Introducing My First Guest Blogger: My Oldest Son

      My oldest son had a very interesting adventure last week.  I thought it was such a unique story, and must be written down.  Here is his story:

The Reversal of Fates and What Happened Thus

     The cross-hairs lined up with the buck's shoulder blade.  I slowly eased in on the trigger.  Blam!  The deer mule-kicked and ran into the woods.

     "Nice shot.  I think you got him," my dad said sitting to my right in the stand.  I leaned back against a tree and slowly let out a breath.  The sun habitually splayed its light on the dew split grass and robins flew overhead.  There was nothing quite like waking up with the world.  We sat in the stand a few minutes watching a quirky fox squirrel scamper around on the grass.  Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud racket behind us.  I turned in my seat to see what it was. It sounded like a bird screaming. 

     "That's weird, I've never heard a bird make a sound like that before." I said.

     "Me neither," said Dad.  "What's that moss moving for?  Why don't you go check it out."  So I got out of the stand and walked over to where we saw the moving moss.  Then I saw a little gray bird with a crest and rusty sides hung up in the moss, and some of it wrapped around its neck like a noose.  I thought it was dead.  Then it made another pitiful noise and struggled.  I went over to it and gently undid its wing and tail.  Then he fell a few inches and hung there from the moss around its neck.  I quickly grabbed him, He struggled and tried to bite me, but I held on.  The moss was very tight, and if I tried to pull it off he would  choke.  How did you get yourself into this mess I thought.

     I eventually broke the last strand.  The small Tufted Titmouse flew quickly into the tops of the trees.  As I walked back to the treestand I gave my dad a thumbs-up.  How ironic it was to have taken the life of one animal and resucued the life of another, both in the same five minutes. 

     

Something About Homeschooling I Really Didn't See Coming

    

The Virtual Curriculum Fair Final Week: The Nuts and Bolts of Homeschooling

     5 1/2 years ago I had plans.  I was going to take on the full and complete responsibility for my children's education.  Why? (*) Because it was best for them.  They would learn so much from the  books I had ordered.  My sons would continue to grow closer together.  They would have a great teacher-student ratio.  The curriculum would be tailor-made to suit their interests and abilities. They would get ample outside playtime.  There would be hands-on science every week.  They would get to spend more time with their dad.  Homeschooling would enable them to spend more time with other people not their same age.  How GREAT this would be for my kids!
     Fast-forward a few months, maybe even a year.  I can't remember exactly.  I just remember one day it hit me:  God didn't just call us to homeschool for our children's sake.  He also called us to homeschool for my sake.  I needed to homeschool my children.  Apparently, I need(ed) help in the areas of patience and diligence, because those are the two muscles that have gotten the most workout since I/we started homeschooling.  God knew that spending numerous hours with my offspring would help to develop my patience.  He knew that waking up 170 days out of a year and "being on the ball" as teacher to my sweet boys would work diligence into my character. 
     Homeschooling has been wonderful for my kids.  Pretty much everything I mentioned above has occured.  Homeschooling has been great for me as well.  I have not "arrived", but I am starting to see growth in the areas I mentioned. I am more patient with my kids that I once was.  It gets easier to be diligent about our studies, as I can now see some of the fruit of my labor and now have an even deeper conviction to homeschool than I did in the beginning.
      I am most thankful to God for His patience and diligence as he continues to work in and through me. 
    

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."  Philippians 1:6

(*Note: The biggest Why?: Because God told us to do it...but that's another post!!!)

Check out these other links from the Virtual Curriculum Fair:

http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/01/weekly-homeschooling-schedule.html

http://courtneysix.blogspot.com/2012/01/virtual-curriculum-fair-week-5-nuts.html

http://debbiesdigest.blogspot.com/2012/01/homeschooling-how-do-i-do-it-all.html

http://allthingsnorilynn.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-working.html

http://pebblekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/virtual-curriculum-fairwrap-up/

http://everydaysnapshots.blogspot.com/2012/01/virtual-cirriculum-fair-5-ways-to-use.html

http://www.gchomeschool.com/2011/11/peek-into-our-school-day.html

http://schoolinginthesun.blogspot.com/2011/08/day-in-life.html

http://www.foreverforalwaysnomatterwhat.com/2012/01/homeschool-and-life-how-we-get-it-done.html

http://www.modest-mama.org/2012/01/homeschooling-at-my-house.html

http://homeschoolheartandmind.blogspot.com/2012/01/getting-grip-on-things.html

http://for-one-another.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-home-school-part-of-life.html

http://oramblings.blogspot.com/2012/01/now-wheres-that-pencil-again.html

http://daybydayinourworld.com/2012/01/curriculum-kids-and-a-frazzled-homeschool-mama-leads-to-controled-chaos/

http://sunrisetosunsethomeschool.com/2012/01/30/the-virtual-curriculum-fair-nuts-and-bolts/

http://myhomeschoolgarden.com/2012/01/30/staying-on-top-of-everything/

http://homeschoolingforhisglory.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-does-this-homeschooling-thing.html

http://christadarr.blogspot.com/2012/01/nuts-bolts-pulling-it-all-together.html

"Spicy" Organization

It seems that everytime I needed a spice to add to a recipe, I found myself fumbling around my spice cabinet, trying to remember what shelf I put it on.  My husband's Christmas gift of a label maker was the little bit of incentive I needed to get my spice cabinet organized! 

Here is my cabinet emptied out.  I need to clean my "lazy Susans"!  The one on top is from my mom...maybe from the 70's?  The white one is relatively new.  I love how they just fit perfectly.  But--without proper organization they were not working to their full potential.

Here they are all cleaned up!

Here are my unorganized spices, eagerly awaiting their proper place in this kitchen.

After alphabetizing the spices, I then divided them in half.

(A-F) on the white lazy Susan, and (G-Z) on the yellow.

I made labels for my cabinet.  SOOO Fun!

A-F on the bottom shelf and G-Z on the top.

This is some information I found in a magazine a while back.  I taped it to the inside of my spice cabinet door. 

Here is the info in case you have a hard time reading the words in the picture:

spices, ground: 2-3 years shelf life

spices, whole:  3-4 years shelf life

seasoning blends: 1-2 years shelf life

herbs: 1-3 years shelf life

extracts: 4 years shelf life, except pure vanilla, which lasts indefinitely

I try to always add the date on my spices the first time I open them. 

Have a blessed day!

Letha

Free Online January Issue of This Old Schoolhouse Magazine

This issue looks to be FULL of great articles for homeschoolers!  I hope a few of them are a blessing to you.  Thanks Old Schoolhouse!

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine-digital.com/thehomeschoolmagazine/freegift/#pg1



The Power of the Smiley Face

     I teach Bible Drill to a great group of 4th-6th graders every Wednesday Night.  This past Wednesday, I gave them a little fill-in-the-blank sheet about Paul's Letters while they were taking turns saying their verses to the other teacher. After they filled in the missing books of the Bible, I checked their papers and helped them with anything they were missing.  I then gave them a big smiley face on their paper with a magic marker. 

      A little while later a few of the kids came up to me (after we had moved on to our next activity) and said, "Mrs. Letha, I'm finished now, can I have my smiley face?"  Of course, I checked over their paper and gave them all smiley faces!  This is not the type of activity we do very often, so they were not used to me "checking" their papers or giving them smiley faces for that matter.  I thought it was so wonderful and interesting that pre-teens still want their smiley face!

     A few months ago, a college student I know posted a paper his professor had graded.  On it was an A+ and a smiley face.  He said something like, "Hey, look, you can still get these in college!"  I think he was very excited and proud that his professor had thought enough of his work to give him a simple smiley face!

     

 The moral of the story?  I'm no philosopher or psychologist, but I think there may be a lesson here:

 1.Children love/need to be affirmed for hard work. 

2.There are still children out there today who will work for smiley faces. 

3.It is fun to give smiley faces to children. 

4.Children appreciate smiley faces for a long, long time. 

***My personal preference: If at all possible, smiley faces should be drawn using a brighly colored, thick magic marker...more drama.  :) 

Cohesion (or how we just love using eye droppers!)

     Yesterday, we started using this book:

  

It is has 24 experiments in them.  We did the first one yesterday.  We compared the size and shape of drops of different liquids, then ordered them according to their relative cohesive strength. 

We tested soapy water, canola oil, tap water and rubbing alcohol.  (My kids really wanted me to put "poison" on the container...so funny!)

They loved using eye droppers!

We lined up one drop from all the liquids to compare them.

After we compared the droplets on the wax paper, we measured 50 drops of each liquid in a graduated cylinder.  (My chemistry days are coming back to me!!)

34, 35, 36....

Getting eye-level to get the exact measurement.

All put together in their science notebook...

(Oh, by the way: Tap water had the greatest cohesive strength.  It was the tallest droplet, and took up the most volume in the graduated cylinder.) 

GratiTuesday! (Glowing with Gratitude!)



     You may be asking, "What in the world is this???"  This is a picture of a few of our youth a two nights ago as they were having a blast playing "Glow Stick Dodgeball".  My son thought it was the greatest!  This picture reminds me of several things I am thankful for: 1) That my teenage son had several hours to hang out at church and play/be silly/crazy with his friends  2) That there was no blood during the Dodgeball game ;)  3) But MOST OF ALL...I am so thankful that my child has a youth minister that will invest his time and energy into my child!!  (**Not just in fun/games...SO thankful for the biblical teaching he gets 2X a week from our youth minister!)

    



http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/category/gratituesday