The following was a story written and Ilustrated by DT age 9.  He did all of it (including the typing) himself.  He has been working on it for quite awhile now since he still is learning correct hand posistion for typing.  (Click on the pictures to enlarge them for reading) Enjoy!

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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I sometimes get in a the rut of not knowing what to blog about so to help me get out of that rut I decided to start listing 15 things that are somehow related to me.  I got this idea as well as the idea of my first list, posting my favorite children's books, from Light In the Sphere.  She has a 13 Thursday.  I liked that idea but changed mine to 15 Friday! LOL  Thanks for the idea Farrah! :-)  ((((hugs)))))

I love children's books!  I collect them and own tons of them and it's really hard to post my favorite!  I feel that the wonderful books that I don't mention will feel left out! I'll take that risk though and post my list.  You will notice many of which are a part of the FIAR curriculum.  (These are listed in no particular order):

1. The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward (I loved this book as a child and just had to by it for my own children who also adore it!  It has been read over and over and over again!)
2. Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky
3. Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Hary Devlin (Who can not love Mr. Whiskers?! LOL)
4. Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne and Illustrated by H.A. Rey
5. Choo Choo by Virginia Lee Burton (I love this author and my children and I just love all of her books!  You can't go wrong in picking up one of her books!)
6. A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno (We enjoy the story and the illustrations. A fun story that gives us a peek into the Japanese culture.  It's also a book that gets read over and over again in our home.)
7. Andy and the Circus by Ellis Credle (I was able to pick up this out of print book used and am so glad that I did.  The boys love it as do I!)
8. Three Names by Patricia MacLachlan
9. Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (I had this book when I was a child and had to by it for my boys.  I love it as do they.)
10. Lentil by Robert McCloskey (We love his books and have a number of them.  They boys just love Lentil and wanted harmonicas after hearing this story! LOL)
11. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
12. The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack  (Yet another story that I enjoyed as a child and just had to get for my boys.)
13. Journey Cake Ho! by Ruth Swayer (I just love this book!  The boys do too!  It's one that we read over and over and over again! LOL)
14. Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom (My boys loved this book as toddlers and preschoolers.  Also as they began reading, they loved that they could read this book to their litter brothers.)
15. The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne (I couldn't leave this book off my list!  IMO, it is a must have!  We all love these stories.  We also have his complete book of poems which we love as well!)

Well, there you have it!  I could have added many more on as well as children's chapter books.  It was hard to narrow my list down to fifteen. LOL  Maybe I'll have to do a part 2 sometime! LOL

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My results didn't surprise me. LOL  Dh didn't take the test but he would be opposite of me, I am sure.  He is a left-handed techie and when I was filling it out I said, "I am this but dh is that." LOL

You Are 20% Left Brained, 80% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

http://www.blogthings.com/areyourightorleftbrainedquiz/

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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I believe that we should always be willing to try new things and hone new skills.  We should not be afraid to try something we have always dreamed of doing but never tried because we thought it was not a gift of ours.  Instead, we should drop all inhibtions and try something new! I am going to do just that!

I want to model learning to my boys.  I already do that through showing them that learning is what we do from birth to death and willingly saying, "I don't know.  Let's find out." when I don't know the answer to their inquistive questions.  I want to take it one step further, though.  I want them to learn to not be afraid to stick their necks out and try something new even though it may be difficult or a bit scary to them.

I have decided to model that.  I have always wanted to write poetry and short stories but felt inadequate to do so.  I felt that I wasn't talented enough but finally decided to give it a try and created The Tea Room.   This is my safe corner to do try my hand at writing.  I also hope that it will model to my boys that one is never to old to try new things.

I deleted my JTF blog where I was blogging about my weightloss (that was not going very well) and created The Tea Room instead.  The Tea Room will be a bit more uplifting for me.  It will not be a reminder of my failed attempts to watch what I eat.  LOL

Shyly admitting that I posted the poem that I wrote in March as my first entry.  It's nothing special but my little attempt at dusting off my skills and giving a go at writing poetry again.

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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First, I just want to say that I love The Old School House Magazine!  It is full of supportive articles and ideas one can use in their homeschool days. I especially enjoy the unit study ideas, the readers comments, and the helpful and informative articles! My boys love the "How to draw" section. It is one of the few magazines that I read cover to cover and one that I always ask to be returned to me when I lone it out so I can file it and have it for future reference.

Now about the contest:

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's Spring Promo is in full bloom.
Subscribe now to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and receive
25 BONUS gifts valued at over $550!
The Winter Promo sold out, don't miss out on the free gifts this time!
The HSB Front Porch is having a contest
and you can win a $50 gift certificate
just for blogging about the Spring Promo
before midnight April 30, 2008.
Click HERE for details.

They are also giving away a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store. All print subscribers (new or renewing) between April 3 - 30, 2008 will be automatically entered into a drawing. No purchase neccessary to win. To enter without subscribing, please send a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and email address to:
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Spring Promo Contest
PO BOX 8426
Gray, TN  37615

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We have been enjoying the spring weather.  Last Saturday I got our screens cleaned and put in so now I can enjoy the birds chirping.  I still need to get my house decluttered and organized.  My goal is to have that huge job finished by the end of may.

Tuesday I took JM to the doctor on Tuesday and after his appointment took the oldest two boys to a friend's house so that they could still go on our planned field trip to Hans Herr House.  (I was disappointed that I couldn't go because of JM being sick but at least they were still able to go.)

Today we went to a Native American Festival.  JT is looking forward to going and learning more about Native American's and their culture.  Well, I am not really feeling very talkative and also need to run and start my day. 

Starting a fire:
 

The boys would like one of these:

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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Spring is officially here at our place.  I planted garden this morning as part of our science so it is now official.  The boys and I planted 4 lbs of onion sets, regular peas and sugar snap peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, and radishes.  We are so excited to get our food into the ground and growing.

Before planting, I walked down to our neighbor's home to see if we could expand our garden.  (We use a part of their 2nd garden and they have told us in the past we could use as much of it as we wanted Because all of their children are grown and gone with the exception of one son.  I wanted to make sure the offer still stood.  As much as my boys have been eating, we need to put up more this summer! LOL) 

I am really looking forward to this summer.  We are going to have a lot of fun digging in the dirt this year and since we are studying Botony, gardening will be extra fun and special!  LOL  Oh and this will be the first year that we let some of the plants go to seed so we can save seeds for our own seed collections!  What fun!!!!

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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We took a fieldtrip to the MCC Material Resource Center in Ephrata today.   MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) is an organization that seeks to demonstrate God's love by working among people suffering from poverty, conflict, oppression and natural disaster.

We donated some school kits and had a tour of the Material Resource Center.  They ship a lot of things to 3rd world countries and to places that faced natural disasters or are war torn.  We saw them making rugs out of denim (they sell the rugs and use the $$ for their relief efforts), we saw the storage part of their warehouse.  It was amazing at all the food, clothing, school, health, newborn, aids health (for Africa) kits they had packaged and ready to go.  They also had models of the different water systems that they help set up and use in 3rd world countries.  They have a tractor trailer truck set up for canning meats that they take all over the eastern half of the US and can meat to send for relief.  We saw the piles and piles and piles of that canned meat that was inpected, packaged and ready to ship.

The children had fun trying them out.  I had my children in a lot of the photos that I took and I only post pictures without my children in them on my public blog.  So here are a few pictures that didn't have them in:



The clothing compactor.




Boxes of canned meat that has been inspected, packed and ready for shipping.

Packages of clothes ready for shipping.

Health kits ready to ship.  They people are very glad to have the buckets as well as the kits because the buckets can be used for so many things!

We saw them sewing bags for kits, cloth bags that they sell to those who want to use cloth rather than paper and plastic bags for shopping (the money from the sell goes to helping with the relief efforts), ladies quilting quilts to be sold at their auction, etc. They also recycle old books, plastics and other things like that. The money from the recycling projects go to their relief efforts. The boys learned so much and really enjoyed their trip.

I took a lot of pictures but I need to remember to take more pictures without my kiddos in so I can post more here.  LOL

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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I wish that I knew more about HTML.  I would love to mess with my blog and have a really unique beautiful background.  I could learn but with homeschooling, keeping up with my 4 young boys, gardening and all my other activities, I'll just have to be content to put that on the back burner and make little changes here and there.

I just added a springtime picture of deer in a meadow so that can be my unique touch to my blog. LOL  I am trying to decide if I want to keep the background color yellow or change that.  I'll think on that one for a bit.

Yesterday the boys disected a daffodil for botony.  They kept saying, "Mom, you are making us kill your flowers.  Don't you care about your flowers' lives?"  LOL  Silly boys!  They really enjoy Jeannie Fulbright's books.  She really has a gift in writing and is such an engaging writer.  The boys love her books and say science is their favorite subject. 

I really want to start doing unit studies again next year.  My problem is how to do them and yet use MOH and Jeannie's science series.  Hmmm, can it be done?  I'll need to think on that and see if I can come up with something.

Well, I am not feeling very chatty this AM so that's it for now. LOL

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I have been meaning to start my boys in learning a forgien language but have been having difficulty deciding what to teach them.   I know exactly what curriculum I would use when I finally decide on the lanugage, though.   It'll be Rosetta Stone!  I have heard so many wonderful things about the curriculum and I love that it emerses the children in the language!   Anyway, I am entering the contest from JenIg's blog.

Here is the contest info from JenIg's blog:

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We have been really enjoying Botony.  DT wasn't sure that it would be fun when he first learned that our study after Astronomy was going to be Botony.  His exact words where, "Mom, that is going to be boring!  Can't we study sea creatures instead?"  I made a deal that we would start out with Botony but if that is really boring and he hates it, we would switch to Swimming Creatures.  Well, he is finding out that botony isn't borning and he loves it!  His younger brothers do, too!

Here is a picture of our light hut.  We have basil, lavendar, parsely, and chamomille planted in it.  Each boy has row.  Well our 2 yo doesn't he has spinach growing on our window sill.

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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Saturday, DH took DT, JT, and DA to our church's Pinewood Derby. DT and JT both entered cars in it. JT won a medal for best paint job. DT was disappointed not to win a medal but there were more children in his class. Here are the pictures:

JT laid out his car and medal for this picture



DT's car and ribbon.

Sunday DT (9), JT (6), and I went to see Hal Weber's art show at Garden Spot Village. DT and JT enjoyed viewing the pictures and being able to talk to Mr. Weber and ask him a few questions. They were the only children there and he seemed to enjoy talking to them. He gave them hints on drawing and painting. When we arrived home they pulled out their papers and paints and put to practice what they learned. Here are the results:

A Tow Truck by DT

A Rainy Early Spring Day by JT

Spring Flowers in a Vase by JT

DA (age 4) got in on the fun and painted the following two pictures:

Springtime


Spring Day

If you click on their painting to enlarge it, then you may see that they followed Mr. Weber's advice and drew a picture first before painting it.   They had a lot of fun with it.

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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We are studying George Washington and the Revolutionary War. Last week we read about the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere's Ride. My boys then started acting out what we have studied in their play.  It was fun to see them dress up and act out what stuck out to them.  One was George Washington, one was Paul Revere and one was "a Brittish captian who was very angry that they tea got dumped into the ocean."  They played like this for hours.  It was fun to listen in on their play and hear what they imagined it would have been like then.

I checked out some videos about George Washington and the boys really enjoyed watching them, as well.  I wish that I had the oppertunity to learn history this way rather than from dry school textbooks.  I think that I would have remembered a lot more!

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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Here is DT's latest short story. Here is the title page:


The first page:


The 2nd page:


He concentrated more on what he was writing than his handwriting but we are very proud of the outcome!

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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Alice in Wonder Land Lewis Carroll

Paul Bunyon by Steven Kellogg

The Cricket in Times Square by Geoffery Hayes

Rumplestiltskin by Paul O Selinsky

The Lame Prince by Dinah Mulock

The Adventures of a Brownie by Dinah Mulock

The Fir Tree (From The Complete Tales of Hans Christian Anderson)

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

Thumbelina (From The Complete Tales of Hans Christian Anderson)

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh

Bambi by Felix Salten (Unabridged)

The Brave Tin Soldier (From The Complete Tales of Hans Christian Anderson)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickenson

The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury by Alice Low

A Child’s Christmas Treasury by Mark Daniel

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Clearly

Runaway Ralph by Beverly Clearly

Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Clearly

Stuart Little by E.B. White

The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla

Paul Bunyan by Maxine W. Kumin

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

(Some books we read didn't get listed)

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Math-U-See blocks are fun for a variety of things.  My boys sit on the sofa with their boxes of Math-U-See blocks pretending they are laptop computers.   They also have fun using them for building!  I do have a picture of the space ship and Satellite my oldest created using his MUS blocks:

Spaceship and Satellite that DT (age 9) made from MUS blocks.

Who knows what they will decide to use MUS blocks for next!  My guys love MUS.  They used to hate math but since starting with MUS, they love it!   I wish that I had MUS when I was in school!

© Copyright 2008 Peaceful Meadows

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The boys do not really watch much TV. Just Curious George and occasionally Cyber Chase (it depends on the Cyber Chase episode). But even though they never watch more than a total hour of TV a day, I have noticed that they fight more after they watch it. Thus my decision to go TV-free for a month.

We just finished really Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and I found the following Poem from the book very appropriate. It's a song the Oompa-Loopas sang after Mike Teavee's incident with the TV.

"The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, never, NEVER let
Them near your television set-
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink-
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS ANd CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK-HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY...USED...TO...READ! they'd READ and
Read,
And READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wonderous, fine, fantastic tales
of dragons, gypsies, queens and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be!
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How The Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
The'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start-oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous maching,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
P.S. Regarding Mike Teavee,
We very much regret that we
Shall simply have to wait and see
If we can get him back his height.
But if we can't-it serves him right."
(pg. 137-141 of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

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Do you ever feel like you are always running behind?  Do you ever get irritated at those little interruptions?   You know the ones like:

"Mommy, help me find my Lego man?"  (3 yo)

"Mommy, unna o ight ight."  (24 mo language for "Mommy, I want to go night night.")

"Mom!  Where is my gears set?  I need it to make my rocket ship."  (9 yo)

"Mom!  I need some string and tape to hang up the stop sign that I just made!  I have looked everywhere and can't find it.  Do you know where it is?" (6.5 yo)

All of this when I am trying to get dinner in the crock pot!  It never fails, they never need me until I am smack dab in the middle of something! LOL   I started doing things where I can prepare meals ahead of time because it never failed that everyone wanted me when I was preparing dinner.  I thought casseroles and crock-pot cooking would take care of that BUT they still call for me when I am smack dap in the middle of something.

I love motherhood!  I love, love, love being a homeschool mother!  I love teaching my children about their Maker, reading, writing arithmetic, science, history, ethics, relationship skills, and home making skills.  Yes, I am teaching my boys home making skills.  I think it is very important for boys to learn to cook, clean, sew, do laundry as well as wood working, mechanics and gardening.  For one thing if I didn't teach my boys these things, I would be over worked and over whelmed and secondly they need to be prepared for if God calls them to serve Him as single men.  Plus if they get married, they are prepared to pitch in and help their wives if/when the need arises.

I also actually love the interruptions.  Like the day I was in the middle of dinner preparations and I get the excited call, "MOM!!!!  MOM!!!! Come quick you gotta see this!"   "Can it wait?"  "NO!!!  Come or you will miss it!"  I run outside and see someone's escaped EMU running through our Amish neighbors' field.  Had I done what I really wanted to do (ignore them and get my work finished) I would have missed seeing how graceful a running EMU can be and missed a learning opportunity for the boys.  (We came back in and looked up Emus on the internet.)  To me, my boys' learning opportunities are more important than kitchen work and an occasional late dinner is worth taking advantage of a learning moment.

Another time I was washing dishes to have my 9 yo come running into the house telling me to come quick.  He ran out the door before I could ask him why.  I ran outside to see a Bald Eagle soaring by.  I was so glad that I dropped what I was doing to run out and see what the boys wanted.

To me, it is worth the frustration of not completing my work in order to share in learning moments with the boys.  I don't mind dropping a dish towel and going outside to look at a worm with them.  It's fine with me to take a break from folding laundry to see the toad they found and watch it with them.   Like my grandma said, "Enjoy your children and interruptions now that you can because before you know it they will be grown and gone.  After they leave home you will still have dishes to do, laundry to fold, a home to clean, and meals to prepare but you will not have your children at home with you."

Do you remember the story of Mary and Martha in Luke?  Mary took the time to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to his teachings.  She took the learning moment that God dropped in her lap and sat there soaking up all that Jesus had to say.  Mary, on the other hand, thought of all that needed to be done.  "Jesus needs a delicious meal to eat, oh and this needs doing and that needs doing....." she most likely was thinking to herself.  In my heart of hearts, I tend to feel like Martha.  ("Grrrr.. another interruption.  I really want to get this mess cleaned up so I can just relax!")  I have to make myself drop what I am doing and take advantage of the learning opportunities God drops in my lap.  My boys are not being selfish when they interrupt me.  They are not trying to get me to do what they want, nor are they trying to annoy me, rather they just want to share their fun discoveries with me, one of the people they love the most.  Also, I believe that God uses them to teach and minister to me.  I have learned a lot about my Creator, my Lord, my Abba Father, through the things my boys have pointed out to me.

Yes, motherhood is wonderful and being a homeschool mother....well, that is AWESOME!!!!!   I would not trade it and all the learning opportunities it provides me with for all the riches in the world!

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I was trying to think of a cute, catchy title for this entry but am just not feeling creative enough for that at the moment.  We have had the stomach virus visit our house this week and it hasn't been fun!  JM came down with it Monday night and was sick all day Tuesday.  The Wed afternoon the other 3 boys all got sick.  I thought I was coming down with it Wed AM because I was feeling quesy so I asked dh to take JM to the cardiologist.  He did but I never did feel more than just tired and quesy all day.  So we did school and I caught up on the laundry.

We are finishing up our Exploring Creation with Astronomy studies and having a blast in the meantime.  We didn't to the rocket experiment from the Saturn chapter so we are doing that as well as the cloud one this week.  (Neptune, like Jupiter and Saturn, has storms raging.  W simulate a storm cloud to see what a storm may look like on the planet.  Of course a storm cloud on a gas planet would not be made of water vapor but it was a fun experiment anyway!  

We used very hot water, ziploc bag full of ice, and a lit match.  (The smoke from the match supplies some particles in the air above the water.)  We learned that the inner core of each planet is very hot (represented by the hot water), while the gases that make up its atmosphere are extremely cold (represented by the ice).  Gases rise from the hot core but turn into liquids adn then solids when they get cooled off in the ice cold atmosphere.

The boys also made rockets.  Next on our agenda is to launch our rockets.  We just need the Alka-Seltzer and film canister so that we can finish our experiment.  

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