days, we’ll be able to look back and say, ‘yes, we enjoyed homeschooling - we had fun’!

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May God bless your day,

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Linda.

Hi I have not been blogging at all in the New Year but today I am really feeling like I need to write something. The children have completed most of their school work today and now I have time to refelct on the devastating Bushfires that are around Melbourne at the moment. Bushfires are and have been a part of life here and most often when the weather turns as foul as it did Saturday you expect that something will happen. The winds are ferocious and hot often during the summer but when they come with 46c/115f temps they are deadly. That is what happened here Saturday. I was actually at a wedding and the poor bride looked like she was melting.We saw smoke and thought that it was a grass fire near the airport but in the last few days have come to realise that it was a Bushfire north of us that has killed a dozen or more people and devastated hundreds of houses. A friend of mine lives up that way and she is amazingly doing the best for her community working at the relife centre in Kilmore. I should have thought the worse when we spotted a grassfire in a paddock  on the way to the wedding and tried to call 000 and there was a cue. We then thought we would go to the fire station on the way but when we got there, all the trucks were gone and noone was around. All we could do was pray.

I have friends that are being touched by this and feel so useless and can only pray for them and those that are directly affected. It makes me angry to think that someone being careless or worse on purpose could have started all of this, like the cigarette throwing person who started the grassfire I witnessed and tried to get help for. Did someone consiously do that? I pray that they learn of what they have done and are brought to Justice for it.

My prayers are also with those who are afffected by the directly and indirectly and iipray for those fighting the fires and those who are caring for the fire victims and for the those who are and will volunteer in the near future to help rebuild. I pray for those who will need to rebuild their lives to be comforted and feel the hand of God around them.

This article touched me today:

 http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25025587-2862,00.html

This blog touched me today:

http://catalysed.com/missmaccypants/2009/02/09/how-fragile-life-is

p.s.if anyone reading this hcan help me find the piece of code which can straighten out my blog please tell me as I have no idea which part needs to be fixed up. Thanks in advance. :).

To all who have tried to access our site over the past few weeks - thankyou for your patience!

After many hours of hard work, our new site is now up and running, same address:

www.adnilpress.com

We have an opening special in that the first 20 customers will receive a free product with their order!

The site not only includes shopping cart and all our products, but also includes links, a forum, articles, reviews, RSS feeds, search features, and even my blog.

All this means that I will no longer be blogging here, but from now on,  it will be at the new site.

Check it out, at: www.adnilpress.com

God bless,

Hi,

Wow ,I suppose since I was away in August and September and spent all of October  and November trying to settle back in. It does not surprise me that we are up to the end of November and only weeks away till the end of our school year.

We had a great time overseas. I wish I had tried harder ot get the children to write in their travel diaries but I just did not have the heart. I figuire our photos tell most of the story.

I thought they might forget about the trip as they so quickly settled back into being at home but they surprise and please me by popping u with things they observed so that is good.

So how do I feel this year?? Well a lot more unsettled than last year but that is because the trip threw us off. I was worried about the things they had forgotten but they gained it all back phew..

I am looking forward to having the time to reflect and assess goals for next year.

The changes in the children are amazing moving on to the next levels especially Samuel and Sierra. They have come leaps and bounds. They did  really grow alot when we were away. 

I am really enjoying watching them get excited about the holidays too. They are wanting to do projects and make memories so cute. Even Joshua came up with a Thanksgiving card he made. It was so beautiful.  I was thinking today that we have never not had Thanksgiving no matter what continent we are on.

So on to the next year  year 6...  amazed but still convicted

So there we were, ‘trying’ to get ‘some’ schoolwork achieved for the day.  The children were a bit restless – a bit, well ‘unruly’.  Finally, though, after some threats and rather stern words from me, they did begin to calm down, and eventually we found ourselves at the table, with heads back in the books.

About this time, my 13 year old son began scratching his head, staring with puzzlement at his Maths book.  Looking up, he asked ‘Mum, what’s a polygon’? 

Without flinching or even breaking a smile, my 11 year old, who was seated at the opposite end of the table, threw up her hand, exclaiming, ‘oooh, oooh, I know what that is!   It’s a dead parrot!’.  

Well, you could have heard a pin drop, as we all tried to comprehend what she had said.  All of us at the table turned our heads in her direction, completely bewildered.  “Y’know”, she continued, “Polly   -    Gone!”

And thus ended  the quiet, calm day.

Today was one of those days when you really begin to feel you just should have stayed in bed....

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It was 'back to school' day, after a few days off, as I had been unwell, and needed to go to hospital for some tests (which I've not heard anything about as yet - I'm guessing it's a case of 'no news is good news').

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So, the 'plan' was to get back into the schooling, and get things happening again.  This all began with me sleeping in far too late, but not to worry, we did have a bit of late night with watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics, after all.

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And there I am - about to get moving and drag the young ones from their slumber, when whamo!  Those 'twinkling lights' begin to flicker in front of my eyes, meaning just one thing - a migraine is on it's way - wonderful.

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I take some pain killers, and call the youngins (several times), and then decide to 'quickly' answer a couple of emails, as well as typing up a fax which needed to be sent this morning.  The fax was dependant on the answer contained in one particular email, but naturally, when I went to open the email, the computer spat a fruity, and in the end, it took 40 MINUTES to open - which included shutting the whole thing down and trying again, but  no, let's just add to the time already wasted this morning - just long enough to place me in, shall we say, not the BEST mood to begin the week.  Of course, the light from the computer was killing my head, but, we got there in the end, took a deep breath and had a cuppa, and eventually continued on.

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But why, oh, why, is it that on the very day one is suffering from a migraine, do science experiments crop up in the older one's text books that involve dropping books on the floor?  And why, I have to ask, was this also the very day that the younger ones charge outside and make the exciting discovery of what happens when you pound on an old drum? 

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Anyway, the day continued - I was struggling, but, I was determined to 'make it' through the lessons.  After lunch came Science with my 3rd, 5th and 6th graders.  We were to boil some water and place it in various containers to test conductivity.  All was going well - the water took some time to boil, but eventually, it was almost boiling, when my 12 year-old commented, as casually as you like, 'By the way, the stove is on fire'.  And so it was.  Flames shot out of the element, and smoke began billowing from the stove.  So, instead of our planned, organised Science experiment, we ended up with this:

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I called my 'knight in shining armour', and sent the children outside, practising our 'fire drill'.  I just had to photograph it, but when the flames only grew higher, I left darling hubby to handle it, and shot outside as well (being so brave and all, I thought someone had better look after the children).

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After it was extinguished, and amongst all the smoke, we did eventually get the 'planned' experiment done, but then I resigned to the fact that the rest of the lessons were just not meant to be, and so hubby loaded up most of the children and headed for the tennis court.  I settled down for a movie, while my darling 11 year old cooked chocolate cake - which she thought may just be the thing!

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Ah well, tomorrow is another day (and yet, this one ain't over yet!)..........

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Well, we're back to 'school' on Monday, but following on from my 'timetable' post, I thought I'd write about what resources we are currently using, and take a look at what has proved to be our favourites so far this year........

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LATIN:   Prima Latina with the four youngest, and Henle Latin 1 with the older four - love it - both programmes are going well.  We also supplement with Lingua Angelica, and while we have been singing the hymns for some time, we've just started using the workbook as well - this really adds to the Latin programme - I like it.

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MATHS:  Signpost Maths for grades 1-6, supplemented by 'Developmental Math', and then 'Teaching Textbooks' for grades 7/8 and up - as well as using a drill programme - either Caculadder or Beat the Tape, depending on whether we're in 'computer' or 'bookwork' mode, and we have fun with 'Times Tales' as well.  Maths seems to be pretty much a 'breeze' these days, there's rarely a problem with any child - smooth sailing at the moment.

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LOGIC:  Currently using 'Building Thinking Skills' for grades 4 and up.  It's good, and the final book of the series is proving a bit challenging for the older ones - we've enjoyed the series, and it's been simple to use.  On completion, we may go back to the 'Mind Benders' series for a while - they're fun!

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ENGLISH:  Still using 'Voyages in Literature' and 'English for Young Australians' (an old grammar programme from the 50s).  As well, my 11 year old is using 'Student Writing Intensive' course, and we incorporate the 'Teaching Writing, Structure & Style' lessons into our history programme.  It's going well, but I am beginning to feel more time needs to be dedicated to the writing units.  We may take a temporary break from 'Voyages' to concentrate more on writing lessons for a time - and, I may just use 'Ancient-History Based Writing Lessons', which will match up with our history nicely.    For Copywork, my younger ones use a combination of the Memoria Press Copybooks, the Adnil Press Copybooks, and Voyages in Language.

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SPELLING:  Some are using the 'Phonetic Zoo', others are using 'Essentials in Teaching and Testing Spelling' - depending on personal choice.  Both of these programmes are working well.

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PHONICS & READING:  Voyages in Phonics and Phonics is fun - these two seem to work well together.  We've also changed from the Fitzroy Readers (which worked wonders for a time) back to the old, Happy Venture Readers - good old Dick & Dora, and we're using the accompanying workbooks.  They're fun!  The older children are required to select at least one book from each of the  'Australiana', the 'Classics' and the 'Saints' shelf to complete during the term - they usually read more than this, but that is the minimum.  As well, I try to read to them after the evening meal - unfortunately, time often gets away from me - but we WILL finish the Narnia series eventually!

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POETRY:  'Developing Linguistic Patterns Through Poetry Memorization'.  Fantastic programme!  The poems are just wonderful, and are a delight to learn.  We're working through this one all together.  Every now and then, you are asked to select a poem of your choice - it is here I'll add in some good Australian poetry as well.

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DRAWING:  As a base, we've used 'The Drawing Textbook' - most of the children are now finishing up this little gem, and will either move onto a 'How Great Thou Art' text of their choice, or, will begin using the new Memoria Press 'Copybooks' for cursive - these look absolutely marvellous!  They include Latin prayers, hymns and saying, so this will match up perfectly with our Latin studies.  I like the font, too - much like I learned at school.  The reason I include cursive in the 'Drawing' lesson is that learning to write beautifully is indeed more 'Art' than 'English' - they will be required to do the best they can - it's not so much what they write, but how they write it.

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RELIGION:  Catholic Mosaic with the younger ones - fantastic programme!  A very Charlotte Mason approach, with lots of 'real' picture books, beautiful stories, full of faith and morals.  With the older ones, we are using 'Faith and Life', books 6 and 8.  I like this series, it's very comprehensive, covering many topics - we've all learned a lot from these books.  As well, we memorize the catechism, and read from other supplemental material - one excellent book we're currently reading is 'St. Patrick's Summer'.

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AUSTRALIAN HISTORY:  We have recently begun 'Australia's Yesterdays' once again, as it's been a while since we did this programme, and I'm working with the younger ones on our new publication - more to do with Australian Geography - mountains and rivers, looking at each state, etc.  We're writing it as we go!

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SCIENCE: The older children are working through the Apologia High School series, while the younger ones work with me through the 'God's Design' series.  We've just begun the 'Heat and Energy' book, and enjoying it thus far.  We've tried various primary curriculums, but each time, come back to the God's Design series - it seems to suit our needs very well.  The three youngest children also enjoy the 'Magic School Bus' video series.

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HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY:  Currently, we're using 'Famous Men of Greece' with the younger ones, and the 'ABC's of Christian Culture' with the four oldest.  I am absolutely loving both programmes.  The ABCs of Christian Culture has really stolen my heart - every now and then you find a resource that just suits you perfectly - and this is one of those resources!   It uses 'real' books, along with 'spine' books, and has map work, the making of time-lines, reading assignments and essays, as well as final tests at the end of each module.  I've not really been one to impose 'testing' on my children up until now, but it really all fits together well, and rounds out and finalizes the unit perfectly.

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As well, the little ones do 'Galloping the Globe' - which is a wonderfully fun book to do - we don't always 'get there', so we're moving through it rather slowly, but, we do enjoy it!

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MUSIC AND ART:   And then, there's Music Theory and Music Practical (Piano, Clarinet, Flute, etc.), 'Colour the Classics' or 'Meet the Great Composers' for Music Appreciation, and various resources for Art Appreciation. 

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OTHER:  Finally (I think!), the children use 'Typing Instructor Deluxe' for typing skills and 'Pure & Simple' for Computer Skills.  These subjects aren't covered as often as I'd like - but hey, there's only so many hours in a day!

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And just briefly to mention Physical Education - we don't do any winter sports as such, but we do love Bush Dancing, and lately, we've headed outside each afternoon for the family 'baseball match'.  We tried cricket and football, but baseball seems to be the 'in' sport at present - and we all love to play it - and have a few great laughs along the way!  Trying to explain to a six-year old to run to the next base, and NOT take off after the ball, has been the funniest thing - one of those times you just wish you had a video camera with you!   

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All in all, most things are going very well - and amazingly, the timetable seems to work most days - I think we're all at a point now where each one knows what is expected of them, and so they mostly 'get on with the job'.

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Have a great week!

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Over the past week, we took a break and headed off to Gawler for some time out with friends.

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We enjoyed a night of bush dancing, went to a cooking demonstration, tackled the shops for some 'retail therapy', and us girls even had an afternoon where we disappeared for a quiet coffee, cake and a visit to the 2nd hand book shops.    And of course, there was time to simply sit and chat, and to relax.

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But, all good things must end, and after only a few days, it was time to head home, and begin catching up on work, emails and phone calls.

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It was a lovely break, and we look forward to the next time we're able to get away for a few days. 

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And, as amazing as it seems - Welcome to August!    How the year is flying by!

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