Nov. 23, 2009 - Christmas Resources
Wow! Time is going so fast. I can't believe it is almost December!!! I don't know about you, but I usually start adding Christmas into our homeschool right after Thanksgiving is over. I am hoping to do an interactive notebook this year of Christmas Around the World, but I will have to see if my printer is fixed in time. Unfortunately, it started leaking. Ugh!!! Well, I wanted to share some resources that I have put together for Christmas.
Here are my homeschool Christmas resources:
Christmas Lapbook
Christmas Around the World with Children
Christmas Unit Study
Reindeer Animal Study
Here are some other resources for Christmas:
An Organized Christmas
Gift Giving Guide- Do you still need to get a gift for someone? Here's help!
Make Christmas Cards
Hot Chocolate for the Holidays
I hope these resources help make your Christmas more enjoyable.
Click in the graphic for more details!
Nov. 23, 2009 - Intentional Training - Bootcamp
This morning I looked through my blog for some links for a friend so I thought I would share them here with you too.
Intentional Training - bootcamp - an intense period of training for a purpose.
These blog posts are simply my thinking processes. I share them on my blog not so much to be copied (as each child will have different heart attitudes) but rather to share the thought process and the intentionality that is needed if we are to help our children succeed.
Training Notes - Boot camp - Obedience
Bootcamp – final report and here
Training notes – Boot camp – Diligence
Nov. 21, 2009 - Change # 1
I have always been a girl who likes structure. I like knowing what is going to happen and when it will be happening. I have previously been of the thought that I was a flexible person. I mean, my goodness, I used to be a pre-school teacher, you need to be flexible in that line of work. Something happened, though, from that life to the life that I am inhabiting now. I think maybe it is old age or, gasp! peri-menopausal related. Whatever the reason, I do not like going with the flow anymore. I am just not good with it. Surprises are not my best friend.
This love of structure carries over into our learning time. Now, when I say structure I do not mean every subject has its own handy-dandy time slot (I am not that far into OCD land, not yet anyway.) My version of structure comes in the form of rhythm. Our learning time has a flow to it minus the timetable. Our days start with Morning Time, math, reading and writing, lunch, a big break then more learning time. This was our day BC (Before Cancer.)
Since our little life bump, I am not finding comfort in structure. Structure is no longer my friend. Structure is stifling to me now. Structure has become synonomous with suffocation. I don't want structure anymore. I want freedom. I think that just might be my word for 2010: freedom.
I want the freedom to start my day off with doing yoga without those niggling little voices whispering that this is really the time for Morning Time, not Mommy Time. I want the freedom to be able to play a game with my kids in the middle of the morning without those blasted voices reminding me that we should be really doing reading right now, not playing around.
I have been thinking about this for awhile. Two weeks ago when I was told that the drama was all over, I mistakenly thought "Yay, we can go back to the way life used to be." That week we went back to our structured days of learning and I thought my head was going to explode. It all seemed so foreign to me. By the time lunch time arrived, my head was pounding and I was knee-deep in frustration.
i attempted to do this again the following week but I bailed after the second day. I knew that I could not do school like this anymore, well, not for awhile anyway. I spent the rest of that week figuring out how I was going to manage this. I mean, the kids had to learn. I was definitely not going to send them to public school, so I needed to come with a plan on how to loosen up our days.
I think we may have figured it out. I told the kids that each day they can decide when they want to do school. If they want to do it in the morning, then we will do it then. If something pressing pops up in the morning, then we can have our learning time in the afternoon. We can even do it in the evening if that would float their boat. Our new motto is that learning has to be done every day ( that will never change) but when they do that learning, that is up to them.
Now, we are fresh into this new motto but, so far, it is working out very well. It has finally dawned on me that we are not morning people. I have tried so hard to be a morning person but it just isn't flying. The kids do not do well in the morning either. They need some time to ease into their day. So the last few days have seen them starting out with playing (both inside and outside) and then we spend a bit of time with our Morning Time. Mia has been starting math just before lunch and then the learning has been continuing after lunch.
The neat thing about this is that our days will not always look like that. Everyday will be different. Every day will be fresh! new! alive! I will never know what to expect from one day to the next. You would think after our rollercoaster ride of the past four months, that this kind of life would scare the liver out of me. Quite the opposite. I find it very refreshing. I am looking forward to this coming week and to all of the surprises that await us. I am looking forward to next week's freedom.
Nov. 20, 2009 - Parenting Think Spots
I've just created a new page on my website: Parenting Think Spot - a collection of short parenting tips, ideas and thoughts.
Two short thoughts are already uploaded
5 Keys to Consistency The key to training our children is consistency - but how do we maintain that?
Instructions or Example? When we are teaching our children what is more effective? Our Instruction or our Example?
Nov. 20, 2009 - Praying in Colour
I was talking to a friend on the weekend about how my life now seemed like an emotional rollercoaster ride. She suggested that I start 'drawing my prayers." She said that she had begun to do this and it had added depth to her prayer life.
This concept comes from a book, Praying in Colour. I looked at the website and was immediately intrigued. Drawing your prayers just makes them more visual and is a creative way to pray for those that are important to me.In the simplest form. This could just be doodling or, for those who are creatively hinged, they could be masterpieces.
You can use this concept to pray for one person and include all of your concerns on that one drawing, or you can bring all of your prayer needs to that one creation. It can also be used in helping you to memorize Scripture, as a visual aid.
As always, I am drawn to the 'next new thing.' I know, I am fickle. But this idea intrigues my creative side. Right now, that side of me is aching to break out and I think praying in colour might help, at least for now.
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