Nov. 5, 2008
Geography Awareness Week: November 16 - 22, 2008

 

 

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Jun. 4, 2007
Our Spanish is Here!

Today is a day for arrivals around the Dirt Road School House - Early this morning our 64 new chicks arrived!  Now this afternoon, our Spanish curriculum from Rosetta Stone arrived - woo hoo!

In the box: a TON of goodies that includes all the CD-ROM's for Student Management and both language units 1 & 2, workbooks, study guides, quizzes and tests, the all important "answer keys", teacher guide and curriculum texts.

All three of us - myself and both boys - will be taking this language course.  It looks to be thorough and fun!

Adios!

 

 

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Jan. 23, 2007
When Teaching Our Young Children the Bible

A common  mistake that we make when teaching our young children scripture and the events of our Lord's Holy Word (a.k.a. "Bible stories") is not to emphasize that these events were real, they happened, these are historical accounts written down in scripture for us to read and re-read, to learn from and apply to our lives.  All too often our young chlldren grow up attending Sunday school and children's worship being told these Bible stories again and again no differently than fairy tales that are read to our children as bedtime stories.  It is critically important for our children to be able to discern the different between Biblical accounts and creative childhood literature especially as they mature from young children into adolescents, teens and later into young adults.  We may be surprised when we sit down and really think about this.

We as homeschooling parents have the greatest opportunity to ensure that when our children are introduced to and continue to read about all of those who are written about as well as Biblical events in our Holy Scriptures that they understand these are true accounts that God wants us to read and study about in His Word and apply to our daily lives.

These are my thoughts ~ feel free to share yours,

  Harriette

 

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Jan. 2, 2007
It's Time for Thank You's

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year ~ it's now officially 2007!

Today is our first day of our new school year (I changed our calendar year this year) and we are beginning this morning with our "Thank You Notes" for the Christmas gifts received from family and friends.  These are a must and should never be overlooked.  No matter how young (and especially our high schoolers), our children must learn the example of expressing graciousness and thankfulness to those who've taken the time to think of them with a gift.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing pre-written examples for your children to use for ideas or even copy with their notes and letters.  Just so the Thank You is written in their own handwriting.  The note doesn't have to be an essay! - just something short, engaging and indicative of something the child would say in his/her own natural conversation.

If the child is young (under the age of ten) it is certainly permissible to allow them to write in pencil.  However, depending upon the handwriting strengths of your child, you may allow them to use a pencil for note writing for a few years after that.  But in nearly all cases, our high schoolers should always write their notes in ink.

If your family has a number of Thank You's to write, stretch out the task over a number of days allowing your child to write one or two notes each morning.  Keep stationery and note cards on hand for these very occasions and use this as a learning tool as well.

Have a great week ~ Happy New Year!

  Harriette

 

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Nov. 21, 2006
The Mayflower - What really was their mission?

 

We've all grown up hearing the story about the voyage of the Mayflower, their arrival at Plymouth Rock and their first Thanksgiving with the Indians......and they all lived happily ever after......right?

 

No.

 

That's not even close except to say that YES, the Mayflower was a ship carrying settlers to the new world and YES at some point they did feast with the Native Americans that they had made peace with to offers thanks to God for their arrival in this new land and to pray for His will and guidance in their lives ahead of them.

 

But the significant details of their mission (key word) have been largely omitted in text books - especially in the public school arena - so much so that only until recently, hearing a cry for the truth, have historians returned to the truth and genuine documentation of why the Mayflower sailed, who the passengers were and what the purpose of their voyage was truthfully about.

 

The pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower were missionaries.  They were coming to the new world to share the Gospel of Christ.  There were some who did not survive the journey, those who did not survive the first winter and there were those who did not survive conflicts between the settlers and the Native Americans.  Much has been distorted over the centuries about the first Thanksgiving as well.  The Mayflower voyage, the mission of the passengers, the work and lives after arriving and establishing a settlement is not a fairy tale.  It is significant to Christian history and the history of what would later become the United States of America.

 

As with all historical events - seek the truth.  Research a variety of sources; don't just accept one text that narrates a limited narration of an event.  Especially if it sounds too sweet and syrupy to be true.

 

Here is one of my favorite online resources about the Mayflower Compact, the pilgrims who journeyed here and life in the New World:

 

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/index.php

 

Do your own Internet search on the Mayflower Compact, the Pilgrims of the Mayflower and the Plymouth Colony. Be sure to read a variety of materials.  You may also be surprised to find a few ancestors among the early settlers of the new colonies.

 

Our family has thoroughly enjoyed "the First Thanksgiving" project that Scholastic established this year that I posted a couple of weeks back.  I hope that some of you have already joined in this as well.

 

I wish everyone a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving - we have so much to be thankful for each and every day of the year.

 

Blessings and Safe Holiday Travels,

Harriette

 

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Oct. 31, 2006
Reformation Day

 

Today, in addition to being Halloween, is Reformation Day and also the Eve of All Saints Day.  Here are some links that provide information about Martin Luther and this historical event in Church and World History:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation_Day

 

http://www.stpaulskingsville.org/reformation.htm

 

http://www.sundayschoollessons.com/refday.htm

 

http://www.reformation.org/happy_reformation_day.html (some of the photos were not loading or showing up)

 

http://www.missionstclare.com/english/people/oct31.html

 

http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/SpecialDays/Reformation/

 

http://www.teacherhelp.org/holidays.htm#reformation

 

 

If you are interested in information regarding All Saints Day on November 1st, CLICK HERE.

 

 

Have a great week ~

Harriette

 

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Oct. 26, 2006
Thanksgiving Resources

 

To prepare for the Thanksgiving season, Scholastic has produced a GREAT online resource called "The First Thanksgiving".  Among the many resources: the voyage of the Mayflower, life in Plymouth Colony and you can sign up to receive letters from a ficticious character to imagine what life was really like for our first settlers.  The full k-12 Teacher resources and lesson plans will be online in November (that's just next week!); but there are already a number of great resources and activities available now.

 

CLICK HERE to peruse through Scholastic's "The First Thanksgiving".

 

Have a great weekend,

Harriette

 

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Oct. 3, 2006
A One Room Schoolhouse From Our Family's History

 

 

Pine Ridge School

Clinton (Jones County), Georgia

circa 1889

 

 

 

My family's ancestors are buried in the Old Clinton Cemetery in Jones County, Georgia.  Following the land lotteries of 1800, they moved from east central Georgia to Jones County to settle what was then the county seat known as Clinton.  It would not be until well after the end of the Civil War and nearing the last decade of the 1800's that the one room schoolhouse would be built and children, some of whom were my ancestors, would attend school at Pine Ridge.  My father has a copy of The History of Jones County that lists the school rosters.  Among those rosters are children from our family.  We visited Clinton last March to visit the cemetery and document our family members who are buried there.  While there, I made these photos of the Pine Ridge School.

 

Do you know your family's history?  Family history and genealogy research is an interesting and rewarding project.  It can also enhance your history lessons.  If you use timelines with your history curriculum, consider adding family members during the time periods that they lived (i.e. Great Grandpa Jones was born, etc.).  It gives a great deal of value and realness to history for your children.

 

 

Harriette

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Sep. 16, 2006
Our Feline Scholar

 

 

"Ask me anything.  I've been crammin' all night...."

 

St. "Simon" LaRue

of Jacobs Farm

 

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Sep. 8, 2006
Science for Families Resource

 

Here's an interesting web site with a number of topics:

 

All Info About Science for Families

http://scienceforfamilies.allinfo-about.com/

 

Check it out ~ looks to be a great general info site.

 

Here's how I found it - I was looking for images of one of my all time favorite, precious animals - the piglet!

 

http://scienceforfamilies.allinfo-about.com/zoo/piglets.html

 

Are they not the cutest things?  When I was 14, we raised hogs for a time and I always loved going with my Dad to feed them.  We had 14 sows who each had about a bazillion piglets - there were little piggies everywhere!  I've had a great affection for them ever since.  A sister-friend of mine even brought me some hand blown glass piglets from Italy one summer when she traveled to Europe to visit her brother.  They are among a life long collection of little piggies I have.  We hope to be adding the real live piglets to our farm in the next year; I'd love to have a black and white one and a regular one.

 

Here is a homeschooling farming family to visit - Sugar Moutain Farm - they are up in Vermont and raise pastured pigs.  Walter has a great blog and is a HUGE leader in the current campaign against the USDA's NAIS.  Visit his NoNAIS.org for more information.

 

The weather is beginning to cool just in time for Fall (good timing, huh?) and it's gonna be a piggy kind of Friday of fun here on the Dirt Road.  And speaking of pigs - we'll be selling barbeque all day tomorrow for our homeschool baseball team's fund raiser!

 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

Harriette

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