There are 3 states of matter, right? Solid, liquid and gas.
Well, there is theoretically another state of matter, a 4th state known as “plasma”. Our plasma concoction is solid enough to break, but it flows like a liquid. Treat your kids to this fun science experiment! It is so simple, but it will have them oohing and aahing! Assemble it outside on the picnic table and save yourself some cleanup. [Read more…]
Fine arts are often the first to be cut from public school curriculum when the budget gets tight. We want our children to be cultured! Art is a big part of cultural refinement, but do we start? Basically, 1) doing art and 2) enjoying and learning from art that was done exceptionally well over the history of our world.
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.
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?
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…]
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…]
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.
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.
One day when Louisa was nearly 3 years old, I told her to shut the door and she answered, “In a minute!”. I wanted her to learn cheerful and prompt obedience. I tried to explain that to her, and I made sure she shut the door, but I wondered if she really understood that “in […]
