Ancient China Afternoon

Rice is great if you are really hungry and you want to eat two thousand of something.

-Mitch Hedberg

Remember last month when we tried to mummify apple slices?

The results are in!

The apple preserved in vinegar didn't fare too bad.

The apple that was left in baking soda was a very blackened example of mummification.

The best preserved apple was the one that sat in salt for a month.

Then we got into learning about Ancient Egypt. We spent sometime building the Great wall of China and then decorated vases from the Ming dynasty. As I read about the vases, we learned that they are traditionally decorated with blue and white.

This was once everyone had a great deal of paint and colour on their vases. 

So we decided to discuss vases rather than do exact replicas of Ming vases!

We used rice paper to learn about rice and farming. Then we used soya sauce as ink to practice writing Chinese letters.

We gobbled up slices of persimmon and read folk tales from Ancient China.

Girl, You are Outta This World

The oldest picture book in our possession is the midnight sky. -E.W. Maunder

A birthday party was asked for in the theme of Outer Space.

A planet cake!

My daughter decided that she wanted the planet order from the Sun to Neptune.

We used various candies and icing to create the cake. My girls decorated most of it.

She's so proud of her cake! 

We made a candy Guide to the Galaxy. In every jar, there is a candy that represents one of the planets and other items in space. Like....

a rocket! Blast off!

And the "man in the moon" candy!

My happy crew!

Our birthday party started in our living room. we went to great lengths to black out the room.

Then using a cardboard box and Christmas lights, they got into their rocket ship.

3...2...1...

Blast off!

Into space!

Thanks to the power of our hand held Christmas ornament/disco ball.

(The cool atmosphere of this party cost me $3.49 and the kids were wild about it)

We played a game we made up called Meteor Attack.

Those in the rocket ship would fly along until someone yelled "Meteor Attack" then everyone would throw balloons at the rocket ship. The only way to get away from the meteors was for the rocket occupants to yell "Warp Speed!"

At that point, we would then spin the disco ball really fast and create a "Star Wars" type of warp speed look.

This game was a huge hit and went on for quite a while.

Then we stopped and visited the Moon.

Followed by several rounds of Glow in the Dark hide and seek.

Very simple game. 

Hide the glow sticks. 

Each team has to find their colour.

Present time!

Mayhem ensued as gifts were opened 

And looky here, a clown showed up at the party!

Then it was candle blowing out time!

And everyone ate loads of cake. 

And  with that much candy and cake in everyone's system, they started climbing the walls.

Literally!

November 5 2012

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ― Mother Teresa

A busy day of learning about the world all around us.
I like to use this link to cover Current Events in the morning with my kids. I usually view this link first and choose which ones my children can see. I have younger ones and some images of war are better not observed.
This link has been a great springboard for discussion on other cultures, poverty, conflict, geography and much more.

We spent several minutes entranced by the Ghosts of War pictures. Have you seen them? A photographer has blended photos from WW2 with their present day locations.
Read the story here.
See the pictures here.

Followed by discussions on American politics. We took a few minutes to discuss the core beliefs of Democrats and Republicans.
And then grooved to Vote Like That for awhile



A great day to discuss politics, history of war and more.

How about you? How are you getting ready for Remembrance Day

The 99

On a quiet night like tonight, I thought I'd watch key notes from the Allume conference.
One speaker, Sarah Mae, said something that made me stand still. Perhaps it will shake you to the core, too.
--
I had one friend who observes my blog say, "Wow, your life is so full, so fun."
And it is.
Truly.
But at the same point, my life is slow.
Or at least, it has slowed down.
For the past two years,since my husband's accident/rehab/surgery/rehab/job training/etc I have been running at a frenetic pace. 
I once described my life to my sister as "a runaway shopping cart that I've almost got a grip on."
And then, just as suddenly, things changed. 
The shopping cart stopped. 
I stopped.
And I stood in the parking lot, so to speak.
I was still.

I caught up on my laundry. 
I taught my children chores and order so that we have our house clean in 40 minutes and can spend all day playing and learning.
I said 'no' to a million different things because I felt God leading me to put some good things away to make room for the best things.
I was still.

Two years of busy means that you don't do anything exceptionally well. It means you let things slide.
It means you tell the disappointed eyes of your child that "you are doing the very best you can" and know that even at your best, you completely miss the mark.
And it hurts.
And that kind of hurt leaves scars.

Now that I have time, I see the scars that two years of busy has left on my children's character and heart. I hear it, I see it and I cringe.
Words I never wanted to see my children speak tumble out of their mouth.
Attitudes I promised I would never let into our home have become commonplace.
Behaviour I said would never be present begs to be disciplined several times a day.
I have time now.
I am still.
And I see it all.

Listening to Sarah Mae today made me hear the story of a woman who let herself become consumed with busyness. At first, I thought, "I didn't let myself get busy. I HAD to be busy. Our family was in survival mode." 
But that is just an excuse.
The truth is that I let myself be busy. It's easier to blame busyness than to take ownership of how you feel or what you see happening around you. It's easy to blame than it is to bring correction and change to situations.

Sarah Mae talked about the busyness consuming her life and how she was praying for a chance for it to change and how God started to bring that about. She shared that someone was preaching on how "Jesus left the 99 sheep to save the one lost lamb."
God spoke to Sarah Mae's heart and said, "The one is your daughter. You need to leave ministering to the masses and go capture your daughter's heart."

This thought struck me hard.
My one is also my daughter. 
I have her obedience.
I have her loyalty.
But I know that I do not have her heart.

Most of my blogging has shown the various fun things of learning that I do with my children each day.
And there is plenty of that.
But right now, the majority of my time with my eldest daughter is spent working on developing and changing her character.
It's character that has been formed by two years of believing that I was too busy.

Today as I worked with her on some of our present difficulties, I felt God urge me to write about them here.
I ignored it.
I thought, "No way. I'm not into airing my laundry to everyone."
Then I wondered if I could  share things in a way that wouldn't compromise my daughter or embarrass her.
The Lord spoke softly and said, "Share the ideas I am giving you, not the incidents."
I've been hemming and hawing all day.
Until I heard Sarah Mae speak about the 99.

 I know something...
Because I have been guilty of being a BUSY homeschool mom, I know that their are homeschool moms out there who have been running and chasing things that have made themselves busy. 
Busy, busy, busy.
And somebody needs to remind them to STOP.
Stand still.
Leave the 99 for awhile. They'll be okay without you. It may be hard to leave them, but go.
Seek out the one heart in your home that needs you to be their safe place.
Jesus came back to the 99 with the one.
So will you. 
So will I.
But for now, with all your might, chase after the one.

Poem: Sarah Kay "If I had a daughter"

A beautiful poem performed by spoken word poet Sarah Kay

Learning the Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer may be committed to memory quickly, but it is slowly learnt by heart. -Frederick Denison Maurice

The Lord's prayer is something we've been spending a bit of time on lately.

We love using Kay Arthur's Teach Us to Pray for kids book

In the book, she has each line of the prayer broken into different segments.

I thought that a sensory box could help us learn the prayer and the focus of each line.  

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

The theme for this line is Worship. We used an antique perfume bottle.

Your kingdom come

The theme for this line is Allegiance.

We have a sticker that says "Team Jesus" and that seemed to do the job. 

The theme for this line is submission.

This was a challenge. But in the end, we decided that we would use a beautiful and intricate button. The button is in the shape of the earth, and the design is splendid, just like heaven is described to be.

Petition and Intercession is the theme of Give us this day our daily bread.

The corn is representing trusting the Lord for our food and daily needs. 

 

Confession and Forgiveness sums up the line  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

We decided to use a green leaf to represent growth and that God makes all things new.  

The candle brings light in a dark place and can shine light on the path to walk on. We thought that would be the best item to represent the line And do not leads us into temptation but deliver us from evil.

We used another  antique perfume bottle for the closing line of worship in the Lord's Prayer, For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 

This has been a helpful tool to help my children meditate on the deeper meaning of the Lord's prayer.

What do you use to remember scripture?

October 22 2012

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.  ~Logan Pearsall Smith

This morning after devotions I discovered that my camera batteries were dead.

Sadness.

Onwards and Upward.

So the day began with:

Animae drawing

Diego matching board game

Kreo building

Foil art

Piano playing

Beethhoven listening

Recorder playing

Much discussion about the history and lives of the different characters in these short stories

African stew eating

Counting by 5's and 10's with the game Boom-O!

Human Body puzzle and study

This book was a fantastic book to spur on learning.

This book has mammals from all around the world. We built our Geopuzzle of the World Continents

Then as we read the book, we looked for the continent and country the animal came from.

This book also include fun facts like how long the tongue is or nose. Out came the tape measure and we spent a great deal of the time giggling over the length of an anteater's tongue.

Exploding toads and other nature videos

Scratch art

Shooting star explanations

Spanish playaway book. I try it. I cannot talk like Jose.

Bible character 

 

This book inspired all sorts of learning today.

We grabbed a funnel shaped pop bottle and made a tornado

Attempted creating waterspouts

Then visited this site and made a tornado in a jar

Followed by making rain, and creating lightning.

The lightning experiment didn't work so well for us, but it was fun trying

Then some rousing discussion about the tales and wisdom of Aesop

Egg Carton Reading Game

TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they'll have with twenty six. Open your child's imagination. Open a book.    -Author Unknown

This is my favourite reading game. I am teaching all of my kids to read with this game. So far, two out of three have learned to read using this method.

Thank you, Sidney Ledson!

(Sidney Ledson is the brilliant guy who wrote the book "Teach Your Child to Read in Ten Minutes a Day". Lame book title, totally not a lame book. Brilliant book! Brilliant book, indeed)

The reason I chose this game to be the main way I teach my children to read is because of the following belief:

Learning to Read curriculum is astronomically priced.

I mean, really. If this is the gateway to learning, why are we charging people $400 for coloured flashcards?

Anyway, so Sidney came to me free from the library and I read his book in two days and said to myself, "Sidney is one smart guy. I, too, will follow his example."

So here is the Sidney Ledson reading game on the cheap.

Ta-da!

First, round up the usual suspects:

Egg carton cut in half lengthewise

word cards (word card list found here)

prizes (I use almonds or Lego pieces)

*Anyone noticing how this game is comprised of materials you have at home? No extra cost involved here. The only cost is time.*

Also, side note: Sidney starts children learning the phonetic sounds in a totally different order than alphabetical or vowel/consonant order. Read more about why I love this approach.

Place the prizes inside the egg carton, one per space

Next take your reading cards and place two of them side by side directly under the egg carton.

Starting from the left side, the child will phonetically sound out the first card, followed by the next card.

IMPORTANT: tell your child that we read from left to right.

When they get both cards sounded out correctly, they win the almond in the first space.

Now, this is where things get really tricky, so pay special attention to this next move.

Are you watching?

Are you?

Slide the card on the end, the "P", around the second card, the "U".Then place it on the left side of the U.

See how that works. It's tricky. Read the above line over 4 times if it doesn't make sense. Tricky stuff.

Now that the P card is in a new position, it's time to sound out the letters. Reading from left to right, have the child read each card phonetically. When they have read both cards correctly, they win an almond.

See the pattern? Read the words, win an almond.

(Personal note: make sure they know that they eat the almonds at the end. Otherwise, you will have to wait for the child to eat the almond before moving forward. 

Fun fact: A child can take five minutes to eat one almond. True story.)

Next, you move the U card, next to the P card. As you can see you are advancing down the board, almonds are being won and reading is occurring.

Why is this method great? Because by the time you get to the end of this six-spaces carton, your child will have made the "Uh" and "Puh" sounds a total of 12 times! 

End of Day One. Ten minutes has never been so fun!

Day Two:

Why look at that, by Day two they are already reading two words: Up and Pup.

Go, smart almond eating child!

Now, I know what you are thinking. This game won't work with my child. They will get bored.

Not so. 

They will only get bored if you forget to bring the two other essential team members to your 10 minute reading session.

Every successful reading child needs their parents to bring out their mad puppet skillz!

I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Know It All

and....

Miss Too Shy

These two superheroes are your whole key to success.

And here's why:

Your child loves to help people...or in this case, stuffed animals.

The next time s/he is feigning interest or stumbles across a word that is too difficult, bring out Miss Too Shy.

Have her say something like this:

Miss Too Shy has no confidence. She is not able to get her sounds out or she doubts herself when she shares.

(I also make it Mr. Too Shy sometimes-- mix it up from time to time)

Your child is happy to help and encourage.

Have the puppet ask, "Do you think you can help me?" 

Your child is eager to help.

When I read this part in Mr. Ledson's book, I thought, "Well, this sounds ridiculous. No kid is gonna fall for me live acting in front of them with a puppet."

But I was wrong.

My kids are completely engaged with the puppet.

 Every. Single. Time.

Find a voice for Miss Too Shy and have some fun.

Equally important is Mr. Know It All.

This character is my favourite...because you can give Mr. Know It All some pretty fun lines.

The basic premise is he is rude, interrupts and has a lot to say.

This guy shows up and says: 

 

"I know this word...I know it. You guys are doing it all wrong."

And then he tries the word and says something really ridiculous.

Your kid's giggle and they say,"Noooooo. That's not how you say it."

And they help Mr. Know it all get it right.

These two puppets help your child sound out all the words and win the almonds!

Yay for Mr. Ledson and the cheap Egg Carton Reading Game.

The End 

Any questions about how this works? Need more clarification? Ask your questions in the comment section.