Enjoy!
Here's an article I wrote for the parents of our homeschool co-op's musical theater students, a class I'm teaching next school year:
Introducing Shakespeare
(Almost) Painlessly
Just the thought of introducing Shakespeare into your homeschool can be intimidating at best, and downright frightening to some. The language is difficult, some of the themes make you blush, and all the talk of witches and fairies and death can be hard to explain to youngsters. But there is a way to introduce the Bard to your children, and explore these plays that have had such a powerful impact on our world, our language, and our art, in a fun and easy manner.
Step 1. Pick your play
Starting with Macbeth or Hamlet or King Lear is not a good idea. Comedies are easier to understand for newbies, especially kids who are sensitive to scary elements in stories. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an excellent place to start, followed by something like The Taming of the Shrew or Twelfth Night.
Step 2. Children’s version of Shakespeare’s plays
I recommend either Charles Lamb’s version (Tales From Shakespeare which can be found online here: http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LAMBTALE.HTM) or Edith Nesbit’s Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare (which can be found at the Baldwin Project online: www.mainlesson.com ). Read the children’s version of the play out loud. Then, if you can find it, get it on tape or CD. Jim Weiss reads some great ones, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Listen to it in the car and talk about it. Children’s versions are generally edited for content, and kids get the plot line fixed in their heads this way.
Step 3. Video adaptations
My family likes to rent movies, so naturally we gravitate toward the Shakespeare movies by Kenneth Branagh or whatever we can find on Netflix or at the library in the video section. Often these films have current TV and film actors in them. We turn on the closed-captioning so we don’t miss anything, and follow along. Sometimes we still miss things, but knowing what is happening from reading the children’s versions keeps the kids focused and in the loop. Many times the kids will pause the movie to ask me about what’s going on, or I’ll pause it to discuss something, and occasionally I have to fast forward through an inappropriate romance scene or something. I’ve found the kids will understand the meaning of unfamiliar words simply from the context, but often we’ll pause to look things up in the ever-present dictionary.
Step 4. At last! We’re ready for a live performance!
Knowing what is going on is key to keeping the kids engaged in the action of a live stage performance of Shakespeare. We can’t pause, rewind, or turn up the volume. We can’t turn on the captions. If someone can’t follow along with the story they will lose interest very quickly. Don’t attempt a live show without going through the preceding steps! Especially if the kids are young, it has great potential to end up being a disastrous waste of time. On the other hand, if done right, this is one of the things your kids will look forward to year after year. My kids love “Shakespeare Summers,” and we literally devote our summer months to this process of learning to appreciate the Bard.
Jodi O’Dell
A peek into my 11 year-old daughter's journal, written out exactly as she has written it (but I'll edit the spelling - there are one or two glaring errors).
Homeschooled for the Homeless
First off, the word homeless could also mean food-less. Meaning no food. My plan is to help those who need a home and food to eat.I am not going to be able to give them a home but I will be able to get them to shelter where they will get daily meals. And if they do not accept the offer of a little shelter then we will not force them and we will not leave them there unfoodful and cold. So, we will have bags with the following inside: Crackers, juice box, blanket, rain coat, candy, crayons, paper, scarf, mittens, hat.
And some places to go to get these things for cheap: the Dollar Store, Liquidation World.
The point of Homeschooled for the Homeless is to bring people closer to Christ and maybe, someday, you might see one of the people you helped at the store or driving on the freeway, or at church or something. We may even be able to put some sort of small Bible into each of the bags, or a Jesus fish or some sort of thing that has to do with Christ. My plan is to bring thousands of homeless people to a home and a family and Christ. Also it would be great to bring other people, even people with homes to Christ and we can, but we want to touch the lives of the homeless so they won't see a Christian as a bad person but an amazing one. And that is what brings people closer to God, they see a person walking down the street just like a normal person and then they see that someone homeless is lying down and they're holding a coffee can and saying, "Help me, I need food and water." And the person gives him 2 dollars. Now, the person watching this probably said to himself, "Wow, that is a Christian, I want to be like her." Well, then he grows up to be a pastor of the world's greatest church all because of a girl that helped a poor old man. Most people think that if you give money to a homeless person they're going to buy drugs with it. Well, sure, some do. Most don't, most REALLY do need food and water. So imagine there's a homeless guy on the side of the road saying he is hungry. What are you gonna drive by and stick your tongue out at him? NO! Give him a couple bucks, for heaven's sake, I mean think WWJD. Okay? So next time you're driving and you see a homeless person don't just drive past - pull over and give him any bit of change you have in your pockets. If they are thankful it will help, Lots!
Well, our family has been on an adventure, of sorts.
We recently left our church - the church where, in 1999, Michael and I seperately gave our lives to Christ and together picked up the pieces of our marriage and gave them to Him, to do with what He would; the church where we were baptized; the church where our children accepted Christ and were baptized; the church where our youngest was dedicated, and grew up knowing as her "home away from home;" the place where a tremendous work was begun in our family; the place we learned our spiritual gfts and began to make use of them; the place where I sang in public for the first time in over a decade; the church where we learned that service and sacrifice are where true freedom lies; the place where we grew in wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. Changes came two years ago and a whole new era began in that place, and God made it clear to us that it was no longer our place, but we are sentimental human beings and we fought against the change. Finally though, it was made crystal clear that it was time for us to move on, and leaving has lightened our hearts beyond what we ever expected because we are finally, once again, in God's will.
Now, I am a seriously ministry-oriented person, and I know that within a short time of settling down in a new congregation, I will be once again up to my ears in commitments of one sort or another, no matter how diligently I try to keep my schedule light. So we decided that we would seize this opportunity - this time of looseness, of no ties to any place, of not needing to be present at a church service because I am in the band or running the sound or lighting or computer systems like I have always done in the past - we would go and visit all the wonderful churches we could possibly bring ourselves to visit. I developed a list (ever the homeschooling mom, I am!) of churches to visit, and another one of churches to visit again. We haven't been to the same church twice in many weeks, and even 
The kids have had a great time critiquing the different children's programs (although, sadly, none will ever compare to the program at the church where all their beloved friends are, at the only church they have ever really known their whole lives), and Michael and I enjoy the teaching and talk about our checklist of qualities we are looking for in a church. This list includes strong Biblical teaching - none of that happy-poppy garbage that sounds like Dr. Phil with a Scripture thrown in to make it sound "church-y" which is invading churches so pervasively these days - a pastor of outstanding character; a very strong missions program; true care for the community and actual outreach programs. As homeschoolers, most of the kids' Bible study and discipleship happens at home, and what they get at church is usually like going from beef to broth as far as substance, so we tend to not put too much emphasis on the children's ministries except to make sure the kids aren't being taught outright falsehoods or being sacrificed to Molech or something while they're in there. They have fun and make friends, and that's ok.
Today, we attended a great church in the country. We had originally intended to attend with our country cousins, but they got lost (!!) on the way and ended up in a different church, but they'll go back with us next week. First off, the subject matter! Woo hoo! When I saw the topic, I knew that the way this pastor handled it was going to be huge - 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 on head coverings, and the headship of husbands and submission of wives. And I have to say, it was impressive the way this man shook off the world's sensibilities and preached the Word of God as it was written, with no apologies, no whitewashing or sugar-coating, just straight on, dead-on Biblical truth. And we were amazed. And so blessed!
The girls came away from the children's ministry euphoric - they had prayer journals and were determined to fill them up before going back the next week. "We are coming back, aren't we momma? We really want to come back!" Jordan sat in the adult service - "I really like this guy, mom! He's a good preacher!" Michael said, "Wow - he didn't even flinch!"
When we left following the service, all 5 of us had come to the conclusion at some point during the morning that this was where God wanted us to be, that we had found a new church home. Before we absolutely commit, we want to visit a few more times and maybe go to our neighbor's church at least once because we said we would, but at this point, I can say WE'VE FOUND IT! Our NEW CHURCH HOME! 
Praise Jesus!
My kids had it right one day when we were talking about the upcoming Presidential elections - "Momma, someday it will be a homeschooled person who will be President and they can make everything right."
Life gets crazy sometimes, doesn't it? Sometimes you just can't explain it.
Check out this momma 's story (I know just how she feels)
I just added a cool Mona Lisa puzzle to my blog. We're studying Leonardo da Vinci, so we've got prints of paintings literally all over the house. Fun!
Enjoy the puzzle!
We spent the last week camping. Homeschooling is great for getting the prime campsites after Labor Day when the rest of the universe has sent the kids back to school! We fished every single day, and I brought along our copy of The Handbook of Nature Study and we got hooked on fungi.
We didn't even mean to look at the fungus pages, but once the kids figured out that we could look stuff up in the book they got very excited and started asking me to look up EVERYTHING they saw. There was a little area behind the trees that was carpeted in mushrooms so we sat in the smoke from the campfire and checked out what Anna (Botsford Comstock) had to say about 'shrooms. (If you have ever read anything from the HNS, you know that Anna, as we affectionately refer to her, can be quite entertaining.)
That was all it took. The kids were off - riding their bikes into every single unoccupied campsite - which was nearly all of them - searching for toadstools, puffballs and bracket fungi, and remembering the difference between parasites and saprophytes. They even drew a few pictures in their nature sketchbooks, along with some fish and caddis fly larvae.
All in all, it was quite an educational trip as well as relaxing. Jordan caught the biggest fish and we had a fish fry one night. Now we're back, sunburned and grimy. I must say, camping is the most effective gentle nature study I've come across yet!
After what seems like TEN YEARS we are finally able to get away for almost a week. We're going camping at Kanaskat Palmer State Park - like we do every year. Fishing, hiking, reading....ahhh! :-)
I'm loading up on books from Paperback Swap for the trip. Love this site! SOOO glad I followed the link in an email someone sent me...I wish I'd known to see whose link it was. There's a referral bonus! If you go there and sign up, please say mommajo referred you!
~ subtitle of the book "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas
It amazes me - no, it appalls and astounds me - how so many of my generation have been swallowed up by our culture's worship of SELF and enter into marriage thinking only of "me, me, me, what about MY needs, what about MY wants, I have to do what's best for ME, I have to care for MYSELF." This is so contrary to what actually makes relationships work - the intentional act of putting your spouses' needs and wants above your own, which will not only lead to instant harmony but also to lifelong sharing of wants and needs...the exact type of close relationship we all want.
No wonder there are so many broken relationships in the world. Why doesn't someone notice? Why haven't we figured out that selfishness doesn't make relationships better? That's kind of a no-brainer if you ask me. I mean, we have millions of real-life examples of how NOT to be all around us at any given moment (me-me-me! it's all about what I want!).
For my birthday last week, my wonderful daughter threw me a surprise party. She is ten, and displays an incredible talent for organizing events. I do not have this gift, nor does my husband, so I am convinced it is God-given.
First off, I had NO IDEA the children were planning a party. Usually I know what they are up to, but this time I didn't - and it kind of makes me wonder what else I am unaware of! I got home and went to the basement to check laundry and do email, and when I went upstairs, my husband and mother-in law were there. He was home early - I didn't know he was coming - and she had taken the evening off. I found out later that the kids had invited several others who were unable to come but sent me their wishes later on.
Here's the cool part. This ten-year-old organizer, with the help of her siblings, coordinated the food, the gifts, the decorations, the purchasing, the invitations, even the cake - and delegated what she couldn't do herself. So I came upstairs to a huge SURPRISE! The whole room was decorated with flowers and pictures and handmade pretties; there was candy and cake displayed on the table with an artful arrangement of gifts; and then a fabulous taco dinner was served. I was shocked! I don't think I could have done better myself! The kids had even gone gift shopping. I was incredibly touched.
I think she needs to be a party planner. :-) Make some money!
I have always been open and honest about sex with my kids (mainly due to some unfortunate circumstances in our neighborhood, and in public school - but also because sexuality is such a huge part of life, I feel the teaching of it shouldn't be left to chance or left too late) and so they are not shy about asking questions and talking about human development and reproduction, especially my 10 year-old daughter. Of course, I try not to give too much detail too soon, so sometimes they get funny ideas.
Dad and big brother were gone for the evening, so us girls were having a long, deep discussion about menstruation, and Mad was just glowing with the thought that she would someday "become a woman." She heaved a big sigh, smiled beatifically and said, "Oh Mom, I could just sit here and talk to you all night about adultery!"
"What?!"
"You know, adult things!"
I cleared that terminology up right quick! :-)
I'm in a band called Unchained, and the frontman is a good friend of mine, Goeff White. He is an ordained minister, but fronts a rock band - writing all the music, procuring all the gear, and booking all the gigs. But what really stands out about Geoff is his love for Biblical truth, and it sure comes out in his lyrics. I am singing the leads on this song he wrote called "He's No Lie" and I wanted to share them because they are fabulous and oh, so true!
He's No Lie by Geoff White
People will tell you almost anything / about the way they think God ought to be / but wishful thinking and philosophy / are only firewood for eternity
They're lies / counting for nothing / lies, from the pit of hell / tragic lies / unto destruction / the road to hell is paved with worthless lies
But there is one Name above all names / Jesus the Savior, Son of God who came / The judge and ruler of eternity / the only hope for folks like you and me
He's no lie -- Jesus is the way / He's no lie -- Jesus is the truth / He's no lie -- Jesus is the life / Jesus is the truth, and that's no lie
This is a total rock song, written by a retired minister... go figure! I can't wait to record it.
I have spent the last two years - the sum total of the time we've been homeschooling - becoming a curriculum junkie. There is SO MUCH out there that has to be waded through, and of course, being an infomaniac, I can't let a single curriculum go by without checking it out. The result of this obsession is that I can't stick with one thing long enough to get any learning into my kids! I'll see something and go, Great, That's perfect for my set of heathens, and we'll start it and get a few weeks into it and then my eye will be caught by another sparkly book with a whole new set of guidelines, and after a bit of fumbling and bumbling we'll throw out the first several hundred dollars' worth of curriculum and jump into the new one...and then a few weeks later, I see something else, or run over a great link on a webpage or a blog and I just can't keep myself from looking and the whole thing just starts over again! I have a houseful of fabulous curriculum and don't have enough kids or years left of homeschooling to use it all! And my youngest is only six! Good grief!
I know there is wisdom in being flexible - you know, if something isn't working for you feel free to change it. But I think I've taken that idea of "flexibility" to a whole new level - and it's getting expensive!
So on several occasions over the last couple of weeks, I sat down and did some real thinking about what I really want for my kids, and what drew me to homeschooling in the first place. I remember those last months the kids were in public school, and how I read dreamily about unschooling, and relaxed schooling, and Charlotte Mason, and unit studies, and lapbooking or notebooking - and a myriad of other equally great methods of schooling. It wasn't as overwhelming then, for some reason. I had a goal: getting the kids out of that government school. I had focus: getting them educated as well as I could. I had money: we sold our house that year to buy a bigger one (we looked around at where all this homeschooling would take place, and decided the front lawn in winter in Seattle just wasn't going to cut it, we needed a few more square feet!) so I could buy whatever curriculum I wanted.
Now, I am befuddled: the kids are home but I still have to go to work, and they take advantage of my distraction to do nothing. I have smaller goals: I just want to get through this next month. I have no money. At all.
So what to do? After much careful thought and consideration, I have decided that we are going to do Ambleside Online, which is free, comprehensive, and offers all of the things I dreamed about when I first undertook to homeschool. We plan to start right after our homeschool co-op gets out in early June.
Someone's gonna have to check up on me from time to time to see if I'm still doing Ambleside in 3 months....
I was sent a link in a Yahoo email loop for a website where you can download free ebooks! If anyone would like a link, let me know, as it's sort of a referral site. I got the Great Pioneer Projects there (which I had originally tried to download from Homeschool eStore, but their site was so busy with the Mother's Day special that it wouldn't connect) among others.
SO - my excellent rock band with a Scripture twist (We're called Unchained) was slated to appear at a local prison's minimum security unit this past weekend, but after driving all the way there, unloading all of our gear and hauling it some distance, we discovered that the wrong paperwork had been sent in and we didn't have the necessary clearance to get in and do our show. It was something of a letdown, to put it mildly, but we got over it and will go bravely on! :-)
It's about 90 degrees here today. Feels like California, hot and dry. Usually when it heats up here it's humid. The kids and I decided to do some physical education, nature walking and community service today. We walked to the library and picked up trash (saving the aluminum cans!). Saved gas, added a little to the coffers, got some exercise, saved the environment in more ways than one, and we counted it as school to boot! Gotta love homeschooling! We walked right by the local public school, and got more than a few odd sidelong looks, especially from the school janitor who was out mowing the lawn. The kids wore their homeschool t-shirts ("We build character, confidence and integrity one child at a time"). Ha ha! I love it!
I ran into an old friend on the web this week. Turns out she homeschools her kids too! How cool is that? I was just flooded with memories of high school and all the awful things I said and did back then. But that brought with it the knowledge that God has redeemed me, bought me back into His family and taken away all that guilt - amazing, isn't it!
Our Ori-Pei had puppies last year in April. Seven of them. The sire of these pups was a black lab and mastiff mix. Pearl's breed is a cross between Shar-Pei and pug. The puppies were too big to be born naturally so we had an emergency c-section, and the vet and his assistants were shocked at how big they were (Pearlie lost 13 pounds with the birth!). We enjoyed them for a little while, sold some, gave away a few, and kept one. We chose him because of all the pups, he was the most laid-back. Ha! With the unusual mix (shar-Pei, pug, black lab, and mastiff) he is HUGE - more than twice the size of his momma, and absolutely beautiful. We call him Oliver.
Oliver eats everything in sight.
He ate my hot tub cover. He ate the siding off the hot tub. He has eaten several of the rails in the new deck. He has eaten nearly every single dish he has ever had (including the metal ones - go figure). He uses the firewood for chew toys, dragging stovelengths up onto the deck and flinging them about - he broke the screen door this way, then figured since it was broke anyway, might as well eat it. I think he ate a gopher who had the poor judgement to poke his head up in our yard. Oliver is still all pup, and that makes him a little dangerous with the kids because he likes to play and doesn't realize that his 100 pounds to their 40 or so is not conducive to a good time. His favorite toy is a stretchy-squeaky thing that dangles proudly from his jaws as he trots around the fenceline to see who is watching and coveting his stretchy-squeaky thing. We call it a chewy-boy.
He poops everywhere. It's HUGE.
I have picked up enough poop to fill several large cans just in the last couple of weeks, and we feed them the "good" dog food, you know, that's supposed to cut down on the clean-up - apparently with this ginormous dog, it doesn't work. I try to get the kids to do it as part of their chores, but it just hasn't worked - they always hide and avoid and take advantage of my distraction to wriggle out of it. Who can blame them? Usually the rain washes it away - Seattle's got plenty of that this time of year!
I thought once about making a saddle for him, but realistically, I think the neighbors would complain to the ASPCA or animal control or something if they saw my kids riding the dog.
Oliver has taken up residence on the deck, right outside the dining room slider, and the unfortunate affect of this is that we just don't use the deck anymore. It's just too much work to try to avoid getting smacked with a tail packing 100 lbs of force behind it (my legs are bruised from hip to ankle whenever I stand too near him, the happy waggy thing) and to try to keep him from jumping - although I must give Michael credit for coming along admirably with the training, the dogs are both much better lately, which has led to us deciding to reclaim the back yard today. We are taking it back from the dogs! It's OUR yard and OUR deck and we wanna use them! Keep the kids from having to play in the street! :-)
Today we went out and mowed, dragged debris left over from the massive windstorm of last December that brought down part of a tree, picked up the never-ending poop, cleaned up what was left of the hot tub cover and emptied the yucky rainwater before it can become a mosquito farm, and basically told the dog in no uncertain terms that we are back and we won't let them rule the back yard again. Ha! We triumph!
Kinda sick that I feel so superior to a couple of DOGS. 
Find out about Ori-Peis here. They are a wonderful breed!
And by the way, the yard looks FABULOUS!
Well, Michael and I have decided to take the plunge and get a handle on our finances by renting out one of our extra bedrooms. We technically have two extra bedrooms, although one of them is our library/office. I sent an email:
Michael and I would like to rent out one of our extra bedrooms. We're looking for a single woman, preferably Christian, who has no stalkers and the fortitude to handle living with my homeschooling family and the messes that go along with that. :-) Not allergic to pets (we have all kinds).
I love the verse that tells us God's mercies are new every morning, because I definitely need a fresh start every day! I have a hard time maintaining anything for long - and boy was yesterday long! See, I forget things. I forgot, for example, to let my husband in on the fact that the kids haven't been doing any work for several weeks (well, any is rather harsh, how about much?) and they have been taking full advantage of my distraction lately to - as Michael so succinctly put it last night - work hard on being stupid. So, after a very major lecture from Principal Dad, we all started fresh today. Clean slate. I'm so glad we are homeschooling!
So why am I so distracted lately? Funny you should ask. My band (Unchained - as soon as we get a good recording I'll post it and put a link here) is partnered with Prisoners for Christ and we will be going into prisons, performing and ministering. Our first gig is in 2 weeks. I have less than 2 weeks to learn all the lyrics (we can't take in our music binders, someone forgot to put them on the list of gear which will be checked down to the last patch cord when we go in and out of the prison) AND learn how to set up and tear down a brand new sound system in less than 15 minutes and do a sound check and power check all in that same block of time! Yikes! I've started dreaming about it. Scary dreams, where things catch on fire; I forget my words; cables don't reach; screaming, eardrum-tearing feedback abounds, etc... you know tha type of dreams I mean, where everything that can go wrong does. But I know that God will use even the bad to bring about good, and will minister to those He wants to regardless of how good or bad we are.
I work part time at a church, and I take the kids with me. They have their own little space to do their work, although they usually spend their time there avoiding schoolwork while I'm busy. This was another aspect of last night's Principal Dad lecture. They will from now on be required to do what they are assigned before they go off to play (and yes, Dad will be checking in on them, and no, I'm not TOTALLY helpless, just distracted and forgetful - I forget sometimes to feed them!).
So, today we are starting fresh. We read the Bible, worked on math and copywork, and now we're having lunch. Feeding time at the zoo! Leter, we'll go to the church and they will do their reading and give each other spelling tests. And I will work on perfecting the sound system set-up and tear down. And all will be well, for today at least. I'm sure we'll need that fresh start tomorrow morning!