Please pray for the Rasmusen family. Eric and Helen are walking through the deepest sorrow a parent can imagine, having lost both their beloved daughter Elizabeth and Eric's parents in a car-train collision. Pray for the other two children who were injured, Amelia and Benjamin, and also for the little girls, Lily and Faith, who were not in the car.
Here is a poem written in 1669 by Anne Bradstreet in memory of her granddaughter who died at age three and a half.
With troubled heart and trembling hand I write,
The heavens have changed to sorrow my delight.
How oft with disappointment have I met,
When I on fading things my hopes have set.
Experience might 'fore this have made me wise,
To value things according to their price.
Was ever stable joy yet found below? Or perfect bliss without mixture of woe?
I knew she was but as a withering flower,
That's here today, perhaps gone in an hour;
Like as a bubble, or the brittle grass,
Or like a shadow turning as it was.
More fool then I to look on that was lent
As if mine own, when thus impermanent.
Farewell dear child, thou ne'er shall come to me,
But yet a while, and I shall go to thee;
Mean time my throbbing heart's cheered up with this:
One of the reasons I‘m glad Kristen will be studying nursing is all that medical knowledge will be a great help when she becomes a mom. I’ve spent the twenty-four years I’ve been a parent trying to learn how to treat various ailments, how to distinguish a seriously ill child from one who just needs home care, and how to recognize the signs of a broken bone. I tend to be pretty laid back and not quick to rush my kids to the doctor, but I’m so glad we do have superb pediatricians for those times we have been over our heads.
As grateful as I am for our pediatricians, I don’t want to waste their time or mine, not to mention spend money unnecessarily, for care that I could give at home. The variety of things kids experience is seemingly infinite. So while Tim and I are pretty good at diagnosing pneumonia and rapidly growing staph infections, our kids are creative and continue to come up with new things to keep us on our toes! And the child in our family who most likes to come up with new ways to get sick or injured is our overcharged eight-year old, Paul.
Yesterday Paul and Peter got into a pillow fight, which seemed innocent enough. However, they were in the hallway, and Peter gave Paul a good blow which pushed Paul’s head into the stair half-wall. I’d just stepped out of the shower when I heard screams erupt outside my door. Paul had a good-sized gash which gaped wide. I tried pulling it together with a couple of butterfly bandages, but I wasn’t at all sure they were going to do the trick, so we headed into town to the doctor’s office. Happily Dr. Moore was able to patch him together with something approximating a fancy tube of superglue. I’d heard about using superglue on cuts before, but I know I wouldn’t have had the courage to try it on as serious a wound as Paul’s without first seeing it done. “Can I do this at home?” I asked the doctor.
“Yes,” he replied. He went on to tell me that you can use ordinary superglue on cuts. It works great on finger abrasions such as paper cuts. The glue doctors use has an additive that adds flexibility, plus it comes in a cute little tube with a handy cotton tipped applicator. Other than that, he said they work pretty much the same way. Horizontal cuts like Paul’s tend to pull together more easily than vertical ones, and being able to pull the skin together nicely is a criterion for a successful glue prospect. (There are “liquid skin” type bandages available at pharmacies. I’m not sure how they compare to ordinary superglue, but I imagine they are pretty similar.)
On the way home from the doctor’s office we had to stop to get some glass cut for our 4-H insect boxes. As the glass cutter admired Paul’s nifty glued together head, he said he keeps glue handy to repair cuts which are a job-hazard.So superglue is definitely going in our first aid kit, and I’d recommend it for anyone with active children!
Last week Kristen and I attended an orientation program at Purdue. She registered for her fall classes (15 hours of nursing and science courses!) and saw the apartment she'll be sharing with three other girls from her church. One of the highlights of our day was touring Andrew's lab and eating gyros with my favorite 24-year old.(Having two kids at the same university is so convenient! And having done this once before, Tim and I highly recommend sending your daughters to college with an older brother.Built-in bike and computer repair, transportation to church, and the occasional trip home is fabulous, not to mention the brotherly protection from unwanted male admirers. )
Kristen and I also had to sit through a mind-numbing session for parents and students which began with tips for making the transition to college and ended with the group trying to sing "Hail, Hail, to Old Purdue" without any word prompts. (The few alumni in the group weren't able to carry the rest of us, so it was pretty sad.)I chuckled a bit when they told us to make sure our kids knew how to do their own laundry. In our home kids take over that responsibility around age 8-10, and they have to fold and put away clothes earlier than that. But as soon as I started to get up on my high horse, I remembered that I had been one of those lazy bums who happily let her mother do all her laundry until she was married.
Speaking of chores, summer is a great time to re-think your chore system. Usually there is more time to teach new skills to your children, and time to supervise their work.(Remember – young kids tend to do what you INspect, not what you EXpect.) Teaching little ones to do chores can be tedious and frustrating when you know you could do a better job in a fraction of the time. But the payoff is enormous, both in terms of surviving with a busy household and in giving your kids those practical life skills they need to move into adulthood. If you're not sure what are reasonable expectations for a certain age, check out this website for some ideas. (My kids would scoff at the suggested age for picking fruit though, because in our house if you are a biped, you have to participate in our near daily blueberry picking during the month of June.) But I do like how they give ideas for children starting at 9-24 months. If your child can walk, he or she can start helping! Little ones are usually enthusiastic about working with mommy, so take advantage of this and lay a great foundation to build on year by year.
Every summer I revisit our chore assignments, tweaking it to reflect increased abilities, responsibilities I've overlooked, and in some recent years, the absence of another child as they move on to college. With Kristen leaving in August, I need to bump another child up to take over her jobs including washing the dishes each evening and cleaning the kids' bathroom. I've also been noticing that Ben and Paul both need more responsibilities.I've been brainstorming the jobs that aren't getting done on a regular basis plus other revisionsand am about ready to put it all together with our current assignments. We'll try it out during the summer and be in full-throttle when we start back to school in mid-August.
The biggest help in getting chores done around here has been having chores pegged to something else in the schedule. For example, each day after breakfast we hold a work blitz for just 15 minutes. We set a timer and everyone turns to his or her daily work for that time period. My youngest boys can fit all their chores in that slot, but the rest of the kids have other time periods throughout the day to work as well. Saturdays everyone works longer, not against the clock, but until that day's extended tasks are completed.
We don't pay for routine chores, but let our children know that they are contributing to the good of the family. It's important for your children to know that their work is not make-work, but really benefits the household, so make sure you show them how this is true. We've had a number of discussions about this while doing our daily blueberry picking! And to make it more tangible, I'm keeping score of how many quarts of berries go in our freezer. We're aiming for 22+ quarts, which will allow for 2 during each of the 11 months blueberries are not in season.(We're pretty close to that already, so I might need to bump the goal.)
Think through what life skills your kids need. Then as you work, include them. Teach your sons to split firewood and change the oil. Teach your daughters how to bake bread and sew.Everyone needs some basic cooking skills. (It is a graduation requirement in our homeschool that you be able to prepare a minimum of seven different dinners. This became necessary after watching our eldest son survive one summer on Taco Bell, frozen pizza, and ice cream out of the carton.)However you divide home responsibilities, remember that it is vital that your children learn how to work and work hard. Almost nothing else will set them apart more distinctly than this as they move out of your home and make their own way in the world.
We finished school last week not with a bang but with a whimper. As soon as I woke up on our last day I knew I had a strep infection. (As usual, we ended up with more than our 180 required days, anyway.) Happily, when I couldn't carry on any longer, Kristen took over putting Paul through his paces. Later I heard Jonathan working with the crew as they rehearsed Act III of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Yay for older kids! The most exciting event of the day did not take place inside, though.
Before breakfast Amanda had visited her tree house. She came running back inside to tell us that a large, algae-covered turtle was there. From her description we knew it had to be a snapper. Several children returned to cautiously investigate. It turned out that mama snapping turtle had chosen Amanda's tree house area to serve as a nursery for her clutch of eggs. At first Amanda was irate, but once she knew the babies are harmless she warmed to the idea of hosting their eggs.
Throughout the next several hours the kids kept running outside to check on mama snapper's progress. She'd conveniently positioned herself with her backside facing the trail, making the exiting eggs easy to spot. Very cool! We've read that the eggs should hatch in a few months and the babies will head for water. We don't know where mama's home is, but when she was through she took off in a direction that makes us think she is going to a pond on our neighbor's farm. Apparently some snapping turtles can travel up to 10 km (6 miles) to lay their eggs, and they return to the same location year after year. Amanda's tree house is new, so it is possible the turtle has been there before and we never noticed, or she could be a first-time mother. Anyway, I was grateful for the unanticipated nature study on that day when my energy was fading fast. And now we're on to summer!
For preschoolers my favorite teaching tools are games, and this is especially true for teaching thinking skills. Timberdoodle catalog carries a fantastic collection of logic and thinking skills games, many of which are fun for a wide range of ages. Some we've enjoyed recently are Safari Undercover and Safari Rushhour. (Can you guess that we studied Africa last year?)I keep a selection of logic puzzles in a cabinet to pull out for a child who has finished his work while I help another child.
Mazes can be great fun for many children, and also help develop spatial reasoning and thinking through consequences. Timberdoodle also carries a wonderful line of maze books for preschoolers.
Math manipulatives make another great toy for preschoolers, once they are past putting things in their mouths.While older ones did math, I've very often given Cuisinaire Rods, pattern blocks, teddy bear counters, our simple two-pan balance, or other math manipulatives to young ones to play with. By the time that child is ready for more formal math, they very often have "discovered" mathematical relationships just from playing with the rods or blocks. You can find a number of books to use with these manipulatives, including sequence cards forthe teddy bears, Roddles and Alphabet Animals for Cuisinaire Rods, and many more. All of these things will stretch and challenge your young ones thinking abilities.
Math, in fact, provides some of the best opportunities to teach logical teaching processes for kids of all ages. What you want to do is make sure you choose a curriculum that encourages mathematical thinking, not just rote learning without processing. My favorites for the elementary years are Miquon (K-2 or 1-3) and Singapore Math (K-6th .) Both of these programs reward thinking through and coming up with successful strategies to solve problems rather than simply giving the child one strategy to follow all the time.
The Critical Thinking Press folks have produced some excellent materials. We especially enjoy their Mind Benders series of logic puzzles which are available in books or software.Preschoolers can do some of the simplest puzzles, but the more difficult ones in the highest level can challenge adults. Great fun!
Similarly, Sudoku and KenKen make fun puzzles for elementary aged kids and up. Several of my kids vie for the daily newspaper Sudoku. If you like number puzzles, check out the New York Times Kenken puzzles, which require some arithmetic as well as logic.For younger kids, look for Sudoku with fewer boxes. Here's one website with simpler puzzles.
Finally, begin to use the Socratic Method as you discuss with your children. What??? The Socratic Method with grade schoolers? Have I lost my classical-education mindset mind? Well, not exactly. Yes, it is silly to try to reason with a toddler.And yes, I do still believe that most children don't hit the logic stage, when they really make connections and become good at constructing sound arguments, until 5th or 6th grade. Nonetheless, there are ways to use Socractic questioning with younger children. You really need to check out Marcia Somerville's article on this. (Mrs. Somerville and her husband, Scott, former HSLDA attorney, are the creators of the fabulous Tapestry of Grace curriculum.) You'll need to skip to about the mid-point of this article to read "Socratic Discussion vs. Textbook Q&A," and then especially read the part called "Socratic Discussions at Different Learning Levels." She gives a great illustration of a Socratic discussion with a 10 year old who wants to play but hasn't finished her schoolwork yet. Here's just a brief excerpt:
For grammar-level students, use Socratic questioning primarily to draw out narration of facts that a student has learned, and hope to make only a few simple connections between them. I know it takes more time out of your day, but I do recommend that you hold separate, short-and-sweet discussions with younger kids that focus on them telling you what they've learned, and you highlighting the main facts or themes for emphasis. …
There's plenty of time for them to make connections later, and you really will overtax youngsters by requiring higher level thinking than they are naturally ready for. Like the proverbial task of trying to teach a pig to sing, it does no good and annoys the pig!
This does not mean you never use Socratic techniques with grammar-level children. Socratic methods used in everyday activity will cause your children to be better thinkers all through life. You probably already know this, though you may not realize it.
Here's an example. When ten-year-old Susie asks, at 10:00 AM on a typical homeschool day, "Can I go out and play?" what is your response? Do you just say "yes" or "no"? Or do you begin to ask questions like, "Have you done your morning chores? Are the breakfast dishes completely done, with the counters wiped?" She's nodding. "How about your math assignment? And the history reading I assigned you?" Now, she's looking down at the floor. "What do you think I'm going to say?" you ask gently.
(To see how this scenario plays out, you'll have to read the rest of the article.)
Next: Teaching Fallacies and Formal Logic to Older Students
For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armored tanks with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of "subjects"; and when whole classes and whole nations become hypnotized by the arts of the spell binder, we have the impudence to be astonished. We dole out lip-service to the importance of education--lip- service and, just occasionally, a little grant of money; we postpone the school-leaving age, and plan to build bigger and better schools; the teachers slave conscientiously in and out of school hours; and yet, as I believe, all this devoted effort is largely frustrated, because we have lost the tools of learning, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it. – Dorthy Sayers, Lost Tools of Learning
Living in the Age of Unreason
Have you noticed that in our time people increasing don't think logically? You see it everywhere – in the sloppy arguments put forth in letters to the editor to the unquestioning acquiescence with the idea that human actions have caused global warming to the mindless swooning of Americans for Barak Obama. Even in the church people seem to cultivate a lack of discernment. Instead of appealing to logical arguments, very often today politicians, reporters, and, yes, educators, sway folk with emotion. We've also switched from a word oriented society to an increasingly visual one where reasoning with words has become of less value than moving people with images. The early 17th century has been called the Age of Reason, also the title of a book by deist Thomas Paine. While I'm not proposing a return to that philosophy, which held far too high an opinion of the power of human intellect, I think you could say that we live in an Age of Unreason.
So what can we do? As parents we must teach our children to think biblically and logically. We can teach them what makes a solid argument and what makes a faulty one. And we must teach them not only to know God's word well, but to be able to analyze what they read, view, and hear through the lens of Scripture, then give the world a solid "reason for the hope" that is in them. (I Pet/ 3: 15)
The classical education model provides a helpful framework here for when and how to teach our children to think, reason and defend their beliefs. Classical home educators like to talk about the Trivium, or the three stages of education as follows:
-Grammar (Roughly 1-5th grades)
-Logic or Dialectic (Roughly 6-9th grades)
-Rhetoric (Approx. 9-12th grades)
In the grammar stage children learn easily by memorization. This is a great time to introduce them to many things and have them learn facts, sometimes by rote. During the logic stage (think junior high or middle school) kids are learning to reason, make connections, and argue. Sometimes they can be sassy and obnoxious. You can turn this desire to argue into a positive by helping them reason and make sound arguments about things they are studying. In the rhetoric stage students learn to craft and present their stances and findings. They can reason and explain their reasoning.
These categories are so useful even if you aren't a classical home educator. You don't have to home school at all to find these divisions in helpful in understanding your children. So does this mean you have to wait until you have a junior high aged child before teaching him or her to think logically? Not at all! While formal logic is best taught at that age when your children are starting to grasp connections and reason, you can do much to foster thinking skills in early years. In Part II I'll give a few ideas for teaching thinking skills to preschoolers and early elementary students.
Twice in the past couple of months I've made my Saturday bread without the addition of dough enhancer. "Surely it can't make that much difference," I thought. Wrong. Both of the batches I made when I'd run out of the ingredients to make dough enhancer were crumbly and didn't rise well. The addition of just a bit of dough enhancer makes a huge difference in the texture and quality of whole wheat bread. The other essential is freshly milled flour made from a high quality hard winter wheat. My preference is Prairie Gold white wheat.
Homemade Dough Enhancer: 2 c. wheat gluten 1 c. soy lecithin granules 1 T. ginger 1 T. ascorbic acid powder (vitamin C)
Mix ingredients and store at room temperature. As you add your flour to your dough, add in a quantity of dough enhancer equal to the amount of yeast in your recipe.
Why it works (some guesswork here): Gluten is what supports the dough as it rises. You are developing gluten as you knead your dough. Whole wheat flour does not have as much gluten as white flour, so adding some extra helps. The ginger boosts the action of the yeast and the ascorbic acid strengthens the gluten. The lecithin acts as a lubricant, helping the strands of gluten slide along one another, thus helping the bread rise.
