Adventures in Homeschooling

• Nov. 22, 2008 - Storm Watching

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Nature Journaling and Notebooking

We have been experiencing high winds and torrential rains today! The house was groaning but the constant drip, dripping of the rain was kind of comforting. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and my entire family would sit in the family room under blankets on cold fall/winter days and just hang out together :)

We had to return a movie this afternoon to the video store so I thought it would be fun to do a little storm watching while we were out. We drove down to the wharf and drove out onto the old wooden structure. I love to go out there when it's rough and give the kids a little thrill. It actually sways and moves around in the high tides and wind and you can feel it shifting underneath the car while you sit on it *grin*. Combine that with the strong gusts of wind and rain and it was a perfect storm watching experience that was a feast for all 5 senses!

Yup, all 5 senses. We had taste covered with the bugle snack I packed for the kids *grin*.

It was just us, nature's wild elements...... and a lone seagull :)

Blessings,

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• Nov. 21, 2008 - Nature Binder ~ Newspaper Clippings

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Nature Journaling and Notebooking

What do you do when you're in to much pain to move and have to spend most of your time in one spot?? Well if you're me, it's the perfect time to tackle the paper piles! I think that I've mentioned numerous times in the past that I am a paper fiend *wink*. Bills, receipts, newspapers, itty bitty scraps of paper covered in memos to myself and more. You name it and I probably save it. LOL.

Hello, my name is Rosina and I am a paper addict. There I said it *grin*. That's half the battle right? Is there even a group for people like me!? I think I ~~might~~ need it. LOL.

One of my favorite paper collections is the nature articles that our local newspaper runs each week. They are fantastic!! Twice a week you can find them on animals, plants or great places to visit and they are just loaded with information that quite often happens to be on something that we have just recently encountered on one of our nature outings or books :) I have this really great vision of a categorized nature binder that all of these articles will be included in along with our personal nature journal pages, but so far it's just a binder full of newspapers *grin* and it's quite a stack I might add. So today I got them all out and started snipping and categorizing with great success :) I got all of them clipped out and sometime in the next couple of days I'm hoping to get them right into our nature binder.

One pile down.... more to go *grin*.

Blessings,

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• Nov. 20, 2008 - Above Rubies Email Devotion ~ Home Destroyers Pt.2

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Devotionals

HOME DESTROYERS

Part 2a

Jeremiah 4:22 RSV, "For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are stupid children, they have no understanding."

Today we continue talking about things that destroy the home.

2. FOOLISHNESS

Proverbs 14:1, "Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish plucks it down with her hands."

What does it mean to be foolish? Simply, it means to do it my way rather than God's way. God's way, although different to my way always ends in blessing. My way, although it may look good, always ends in destruction.

If we are not building our home, we are pulling it down. How do we pull it down?

We pull it down by vacating the home. God wants the mother in the home--nurturing, nourishing and training her children. We can't do everything successfully. We either build up a business (usually someone else's business) or we build up our home. God has given us a full time job to tend our little flock. God gives a warning to the mother shepherdess when He says in Zechariah 11:17, "Woe to the worthless shepherd, who leaves the flock!" Notice that this Scripture has an exclamation mark!

We pull it down by our words. Negative words. Critical words. Reactive words. Spiteful words. Angry words. And on it goes.

We build our home with words or

we destroy our home with words!

When God allowed Satan to get at his servant Job, he smote him with terrible boils from the top of his head to the sole of his feet Job was in agony and pain. Instead of encouraging him, Job's wife said, "Do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God, and die." Job replied, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" (Job 2:9-10)

Do you speak as one of the foolish women, or one of the wise?

Sometimes it may not be negative words. It may be wasteful words. Proverbs 15:2 says, "The mouth of fools pours forth foolishness." Often we speak unnecessary words when we should keep out mouths shut. I am always challenged by Proverbs 10:19, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise." The more we blab on about anything and everything, the more opportunity there is to sin with our mouth. The NLT makes it clearer, "Don't talk too much, for it fosters sin. Be sensible and turn off the flow!"

We pull it down by spending frivolously and unwisely. The foolish woman buys according to her whims and what takes her fancy. She buys groceries without thought for nutrition or without reading the ingredients. She fills her cupboards with devitalized packaged foods instead of cooking from scratch. She purchases unnecessary "things" to fill her home which could be used for wiser needs.

Proverbs 21:20 says, "There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man (or woman) spendeth it up." The foolish woman spends more than her husband can afford. The wise woman lives frugally within her means. I often have to remind my new adopted daughters that we don't have to eat what we want whenever we want. We must learn to live thriftily rather than extravagantly.

We pull it down by wasting. Many women not only waste time but waste products. They throw out everything. It is not wise to be a hoarder and clutter up your home, but there are many things that can be re-used to save re-spending.

Many mothers allow their children to pick at their food and leave it on their plate without teaching them to eat what is in front of them. Good food is thrown in the trash. This is wasteful.

May God deliver us from being in the "foolish women category" that pulls down their home.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

"Father, please touch my lips with coals from off the altar. I don't want to speak negative words. Fill my mouth with encouraging and life-giving words that will build up my husband and my children. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

Building up my home with uplifting words,

To do anything else is utterly absurd!

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week. If you are printing this devotion and need it to be smaller, highlight and change to a smaller font.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to subscribers-on@aboverubies.org?subject=devotion

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• Nov. 20, 2008 - Map Of Our Home

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Homeschooling

In our Outlooks 4 social studies textbook we are using it has been talking about mapping skills and how to use the grids (A1, C3, etc.) that you find on some maps to locate certain places. So I thought it would be fun if K mapped our property. Above is an aerial view of the entire 40 acres. He went into extreme detail which is his thing *grin* and has the houses, fields (F), shrubbery, creeks, nature trails, quarry and more. Next we are going to add the grid to it and make up some questions to go along with it :)

Blessings,

PS: I would really appreciate it if you could add me to your prayers this week as I pulled something in my back and am in excruciating pain :( Today is going on day 3 and I am not feeling much relief yet and find it hard to sit or stand. Thanks so much :)

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• Nov. 20, 2008 - Special Offer from Trivium Pursuit & Christian Logic

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Homeschooling

I just received an email from Laurie Bluedorn about the following specials that they are having right now until November 30th and I thought you may be interested as well. We subscribe to the Trivium Pursuit newsletter and really enjoy it, so go and have a peak :)

Blessings,

Our readers have the opportunity to receive two free ebooks from Trivium Pursuit.

1.The 73 page ebook of the entire text of Chapter Twelve: Ten Things to Do With Children Ages Ten Through Twelve from the book Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn

2.The new 94 page ebook Ancient Literature: Significant Excerpts from the Books of Classical Authors Which You Can Use to Supplement Your History Curriculum - Volume Two: Alexander the Great.

You will receive both of these ebooks when you subscribe to the Homeschooling with the Trivium newsletter. This offer is only for new subscribers to Homeschooling with the Trivium and is good only through November 30. Go here to subscribe.

http://www.triviumpursuit.com/list/

In addition, if you subscribe to Christian Logic's Fallacy Detective News you will receive two lessons from the logic textbook The Thinking Toolbox by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn (Lessons 12 and 13, along with exercises and answer key). This offer is only for new subscribers to The Fallacy Detective News and is good only through November 30. Go here to subscribe.

http://www.fallacydetective.com/news/

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• Nov. 18, 2008 - Homeschool Art Pro-D Day ~ Lino Block Printing

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Art Appreciation

Even homeschool moms need to take a Proffessional Development Day once in a while *grin*. Well yesterday our school's art teacher aka 'me' travelled to Quadra Island to take part in a day class with an amazing artist, Richard Calver, and get a crash course in the basics of block printing. I've ran across some really cool lino block prints done by my favorite artists and I have wanted to give it a try for some time, so when the chance arose to be able to learn how, I was there!

Our pre-class homework was to come up with a simple 3.75 x 5 inch drawing that could be printed in 4 different colors. I love Japanese family crests and the above tree trunk is similar to some of them and then I thought that it would be neat to make it with three circular tree tops joining together like a family tree :) And there you have my simple drawing all ready for the first printing.

Unfortunately there just wasn't enough time for us to make four different blocks for each stage of printing, so we used our one block cutting away sections of it each time before we reprinted it with a new color.

Until all that was left was my tree trunk and border :) I actually like the trunk all by itself to and did a bunch of black and white prints of just it to *grin*.

This is one of my final prints. I did 6 in total plus one on fabric to see how that worked out. It's a very limited edition. LOL. We experimented with different amounts of pressure to see how the colors would blend together. Above I used a lighter touch on the leaf area so that the yellow would show through the greens and browns making it look more like a fall tree, while keeping the trunk of it solid colored :)

All in all it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to trying more! K is going to really enjoy learning this as well. See, it really was a Pro D Day.... I'm going to share what I learned. *grin*

Blessings,

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• Nov. 17, 2008 - Amazing Video ~ 14 Yr. Old Makes Windmill For Families Electricity

Posted By BChsMamaof3

You have to watch this short video (6minutes) about a young boy from a remote Malawian village that at the age of 14 built a windmill to provide power and water to his families home. What is absolutely amazing is that he borrowed a book from the library that was just pictures and no instructions on how to actually construct a windmill.

You will remember that we just finished our THINK project which was about constructing windmills from paper, but this boy made the real thing!! He was definitely thinking outside the box :)

Check out some of this weeks windmill results to see what other kids came up with.
Blessings,

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• Nov. 15, 2008 - THINK ~ Windmill Challenge

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Science and other Hands On activities

We've missed the last couple of THINK challenges but we are back in the game! *grin*. The challenge this week is to make a windmill using a couple sheets of paper, 2 straws, string, paperclips, and a button.

K quickly remembered that pinwheels are just like a windmill and set off with one of his sheets of paper. Luckily I could remember how to make one! LOL. After I gave him the run down on how to fold and cut his paper he was set to go :)

The button was going to come in awful handy to secure his pinwheel in the center and to give it some strength for what he was about to do, but the tiny little length of string he was allowed to use had him stumped!!

Just how was he going to sew on a button if he didn't have enough string to loop it in and out of the holes??

This stumped him for a minute and then the light bulb came back on. *grin* He didn't need to go in and out of the button holes numerous times... he just needed to get it down and up through the holes so that he could tie it off in a knot by hand :)

The next brain stumper was trying to figure out how to attach his windmill to his straw and still get it to spin freely.

K didn't realize that those pesky little paperclips could be bent into the perfect windmill shaft :) He bent out one end like above and then pierced it through the backside of his pinwheel and through one of the button holes which provided the perfect fit for it and let his windmill turn smoothly :)

All that was left was for him to fit the other end of the paperclip into the end of the straw and voila, he had created a windmill :)

He did a great job :) Below is a video of it in action as he blows on it to make it go.

Blessings,

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• Nov. 13, 2008 - Valentine's Day Anyone??

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Fun Stuff

I had never really given any thought to the advance planning that it takes to put a magazine together until recently. I have been doing a little freelance work for a Canadian Homeschool magazine and it has required me to think 4 months in advance!! ACK, as if thinking one week ahead isn't challenging enough at times *grin*.

Just think of all those pretty Christmas magazines that are hitting the newsstands right now, they were probably shot in July. Can you imagine decorating your home completely over the top for Christmas in the middle of summer!?

It's not quite that bad here, but we have been up to our elbows in Valentine's Day crafts :) I've enlisted the help of the kids to be my little crafty helpers and I've been playing professional photographer *grin*. It's just been all fun and games :)

Forget Christmas this year, I'm thinking Easter now! LOL.

Blessings,

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• Nov. 12, 2008 - Nature Walk ~ Mack Laing Nature Park

Posted By BChsMamaof3 in Nature Journaling and Notebooking

Our Neighborwoodie nature walk took us to the Mack Laing Nature Park in Comox this afternoon :) We were a little worried about getting caught in bad weather with all of the rain we have been experiencing but talk about good luck! We made it the entire 2 hours without a drop of rain :)

Mack Laing was a self taught naturalist, artist and writer. He loved to study birds and actually collected birds and mammals for museums and private collections. Above is a picture of his home which looks out over the marsh and goose spit. It is supposed to be a fantastic place to observe shore birds, but unfortunately today there weren't many around which may have been because of the wind and rough waters.

We met at the trail head at the end of Comox Ave. and headed into the second growth forest that makes up the park and down to Brooklyn Creek which runs through the property. There was a small bridge to cross and from there we followed the trail towards the shore. Along the way there were lots of spots to stop and watch the creek, investigate a large tree that had uprooted leaving its roots bare and of course the kids had to measure the width of some of the larger trees along the walk by stretching themselves out as far as they could to see if they could reach around it :)

As we got closer to the shore there was a wooden plank boardwalk in front of the home which lead out to the marshy area where you could stand and watch for birds and other animals.

It had been suggested that we should bring along a pair of binoculars for bird watching, so that was just what we did! Baby M loved using them. I don't know how many birds he actually saw, but he sure had fun trying *grin*.

K was a little more studious about the task and even had his nature notebook handy beside him to record any sightings :)

The end of the trail lead us to a familiar piece of shore which we had actually been to on a previous walk in the summer to MacDonald Wood Park :) It was high tide but there was no shortage of exploration!

There were jelly fish to observe, sea foam to play in and the above curious creature that I was told was called a Moon Jelly. They ranged in size with this one being about an inch and a half in diameter and about half an inch thick. It felt just like those jello jigglers you make, and there were tons of them all over!

On the way back up the trail we had a chance to check out the many signs along the trail that pictured all sorts of wildlife and plant life found along the walk. What a fantastic idea!! After our time down by the water K and L checked out the sea life photos to see if they could identify what they had found :)

The above memorial to Mack Laing had a great quote on it that wanted to share with you :)

"Simplify, don't waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don't burden yourself with possessions, keep your needs and wants simple, and enjoy what you have. Don't fritter away your life on non-essentials. Don't enslave yourself for luxuries. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can do without. Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

Live in the present, enjoy the present. Simplify your life.
Be not simply good, be good for something."

I just love this!!!
Blessings,

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