This blog is for the purpose of sharing my triumphs, joys, troubles and stresses of raising and homeschooling my seven children while pregnant with #8. We are a military family currently living in North Carolina. "It is in the digging that life is lived. And I believe it is joy in the journey, in the end, that truly matters." http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500 This is part three in the series as the book lists I have to share are VERY long.  Keep checking in for new lists. Some of these books you may or may not recognize from your own childhood.  One thing I love about book lists is being reminded of good books I may have forgotten about.  Time to rekindle some pleasant memories and make new ones with our children today. Here is the next book list: Series Books: Mist of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (and other sequels) Betsy Tacy by Maud Halt (10 in series) The Borrowers Series by Mary Norton The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall Uncle Wiggily by Howard Roger Garis Flower Fairy book series by Federick Warne Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieska (13 in the series) A Child's Story of the Book of Mormon (series for those who are LDS) Read Aloud Suggestions: Phantom Tollbooth- Norton Juster (Just in time for Halloween) Good Reading: Dragon of the Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumor Godden (Good for Christmas) Moffats by Eleanor Estes The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George Flat Stanley by Tomi Ungerer TJED is based on Classically based books and mentoring. Start buying and reading the suggested books and see which ones will work for you and your family library. For those who missed where I got these book lists, I received from a good friend who is well versed in classic books for kids and has a house filled with bookshelves full of classic books for children.  Several afternoons she had me come and copy down the titles so I could start my collection.  Thank you, Linda!  Happy reading, everyone! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724467/ Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724467/ This is part two in the series as the book lists I have to share are VERY long.  Keep checking in for new lists. Some of these books you may or may not recognize from your own childhood.  One thing I love about book lists is being reminded of good books I may have forgotten about.  Time to rekindle some pleasant memories and make new ones with our children today. Here is the next book lists: Series Books: Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Bear Books Karma Wilson Weekly Readers book series (the old ones) The Littles by John Peterson Good Reading: Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling *Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle Raggedy Andy Stories by Johnny Gruelle Floss by Kim Lewis Just Like Floss by Kim Lewis Dumpy by Julie Andrews Edwards My Love For You by Susan Roth The Girl Who Loved Horses by Paul Goble (An Indian story) Degas and the Dance by Susan Rubin Board Books: Julie Merberg Books by Author: Lewis, Kim Ehlert, Lois (artist) Kellogg, Steven (artist) Tate, Suzanne (Especially because shes is NC born and lives in the outer banks of NC -Nag's Head) *Did you Know? "Gruelle created Raggedy Ann for his daughter, Marcella, when she brought him an old hand-made rag doll and he drew yupa face on it. From his bookshelf, he pulled a book of poems by James Whitcomb Riley, and combined the names of two poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie." He said, "Why don’t we call her Raggedy Ann?" Marcella died at age 13 after being vaccinated at school for smallpox without her parents' consent. Authorities blamed a heart defect, but her parents blamed the vaccination. Gruelle became an opponent of vaccination, and the Raggedy Ann doll was used as a symbol by the anti-vaccination movement." (Source: Wikipedia) TJED is based on Classically based books and mentoring. Start buying and reading the suggested books and see which ones will work for you and your family library. For those who missed where I got these book lists, I received from a good friend who is well versed in classic books for kids and has a house filled with bookshelves full of classic books for children.  Several afternoons she had me come and copy down the titles so I could start my collection.  Thank you, Linda!  Happy reading, everyone! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724466/ Mon, 7 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724466/ A girlfriend of mine introduced me to the Flat Travelers Homeschool group online.  It sounded like so much fun! Here is the posted explanation straight from the group's page: "This idea is based on the book "Flat Stanley". A Flat Traveler is a person, animal or thing made out of paper. You print or draw your Traveler, laminate it and then mail it along with a blank journal to someone in another area, state or country. The host family treats your Flat Traveler as a guest and takes it places they go. After a short time your Flat Traveler is mailed back to you along with a completed journal and perhaps some photos, postcards and/or souvenirs. You look over your Flat Travelers journey and plot it on a map. Some families keep a scrapbook with all their journals, souvenirs and photos inside. Some families send out one Flat Traveler and other families send out dozens! You can make this project as simple or as detailed as you like. This is a fun way to learn about geography and history among many other subjects! This group has been formed to give homeschool families a group of participants to contact world wide. As a member of this group you should be prepared to host Flat Travelers from other families as well." What a fun and educational project to do, especially for homeschooling families! :) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724464/ Sun, 6 Sep 2009 17:25:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724464/ A few days ago, I read an online article on The Boston Globe by David Abel. The article was explaining how the New England prep school the Cushing Academy is riding their entire library of our 20,000 books and replacing it with digital screens, places for laptops, etc. The first question that entered my mind was how the library cannot invite the digital books and books online along with the books? I’m all for the convenience of modern technology, but there are many things that technology cannot completely take the place of without consequences and one of those is books. What has been working well for centuries shouldn’t just end because one generation found an invention they liked better. It was mentioned in the article that the staff of Cushing believe it is the start of a new era. The problems I foresee, aside from losing the pure love of books, are what if there was a power surge? What about the effects on the eyes as people do more reading on a computer screen? Like the television the computer screen can affect the brain waves as well. The author also pointed out various other problems with digital "books" such as sand, liquids and the cost of accessing the materials as many of the materials online are not free. I'm also not in agreement with the library bringing in a coffee shop containing and encouraging the use of legally addictive stimulants for youth. Not just any coffee shop mind you, but a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine. We travel an hour away to go to libraries in a large city nearest us. We have access to almost twenty libraries that inter-loan. I cannot imagine not being able to browse through the shelves, picking out books that catch my eye. Sometimes the spiral bound cookbooks are my favorites to browse, or books that are warn on the covers and pages dog-earring showing me that this was a well-read and well-loved book. I write ebooks and articles, most of which are featured online. That still doesn’t replace the value of a book in my mind. Call me old fashioned but I love a book, a real book. -Shiloah B. Photo of old books by:  Ivan Vicencio (Pepo) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724463/ Sun, 6 Sep 2009 17:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/724463/ On the way home from the grocery store I was listening to this wonderful broadcast on the radio station. I wrote down the website on the grocery receipt so I wouldn't forget it when I got home. I'm so glad I did! I highly recommend this website it is called Family Research Council at www.frc.org . It is radio programs from the family Research Council keeping you abreast of news from Washington with a Christian mix. Articles made into news broadcasts include things like this. Click the link to download and listen to this newscast: "Science Czar or just plain bizarre? Hello, I am Tony Perkins with the Family Research Council. Among President Obama's growing list of czars is the White House science czar, Dr. John Holdren. Holdren, along with the sky is falling scientist Paul Ehrlich, who wrote the now-discredited book entitled "Population Bomb" in the 1960's claiming the world was overpopulating and would be out of food by the end of the 1970's, wrote a text book together. Holdren and Ehrlich's book, which they wrote in 1977, was entitled Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment. In the book Holdren advocates for radical government action to limit population growth. Among the proposals, forced abortions for women, involuntary sterilization through infertility drugs placed in food or the water supply...." For more visit frcradio.org This website is very enlightening and I have been making it a habit to listen more to the talk radio shows. The other thing I wanted to share with you was the Veritas Press catalog. A friend of mine shared this catalog with me as she knows I'm doing TJED which is Classically based. Things I love about this catalog: It is broken into grade levels so I can, at a glance, be sure I'm not looking at something too easy for the child I'm buying for. I love the suggested books per grade level. I'm using it as a guide to gauge the kid's school this year. For instance for my eldest (Calypso), it suggested she read the Lord of the Rings series. Well, she's on book 2 already! Right on! It even includes classically based math books, which I have been on the search for. One for instance by Harold Jacobs. Hope this post give you some ideas and a couple of new places to visit. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/715617/ Sat, 8 Aug 2009 21:27:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/715617/ I found my notebook with the promised book list! Tis the season for me to get back into my homeschooling life, so I will be better about posting. Promise. {smile} Series Books: Nurse Matilda Series (The move Nanny McPhee was based on these books) The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West Ramona Quimby by Beverly Clearly The Wizard of Oz series by Baum Dr. Dolittle Series by Hugh Lofting Paddington by Michael Bond Good Reading Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop Miss Hickory by Carolyn Bailey Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes Purely Educational American History stories You Never Read in School But Should Have A Child's Book of Art Recommended Authors All books by the following children's book authors: Edith Nesbit Holling C. Holling Start buying books, there is much more to come! Happy reading! See this cute video about the book The Candy Shop War: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/714088/ Mon, 3 Aug 2009 23:33:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/714088/ "Do you know what is wrong with people who never read nursery rhymes? I will tell you. When little boys and girls grow bigger and older, they should grow from the outside, leaving a little boy in the middle; even when they are quite grown up, the little child that once they were should be within them. But some unlucky people grow older from inside and so grow old through and through." We have been reading several poetry books as a family. The book Honey for a Child's Heart has a section about Poetry which inspired me to get back on track with reading the children poetry aloud. We're currently reading "The World of Christopher Robin" by A.A. Milne as a family and we love the silliness of them. Some other wonderful poetry books aside from our favorite Dr. Suess: Randolph Caldecott's Picture Books- mostly nursery rhymes, but pictures are magnificent! Works by Edward Lear: The owl and the *****cat A book of nonsense There was an Old Man--: A Gallery of Nonsense Rhymes Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets Hilaire Belloc: Cautionary Tales for children Robert Louis Stevenson: A Child's Book of Verses What wonderful children's poetry books do you have to add to this list? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/682118/ Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:21:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/682118/ I recently found and loved the guidelines set in The Well-Trained Mind. It goes along with TJED so well, but I needed a more rigid idea of what needs to be done for my kids but with the classical mentality that I love and feel strongly about. I've been ordering some of the books suggested. In addition I have a friend, a mentor, who owns hundreds of Classic children's books I had NEVER even heard of! I thought I had at least a mediocre idea of children's literature. I found that I am but a babe, a child myself in this wide world of classical children's literature. I spent two separate days copying all of the book titles in her many bookshelves. I still have another day or two to go to finish. I have hundreds of books on my list to get. When I have some extra time I will be sharing this list. She then took me to the numerous used book stores and helped me pick out additional titles of children's classics to get, many for $1 or less. Two of those books are from the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series of which there are four, I believe. We begun reading the first one aloud. I highly recommend this book! It is an easy to read aloud book meaning it is easy to imitate the characters and it is enjoyable. My five year old and up absolutely love this book and beg me to read just another chapter. Even my husband laughs with the kids during some of these funny adventures. We have read almost half of the book in three separate sittings, so it is also a quick read. I am so glad we found this series! M, my almost eight year old daughter, is listening to the CD that is the audio companion to The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. She loves it and the songs that go with it. I love hearing the younger children repeating all the alphabet sounds too. Hope your homeschooling life is going as well! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/669641/ Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/669641/ Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825 – June 3, 1899; German: Johann Baptist Strauß; also known as Johann Baptist Strauss, Johann Strauss, Jr., or Johann Strauss the Younger) was an Austrian composer famous for having written over 500 waltzes, polkas, marches, and galops. He was the son of the composer Johann Strauss I, and brother of composers Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss. He is also the most famous member of the Strauss family. He was known in his lifetime as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. He revolutionized the waltz, elevating it from a lowly peasant dance to entertainment fit for the royal Habsburg court. I recently purchased "Johann Strauss Jr Most Famous Waltzes". What a beautiful compilation of his works. It contains over and hour's worth of music that is invigorating and makes you want to dance. We listened to it again last night while I was cooking dinner. The younger girls were so inspired that they all dressed up in their ballerina outfits, tutus and all and danced around the house. We love all of his music. Our absolute favorites are: "Tales from the Vienna Woods" "Roses from the South Op. 388" "Fruehlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring)" May I also say he was quite a LOOKER! ;) Listen to it, I promise you'll love it!!! Johann Strauss was a genius of a musician! *Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/665632/ Thu, 5 Mar 2009 14:40:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/665632/ These suggestions came from the book "The Well Trained Mind". I loved them so much I decided to implement them in our homeschool library trips: Each child picks out one book in each of the following subjects: *One science book *One history book *One art or music appreciation book *One practical book (i.e. hobby, craft or "how-to") *One biography or autobiography book *One classic novel *An imaginative story book *One book of poetry The kids can pick out any title, but they have to have something in each category. Each child has a week to read each book before they go back again the next week. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/663893/ Sun, 1 Mar 2009 15:24:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/pinkginghamom/663893/