Since I don't particularly like either candidate, I thought I'd make it easy on myself.
Your Issue Profile: 56% Obama, 44% McCain
Truth be told, you're not really satisfied with either of the candidates.
You could vote for either of them. You are the typical coveted swing voter.
You may want to narrow yourself down to a particular set of issues in order to pick your president.
Or start looking at third party candidates. One of them might suit you better.
I am not sure if these results accurately show how I really feel. I think maybe I SHOULD get some more info on the third party candidates!
Check out this quiz to see how YOU should be voting!! LOL!
The JOYS Of Using HOD With Children Who Learn Differently
I have a 12 year old son who learns at his own pace. God made him this way and he is perfect. His giftings lie in music and art. I thought I would share how we use HOD with our Special Learner.
This year I am using "Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory"with a 6, 8 & my 12 year old. The program is written for a 6-8 year old. However, the 12 year old fits well into Beyond because the history is perfect for him. It's small readings and wonderful discussion questions help his brain to process through what he is learning. He isn't quite ready for the higher level readings of "Bigger" or the longer read a loud times, but he will be next year.
Something I have found that gets me excited with Heart Of Dakota Curriculum is that each manuel begins to build the skills to prepare them for the next program. Colton wasn't quite ready for "Bigger" this year, but by next 2009-2010 he will be because of his work with "Beyond.
I love that, as a home educator I can choose my children's levels and their pace. I can meet them where they are rather than striving to make them fit where the "norm" says he should be. I would much rather work under his grade level and meet his cognitive skills then to constantly push to do more. Colton LOVES learning and he feels confident and successful.
Tweaking HOD To Make A Younger Program Fit An Older Child
Because my 12 year old is my son who excels artistically, he thrives in art and projects and some of those scheduled in "Beyond" would be too young for him. I am finding it very easy to fit Beyond to him. He still does the science portion with his younger brothers and is exposed to the Key Idea's, but then we add something simple to help make beef up those areas he's ready to move forward in.
This week my 6 & 8 year old are making star fish by cutting them out of construction paper and using a glue mixture of cereal to give them the texture a real sea star would have. Colton would have felt too old for this activity so we gave him something more age appropriate. We had him do a notebook page for his science notebook.
In addition to the science book in Beyond we got him a book from the library:
KEY IDEA"The Pilgrims were on a beach by the ocean. They may have seen ocean animals like the sea star. God made each animal in His creation very special."
One of my favorite parts of Heart Of Dakota is how it easily incorporates copywork. Colton loves to write, but at the beginning of this program he could not copy an entire poem. Not even a full paragraph. I am still getting him started, (I wrote the first paragraph) but he is getting stronger and better every week. I see him making such gains. Here is his poem,
"Maker Of Heaven And Earth"
I hope to take pics of the younger boys star fish and get them posted, but we are off to our co-op this morning!
Oct. 10, 2008 - Great reference for Bible lessons
This has been a great source of stories, children's Bible lessons, coloring pages. The verses are not KJV, but I've used a few of the object lessons already. Today, some of our homeschool families got together for our game day. The older children are learning to play soccer. The younger children did a nature walk and nature study. I did a devotional beforehand with the kids about forgiveness and how Jesus said we should forgive others 70 x 7 times. I had bags of 70 M&Ms to show how many times 70 is alone. We talked about good sportsmanship and being forgiving to our siblings and friends. One mother was able to use what we learned in the lesson during the nature walk with the little kids. What a blessing.
We did pretty well this week. Got school done every day. Woohoo! That is 3 weeks now! Going for 4! It was very tempting to skip a couple of days this past week. We have moved Maiden into the boy's room and they tend to lay in there and talk instead of going to sleep like they are supposed to. The next day I get to deal with tired crabby kids who are not at all into doing school!
Today I did break down and shorten our school day. After a week of not getting enough sleep, add to that the excitement of having our Life Group from church meet at our house last night, and they were all extra crabby this morning! Poor Knight #2 was sobbing because just as we were finishing up history, his lego creation got knocked off a chair and broke apart. At least we did get Bible, science and history done. We will get back to the rest next week.
I am hoping that we can get Maiden moved back into her room quickly but I am not holding my breath. DH is planning to lay tile for the flooring in her room. I am anticipating that this will be a big job! He also has to replace all the drywall in her room! AND it needs to be primed and repainted. A lot of work yet to do in there! Her closet will also need to have shelves and a rod replaced in it.
I found out yesterday that another family in our homeschool support group has a twin bed they want to give away. I called and asked about it. Hopefully we will be able to see about getting it tonight or this weekend. The one we got last weekend is a trundle bed. It is working great. The only issue is that Grandma P. comes to visit each year and usually stays for about a month. We love having her come to visit. I was wondering where we were going to have her sleep when she comes down next. We have a futon couch and could do that, however she would have zero privacy that way. If we get this other twin bed then we could have Maiden use the regular twin all the time and when Grandma P. comes we can pull out the trundle for Maiden. The trundle fits perfectly underneath the boy's bunk bed as we found out last night.
Speaking of last night! We were asked on Wednesday if we could host our Life Group at our home. It was so God that DH had already asked for Thursday off! He needed to mist Maiden's room with a special chemical that is EPA approved to kill mold. It is also non-toxic. Yeah!
So while he was doing that we were doing school. When we finished up with school we all got started cleaning! The kids and I cleaned the boy's room. We had to baby-proof it so that the little ones could play in there during the study. That was a lot of work! There were lots of little choking hazards in there! We also needed to sweep all our floors. With a house full of tile, that is a big job! The bathroom got cleaned, the kitchen got mopped, things got straightened. The kids helped out a bit, but DH and I did the majority of the work. We were exhausted by the time everyone showed up for Life Group.
We had a really nice time though. DH had set our picnic table back up in the patio and we had a table cloth spread on it. Most of the kids ate out there. The kids had a great time playing in the back yard. When the study started, the little ones went into the boy's room with one of the ladies, while the older ones went into the kitchen and did a craft with one of the oldest girls leading them. It all seemed to work out quite well. The best part is that I now have a clean house to show for it!
I need to get my school planning done and then I will post our schedule for this next week.
It was a beautiful day in Maine today. Sunny, clear and 72 degrees; nothing like the cold fall weather we have been having. To take advantage of the nice day, we decided to meet some of our homeschool friends at a local playground.
The kids, despite their age differences all played really well together. Since this playground is completely surrounded by trees, shrubs and other greenry, a favorite pastime is making fairy houses. In the past, the girls have used some (what we assumed were) wild grapes. M, since he has never shown much interest in fairy houses only noticed the grapes today. Would you like to guess what happened?
Yes, M ate some of the grapes.
Now, we were at the playground with Larissa and her two girls, and she, unlike me, tends not to be a worrier. Her opinion was that he was probably okay and since he seemed just fine, I pushed it to the back of my mind and tried not to worry so much.
I started to worry about it again when we got home from the playground. After consultation with another worrywart friend, and googling "wild grapes in Maine" and coming up empty handed, I decided it was time to call poison control. I was fairly confident that they would assure me that everything was fine.
I was NOT expecting the nice man at the poison control office to tell me that sometimes other seriously toxic plants can mimic the appearance of wild grapes! Plants that can cause high blood pressure, rapid heart rates, and sometimes death! O! M! G! His advice to me was to get a piece of the plant and have it identified. If we didn't know exactly what it was, there was no way to tell me what problems may arise.
I quickly dropped A off at TKD and headed back to the playground, dragged the other 3 kids back to the bush, and tugged off a couple of good-size pieces including the actual "grapes". Then the problem was finding a place that could identify it at almost 5:30 in the evening. The poison control guy had suggested a plant store. Uhhhhh, okay! I went to our local Agway in hopes that since they sell plant supplies, they could be of some help.
Unfortunately The folks at Agway couldn't identify the plant. They could, however, give me the name and address of a man who could. They called ahead so that Mr. Johnston would expect me, and I got directions to his house. Mr. Johnston met me outside, took one look at the plant and assured me that it is just wild grapes, will not cause lasting damage to M, and probably tasted like crap when he ate it! Whew! That was a relief!
Okay, so that wild goose chase ended happily, but how many more times will I have to call poison control before this child makes it to adulthood? What will he eat next time that may be potentially fatal? It is not as if I don't watch him! But I never would have anticipated that he would find grapes growing on vines at the playground and think they were fair game!
Ahhh! It probably doesn't bode well that I have poison control on speed dial does it? I wonder how many times you can call them before they report you to CPS?
And just in case you are wondering, here is a picture of what M ate:
Oct. 10, 2008 - Four Day Weekend!
My hubby and I are both taking a four day weekend this week. We are not going anywhere, just spending time together and getting projects done.
One of those projects is getting my NEW LAPTOP up and running! YAY!!! Last weekend we bought me a brand spanking new Gateway laptop with a 17 inch screen! (The screen size is a big deal to me since my current one is 11 inches! LOL)
See how much bigger the new one is? The old one really is a "notebook computer, it is exactly the size of a spiral notebook. LOL) (Oh, and the old one is NOT an apple. I just put that sticker on that came with my Ipod. It is funny because people are always telling me "I never knew Apple made a laptpop that small.")
Anyway, the laptop is sorely needed! My current one is beyond being on it's last leg. Some days I have to pray to get it to boot up! LOL (If only I were kidding!) So hopefully when I return on Tuesday I will be well rested and super fast on my new computer!
Times are a little bit tough, aren't they? Are you finding yourself worrying about the economic crisis? Are you worried about the elections? Are you fretting about your ability to teach your children at home? We all have many concerns on many levels, and although it is very hard NOT to worry, we all find ourselves doing that. The Lord tells us not to worry, and have faith. I want to encourage you to do that today! Jesus can give us the peace that passes all understanding, and believe me, there is a lot going on in this world and in my life that I don't understand! But I do understand and believe that through Christ, we can have victory and peace! Lets pray for each other, ok?
I want to let you know that the Hopeful Farm beneft is still active! (Wrote about it a few weeks back.) You can take a look at it right here. It has been extended through the month, so please stop over there and at least read about this wonderful ministry to families with special needs in their lives.
I encourage you to donate...even it if is just a little bit, it will help! And Jill is giving away hundreds of dollars worth of downloadable gifts to you for helping get Hopeful Farm up and running. Read about it and get your kids involved! Kids LOVE to be a part of things that are from the heart of the Lord, and I truly belive that Hopeful Farm is just that. There are already kids doing Sunday School projects to help Hopeful Farm, and others doing their own little fundraisers too. Isn't that fabulous!?
Both of my Ebooks are part of the Hopeful Farm resource package for donors. I am So happy to be able to do that! My brand new Ebook, "Homeschooling Is Our Life" is finally up and running on the web. You can take a look at the info about it here. Thank you so much to all of you who were willing to take a look at it! I will be contacting those of you who haven't heard from me yet. "Haircuts For Little Men" is also included in the Hopeful Farm Benefit. (Many, many other wonderful products have been donated by major homeschool publishers! ) What a blessing to get back so much tangible blessings, not to mention the intangible ones ~ for a small sacrifice!
Thanks friends, for being there for one another. That is what it's all about, isn't it?
Who knew I would start my day being tagged. But alas, Michelle tagged me so here goes:
I have to list 6 things about myself and then tag 6 other gals! Challenging but fun.
The Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post.
Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
1. I hate the smell of skunk. Makes me almost ill when I get a sniffling of it...even if the thing is just walking nearby the house.
2. I love to watch birds and can identify frequent individual visitors to my feeder or bird bath...just by how the act or sing. Oh, and the Lord has used his birds to uplift and remind me that He is near (on several occassions actually...like when He sent a Bluebird to light on the tree outside of the kitchen window-I had been praying to just see one-if only briefly (they were not common in the area we were) and there-for but a moment-He sent it. Still makes my heart leap with joy-simple request really, but it spoke volumes to me.)
3. I like researching and putting together stuff...I have found my new interest to be lapbooking. I am also a scrapper, so these two things lend themselves together quite nicely.
4. It is very unusual for me not to have 3 or 4 different books/studies (Bible or Homeschooling) going at once. My bedside table is a pile of these things.
5. I enjoy the quiet room with only a ticking clock in the background.
6. I am a frequent furniture mover...I need to rearrange stuff constantly-my husband says he is glad he isn't blind (and his job is to work with them) because he'd kill himself running into something since it rarely stays in the same spot.
(Oh, and the old one is NOT an apple. I just put that sticker on that came with my Ipod. It is funny because people are always telling me "I never knew Apple made a laptpop that small.")
