Homeschooling in Down Times

Before we plunge back into lumber, hammers and saws, I wanted to share a bit about homeschooling. 

During our house build we spent sometimes weeks in the RV, usually when snowed in, taking turns being sick. Missing church for 3 weeks in a row was not unusual! (I have to note here that since the world went wacky, we haven't had a cold in 2 years! It's been wonderful to skip it! A very sincere Thank You to everyone for staying home when you have a sniffle.) 

Being sick knocked our homeschool routine off for a while,  but not for a moment did we consider ourselves as having failed.

Sometimes, especially during cold winter months, there are days when you just can't get going. Maybe it's sickness or fatigue you can't get past, or the days getting shorter or weather inclement and it's harder to get moving. Whether you are on the couch with a headache, or needing to take three naps a day while your toddler seems to have enough energy to power NASA rockets, you can still homeschool. Do not be discouraged, do not give up!

Here are some important things to remember: 

• Homeschooling is a lifestyle, not a scheduled calendar of study periods. 
• If your kids are home with you, you are already ahead!
• Homeschooling is full of Life Lessons, and this down time may be one of them. 
• Kids need routine, but they enjoy breaks and changes can be invigorating to them like it is to adults. (I usually had to adjust the routine after a round of sickness; down time is a good time to think about that.)
  
• Kids learn constantly. As long as their minds aren't being dulled, they cannot help but learn. They WILL learn something during the down time, and you can still guide that learning by providing things for them. 

When we were having sick days I had certain things I knew we could go to to keep us learning and distract from the discomfort of illness:

• Good Books. We have a big home library. We stuffed the RV with as many books as we could, too. Let 'em loose in the home library. 

• LibriVox. This is a great site for when EVERYONE is down sick, as in too sick to sit up for long times. There's something for everyone's interest and listening instead of watching is more restful. I still remember one sick child in bed wanting to listen to a book about Ernest Shackleton's expeditions (one year I read all about Antarctica in winter when I was in bed with a fever. Cold polar stuff doesn't seem like it would be appealing when you are sick in the winter, does it! Maybe it had just the cooling effect we needed). You can also search by reader if you find someone you like listening to.
  

• YouTube (or its equivelent on other sites or blogs). If light, sound and motion do not bother the sick, this is a great way to get in some passive learning. We don't have TV and because my active little ones are not accustomed to entertainment/daily screen time, it is easier to keep them quiet and resting when they had a distracting treat like this. And what a nice thing that we live in a time when we have access to this on portable devices when we are sick! While I would not consider this an official school thing, it is not a waste of time when the kids are down sick anyway. At the least the children are picking up some practical tips or knowledge. I like people's online channels because you aren't wasting your mind or letting Hollywood mess around with it. You can watch people DOING things! People are building houses, demonstrating lost skills, doing things the old fashioned way, cooking, crafting, exploring history, bushcrafting, building boats, sewing, raising animals, doing science experiments (jet engines in the garage!?), debating,  teaching math & logic, singing, playing the banjo, housecleaning (fast-forward housecleaning videos are great!), and you can find people in countries around the world showing what their culture and history are like.  You can pick your program instead of TV-execs picking it for you. It's real people not reality shows, and they are teaching you what they know and have a passion for. I'm still surprised at the number of people who say they "don't watch YouTube" or online videos and prefer a steady diet of CNN. Really?

• That's what Toys are for. How many Birthday and Christmas gifts were opened and put on the shelf and forgotten about? There are plenty of toys in your kids' stash that are good for downtimes. Drawing boards or kits, toys that develop engineering skills, and good old Legos (how would your child like a whole day off to play with Legos?). Using your hands and creative skills are very good for the mind. And don't forget those boxes of  games laying dusty on the shelf.
  

• That's what siblings are for. So many times have we had a day off or a down day, and by the end of it a group of siblings has developed a new game of strategy, or written a book together, or brainstormed ideas, and you can see that having that time together has lit all their light bulbs! Ideas easily flow when they have a chance to break out of the normal routine (rut) and be on their own for a little bit. The effects are lasting too. 

• Mom's Big Ideas and Inventions. This is good for when Mom is down, and there is a toddler or two to deal with: Come up with games that the kids can do, or send them on errands to wear them out a bit, with a reward of sitting still and reading a book or playing quietly.  Play pick-up-toys: pick up every toy off the floor that is green. Now every toy that is red (it takes a while for them to catch on that this is not a game...don't tell them!). When I was down a couple of years ago, I ran a post office from bed. I gave the toddler a hat and pouch (fashioned from paper) and he was the mailman. I kept him running between me and the rest of the family taking notes to them. He LOVED it and it gave him something focused and "important" to do.
  

• Tell them a Story. Summarize a Bible story. Tell them about your childhood. Tell them about someone else in the family tree. Or, just make something up! Don't tell yourself that you aren't "creative" and can't do this. A story for little ones is made up of simple elements: you have a main character who has an adventure and learns a lesson. Easy peasy. It might even become a series. Lately I've done the (short) adventures of bugs and a pet racoon who makes pancakes on the roof. They both became a much-asked for series of stories.
  

• Responsibility. When you (mom) are down, kids can learn to do things for you. Hopefully you have covered some of these chores in your homeschooling already, but if not you would be amazed how well dictating step-by-step from the couch works! And if not done perfectly, at least it is further along than it would have been. Anyone who is well can learn to wash the dishes, make a meal, write a grocery list for dad (who seems to stay well during these crisis), and babysit little ones. Lately I have been giving driving lessons for an hour or two every day. It isn't "down time" but it is an interruption into the school day that wasn't there before. My teens know enough of bread-baking, cooking, babysitting and every bit of housekeeping so I know that no matter how many hours we are gone everything will be fine. The grade-schooler  surprised me by making up a math curriculum for the toddler and is giving him math lessons while I'm gone!

• Deep Dive. I don't know if this is just me or my family, but some of us go for deep dives when we are sick and read difficult books or books we would have considered "boring" or over our heads. It just seems like when we are down our minds receive complex things better, or perhaps our minds are rested and we have more time to try to understand it. If you have a child like this, let them go for a deep dive.
  

• Schoolwork. If mom is the only one down, the children can be self-propelled with their school and bring the hard stuff to your bed. I've done a whole day's school teaching from bed before. Some kids like to just be there with you, and others like to do things on their own and just bring in their reader etc. If you are homeschooling you probably have noticed how much studying your children can do on their own. Another fun thing is to tell them that while you are down for a few days, they can make up their own homeschool routine. You might be surprised: I have one who made up his own curriculum involving math methods from other cultures! 

• Rest. If you do nothing but lay around all day and recover, you are still doing something good with your family. Do you realize how much rest a child needs? Often homeschoolers do not take as much time off as the local school system does, so a few sick days should not make you panic. If you are the one sick, look at it as a time to recharge your batteries: everyone appreciates a well-rested parent. Enjoy the time off and rest.
  

I want to note that if you are not working now on obedience, training in chores (how to work as much as doing the work), instilling a work ethic in your children, a deep sense of duty, personal responsibility, accountability, good use of time and just plain common sense (which isn't always naturally common to everyone), none of this will work for you when you are the one sick. You will spend the entire time yelling at your kids who are bouncing off the walls, setting the house on fire or quietly up to no good in the other room. If they don't see these virtues by example they may not learn them, so use your well time wisely!

What do you do for "down times?" Let me know in the comments!

Why We Still Need Large Families, or Warnings For New Homeschoolers

 We may not have multi-acre farms to take care of anymore, which is supposedly the reason that folks had large families in the old days. I find, though, that as a second-generation homeschooling family we need a lot of people in the house to make it through life. Let me explain what I mean through a bit of advice and experience.

If you are newly homeschooling (the on-your-own kind, not virtual public school) you will find yourself a little giddy the moment you realize that you have freedom-- freedom from schedules imposed on you by others. Sometimes it takes a while before it dawns on you that you can do your weekend stuff on a weekday, and avoid the crowds. This applies to shopping or vacationing. 

After that comes the idea that you can go somewhere--anywhere-- because your school is on your own time and portable. This realization creates a huge desire to travel- educational travel. If you can't travel the globe, at least you could drive around to all the historical sights in the continental US. You need an RV or some kind of trailer to make that work, so you start renovating one or building one. Then you might get the idea to do a blog or a YouTube channel to document the crazy project. This is because after homeschooling a while, you start to get entrepreneurial.

That's right, you will start enterprises that stretch you thin, attempt huge projects that require manpower, and get ideas in the middle of the night of family businesses and creative ideas that are totally "out of the box" and make you so excited you can't sleep. This is often why homeschoolers are night owls. And this is why you need more people. 

You have to have someone to learn to repair and operate those strange things you pick up from auctions-- printing presses or industrial leather sewing machines or other gadgets that strike your fancy for starting a home business. You have to have a teen who can program computers, do graphic design, and troubleshoot internet problems so you can have a website. You have to have a social media secretary, a photographer, content editor, and illustrator for all those books you write. You have to have a cook, car mechanic, plumber, electrician, and divvy chores amongst them all so your laundry doesn't edge you out of the house. You have to have several drivers to deliver goods or go to the post office. You have to have someone who can spin and weave and sew clothes. You have to have these things in-house because as homeschoolers, you start to get a frugal DO IT YOURSELF mentality and how great it would be for the kids to know these skills.

I warn you: it's just a matter of time before you, the new homeschool family, become a homesteading family as well. You will not only be schooling at home, you will be cooking at home (from scratch), growing your own garden, and pretty soon here come the chickens (or goats). You will need more land and start looking around for a small farm, because your kids really need to live an amazing life in the country. Off-grid.

Then you might start thinking that you need to build a house, or a tiny house, or a series of tiny houses (one for each person), because that would be such a cool experience for the kids (free labor). At least you will need a barn because horses or cows might show up next. Here comes the tractor, Dad needs extra hands with the haying, and mom needs help with the cooking. You are still holding down a regular job, but at least you know that the kids are putting up the solar panels while you are at work.

As you may have gathered, half a dozen children are not enough for such feats. 

As the kids grow up and leave home, the homeschooling parent does not cease to need all this help. Your kids may have grown and left the nest, but you are still full of ideas, still running a home business, now more dedicated to eating organically from your own sustainable farm, and still collecting educational books (a habit). You still have homeschooling energy and have to do something with it. Technology has probably gotten weirder for your to figure out, and you still need ten year olds around to help you find the phone button on your new phone. 

So you see, the second generation is needed to help the non-retiring homeschool grandma and grandpa, as well as being essential to their own family's home business/farm/chores. This is why it is good to have children spaced out for at least a decade (better two), so that while you are waiting for grandchildren to grow up and come back and help your family business you still have some at home. Make sure that you encourage your married children to have at least ten kids each, because not all of them will live close by.

Mathematics

Preparing for the Lesson 1896 painted by Hugo Loffler. 

Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mathematics 

I studied my arithmetic, 

And then I went to bed, 

And on my little pillow white

Laid down my little head. 

I hoped from dreams of dear delight, 

Of sugar-candy bliss;

But oh! my sleep, the livelong night, 

Was filled with things like this. 

Add forty jars of damson jam

To fifty loaves of cake, 

Subtract a cow, and tell me how

Much butter it will make. 

Then add the butter to the jam, 

And give it to a boy, 

How long will 't take ere grievous ache

Shall dash his childish joy?

If twenty men stole thirty sheep

And sold them to the Pope, 

What would they get if he should let

Them have the price in soap?

And if he slew each guileless beast, 

And in pontific glee

Sold leg and loin for Roman coin, 

What would his earnings be?

Next, if a Tiger climbed a tree

To get a cocoanut, 

And if by hap the feline chap 

Should find the shop was shut;

And if ten crabs with clawing dabs

Should pinch his Bengal toes, 

What would remain when he should gain

The ground, do you suppose?

Divide a stick of licorice 

By twenty infant jaws, 

How long must each lose power of speech

In masticating pause?

And if these things are asked of you, 

While you're a-chewing of it, 

What sum of birch, rod, pole or perch

Will be your smarting profit?

I woke upon my little bed 

In anguish and in pain. 

I'd sooner lose my brand-new shoes

Than dream those dreams again. 

Oh! girls and boys, who crave the joys

Of slumber calm and deep, 

Away then kick your 'rithmetic

Before you go to sleep!

-by Laura E. Richards

I discovered this poem in a book entitled "Five Minute Stories" by Laura E. Richards, one of my favorite poets. 

A Solution to Painful Math Lessons

I have discovered, by long arduous experience, the best way to tackle math books with my students: we do half the lesson (sometimes the whole lesson) orally.

The lessons take so much less time now! It is also good for the memory, good for the attitude, and Whew! to get that math lesson out of the way in 15 or 20 minutes rather than half a day is such a relief to my students! And I no longer have the boring task of standing over them to make sure that they do their lesson.

So much of the math books are review: review of yesterday's lesson, review of some skill unused for a few months, or a review of last year. Of course we know the value of this-- to cement in the children's minds the things they have learned by frequent practice. But when faced with a page of simple multiplication review problems, my third grader would glaze his eyes, look out the window, play with his pencil, and slump for sheer boredom. Cutting down the amount of these review problems was a little help, but still we had the really long math lesson happening. Bribery can only do so much. I even had a time when we skipped the easy review problems altogether--only to have trouble later on when it was obvious that some of the facts were not at the ready.

Just turn all those review kinds of math problems into oral drills! You'll be surprised at how fast it will zoom by! The children also get momentum from seeing so much of their math lesson disappear, that they can do the paper and pencil part with alacrity.

Not only that, but they will be able to do more and more complicated math in their head. I am finding that my 4th grader can do nearly the entire daily lesson orally, and in record time. There are no tears and no more frustration. And, I hope, no mathematical nightmares like Mrs. Richard's!

An Art Technique

Here is an easy way to shade! It very much reminds me of the shading of the wood engravings in McGuffey's Readers. Today's bonus school work assignment: take one of your drawings and shade it using the lines, cross-hatch or stippling.

From McGuffey's Reader. 

Penmanship

The Old Eagle Tree

Osprey in Flight...
Russell Burden
Buy This at Allposters.com


A lesson from McGuffey's Readers

THE OLD EAGLE TREE. 

Remark. — One important use of stops is, to give an opportunity 
to take breath. 

Articulate distinctly, and pronounce correctly. Field, not 
fiel: seem'd to, not seem' to: for-est, not for-es: nest, not nes: coast, 
not coace: nest-lings, not nes-lings: next, not nex: yield, not yiel: 
ev-i-dent-ly, not ev-i-dunt-ly : again, (pro. a-gen) not a-gin nor a-gane: 
birds, not buds: for-get, not for-git: cru-el-ty, not crule-ty. 

1 . In a remote field, stood a large tulip tree, apparently of 
a century's growth, and one of the most gigantic of that 
splendid species. It looked like the father of the surround- 
ing forest. A single tree, of huge dimensions, standing all 
alone, is a sublime object. 

2. On the top of this tree, an old eagle, commonly called 
the "Fishing Eagle," had built her nest every year, for 
many years, and unmolested raised her young. What is 
remarkable, as she procured her food from the ocean, this tree 
stood full ten miles from the sea-shore. It had long been 
known as the " Old Eagle Tree." 

3. On a warm, sunny day, the workmen were hoeing corn 
in an adjoining field. At a certain hour of the day, the old 
eagle was known to set off for the seaside, to gather food for 
her young. As she this day returned with a large fish in her 
claws, the workmen surrounded the tree, and by yelling, and 
hooting, and throwing stones, so scared the poor bird, that she 
dropped her fish, and they carried it off in triumph. 

4. The men soon dispersed, but Joseph sat down under a 
bush near by, to watch, and to bestow unavailing pity. The 
bird soon returned to her nest, without food. The eaglets at 
once set up a cry for food so shrill, so clear, and so clamorous, 
that the boy was greatly moved. 

5. The parent bird seemed to try to soothe them; but 
their appetites were too keen, and it was all in vain. She 
then perched herself on a limb near them, and looked down 
into the nest with a look that seemed to say, " I know not 
what to do next." 

6. Her indecision was but momentary ; again she poised 
herself, uttered one or two sharp notes, as if telling them to 
"lie still," balanced her body, spread her wings, and was 
away again for the sea! 

7. Joseph was determined to see the result. His eye fol- 
lowed her till she grew small, smaller, a mere speck in the 
sky, and then disappeared. What boy has not thus watched 
the flight of the bird of his country? 

8. She was gone nearly two hours, about double her usual 
time for a voyage, when she again returned, on a slow, 
weary wing, flying uncommonly low, in order to have a 
heavier atmosphere to sustain her, with another fish in her 
talons. 

9. On nearing the field, she made a circuit round it, to 
see if her enemies were again there. Finding the coast clear, 
she once more reached the tree, drooping, faint, and weary, 
and evidently nearly exhausted. Again the eaglets set up 
their cry, which was soon hushed by the distribution of a 
dinner such as, save the cooking, a king might admire. 

10. "Glorious bird!" cried the boy in ecstasy, and aloud, 
"what a spirit! Other birds can fly more swiftly, others can 
sing more sweetly, others scream more loudly; but what 
other bird, when persecuted and robbed, when weary, when 
discouraged, when so far from the sea, would do this? 

11. "Glorious bird! I will learn a lesson from thee to- 
day. I will never forget, hereafter, that when the spirit is 
determined, it can do almost any thing. Others would have 
drooped, and hung the head, and mourned over the cruelty of 
man, and sighed over the wants of the nestlings ; but thou, by 
at once recovering the loss, hast forgotten all.

12. "I I will learn of thee, noble bird! I will remember 
this. I will set my mark high. I will try to do something, 
and to be something in the world; I will never yield to 
discouragements." 

-Todd. 


Questions. — Upon what does the eagle feed? What became 
of the fish which it was carrying to its young? What did it then 
do? What do men often do, after having suffered loss and disap- 
pointment? What ought we to do? What is the advantage of doing 
this? Is it a duty also? Do our duty and real profit ever disagree? 
What marks are those after "discouragements?" 

Point out the pronouns in the last paragraph. What is a pronoun ? 
What does the word pronoun mean? Why are I and thee called Per- 
sonal Pronouns? How many kinds of pronouns are there? 

McGuffey's Revised Readers Hardcover Set Review (and How to Break in a Book Tutorial)

I posted a while back about the Revised McGuffey's Readers reprints that I found on Christianbook.com. I bought my set and I am very, very impressed with them!

First of all, they LOOK and FEEL like "real" books! The embossed covers are just like what you would expect of an antique book, and they fit snugly in their slipcover. 

The content is mostly the same as the Mott Media Christian School versions that I grew up with, including the beautiful engravings. 

Amy dawdled 'til dinnertime, and all the other children picked the berries before she got there. 

One of the stories I did not recognize from our Mott Media paperbacks, which was a letter to Santa, but that is the only difference I have found so far. 

I hope these books last many generations and can be passed down! I would love to buy a set for all my family.

The books fit snugly in their slipcovers, and can be hard to get out at first. Remember to grasp them the right way to pull them out-- never from the top edge!

 How To "Break In" A New Book

I was taught that you do not just crack open a new book to read it. Here is how I open a new book, to "break it in" without breaking the binding:

 Start with the covers. Hold the pages up in the middle, and run the edge of your hand up and down in the corner between the cover and the pages.

Then do the other side.

Now take about 1/8 inch of pages or so, fold down to one side, and smooth with the edge of your hand, gently with very slight pressure. Switch to the other side and do the same. Alternate sides this way, until you have folded down all the pages to the middle. 

Give the middle a gentle smooth, not to heavy handed! You don't want to smash it.

Ta Da! Now you book lays flat and the pages turn nicely, without having to turn it almost inside-out  to make it do so (which just makes your pages fall out eventually!). The binding and signatures will be happier and serve you well if you use this method!

I am an affiliate with CBD and also have written a review on their site similar to this one. I was not sent this product to review. It is worth buying! 

The Revised McGuffey's Eclectic Readers

McGuffey's Eclectic Readers Primer through the Sixth Reader 7 Volumes

It's not often that I even remember that The Pleasant Times is an affiliate with Christianbook.com-- but I had to just let my readers know that the delightful McGuffey's books I grew up with are now being reprinted and sold at CBD! A set of slip-cased hardcover McGuffey's Eclectic Readers are just the thing I need to replace the softcover ones I had, which are falling to pieces from over-use (they're teaching a second generation now!). This is going on my book order list!

By the way, there are differences between the revised readers and the originals (obviously). There are still passages from the Bible in the revised set, though not as frequent as in the originals. Most of the stories are different though there are some brought over from the original set. Also the illustrations in the revised are much better than the old woodcuts in the originals, and capture the child's imagination much better. I have used both in teaching my children at home; personally I prefer the revised because of the illustrations and engaging stories, but he originals are worth studying as well!

Ever wonder why you live in a County?

When studying history, we often come across interesting bits that demand that we go on a rabbit trail. We enjoy discovering the origins of words, concepts and objects that we are still familiar with today. While studying about the Franks in the 6th century, we gained insight into why we, in the 21st Century USA, live in a "county!"

"The provincial, as distinguished from the central, government of the Frankish realm was exercised by officers who bore the names of Count and Duke (comes, dux, Graf, Herzog). The whole realm was divided into countships. In the purely Teutonic half the unit was the old tribal district, which the The counts Roman called Pagus and the Frank Gau. A count was appointed to each of these tribal units. In the Romano-Gallic half of the kingdom the countship was composed of the civitas, or city with its dependent district, which had survived from the times of the Western Empire, and often represented the original Celtic tribe. The count was both a military and civil official. He administered justice, led the armed levy of his district, and saw to the raising of taxes.

"Several countships were often united and placed under a single official of higher rank, the dux, when the counts had to follow and obey. These unions of countships were most common on the frontier, where a strong and united defence against foreign enemies would be needed, and where it would have been unsafe to leave the charge of the border to half a dozen counts, who might or might not co-operate willingly with each other. In Provence and Burgundy the dux was also known by the Roman title of Patrician...

"The provincial governor, count or duke, was assisted by a deputy, or vicarius, whom he nominated to fill his place during his absence at the court or the wars, or while he Local was engaged in some specially absorbing task at Government, home. The minor administration of the countship was carried out by centenarii, or hundred-men, called also on occasion tribuni. The countship was divided into hundreds, and over each of these there presided a hundred-man, who was appointed by the count to act as a police magistrate in time of peace, and to head the men of his district in time of war. Petty law cases came before him, but at stated periods the count went round all the hundreds in his countship, and administered justice at a public assembly of the inhabitants." - The Dark Ages, Charles Oman, Page 124

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:

c.1300, from Anglo-French counte, from Late Latin comitatus "jurisdiction of a count," from Latin comes (see count (n.)); replaced Old English scir "shire."

We also spotted a clue to where we get the word "vicarious." 

2013 Christmas Tree Inspiration and What It Did

After our trips to the hardware store to see their Christmas trees, I was eager to try out some things on my own. 

My mother said I could decorate her tree, so some of our Interns and I gave it a try. 

She had all the ornaments sorted by color, in boxes, and gave us permission to do it up how we liked it, and then left to run some errands. 

That may or may not have been a wise idea. 

As I looked over the choices of ornaments. I realized that, silly as it sounds, I needed more ideas! 

So, after all these posts I had done on Christmas trees on my own blog, I ended up on the Internet looking for yet another tree to inspire me. 

And this is what I found. I liked the way this lady had colors in her house decor that were the same as the tree--either the tree pulled the house colors together, or vice-versa. Well, there was something candy-jar exciting about the whole thing.

My Interns were a bit skeptical.

I looked around at the light pink walls, the white trim and furniture, the sea-foam green cushions on the couch, the coral pink throw, the bird cage collection and the silver accessories, and decided I would do ALL the colors. 

Fortunately, I remembered once in a while to take pictures of the decorating process:

First I added globe-lights to the already pre-lit tree. They gave an extra dimension to the lights. Then I put on iridescent white garlands. Then the interns started loading the tree with Christmas balls. Here, we have dark pink, sparkly white and really light sea-foam green balls. If we left the tree at this point, it would have been fine. 

I wanted to really cram it full of ornaments, though. 

After more balls, we put in little white sleds, sparkly white poinsettias, and birds. Some single ornaments went on too, including a glittery pine cone. 

If we had left it alone here it would have been fine.

Then I really went to town and started adding giant candy. One of my helpers started to get nervous and to object strongly-- it was too over-the-top! It was getting  a bit cluttered, so I edited it. We retained the blue birds, the pink birds, the words, and the pink and white icicles, though.

And here is the final result. My mother really was surprised, but it turns out, she likes it!

I noticed that we ended up with a bird theme going on, which wasn't planned, but it was too hard to resist all those sparkly cute birds. (Interestingly, the lady whose tree I used for inspiration recently posted another tree, which also has a bird theme!) 

I really wanted to try putting something large and unexpected in the tree, though. Just to see what it was like.  I looked around wondering what to do.  I was still nervous about putting heavy things in the tree, wired or not. 

 I remembered the little birdhouses in one of the hardware store trees. Maybe we needed some houses for all those little birds to live in.

So far, the only new items purchased for this tree were the poinsettias for the top. I thought instead of buying more items, I would make my own light-weight birdhouses out of card stock. 

And here they are. Quite unexpected.

I'm not sure I like it. 

But it was fun to make all those birdhouses!

Here are some close-ups of the other ornaments:

Chandelier

One of the birds

One of the poinsettias

One of the birdhouses. I did several different shapes, just freehand. This was the easiest one to do. 

Bible Lesson & Songs

Editor's Note: I found an old, typewritten Bible class lesson, which may have been my grandmother's. It looks to me like it may even be a "go-to" lesson for those times when she was asked to substitute teach a Bible class. She taught many different Bible classes over the years-- from little ones to ladies' classes.

The lessons quiz the students and helps them to memorize some of the basic facts of the Bible. Most of the lesson part seems to be notes or summaries to be elaborated on. All the songs I learned with different tunes, so I find getting the words to match these tunes a bit hard!

I've typed it out on the order it was given: 


The Books of the Bible (God's Library) 66 Books, 39 in the O.T. 27 in the N.T.

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Books of the Old Testament (Tune: Did you ever see a Lassie?)
Let us sing the books of Moses, of Moses, of Moses, 
Let us sing the books of Moses, for he wrote the Law. 
First Genesis, second Exodus, third Leviticus, fourth Numbers, 
And the fifth is Deuteronomy, the last of them all.

Let us sing the books of History, of History, of History, 
Let us sing the books of History, which tell of the Jews. 
There's Joshua and Judges and the story of Ruth
Then First and Second Samuel, and First and Second Kings; 
Then Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther the Queen.

Let us sing the books of Poetry, of Poetry, of Poetry, 
Let us sing the books of Poetry, the songs the Jews sang. 
Job the patient, Psalms of David, and the Proverbs of a wise one, 
And then Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. 

Let us sing the Major Prophets, Major Prophets, Major Prophets, 
Let us sing the Major Prophets, they wrote five books in all. 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, who wrote Lamentations; 
Then Ezekiel and Daniel were true to our God. 

Let us sing the Minor Prophets, Minor Prophets, Minor Prophets, 
Let us sing the Minor Prophets, there are twelve of them all. 
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah; Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk;
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah-- Malachi--. 

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Jacob's Sons and their Tribes (Tune: Whosoever Will)
Jacob lived in Canaan-- There he had twelve sons, 
Reuben, Simeon, Levi,-- Judah, Zebulen;
Issachar and Asher, Naphtali, and Dan;
Joseph, Gad, and Benjamin--

In the land of Egypt, -- Joseph had two sons.
Ephraim and Manasseh-- A tribe named for each one;
The tribes were twelve in number, -- but the Levites too had one, 
Thus were all the tribes-- begun.

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The 3 religious ages of man:

PATRIARCHAL                  

2500 yrs.                              

Genesis & Job                     

Adam, Enoch, Methuselah,   

Noah, Flood, Babel,

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob

Joseph-Egypt. 

Exodus chapters 1-11, Moses Born, leads them out. 

Job tells of Patriarchal law.

MOSAIC

1500 yrs.

Mosaic Law, Mt. Sinai

Exodus-Malachi

Joshua leads, Jericho

Judges, to Samuel

Saul, David, Solomon, Divided kingdom

Captivity- Came back

All prophets spoke of Christ coming.

CHRISTIAN AGE

Till He Comes

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John Acts-Revelation  

New Testament 

Study, Trust, Believe, OBEY

ALL of God's Word is TRUE. The Old Testament was for the Jewish Nation. The New Testament is for the Whole World and will make all people into one great Brotherhood IF they will all Believe and OBEY IT.

**********************************

Books of the New Testament (Tune: More About Jesus Would I Know.)
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John-- Acts and the Book of Romans--
First and Second Corinthians-- Galatians and Ephesians. 

Philippians, Colossians-- First and Second Thessalonians--
First and Second Timothy-- Titus and Philemon. 

Hebrews, and James-- First and Second Peter--
First, Second, and Third John-- Jude and Revelation.

(How many did Paul write? John? Luke? Peter? )

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The Apostle Song (Tune: Bringing in the Sheaves)
There were twelve Apostles, Jesus called to help Him, 
Simon Peter, Andrew, James and brother John;
Phillip, Thomas, Matthew, -- James the son of Alpheus;
Thaddeus, Simon, Judas, and Bartholomew--

But Judas was not true-- and Matthias took his place; 
Then Jesus sent Paul to preach to-- all the Gentile race. 
He also calls for you-- He also calls for you, 
Are you His disciple--? you His work must do.

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Which law are we under now- Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christ's?

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Let us learn where we read about the different men and women of the Bible.
What book of the Bible do we read about-- Adam & Eve; Noah, Abraham?
What book of the Bible tells us about Moses? About the Hebrews coming out of Egypt?
Which book tells us about Joshua leading his people around Jericho?
Where do we read about the Judges? About Samson?
Who was Samuel? Saul? David? Solomon?
Where do we read about Christ's birth, life, death, Resurrection?
What did Jesus tell His Apostles to do?
Where do we turn to read about the church starting? And how many men and women can be added to the church?
Where do we turn to read how to live a Christian life?
Who does the last book tell of?
How many people will God save?

Remember that ALL of God's book, the Bible, is true. We live under His New Law. This New Law is the Law of Christ. That is why we do NOT offer a lamb, burn incense, use mechanical instruments in our worship.

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Great Songs Chapel

Singing in Church

Buy This at Allposters.com

Here is a good site for learning hymns-- and this song is especially good for learning parts, as they start with Soprano, second verse add alto, then tenor, etc..

How to make your own Family Newspaper

There is now a page on The Pleasant Times with ideas on making your own home family newspaper. I hope my readers will try making their own at least once, it is lots of fun!

Nature Studies

Passion Vine and Flower

One day I was walking around the yard, and was inspired by a leaf to introduce a lesson in observing nature. My student and I walked around the yard picking samples of "5's" in nature, specifically on our trees and bushes. This was fun because my student was 5 years old.  Some samples were one leaf with 5 divisions, such as this passion vine leaf(above) and the maple and grape leaf (below),

and some had five separate leaves at the end of the stem (or vine, in this case) such as this blackberry (above).

We had to look hard in this wild geranium leaf to see that it, too had five divisions.

I know all of these plants have names, and all the of the leaves and their divisions and non divisions have names, but that will be a lesson for another time. Our point for this one was simply to stop and look more closely at what is around us, especially in our own yard. 

Numbers Game

Hopscotch
Theophile ...
Buy This at Allposters.com

Today at lunch, the children made up a game out of numbers. One would say a number, and the others would have to guess the significance of it. They were choosing numbers that were the ages of the family, or the numbers of certain elements (they are out to memorize the Periodic Table of Elements). We expanded the game further by guessing a number between 0 and 6,000, and then finding all the things we could think of that used that number. It was fun!

360= number of degrees in a circle
0= Celsius freezing point, and "the divider between positive numbers and negative numbers" as one boy guessed.
40= years of Israel's wanderings in the wilderness, days of the temptation of Christ, days it rained in Noah's flood, etc. Lots of these in the Bible!
300= degrees of a "slow oven."
1,611= year of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible.
1= one Lord, one faith, one baptism
1,776 = year of the Declaration of Independence
30= Jesus was 30 years old when he started his ministry
2= two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet....

Teaching Reading: Stories of Traveling Letters

Painting: the Reading Lesson by George Hardy

I always feel a little bit sorry for my beginning reading and writing students. Getting  the alphabet memorized is one hurdle, but learning phonics is another, as the exceptions to the rules are numerous and often don't seem to make any sense! Even though we do phonics, so much of it ends up having to be memorized as we shrug and say "that's just the way it is."

We've picked up some tips here and there in books and games to help us remember the phonics, such as "igh" being the "3 letter I" or that a silent "e" makes the other vowel long (such as in "pie"). Some things that have been a great help, though, have come from the imaginations of my students!

One of my reading students came up with a little story to help him learn phonics sounds (we were doing the Writing Road to Reading at the time). His "aha" moment with diphthongs came and he said, "when these two letters travel together, they make [this or that] sound." I have been using this phrase ever since on all my other beginning readers!

Those traveling letter pairs or groups sure are interesting. Some letters dominate over the others, and won't let the other one speak up. Some letters are sneaky. Some decide to change their names entirely, preferring anonymity. Some try to slide past without being noticed at all.

Here are some examples:

When O and W travel together, they sometimes say "ow" as in "cow." But sometimes, they say a long O as in "low."

When E and A travel together, E is the one that does the talking, as in "beast" or "each."

When A and I travel together, A does the talking, as in "pair" or "fair"

When A and U travel together, they act like a short O-- as in "caution."

Q is really shy. Q prefers to be in company with U before he'll talk. He sounds like a hard C but wants to say W too, so in words like "quilt" and "quail" you can hear him speak up.

When E and I travel together, they are pretending to be A so they can get past security. So in the words "Eight" and "weigh" they think they are disguised.

When S and H travel together, they don't want anyone to know. So they say "shhh!" TI, SI, and CI also want everyone to hush up in some words, so they say "shhhh!" in "nation" or "mission" or "precious." Frequently, S and I will say they are Z as in "excursion." We are pretty sure that these letters are spies.

Some letters are silly and think that they can get past by pretending they are someone else, such as P and H in "Philip" pretending to be an F.

T and H make a very silly sound, sticking their tongues out at you when they go by.

Some letters are hiding behind others, such as K, which hides behind N in words like "Know" and "knot." G and H are like that-- sometimes in words like "Ghost" the G is dominate, but a lot of times they are hiding in the groups of letters, like "night."

By far the boldest travelers together are O, U, G, and H. These letters are all over the map in pronunciation, and they like it that way. Sometimes they sound like an "f" as in "rough" and sometimes they can all get away with having the vowels speak up for them, such as O's short sound as in "thought" or U's long sound in "slough." There are over a dozen ways in which this group will try to sneak past you.

Not only do these little stories help the child with learning diphthongs, but it makes it a lot more fun for the teacher, who may be going through the phonics flashcards for the 300th time!

How To Boil Water

Why is it important to know how to boil water? Won't any hot water do for cooking? Can't I just use hot water from the tap?

No. 

Recipes call for things to be hot, to be simmering, to be boiling or to be brought to "a rolling boil." Failure to follow these specific instructions can make things taste awful! Foods like rice or pasta will not cook correctly!

The tea will not steep! 

The Young James...

Marcus Stone

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Black teas and herbal tea will not steep right unless the water is at the right temperature. It will taste like blah hot water with some sort of flavoring in it (I realize there are specific temperatures for specific teas, and I won't go into that in this post). The hot water coming out of the regular kitchen tap is nowhere near boiling temperature. What that hot tap water is good for, is filling into the teapot to warm it up while you are waiting for the water in the tea kettle to boil. Once the tea kettle water is boiling, you can dump out the tap water from the teapot and then make the tea with boiling water, without the fear of your teapot cracking. 

Why is it important to go on and on about this? As someone who likes milk in my tea, which cools it down, I like to start with a really hot cup of tea. Otherwise when I pour the milk in, I get a lukewarm serving. The way I see it is, if you can place your hand on the teapot and hold it there for even a second, it isn't hot enough.

So on to how to boil water! 

 First, use cold tap water. Cold. Not lukewarm, not warmish and NOT hot!

 Run the water for a while before filling your kettle-- it will also get the "sitting in the pipe" flavor out of the water-- and will be nice and cold. 

Now, set the pot or kettle of cold water on the stove and turn the burner on to "high." A lid on the pot will help it to heat up faster.

 See the steam coming up from the water? It isn't boiling. It's hot but it isn't boiling, so do not pour this into the teapot yet! Or put in the pasta yet!

 Aha-- see the bubble in the middle of all that steam? It isn't boiling. Don't use it yet.

 Now there are lots of little bubbles-- and it even sounds noisy. Don't turn off the burner! It isn't boiling yet! You can tell the water is boiling when it quits making noise and starts to be quiet. If you do not have a tea kettle with a whistle, please resist the urge to turn off the burner because there is noise in the kettle. It isn't ready yet! 

Rapid little bubbles means it is simmering. 

Now you can see that the water is boiling. That is, large bubbles racing up to the top of the water. 

 And here we are getting to the rolling boil. A rolling boil may be called for in some recipes. If you start out with a good rolling boil for some cooking, the water will return to a boil very quickly after you put the food in (Sometimes recipes say to bring water  TO a boil. In that case you don't want the water to go on and on and on before using it). 

 Boiling water is turbulent--

 like a stormy sea--

When you lift up the kettle to pour it into the teapot, and you can feel that the water is still moving inside, then that is a good strong boil. And now you are allowed to use it to make  that lovely, hot pot of tea!

Back-To-School

I always think the back-to-school sales come way too early, ruining everyone's summer! I say that as a homeschooler, too. I do apologize for this long post, and hope I do not try  my readers' patience by "thinking out loud" on this subject.

I was making a mental list of all the things that I want to teach this year, and wondering how in the world am I going to fit them all in?
More Bible Study (we are already doing the Advanced Bible Reader)
Bible Memorization
Poetry Memorization (my grandmother often recited to me poems she had learned in a little school house on Whidby Island when she was a girl. She was very proud of them and they were poems with good meanings. I would love for my students to say the same thing to their grandchildren!)
Memorizing or at least becoming extremely familiar with the US founding documents
Singing in harmony, and learning to lead a song/keep time/keep everyone on key
Piano lessons
Spanish lessons
Reading aloud good literature (we very much enjoy reading aloud time-- a moral lesson, examples from history, an adventure story, Little Pilgrim's Progress, and poetry-- unfortunately it often gets "knocked off" of our list if we are running late)
Exploring more Ancient History, as well as keeping on with American History
Enjoying going on rabbit trails with whatever we are studying, and learning more and more!
Enjoying the outdoors by being able to know what we are hearing, seeing (nature studies)
Learning new skills and hobbies
Enjoying taking their hobbies to a new level with practice
Taking educational trips
Becoming Geography Experts
Starting a little business
Nap times everyday for everyone-- very very quiet ones
Oh, and all the regular reading, writing and arithmetic too.
Oh, and also I want to simplify this year.

As this list overwhelms me, I think back to the list of what I did as a homeschool student. I feel that I had a very rich education, and my mother made it seem somewhat effortless (though I know she went to a lot of effort to make it happen!). Being rather alone in this venture (so we thought) and not having many materials at hand to start homeschooling with, she went on her instinct on what and how to teach us. As I have read up on different methods for my own school, I realize that my mother was teaching us in the Charlotte Mason style, the Classical style, "Delight learning" and the un-schooling style, along with a good bit of ABeka book style. I think I'll call it "Eclectic." [I want to add here that she had never heard of Charlotte Mason, and was not familiar with the other "styles" of home education-- she was going on instinct] It was school, but it was better. The only time I recall having a real burden-type feeling was when we took a state test. No one enjoyed it, the teacher nor the student.

When we began homeshcooling, my dad brought home:
a desk,
a globe (that good old orb has lasted into the next generation of students, despite being overly-spun, dropped many times and split in half-- which was a lesson in itself on how globes are made),
a dictionary (Webster's 1828),
a small chalkboard,
an atlas (A side note here: that atlas stayed around for many years with the entire front section of it devoted to Darwin's theories. It finally occurred to me one day that this is our atlas, and we don't have to keep this stuff in it, so I gave myself permission to "ruin" it and cut out those pages, and now we have a book of just plain maps. Remember that any books and magazines you own are yours, and you can edit them with white out, markers or just have pages disappear),
The King James Bible and Young's Analytical Concordance,
and that was what we started on.
No Internet, no computers, no library card.
If a bookstore had a good book on drawing or music, my folks bought it whether or not it was at our "grade level" or even written for children.
Curriculum was found over the years and added to it (such as Abeka for math, history and grammar, and McGuffey's readers and Spencerian penmanship), but I suspect my parents could have taught us a lot without the extra books.

My mother has a knack of making a lesson out of something at hand. She can take a Victoria magazine and set it down before you, and suddenly you are studying a geography lesson, a history lesson, architecture, art, cooking, nature studies, handwriting, literature, and then writing a letter (by pen-in-hand) on a card that you painted with watercolor (from a photo in the magazine) to a friend to share about it.
Let me tell you, that is the best kind of school day.

My education was not just doing book work, but taking nature walks, playing the piano, writing and publishing, drawing and painting, sewing and crafting, cooking, and reading reading reading! I was given exposure to the depth and history of the English Language as the phrases in the King James translation of the Bible were explained to me. I was taken to concerts of many types of music, as well as having a lot of music playing at home (From Bob Wills to Beethoven). I was taken to museums, teas (for culture, you know), garden tours, and other events as opportunities came. We did all of the things on the list on the top of this post. And besides all that, my mother sewed half or more of my wardrobe and hers, besides writing her own newsletters and keeping house (in other words, she "had a life" beyond teaching schoolwork-- though I think it more accurate to say our whole life was home school!).

I'll grant you, I didn't do everything every single day. Maybe not even every single week. I am sure I just remember it all as one seamless day-- but it is the same kind of memory I want my own children to have.

Somehow I have to fit it all in, without it being so regulated that my little students will feel like they are "doing" schoolwork. Without the bursting through the door at the appointed time, thirsting for Lego and freedom!

All the beautiful paintings were found at Wikimedia Commons


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