So I just got back from a wonderful trip to the WHO Conference in beautiful Washington State. I have never been there save for a layover one late night almost 20 years ago. It is really lush and gorgeous. You who live there, enjoy it! The weather was just amazing. As my travelling companion, Nancy, said, "It's weather!" As you might be able to tell, we don't have much of that here in CA. :D
We met some of the nicest folks with some neat products. I keep hearing about WriteShop and it is everything it says it is. I want to buy it for my Abigail because it will not only teach her how to write well, but it will enable me to know how to evaluate her writing. That is the thing I get stuck on and find myself saying, "Hey, that sounds good to me!" I would like some help determining what I might be missing in my grading. I like that.
There were some new companies I met that I found to have worthwhile products. Some were art companies with interesting products that were perfect for the homeschooler and some had really good inexpensive math games. This math game is aptly named; Wonder Number. I mean we kept saying, "Wow!" It is worth watching the video on their site. The Home Scholar is expanding their product line for high school/college prep and I think they have a real niche market worth exploring if you find yourself with high schoolers! :D
We were so blessed to be able to hear Mr. Steve Demme. He is Mr. Math U See, but he was not speaking on math. He is a former pastor and has a real heart for the family. What a blessing it was to hear him encourage moms and dads to love and good deeds towards one another to build their marriages. He offers his talks for free on his site here in the resources section.
I don't know why I never knew this, but I didn't so I thought you might not know it either and I found it really neat. I met the nicest man from Soundforth, BJU's music division. They have all sorts of sheet music for sale of the simple variety for the beginner to the advanced musician. Now my little can play "How Firm a Foundation" because it is in an easier format. It was one of the few things I purchased.
My flights were unexceptional and for that I lift up great praise!! We were blessed with minor turbulence, no dropping 800 feet in the air. (!!!!!!) It was difficult for me to leave and I even wrote a goodbye letter to my children. Can you tell I don't fly much? :D It was good for me to examine all of that though, and in some ways it was an act of faith to get on the plane. It made me realize too, that I find it very easy to pretend that life will go on as-is forever. It may not do that and I should always be taking stock of my life and always treat my children as if it was the last day we had together. I know that some of that will inevitably wear off, but not this week and I am grateful.
My older children were so helpful while I was gone and our backyard pergola over our patio is going up nicely under Mark's direction. John is helping all he can. It is a precious thing to see. Ours will look something like this, but not exactly as it butts up to the house and will throw more shade on the patio. We are planning to have grapes grow over it. Our amazing EarthBoxes are doing spectacularly. I mean WOW! Here are some shots:
We are harvesting a ton of zucchini and a bunch of cucumbers and we have seven cantaloupe on the vine ripening as well as watermelon, bush beans, honeydew, and tomatoes. It is *such* a rewarding way to garden!!
Reading lessons are going well! God is good. This is a hard job some days, this homeschooling thing, but it is so very worth it!
Reprogram my children? I don't think so. By God's grace we can homeschool *and* instruct our children on the truth of God's Word. There is a Truth that is unassailable.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Sometimes this being a homeschool mom is hard work. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to accomplish something meaningful and important, but oh, is it worth it. We have had a real struggling reader here for some time and recently by the grace of God, an excellent recommendation from a dear friend in the same boat, and a wee bit of dedication have brought about fruits that are wonderful to behold. This is my new reader, Elizabeth, reading out loud a wonderful book from Yesterdays Classics called Reading Literature: The Primer, by Harriette Taylor Treadwell. She was reading to me with such excitement and delight - I was laughing with joy!
And here she is *after* we were done reading out loud - just reading for the *fun* of it. I thought it was hilarious that she set herself up on the kitchen counter with her pillow and just read away. She read half of the book in one sitting. I cannot tell you what relief, happiness, excitement and gratefulness to the Lord filled my heart. It was truly a monumental day. God is *so* good!
The curriculum suggested by a friend was not only amazing, but also totally free. This is the site that has a *lot* of reading help. It says it is for teaching children with dyslexia, but they have all sorts of resources for those with and without it. Elizabeth never had it, but I am sure grateful for the resources! The best part is at the bottom - the Downloadable Workbooks. Read the types of workbooks available and then copy the code and paste in the place it tells you to. (It is all very easy, actually) and then download to your computer. The one I used for Elizabeth was, Spell, Say, and Write--A Synthesis of the Phonics and Whole Word Systems: A Beginner's Workbook for School or Home Study. We didn't move on until she "got" the one she was working on. Redo and redo – that has been the key for us. :+) I just had to share. This has been such an exciting time!
The book Elizabeth was reading is a wonderful book of real stories that increase in difficulty and have a lot of repetition to increase fluency. Here is the sample of the book with the table of contents. I really love this company and wanted to share it with you too. :+)
To share a few things that I am excited about today. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!! I am linking to a post that I did in the past, but I share it again because it is just such an incredible story of God's protection of His written word. I love reading things like this and the Book of Kells is one of my very favorites.
We are in the midst of making our fabulous "Irish" dinner and I try to share this recipe now and then, but especially this time of year. We are making it and will be *so* happy to enjoy it!
I discovered a new and absolutely lovely Celtic album called The Scroll by Medwyn Goodall. You cannot beat the MP3 price! :+)
With the sun shining brightly and the breeze in the air, we could not have asked for a finer day. Thank you, Lord!
My brother has a son named Caedmon. Before Christmas I found a book that bore his name; Caedmon's Song. I gave them the book because how often, really, are you going to come across that name, right? :+) Well today in history we learned that the group, Caedmon's Call, took their name from this monk because he was gifted in the art of poetry/song. Tonight my brother told me they took the name from this group because they loved it. (And I love it too.) We gave him the book not knowing the whole circle and I just think that is so neat. :+)
Completely unrelated, but still neat, I also learned about Blackwork tonight. Wow, talk about beautiful! And wow, talk about time consuming! The samples on Wiki are amazing. Especially beautiful are the Elizabethan Era work. Just lovely!
I just love learning new things - some personal and some not, but I just love that I can, at the age of 38, be just as excited about learning something new as my children are at seeing a deer or a wild turkey on a nature walk. (Which we did see yesterday on our lovely nature adventure here.) Though truth me told, I was pretty excited about those things too. It was a perfect almost spring day. Green everywhere, hardly any pollen about to spoil it (though I did take a fake Clariton before embarking!) We walked on haphazard paths that meandered down to the American River. I was sad we didn't have our camera, but the memories are there for the keeping. Jack rabbits and squirrels were busy too and the nature center had live owls and opossum. It was a very worthwhile day.
Spring is already starting to come forth in its beautiful glory. The trees are everywhere in bloom. Some are just spectacular to behold. We have planted our first zucchini and are planning the rest of our garden. I am awaiting an EarthBox for review with great anticipation. With one box we will have to choose carefully what we put into it to see the best results. We are trying to utilize our small backyard space as best we can to produce as much as we can. We shall see! Spring is always a very exciting time around here. :+)
So, what are you learning about? What has you excited?
Oh, I tell you, if I could live a dual life of wife/mom as well as something else, it would have been an archeologist. This new discovery is *so* up my alley! I am sure that the life of an archeologist is often very dull, but wow, can you imagine happening upon something magnificent? Can you imagine discovering another Tutankhamun? I can only imagine what that must have been like. Or the Rosetta Stone? Or some wonderful Greek or Roman or Biblical treasure? What that must be like!
OK, back to my own reality - life is good. We are getting over some very odd colds and that is always good. We had John's birthday on Sunday and he is Mr. Bionicle. I don't know if any of you have sons that love Bionicles as much as my son, but it is a really enjoyable thing for him and he enjoys the books too. I cannot say whether they are terribly interesting or valuable reading, but he is enjoying them. I consider them "fun" reading as opposed to "quality" reading, as I do require him to read what I consider quality literature and then rotate to his "fun" reading. Spiderman comics fall into the fun category too. LOL He has eclectic taste from biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Kit Carson to the Children's Illustrated Ivanhoe. I used to be a total purist with regards to classics like Ivanhoe, but that is one tough book and I would not ever require him to read that at this age yet I knew he would love the story done in a children's version. He *loved* it. He also read Moby Dick in the children's version too and that was quite a success. Never say never, right? :+)
Two friends recently asked me for book suggestions for the medieval time period and I came up with quite a list. I thought you might enjoy it too.
Dutch Color (In seventeenth-century Holland, a young woman vows to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance following a voyage to Venice to obtain paint color recipes for the painters of Utrecht.)
It is amazing to me that we have already arrived in February. We have two birthdays in February that are significant to our family. John enters double digits on Sunday and Abigail is to turn 12 on Valentine's Day. She was a gift to us and was the only child to arrive at a decent and sensible hour. John was already given his birthday bike and was exceedingly happy to get it. He, Daddy, Abigail, and Hannah spent a good portion of the day on a lengthy excursion together. I took the littles to shop and have fun together. They are easy to please at the wee ages of 6 and 8. :+)
Abigail was also given a portion of her birthday gifts early, an Elephant Heart Plum tree that she has wanted since last year. That girl loves to garden and I will let her do it! :+) We are hoping to have a harvest in a few years if we take good care of it. The plums are juicy and red and should make for yummy eating. We also have a very pretty apricot that provides us a small gathering of fruit every other year. They are delightfully good though sparse in turnout.
Spring has arrived quite early here and I am not exactly ready for it yet. Spring is a tough and wonderful time for us. Allergies make it tough, but the weather and the planting of gardens makes it wonderful. The grass will turn green again and the cold will go away and as long as it stays coolish to warmish I am a happy clam. We are blessed here in central CA, with very mild weather almost all the time. We expect a "thunder storm" this weekend, but I imagine my friends in the midwest would give a hearty laugh could they experience what we term "thunder storm." I don't know what I would do if I ever found myself in a genuine one! :+)
We are in the midst of reading our second year of The Mystery Of History, Volume 2: The Early Church and the Middle Ages and we are really enjoying this year too.A friend just recently asked me what I would purchase again to use if everything in my house burned down. This was one of the products. I *love* this program. We have learned so much. It is such a blessing to learn this way.
We flesh it out with some of the best books out there. Right now we are reading a wonderful book that happens to be in a series. This is the first of four. It is called Peril and Peace Volume 1: Chronicles of the Ancient Church. This is a compilation of stories of the early church giants beginning with Paul. It is a moving account and sometimes I find myself on the verge of tears. As Tertullian, an early church father said, "In the blood of the martyrs lies the seed of the Church." This is an important book to share with your children.
What a blessing it has been and continues to be, to learn with my children!! What are you learning?
Already we are half way through the month. When did that happen, exactly? It has been such a busy time already! We are looking forward to the next few weeks. We will take off two for the Christmas/New Year holidays. Yippie! We are going to make cut-out cookies for the first time in many many years. The children are especially looking forward to that methinks.
My shopping is almost done and I hope that the few things I bought at the beginning of the month arrive on TIME. I will be very disheartened if they don't so we shall see. God knows what we need and will have exactly what that is here. :+)
We are enjoying a lovely Advent study coordinated with Messiah by Handel. I love this time of year. I love hearing music that honors my Savior all over the place. I loved the kindness of strangers that we experienced tonight. We were driving around looking for Christmas lights and drove by this amazing house that was covered front and back with an abundant display. We were driving slowly by and the woman of the house walked up to our van. She said the best view is from the backyard and invited us in. They had the hugest Victorian set-up inside their house that all lit up and moved and the backyard was truly beautiful. To offer all that work to total strangers - well it was pretty neat to us. God touches us through so many things this time of year and I really appreciate it.
Enjoy the beauty of the cool days, the eggnog, the hot cocoa, cookies, fudge, and your favorite carols. Listen to Messiah this year and really take it in - "...and His name shall be called, wonderful! Counselor! The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
Growing up I didn't have a lot of contact with my father. My grandfather was the only real dedicated father figure I ever had during those years, but he really loved me. I never had any doubts about that. Always there for me, always encouraging, always happy to see me - to be a part of my life. He left his imprint and I am forever grateful.
My grandpa met my grandmother at a dance hall in their town. It was right before World War II. He used to watch her dance from the balcony and finally got up the courage to ask her. They married during the war on a weekend pass. He made it through the war and they went on to have four daughters. My mother was their second.
We saw each other regularly once I married and he loved my children every bit as much as he loved me. It was from him that I learned to cook a tasty beef roast, learned how to fry an egg to perfection, and drive a fast car. Every year on Veterans Day, I would call him and thank him for his service because I felt it was important to remember.
My grandpa died eight years ago. He left a void I imagine nothing will ever fill. I think of him regularly, but especially on Veterans Day. There is an ache in my throat and tears in my eyes and I don't post this looking for sympathy. I just wanted to honor a man I loved deeply on this day, when I can no longer do it in person.
I have been motivated recently - motivated to really get some good schooling done. We had a lovely Sunday and overnight with some dear friends and when they left today, we jumped right into school. We were ending our Mystery of History Volume 1 and I was ready. In the fullness of time - He came forth. The last lessons were on Christ. Wow - what a tremendous resource. I don't know how to explain my joy or explain *why* I have such joy at this curriculum except to share with you something my eldest wrote at the end of her final semester test. The question was this:
What have you learned about the prophets of the Old Testament?
Now please understand that when we started this book, I had no idea what we were really going to learn. I had no idea what my children would walk away with or whether they would enjoy it at all. I had no idea they would learn so much about so many Bible personalities among the secular ones with whom we are so familiar. I really had no idea that we would be learning about the prophets or why that would even be as important as it is for understanding scripture as a whole. This was her answer.
I am going to relate some of the amazing facts about the Old Testament prophets. The prophet Micah predicted the place of Jesus' birth. Ezekiel witnessed bones return to life, ate a scroll, and saw a wheel within a wheel. Joel prophesied during a locust plague. Habakkuk wrote letters to God. Amos was a fig farmer. Huldah was a prophetess who revealed to King Josiah the will of the Lord. Jeremiah, known as the 'weeping prophet', foretold the enslavement of Israel. Isaiah's beautiful words have been compared with the rest of the Bible. Jonah, the first prophet to Nineveh, was swallowed by a giant fish, and spit out three days later. Obadiah prophesied to the Edomites, the descendents of Esau. Elijah, who was known as the 'fiery prophet', was taken up into heaven by a chariot of fire. He was also mentor to Elisha who, even in death, brought people back to life by the mere touch of his bones. These are just some of the wonders that God's faithful servants saw and did, for His glory.
I can be honest with you and share that *I* don't even know all these things and *I* taught them through MOH! This came out of the top of her head, was hastily written, and she had more to offer had I given her the chance. I am simply stunned with the knowledge she has acquired through Mystery of History--on the prophets alone! Not only Bible history of course, but all sorts of wonderful ancient history meshed with the real living people of Scripture. And this is only one of my children. The other two I use it with have also really enjoyed it and learned a great deal too.
The way Linda Hobar wrote the last three lessons continually brought tears to my eyes. It is abundantly clear that she loves her Savior - loves the same Lord I do. This book was written to the glory of God, for the building up of the saints, and I am so grateful. I just wanted Linda Hobar to know - this family is eternally grateful for her work.
I love to read, I love my husband and children, I love my Savior. I enjoy dark roast coffee with cream and sugar, Earl Grey tea with scones and clotted cream, long walks in forested areas and Redwood trees. I have a mad passion for history, strong sound Reformed theology, and good creation science materials. I have strong opinions, but respect those of others. I am grateful for my life, for every breath, for each day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice in His mercy.
We flesh it out with some of the best books out there. Right now we are reading a wonderful book that happens to be in a series. This is the first of four. It is called 
