Homeschoolers have been brought to court for many reasns but I think this is the first time I've heard of intellectual abadonment. Such is the charge against one homeschooling family in Brazil. Currently homeschooing is illegal in Brazil but a bill is in congress that could make it legal.

I believe homeschoolers have proven that home education heightens one's intellect. The Nunes children have proven through various tests that their intellect isn't neglected, let alone abandonded.

Pray for the Nunes family and that Brazil will make homeschooling legal.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

Comments

Jan. 7, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by homeschoolshelter

That's ironic. I wonder if we could bring a similar charge against the American public school system...?

- Home Where They Belong

As I alluded to last week, I've tweaked our school schedule and added a bit of a twist in hopes of keeping me from feeling like a like a ping-pong ball.   I'm alternating my teacher-instruction days between the two oldest.  

My children don't focus in tiny little bits here and there, but tend to do better in bigger clumps of time.  (They come by it from me, no doubt.) I hope this gives me time to concentrate on each child and allows them to dig in a bit better on their lessons. 

(And with the two little boys keeping me busy, I'm thinking it might be just right for this season.) 

Most likely my schedule is entirely useless for any family but my own, but it can be interesting to see how others juggle their school days, so I'll post it anyway. 

Because I made the schedule for me and mine, it might require some decoding:
We school 6 days a week, so on the circled time on the charts I meet with Kendra on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and assign for two days.  On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I meet with Kaira--and again, assign for two days.  Then on the tapestry/Kieran buddy time they will alternate as well... some days they will do reading and other days play with their little brother for me.   (Tapestry is Tapestry of Grace--our literature, history and multi-discipline curriculum.)  In my collumn, the things listed are what I'm primarily available to do, but I bounce around. 

(When we conclude the string of birthdays next week my scholars will be ages 9, 7, 5, 4, and 22 months.)

If the schedule you made in the spring isn't working anymore, don't be afraid to switch things around.   Life changes, and the beauty (and challenge!) of homeschooling is to meld school to life! 


Domestic Chaos Tamer and Homeschool Mom of Five, Dell writes about home, heart and hearth.

What do you think about when you hear the word "sushi"? Japanese? Raw fish? Exotic? Gross? ? I'm not sure what it is about sushi that either makes people become intimidated or shiver in disgust. I suppose most of it is because it's a different cuisine and because it's usually associated with raw fish. While using raw fish is traditionally in the sushi rolls, you certainly don't have to put it in there. These days, esp. if you don't live in a metropolis, finding sushi grade fish is extremely hard, if not impossible.

In the 1960's, southern California was the "hot spot" for Japanese chefs to "make it bit" in the USA. A Japanese sushi chef, by the name of Ichiro Ma****a, created what we now know as the California roll. He substituted the fish (raw or cooked) and eggs for avocado, crab meat and cucumber. He also made it "inside out", because he found that the American people didn't like seeing and chewing the nori (sea weed) on the outside of the roll. Many places today, including the ever popular Chinese buffets, have California rolls on their menu.

Since we like to experiment with different kinds of foods and we like to expose our children the many, many different cuisines that our world has to offer, we made sushi rolls (it is sometimes difficult to find things here, since we live in a backwoods, romote place, but we strive to expose our childen to the many different, wonderful foods our Lord has made us and the different cultures you find with the food). Since this was our first attempt at making them, we decided not to make the California roll (with the rice on the outside) and we made the traditional sushi roll ( with the nori on the outside). We, of course, didn't use raw or cooked fish, but used four different ingredients for the middle: acocado, egg, prosciutto and pickled ginger.

Sushi Rolls
* makes  4 logs

Sushi rice
2 c sushi rice
2 c water
1/2 c rice wine vinegar
1/4 c sugar
2  1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Combine rice and water and bring to a boil. Once a boil is achieved, turn the stove off and let the rice absorb all of the water. Heat the vinegar, salt and the sugar in a sauce pan until the sugar and salt is completly dissolved. Once the rice is cooked and still warm, mix the vinegar solution into the rice. 

1 package nori (sea weed) sheets
whatever fillings you want in your rolls
(we used avocado, eggs, prosciutto, and pickled ginger)
* wasabi or hot sauce
1 sushi mat (we used a bamboo placemat from the grocery store)
* A very pungent green Japanese condiment made from the root of the herb Eutrema wasabi

Directions:
1. Cut your fillings into small pieces or small strips (depending on what you are using). Get all of your ingredients and sauces together, for you will want them within reach while making your rolls. (for the eggs, we scrambled them with water and cooked them as a sheet in the pan, as you would an omlet. Once they were cooked, we folded them and cut them into strips)



2. Place the nori at the bottom of your sushi mat (or whatever wooden mat your are using). The nori are rectangles and sushi rolls are traditionally rolled with the small sides at the top and bottom. Put 1 cup of rice on your nori sheet and pat the rice to the edges of your sheet (having your hands wet will help to keep the rice from sticking horribly to you). Leave about 1 inch of your nori sheet  without rice at the top.

3. Place your fillings in a narrow line about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom (it works best if you put your sauce on first, then your ingredients. We didn't do that at the begining and the wasabi would stick to our hands when we tried rolling them up).

 

Take the bottom of your mat and roll carefully upward. Once the nori sheet from the bottom is touching the rice and is completly surrounding the filling, stop and sqeeze gently to make sure your fillings are in the middle of the roll. But don't sqeeze to hard, for the rice and fillings will start to come out of the sides. Finish rolling your sushi roll upwards. Once it is all rolled, sqeeze gently until the roll is a uniform size the entire length.  
4. Place your rolls on a pan and wrap with plastic wrap. Put into the fridge for about 30 minutes. Cut each log into 6 - 8 pieces with a serated knife. Arrange nicely on a platter and enjoy!

Jennifer Dewing has experience in the restaurant business. She turned in her chef's hat and donned the many hats of a stay-at-home mother 8 years ago. She is now the mother to 5 children, 7 years and under. She home schools her eldest two children. Her husband is a professional chef and in their house, food is a big part of their family. Come visit her at The Days' Dewings.

Have you ever wanted to peek into someone else’s school room and see how others run their homeschool?  I know I sure did, for when I first started this adventure, I was really curious how others did this all.  I have found some excellent books that allowed me to look inside a variety of homeschooler’s home and classroom to see just how a random day might look in their home.

Homeschooling: A Patchwork of Days, Share A Day With 30 Homeschooling Families, by Nance Lande With 30 Families

Homeschool Open House, by Nancy Lande (Interviews with 55 Families)

Another favorite book of mine, along the same type of subject, is called,

50 Veteran Homeschoolers Share THINGS WE WISH WE”D KNOWN, Compiled and Edited by Bill and Diana Warling.  I love, love, love, and love this book. I recommend it to EVERYONE.

Since I really enjoyed these books, from time to time, I offer a glimpse into our class room.

*************************** 

 (Our classrom, sitting in front of the fireplace. Some sit on the sofa, sometimes the little ones sit on the floor.)

9:30 started school (chores done; chickens, horses; beds made.)

We always start school with prayer, because our first class of the day is Bible class.  I always pray (among other things) that we will have spiritual eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart of understanding of what we are about to read. 

First class: Bible

    Reading of the Narrated Bible, the story of Jonah. 

(Jonah was sent to Ninevah, the capital of the Assyrians. We looked at a map to see where Ninevah was and we found that it was in an area that we had studied previously.  So, we started reviewing what we've learned in the past about this particular region.)

Ancient Mesopotamia –where is it? (we studied this through HOW)

The “Fertile Crescent”

Why is it called Fertile?  Explained the difference between fertile and barren. Gave examples of a fertile chicken (eggs); a fertile woman (babies); fertile soil (garden: vegetables)

Crescent – the shape, like the moon in its curved crescent shape.

Now, we started talking about something very important that happened in this region.  When we had studied Ancient Mesopotamia through HOW, we studied the story of  Abraham who came from the city of Ur (in Mesopotamia). I then began to digress, and went back to this story to review. The following is what you might call bullet points, but it was very conversational in style.  

.

~~~~~~~  Metropolis, a city; Archeologists have found a library of thousands of books.         God called Abraham from this city to a life of being a nomad, traveling and staying in tents for overnight shelter.           This is where God called Abraham to himself.        Abraham and Sarah – without child; old,          God’s promise to Abraham – as many children as the stars.         Still without child, Sarah’s idea of Abraham bearing children with her handmaid         Ishmael –making fun of Isaac at his birthday party.           Hagar (the handmaid) attitude towards Sarah (haughty)         Sarah’s anger – demanded that Hagar and her son be cast out from among them.         Hagar and Ishmael – ran out of food and water, sat down to die; an angel appeared to Hagar and told her they would not die.         The descendants’ of Isaac and Ishmael, the ongoing feud throughout the centuries. ~~~~~ 

.

  Back to the story of Jonah – He was sent to the Assyrians.

(Now maybe you can see why our Bible class takes a long time, we do a lot of reviewing!!!)

• ·         Assyrians – a review of what they were like, when we read about them through Lyn Austin’s books, The Chronicles of the Kings (highly recommended).   These were cruel, godless people
• ·         Their capital, Nineveh, looked at map.  
• ·         We discussed why Jonah was so reluctant to go to Nineveh (he didn’t want God to give mercy and grace to these terrible people.)  He wanted God’s destruction to come upon them.
• ·         The ship he got on, and the storm that came.  The reluctance of those on the ship to throw him overboard.
• ·         The whale that swallowed him, the prayer that he prayed while in the belly of the whale. Being spit up onto shore.
• ·          He went to Nineveh, told them that God was going to give them 40 days and then He was going to destroy their city.
• ·          The people immediately repented, including the king, who called for a national fast and wearing of sackcloth – even the animals.
• ·          God showed mercy and did not destroy their city.

·          Jonah gets mad at God!  For saving Nineveh!!!

“O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God; slow to anger, and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

 Jonah is so mad that he asks God to just let him die!!!  He goes off to the east side of the city and sits down, waiting to see what’s going to happen. (Is he waiting to see how God will kill him?) God shows mercy, just like He did to the Assyrians. Although being challenged to kill him, God does not. Instead, he takes a little vine that was sitting beside Jonah, has it grow up miraculously quick, in order to give shade for Jonah and to keep him from the scorching sun and east wind.  Jonah is very grateful for this vine! It was very discomforting sitting in that hot sun. 

 The next day, God killed the vine and took it away from him. Jonah got mad again!!!  Again, Jonah (foolishly) said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?

“I do,” he said.  “I am angry enough to die.”

“But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow.  It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle as well.  Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

We talked here about God being gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.  Jonah challenged God, and God showed grace, love, and compassion.  And then, at that very time saved Israel from calamity through the leader of Jeroboam, although they did not deserve it.  Even after they had been saved from disaster, the Bible tells us, “But they did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit; they continued in them.”

We prayed, as we usually do at this time, the beginning of Bible class, and the conclusion of it, for God to bless what we have just read, for it not to be just head knowledge, but like as a seed, that is planted in our heart, to grow, and to bring forth much good fruit. 

At this time, it was 11:00 a.m.  We read 2 pages from a book called, Prayer, Asking and Receiving, by Evangelist John R. Rice.  Here, I stopped and talked and interjected about the importance of prayer, our commandment to pray, our work of prayer, and my own personal testimony of when I committed myself to live a life of prayer.  I go to bed early, in order to be able to get up early, to pray in unhurried time.

Now, it is 11:30 a.m.  We read two pages from a book called, How to Develop Diligence, published by the Institute in Basic Life Principles.  We are reading all in this series of character qualities.

Here, again, I don’t just read, I interject and talk a lot, and give examples in real life of examples of diligence and the lack of it (through our own family business.)  I explain that the training ground for learning diligence in the work world is here, today, in our home, when they are cleaning our home, when their given chores to do. 

Now we work on our memory verses, the chapter of Proverbs Three.

It’s 12:00 p.m. now.  I explain that they will be doing 15 minutes of work, and I assign each one job (Rachel – the back closet, Joshua, the upstairs bathroom, Ruthie – the den).  I set the timer.  When the timer is up, I check the jobs, and then its break time.  They get to play, eat, or exercise. Generally, we might have lunch, too, at this time.  But perhaps because we'd had a late breakfast, and no one was saying that they were hungry, we had celery with peanut butter as a snack instead.

It’s 1:00 p.m. 

 HISTORY CLASS:

We are useing the book, Augustus Caesar's World 44BC to AD14, by Genevieve Foster

We review where we were at before the two week break we just had.  We read two new chapters. We have learned a lot in this class so far.  Did you know that Herod, the King of the Jews, the one in the Christmas story, was appointed by Mark Antony?  I never knew that!  Today, we read about how Herod, who had been appointed king by the Roman government, seiged the city of Jerusalem with the Roman army, and won.  Did you know that Herod married a Jew? I didn’t!

At 1:45p.m. I remembered we did not read two pages from our other pictorial history book, called, Ancient Rome, that gives us an overall view of what Rome looked like, what they ate, where they lived, what their armies looked like and what they wore.  It doesn’t take much time, and it ties in very well with our history study.

 SCIENCE:

We took a small break. Rachel had made deviled eggs for everyone to snack on.  When we came back to class, we had science class, in which we are studying the history of the periodical table, and becoming familiar with the elements.  After this class, I dismissed the two younger ones.

 GOVERNMENT:

I am teaching government from, American Government, published by Bob Jones University.  We’ve been on a longer break from this class than just the two week recent holiday one, so I decided to review several previous chapters by asking the questions at the end of each chapter. To my surprise, and delight, Rachel remembered almost all of the answers.  Retention! 

At 3:00p.m., it just happened we were all done.  School over. Time for me to get supper on (meat loaf), do some exercise, post this blog, keep the laundry going, and do a few other misc. things.

**********************************

This day that I kept a journal of what we were doing, is a Monday.  On Monday, and every Monday, I have all group class time teaching Bible, history, science, government, etc…

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have group classes, and we have independent work (with the help of Grandma.)  Monday is my favorite day because I love to teach the pre-mentioned subjects, and on this day, I take more time than usual and feel no pressure of time.  I teach the same amount of pages I might on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, but I feel more freedom to spend more time talking and reviewing what we’ve learned.  I love my Monday’s.  I make no appointments for a Monday; I run no errands.  On Monday, we clean up from any weekend disarray, and have a lot of class time. And this day, as Rachel pointed out to me, we had NO interruptions (rare!).  It was a perfect Monday school day.

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(After school went as well as our school time did. I wrote this post; made meatloaf and put it in the oven; put potatoes in the microwave for 20 minutes; went and exercised during the cooking of our dinner.)

I've seen pictures of people going to New Year's Eve costume ball's and that's what made me think of this craft.  Of course, if your child likes dress-up or costume play, then this would be great any time of the year.

SUPPLIES: 

Water colors in your choice of colors

Paintbrush

Scissors

White glue

Pair of glasses

Pencil

White cardstock or poster board

Glitter Glue

Bendy straw

Tape

Lay a pair of glasses on the cardstock and draw around them.

Add a mask shape around the outlines. 

Use the water colors to paint any pattern you like, here is the order I painted this one in:

Run a bead of glue around the outline of the mask and where you traced the glasses for the eyeholes.

Dump the glitter onto the mask and shake off the excess.  Some of the glitter may stick to any of the watercolors that's still wet, but it should rub off easily once it dries.

Cut out the eyeholes and around the mask once it is totally dry.

Extend and bend the straw.  Then, tape the short part to the back of the mask.  Tape over the bumpy part to make it stronger.

This is just one design idea, you can have a lot of fun coming up with other clever masks.  Animals like a cat with pointy ears or a dog with droopy ears are two ideas.  Instead of stripes, perhaps dots.  You get the idea.  Have fun!! 

Dianna and her family are enjoying their fifth year homeschooling.  Dianna enjoys coming up with craft ideas that can use everyday items that most people have just lying around the house.  Keep checking back here for lots more fun crafting ideas.  You can also check our her other blog to get to know her a little better.

I have thoughts about this.  These are only my opinions.  I am sure there would be many CE purists who would disagree with me but I think there are a few things that set CE apart from any other type of education.

As far as the taking of latin goes, yes, latin is an ingredient of CE but taking  latin by itself does not make a CE.  The teaching of latin needs to be joined with the teaching of logic and rhetoric.  These  three subjects  make up the trivium--the language part  of CE.   The three subjects together work hand in hand in understanding word usage and vocabulary.   These three sujbects also work well together to give the best kind of critical thinking course offered.   In studying these subjects formally, a student is able to study the invention and arrangement of an idea and the logic of that idea and put it back together.  This is, I think, part of Classical Education.  Being able not only to write about an idea but to discuss the idea, to be able to deconstruct that idea and put it back together orally is also what Classical Education is all about.

This leads me to my second point.  Classical Education is all about ideas.  It is about the pursuit of wisdom and virtue through the understanding of the Great Ideas.  These ideas are given to us by the Great Thinkers of our time.  Many of these thinkers came to us during the time of the Ancient Greeks. These ideas, therefore, are tainted by their culture of many gods.  Do those ideas still stand today under a worldview of Christianity?  This is just one area in which these ideas are taken apart and examined.  A studnt of CE is enouraged to truly think about the Great Ideas through discussion.  There are two modes of discussion and intstruction, if you will.  Didactic intruction and Socratic Method.  Admittedly,  I don't know that much about the first form but Socratic discussion is the art of leading a student to fully understand an idea through a series of questions. 

To my way of thinking, in CE the discussion is the crux of the whole philosophy.  Discussion as well as writing are the two important ways for a child to learn about virtue.  Many educational methods and philosophies do not advocate discussion.  Writing is an important tenet of any method but discussion seems to be always left behind.  The student is given a textbook or a book and is told to read it then write an essay on some topic from that reading.  That is the extent of that learning.  There is little discussion.  I think that that is a big piece of the puzzle that is missing in our children's education.  In discussion, the student is exposed to various ways of thinking, not just his own.  He is able to hear the thoughts of others.  He is able to see the 'other side' of an issue.  Through discusson, an idea can be torn apart  and then put back together again to shed a different light on the topic.

I think discussion can be helpful at all ages.  I am trying to instill this in my children's education now, even though they are still young.  A perfect example took place a few months ago when I was reading  a Greek myth to my 7 and 5 year old.  We were reading Pandora's Box.  We started talking about the similarities between this story and the fall of man.  My children were able to see the similarities between Eve and Pandora.  Through discussion, they were able to tie two 'stories'  together and gain a  new understanding of each.  We had a great time of talking and understanding.

There are more characteristics of CE that set it apart from the myriad of other methods, but these two (discussions of the Great Ideas and the melding of latin, logic and rhetoric) are the main ones to me.

Julia lives with her husband on the Canadian Prairies  homeschooling her 3 children (9,7,5) and attempting to give them a Classical Education.

I am totally excited about this meme!  Please join us and commit yourself to reading the Bible through in one year.

When Suzy first mentioned this idea, I was (and still am) in the midst of a word study as my devotional reading.  I asked Suzy if I could be a part of this and improvise, and she said that would be great.

BUT....it is interesting how things work out.  Since last night, maybe some twelve hours ago, things around here have evolved just a bit. 

I woke up this morning, had my prayer time, did my word Bible study, and then, began to work on my post for Suzy's new meme.  What would you know; my computer started having all kinds of very weird problems!!!! I couldn't save anything, and some dumb window kept popping up, and it was impossible to write a post.  I have been learning that God is the Lord of Sabaoth (James 5:4) - no, that is not another word for Sabbath, or a misspelling of it on my part, but rather, the Hebrew word Sabaoth means 'hosts' or, 'army.'  God is the Lord of the unseen hosts; He is the Lord of the unseen armies in the spiritual world.  In essence, He is the Lord of EVERYTHING - the seen and the unseen, the material world and the spiritual world.  And, guess what, He is the Lord of my computer!  What I was writing, I took it that He wanted me to stop, don't write that. 

So, I shut down my pc, walked away, and  set my mind on doing something else. There was still no one up stirring.  I went another route in my idea for Suzie’s meme, and was reading the first page of the introduction to the Narrated Bible.

Now I have to tell you, I love this Bible, It is the New International Version (I know, I just wrote a post about my using the KJV; but that is for my searching of the Scriptures in my early morning devotions.)   I have been using this Bible during our Bible class in our homeschool with our children for several years now, through the recommendation of ~HOW~ (please go and read this link.) HOW is an acronym for Heart of Wisdom, and I totally love all of their resources, including the E-books.

Yes, I did say we have been reading it for a few years now, and were not even finished with the Old Testament!!! I do a lot of talking, explaining, and interjecting when we have our Bible class.  This, actually, is my VERY favorite class!  I love the Bible; so therefore, I love to teach the Bible!!! I also believe that the Bible is the foundation of our education, the foundation of my children's entire life.  There is no other subject more important. I have purpose, vision, and passion when I teach the Bible to my children.

But, back to our original subject of this meme!  I was reading in the introduction of the Narrated Bible, and the very last paragraph, it said that it was divided into 365 portion readings for the 365 days of the year.  I never knew that! 

So....when my husband was getting his coffee this morning, I greeted him with my great new idea.  "Honey, this year of 2009, let's read the Bible together using the Narrated Bible. It's divided into 365 portions of reading, so we could complete it in a year."  Now, I will tell you, my husband is a goal setter.  When I was first proposing to read the Bible together, he was just kind of looking at me agreeing that in theory it was a good idea, but when I mentioned the "goal” of reading the complete Bible in 365 days, I seen a sparkle come alive in his eyes!  He loved this idea!!!!!

We started our reading within the hour.  It is January 3rd, so we chose to read three sections, to make up for the two we've already missed.  We had a great time and both of us seen things in the Word we'd never really noticed before. One would think that Genesis One, that a Christian should be thoroughly indoctrinated with this chapter, but the Word is not like that.  One can read the same passage over and over, your entire life, and still keep getting new revelations and understanding from it.  This is because the Bible is ALIVE.  It is not mere words.  The Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword, piercing the soul, the spirit, and the marrow of the bone, dividing asunder (Hebrews 4:12 is one of my husband's favorite verses.) 

I think you, too, will love The Narrated Bible.  First of all, it has this review narration of the portion of the Scripture your about to read for the day.  It kind of gives you the context of what's going on, and keeps your eyes perked for certain events that are going to be happening, and often, the meaning behind the events.  It's a total help.

Secondly, The Narrated Bible is put in Chronological order. Did you know that our Bibles that we use every day (or that is sitting on our bookshelf), that the books are not in order according to when they happened in history?  Can you imagine reading any other history book that had its events not sequenced in order?  No wonder it is often hard for us "non-theological" people to understand the overall scope and sequence of what's going on.  The Narrated Bible puts it all in order for us and it then gives us the flow of events as they happened.  Is that not a totally big help?

There is a lot more I could say, but others have said it so much better than I.  Please go and read HOW about why they love the Narrated Bible.  If you have a hundred other Bibles sitting on your book shelf, don't hesitate to order just one more.  My mom, a pastor's wife of some 40+ years, a graduate of Bible college, and taught Sunday School my entire growing up years, after listening to our Bible reading in homeschool, asked for her own Narrarated Bible for a Christmas present this year.

This is not a translation, it is the Bible - just put in Chronological order and given a narration for better understanding.  Your  going to love it, GUARANTEED!

Go ~HERE~ to join Suzie and read the Bible through in one year.