Nov. 10, 2009 - Is Your Iron Getting Rusty?

Prov. 27:17 – “As iron sharpens iron, so one man [family] sharpens another.”

When you began your homeschool adventure, where was it that you went to ask questions, get answers, find the camaraderie of many shoulders to cry on and find out that your child wasn’t a freak because he was having trouble with his nine times-tables?  Where was it that you could count on someone with experience to be there for you?

Does “support group” ring a bell to anyone?

I hate to say it, but in many areas support groups are going the way of snow in summer-time…they seem to be melting away and fading into the atmosphere.  And I say, “what a shame!”

It’s come to my attention that many of our precious experienced homeschoolers are starting to drift away from attending their area support group meetings.  Do they feel that they have out-grown them?

Look at it this way:  if I take two pieces of rusty, dull iron – I have two pieces of rust, dull iron!  J  But if I rub them together, something great happens; they start to change.  They become a little sharper, they become a little brighter and shinier.  They become something usable.  Iron can’t sharpen iron unless there is friction between the two…they have to meet together.

As I asked you in the beginning, think about when you were a new homeschooler and your child just wasn’t catching on to a concept and, at your wit’s end, you went to your homeschool support group and started asking around for help.  Lo and behold!  There was a wonderful, experienced mom there who had actually “been there, done that”!  You went home, tried her advice and it worked!

Now…think of this:  A new homeschool mom, full of hopes and dreams and fears comes to your homeschool support group.  Her child just isn’t catching on to a concept and she’s at her wit’s end; and after coming to your support group she starts asking around for help.  Lo and behold!  Does she find it from you…OR is this one of those nights when you decided you just didn’t want to go tonight?  After all, what more do YOU need to learn about homeschooling since you’ve done it for so long?

Well, what if the reason you are to STILL attend your group has changed?  What if it’s now a ministry?  What if the reason that new homeschool mom leaves the meeting a little sadder and a little more fearful and discouraged is because YOU weren’t there to answer her questions the way someone was there for you?

Isn’t it time for us to be there for a new generation of homeschoolers?  Isn’t it time for us to share our experiences, our triumphs, our joys and even our failures with the new crowd?  Isn’t that part of our Titus 2 duty?  Did the Lord really make you a part of your group JUST so you could get a newsletter, go to gym or co-op or field trips, find out about curriculum sales and legislative updates?  I don’t think so.

This is a new season in our lives and an opportunity to shine as examples of experienced homeschool moms!

Let’s not be a part of the “me, me, me” crowd…we’re past that.  Let’s be the Lord’s hands and feet and minister to our sisters and their families and ease some of those fears and build some dreams!  After all, a long time ago someone cared enough to be there for you.  Now it’s your turn.

Blessings from Ohio,

Kim Wolf<><

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Nov. 10, 2009 - Update on us..

What's Buzzzzing......

It has been crazy in our house.  Sickness, sickness Sickness is what is in our house.  No not the H1N1, swine flu, but we have had strep throat, congestion coming out of eyes and yuckies in the tummies.  We are praying all this is passing.

In the past few weeks we have had a space derby for scouts.  Now our space derby is different then most Scout space derbies.  We take 2lt bottles and fill them w/ about 1/4 way w/ water and then put it on a tube that has compressed air.  Then the boys step back and pull a rope and wow can those 2lts bottle space ships fly.  some went like 40 feet in the air.  it is not a derby of winners but a derby of fun and participation. Here is a picture of the Webelo I and II standing behind their space derby ships.


Baby Bear is now officially Honey Bear.  She hit her head a while ago and I kept saying "O'Honey" and she says Honey all the time now!  So she is not longer Baby Bear but Honey Bear!

Honey Bear became attached to a t-shirt that belong to Moose.  This tshirt had a bumble bee on the front and is brown.  She kept wearing it to bed, (that was the only place she could wear it as we do not allow her to wear pants, her and I wear dress- this is not up for debate for those who read my blog that do not know me, thank you)  I found some material and sewed it on the bottom of her shirt and she LOVED it.  She would drive me nuts to wear it daily.  We were washing it nightly.  So I have been busy making her other tshirt dresses!!!


Here are a few more dresses we have made thanks to Aunt C, for all the material....





Here she is helping me ...


I will end w/ my little Moose who is walking all over the place since he was 9months old and his new trick at 11months is to CLIMB on everything. Oh I am in so much trouble, he has NO fear. :^)

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Nov. 10, 2009 - Tightwad Tuesday ~ Save In Piggybacking

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Save In Piggybacking

In all the changes that I have made this year I have been learning the importance of "piggybacking".  Piggybacking is when you butt one thing after the other and save because it is already heated up.  For example... to dry one load of laundry after the other and save because the dryer is already heated up.  Another way I have piggybacked my savings is when I roast my coffee beans.  I roast what I need for that week...one batch after the other. A third way that I can think of right off the bat is piggybacking while baking or cooking with the oven.  Get the biggest bang for your buck by baking several things together and right after the other.  In the winter time it is also a nice way to raise the temperature a little in your house.  I guess you can say it is like multi-tasking your energy use and save.   .

Now to join in the fun of Tightwad Tuesday....

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  Link your TWT post click on MckLinky and give exact the URL of your post.   (each Tuesday that  you join in on the fun)  

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example of a URL ...

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Canadagirl/693425/

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  Now go ahead link and read and comment on all these other's wonderful TWT's. 

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 Lets save our pennies, nickles, dimes, and dollars  together !

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"There are only a few big ways to save money but there are many small ways ....that all adds up."

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Nov. 9, 2009 - Still Here!!

Martina Carrying Breakfast on a Tray, 1904


"She did not know anything about a great many things,
but she knew a great deal about loving and cooking
and a woman can go far on that."
From A Tangled Web by L.M. Montgomery

I love that quote! It's so true! Loving and cooking(which go hand in hand) wraps up what we as moms do every day!
Nothing else is as important.

And if I have any readers left out there,
I am still around, occasionally.  Life is full this year and blogging seems to have taken a back seat.
I always have many, many ideas for blogging, but alas, at the end of the day I cannot bear to sit in front of my computer screen.
I make no promises to be here more frequently, that would be in vain.
But I will post when the Lord gives me something to say and I can snatch away a few moments of time(like now as I'm waiting for the lasagne to defrost).
As for the goings on around here:

• A couple of weeks ago Hubby(who did most of it) and I did some bulk cooking and have 30 meals in our freezer! Yeah!
• My sweet Baby has turned one and learned to walk.  Fun times!(Busy times!)

• We are well into school, although not moving as fast through our Canada studies as I hoped.  I may also need to re-evaluated my son's science curriculum as it seems to be quite challenging.
• The kids have been enjoying a homeschoolers ice-skating group on Fridays.

• Dd just finished a session of horseback riding lessons and the instructor said she was a 'natural'.
• The boys continue to make 'stop-motion' Lego movies with the camera and I have to weed through their hundreds of pictures to find the ones that I took!

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• I'm reading Bleak House by Charles Dickens, it's incredibly thick and I'll need to renew it a few times before I'm done!
  
• Hubby and I celebrated 15 years of wedded bliss in September!
  

• God continues to provide for us in the way of hand-me-down clothing. He is so faithful!

One post I do plan to make soon is about the Pre-School Activity Bag swap I organized this year.  Stay tuned for that!

Blessings!

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Nov. 9, 2009 - The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ #52 ~ 11/9/09

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Nov. 8, 2009 - FIAR Field Trip

Our Five in a Row group studied Madeline this month.  To go along with our study, I decided to coordinate a field trip to our local kids' science museum.  They have an exhibit right now called Grossology~The Impolite Science of the Human Body.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was a little boy's dream come true and my girls loved it, too. 

Did you ever want to know the science behind a sneeze?  Well, this exhibit not only explained the process but then the giant nose you stand inside of sneezes on you!!!

This lovely fellow explained all about allergies, sniffles, colds and anything else that can cause you to have a runny nose.  Yes, his nose ran frequently! See what I mean about a little boy's dream....

The kids spent lots of time at the life-size Operation game.  Remember that game? What a concrete way to learn where all the body parts go.  It didn't hurt their eye-hand coordination either.

The girls could have stayed in the digestive system playground all day.  Yes, they crawled through the whole digestive system.  The joke of where they came out of the digestive tract was not lost on them either. Yucky!!

The skin climbing wall was loads of fun too.  While they climbed along, they were supposed to guess if they were climbing over a pimple or mole or hair follicle.

I did not take pictures of all the things to smell.  Really gross things to smell.  Aren't you glad this is not a scratch and sniff blog? LOL!  Somehow I missed pictures of the statue that you crank up and make burp or the tooting machine.  We will have to go back when it is less crowded.  The exhibit just overwhelmed us and lots of the school groups were there, so we finally had to leave.   All in all, it was a really cool and gross exhibit.  Hey, IT"S GROSSOLOGY!

Blessings,

Dawn

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Nov. 6, 2009 - Weekly Wrapup

From the Heart:

We had a great week.  School went very well.  We are all past our sicknesses.  No drama.  I'm so grateful.

The Lord is speaking to me about being a better friend, about really listening and being there for people.  I need to hear this, and so much want to do this.  I am convicted of keeping my friends at armslength.  I know it stems from being insecure in childhood and feeling like I didn't have any friends, so I stopped trying.  There have been times when the Lord has brought me friends, and still I did not work hard at keeping them.  I want to go beyond that in my life, and work harder at being there for my friends.  If you want to be included in those who want my deeper friendship, just leave a comment, or email me.  I'm going to try.

This is Snow Crystal working on a Christmas present. 

On the Homefront:

We worked on keeping the house cleaner throughout the week, and found that to work well.  I do laundry twice a week (Sundays or Mondays and Thursdays or Fridays).  If the laundry isn't finished, I finish it the next day without adding more from the new day.  This way I know all the laundry gets done twice a week and it isn't as much of a burden.  The older girls are helping me a lot more too.  For example, Snow Crystal is downstairs making cookies right now as I type.  The weather was nice, and got nicer all week.  Feels like summer except for all the snow still on the ground.

This is Snow Crystal following her "directions" of how to make her favorite cookies that she had to do for language arts yesteday.

In the School Room:

Bible:  We continue to read Egermeier's Bible Story Book with Bubbies and the older girls listening in.  We didn't do anything with our Biblical Holidays book.  We also read a few stories from "I Heard Good News", which is a book full of short stories about how different countries and peoples received the gospel.  I am thinking that for the older girls we might try to do some of the articles and activities that go with The Voice of the Martyrs magazine.  You can find it at http://www.kidsofcourage.com.  It looks like it would be a good thing for them to do.

History:  We are now in the post-civil war era.  In Landmark's History of America we learned how Montgomery Ward changed the way business was done for the rural American, and about Richard Sears' imput to this.   

Science:  We moved on to start learning about Alexander Graham Bell and his inventions.

Read-Aloud:  We are ahead with the older girls, so took a break from read-alouds.  I read The Light on Tern Rock with Bubbies.

Reader:  Mountain Princess and Snow Crystal are reading Shades of Gray, by Carolyn Reeder.  It is a good book about a boy who was orphaned during the civil war, and having to live with his mother's sister and family after the war.

Language Arts:  The older girls worked on similies, topic sentences, writing a formal letter, and grammar.  Bubbies reviewed the letter "S" and made a "P" and an "S" letter sheet (I get these from homeschoolshare.com).  She read her first "reader" that comes with her curriculum.  It is a cute little book called "Pam"). It was a proud moment for her to read it to her daddy one evening this week too.

Math:  We had a great week again this week, and the girls continue to make progress in becoming independent.

Spanish:  MP is using Rosetta Stone and seems to be learning and retaining a lot.  SC is using The Complete Book of Spanish (workbook from Wal Mart).  She'll get back to Rosetta next year.

On the Mission Field:

The school had Chris Stanton here.  He suffered from acute mountain sickness for the first day, but finally recovered.  I think they've been having a great time. 

In the Literary Scene:

I am reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels, and I finished the first book too.  Very good reading!

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

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Nov. 6, 2009 - Time To Paint!

We are at the point in construction where it is time for us to start contributing to the process (more than just financially) to keep costs down.  I have three rooms to paint, numerous doors to paint, furniture to move, 5 or so pieces of furniture to refinish, shades/curtains to buy and hang, closets to build, oh and so much more!  Then there is Thanksgivng and, dare I say, CHRISTMAS on the horizon!  This is my favorite season, and I want to savor it somehow in the mist of all of this change.  I want my children to remember Christmas season 2009 as a great year, not the year mom went crazy. LOL! 

So to create balance, this is officially our last day of highly structured and planned school for this season in our lives.  We will still school, but in a lighter, less structured way.  The plan is to do reading, math, and tea time each day and have two goals for the week. Notice ~ I can't help but have to have a plan.  I really lack the unschooling bone, even though I wish I had it ....  The rest of the time, the kids will be learning skills in painting, weeding out toys, cleaning, playing peacefully and independently (still a challenge around here for some), and continuing to practice flexibility. 

On top of the basics mentioned earlier, the two goals for next week are to make an Arctic mural and do another outdoor challenge.  We will be studying the arctic and arctic life for the month of November.

I leave you with this picture of the kiddos!  Our outdoor challenge last week was to find squirrels and study them.  We could not find a single squirrel, but we did have fun climbing trees.

Blessings,

Dawn

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Nov. 5, 2009 - Wooly Worm Weather

Using wooly worms (Pyrrharctia isabella) to predict winter is old American folklore that traces its history back to early Americana. Supposedly, Native Americans taught the pioneers to read wooly worms to predict winter weather. Wooly worm is the common name for the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth. They are also called wooly bears.

Step 1
Look for wooly worms under rocks and inside hollow logs.
Step 2
Examine the wooly worm, paying attention to its bands of colors. The wooly worm will curl into a ball when touched or threatened. When they crawl, they can crawl very quickly!
Step 3
Wooly worm forecasters say that the size of the brown band of color will tell you what kind of winter is coming. Legend says that the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the wooly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild.
Step 4
Wooly worm enthusiasts claim an 85 percent success rate over the last few decades. Scientists tend to disagree and say wooly worm weather prediction is as unscientific as using groundhogs to predict winter weather. The groundhogs likely side with the wooly worms.
Step 5
Whether or not you believe in the power of wooly worms, they can be a fun project for children and adults.

{from www.ehow.com}

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Nov. 5, 2009 - Closing Show And Tell Friday

I have decided after much prayer that I need to close Show and Tell Friday.  It has been wonderful connecting with so many ladies this way.  I feel like I need to scale back some in my life.  Thank you all who have joined in ALL on the fun over the last couple of years. 

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