I really didn’t want to go. I had far too much to do, but I had committed to try to take better care of myself, so I was going. I had to yank myself up off the couch, and put on my walking shoes and force myself. I pleaded with family members to go walking with me so we could talk, as I had so much busy-ness on my mind. No luck. So I was alone on my walk.
Take A Walk!
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Make a Time Line
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One of the best things we did was create a time line that lived on our family room (school room) wall. It amazed me how often I found myself—and the kids—looking up at it pensively, studying it, commenting on it, and drawing relationship conclusions: do you know that Jesus lived at the same time as Confucius?
Public School or Homeschool?
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Question:
I am homeschooling my son and most of the time it is wonderful. We stay very busy running here and there so he can be with other children. Even still, at times, there is some isolation and I wonder if it is the ideal choice for him? Which is better: public school or homeschool? [Read more…]
Doing the Little Things
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We are so busy as moms! It isn’t possible to do all that our children ask us to do. I heard this heart-stirring poem when I had 3 little rambunctious boys —Daniel (5), Mark (1) and Nathan (3)—that kept me busy morning ’til night. It made me want to slow down and listen to their little requests to “look at me, Mom!” It made me want to read the stories and play with them more. Now that my sons are grown, I have discovered how true this poem is! Take a moment right now, if you can, and “do the little things he asks you to”. You won’t regret it! [Read more…]
Mad Kids & Work
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Louisa was good-and-mad at me (and probably at herself, too). So, I did the unnatural thing: I assigned dishwashing duty to her. At first the pots and pans were being banged around and she was sulky, upset, and sure she was mistreated. Surprisingly, 10 minutes later she was humming happily.
My Cantaloupe Man
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Ammon (15) loves plants. He cherishes them, in fact. He can spend hours supervising and nurturing his garden. When he was a little boy, I always made sure he had his own large bed in our family garden that he could plant with whatever he wanted. This year, Ammon wanted to plant melons and squashes—both which take more space than our garden would provide, so the idea was born to let Ammon grow his sprawling garden in front of our house. We live our in the country, so this is not so radical a plan as it sounds like . . . but we have had some comments from the neighbors.
First, a Relationship
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“First we have a relationship, then we have an educational method.” —Karen Andreola
And so it is. As homeschool moms, we sometimes get involved trying to figure out what philosophy to follow, what type of teaching we should do, or what curriculum we should select. We eagerly read books, buy curriculum, and “try on” educational methods as if we were shoe shopping. But no “shoe” fits until we have established a warm, loving relationship. No method can make up for a strained relationship with your child, your student. Until the relationship is working right, the educational approach doesn’t really matter very much at all.
Mastering “Greater Than” and “Less Than”
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Here is an easy way to teach your children how to remember the “greater than” and “less than” symbols in their Math lesson!
First, draw one of the symbols, like this:
Now, make that symbol into a big fish’s mouth like this:
The fish has a BIG mouth that loves to eat the most he can get: the largest numbers. So the big, open part of the mouth always faces the largest number.
