As thy Days...

Give to the Winds Thy Fears

2012-02-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676, hymnwriter

Give to the Winds Thy Fears

Give to the winds thy fears,
Hope and be undismayed.
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
God will lift up thy head.

Leave to His sovereign sway
To choose and to command;
Then shalt thou, wandering, own His way,
How wise, how strong His hand.

Far, far above thy thought,
His counsel shall appear
When fully He the work hath wrought
That caused thy needless fear.

Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears the way;
Wait thou His time; so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.

Lutheran pastor Paul Gerhardt led a difficult life. Beginning when he was just a boy, The Thirty Year's War caused such suffering and disruption that he did not receive his first pastorate until he was in his mid-40's. After marrying a few years later, several happy years passed, but he ended up losing his wife and four of his five children, and also dealt with difficult church situations. The fruit of this suffering is a collection of hymns that is still blessing the church today. He's the fellow who translated Bernard of Clairvaux's words into German which became the beloved O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, plus some 130 or so hymns of his own. I've listened to several tunes for the above lyrics, and none seem to do it justice, but the words stand on their own.

Lemon-Lavender: Wedding Cake and Sweaters

2012-02-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

Kara and Collin had a scrumptious lemon-lavender cake at the wedding three-and-a-half years ago.

Here's the recipe:

1 c. cream cheese
1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 T. lemon juice
2 1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 T. lavender, finely chopped
1 T. grated lemon peel

Glaze:
1 c. icing sugar, sifted
1/4 lemon juice

Beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in sugar; add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Beat in vanilla and lemon juice. In another bowl combine 2 c. flour with baking powder. Stir into butter mixture. Mix 1/4 c. flour with lavender and lemon peel, and then stir this into batter also. Pour batter into a 9" buttered springform pan. Bale 50-60 minutes or until firm when gently pressed in the center. Cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pan. Make glaze and drizzle over cake when completely cool.

Perhaps inspired by memories of Kara and Collin's wedding, I recently knit two lemon and lavender sweaters for their sweet babies, Annie and Laurel.

Annie's sweater pattern is called "Diamond and Bobble" and is available free from Ravelry. The yoke design made for little seaming (hurrah!) And because most of the sweater is primarily done in stockinette stitch, it's a great one for doing while reading aloud or helping children with their math.

Annie enjoys playing with her uncles' Legos.

Laurel's sweater is a kimono wrap style, and I found the pattern here.

Since I still had plenty of purple yarn left, and needing to keep my anxious fingers busy, I also made Laurel a pair of leggings. The pattern was very long, and even though Laurel is running in the 97% in height, I cut out a few rows. These leggings are designed to flare over the baby's feet or shoes, giving a feminine touch.

A Year at Pleasant Hill Farm: January

2012-01-30T18:33:00.000-05:00

Gen 8: 22 "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Don't you love the predictable way seasons revolve? How sweet it is for the Lord to provide for a continual change in weather, with enough variability to keep us on our toes, but enough routine to allow us to make general plans. I love it!

One of my favorite picture books is A Year At Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Povensen. It’s a loving portrayal of one year of life on the authors’ farm, showing the cycle of hard work and rich life for the people (and animals) on the farm. Reading this book to children during our town days probably had more to do with my longing to live in the country than I care to admit.

Older children and adults may enjoy Edith Holden's The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. I was so happy to find a hardcover copy at the library bookstore recently for $4, though I've since found that many copies can be obtained online for the same (including postage!) The 1977 edition is a facsimile of the original diary, which lay for seventy years undiscovered on the shelves on an English country house. It's printed on thick, brown paper made to look aged. The book is so gorgeous, it might be worth buying a second copy to use for frameable prints.

Edith Holden's diary depicts seasonal observations of animals, plants, and weather during the year of 1906 in her native Warwickshire. Her stunning watercolor paintings adorn the book, and she includes poetry and folk wisdom along with her nature notes. If a more beautiful example of a nature notebook exists, I don't know what it is. If you have children making nature notebooks, this book can serve as a wonderful inspiration. Otherwise, it makes for just plain fun reading.

Because I love seasonal changes so much, I'm going to try to post a few pictures each month showing what's happening here at Pleasant Hill Farm. It's been a very mild winter so far, but we did have a small ice storm this month.


Ice covered blueberry bush.

My grandfather built this water wheel decades ago, and we brought it to our farm.
In better weather, the roof makes a good perch for children.

Birdfeeder Collin built. (And yes, it does need more birdseed!)


However, this picture of Peter cooling down from his afternoon run today (1/30) is probably more representative of the strangely warm January we've been having. Can't say I'm complaining!

A Real Pioneer Woman

2012-01-22T22:49:00.004-05:00

Sometimes when I'm discouraged or overwhelmed, I find it helpful to read biographies of women of past generations. The amount of work and hardship these women routinely encountered, usually with a good will, puts me in my place.

I'm currently reading Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. About a century ago Mrs. Stewart, then Mrs. Pruitt, had recently been widowed and left with a young daughter. What to do next? How about stake a claim in Wyoming? After deciding working as a laundress in Denver wasn't fitting the bill, Elinore decides to take a position as housekeeper for a Scottish cattleman in Wyoming, making her own claim next to his so she can carry out her cooking and housekeeping while satisfying the homestead requirements. Here's how she describes Mr. Clyde Stewart early on:

I have a very, very comfortable situation and Mr. Stewart is absolutely no trouble, for as soon as he has his meals he retires to his room and plays on his bagpipe, only he calls it his “bugpeep.” It is "The Campbells are Coming," without variations, at intervals all day long and from seven till eleven at night. Sometimes I wish they would make haste and get here.

After six weeks (!) she ends up marrying Mr. Stewart, of course, who turns out to be a kind man who loves both Elinore and her little daughter. (They eventually had three sons together.) Elinore's true story is told in letters that she wrote back to her friend and former employer in Denver, Juliet Coney. Mrs. Coney had the letters published in serial form in The Atlantic Monthly.

Though she considered herself poorly educated, Elinore, a voracious reader, writes friendly, witty letters which are alternately hilarious and touching as she describes her life in the wilderness great humor and elan. She details neighborhood sewing parties (the neighbors could be days away), weddings, run-ins with outlaws and polygamists, and outings such as one which turns into a blizzard requiring her and her daughter to take refuge with a delightful elderly sheepherder. Though she lived in a land with only "three seasons" (July, August and winter), and experiences real difficulties and loss, Elinore doesn't complain, but takes life in stride. Often self-deprecating, Elinore apologizes for her long-windedness and other failings. Her outlook cheers me.

Today, feeling dissatisfied with myself over a recent failure, I read this:

From something you wrote I think I must have written boastingly to you at some time. I have certainly not intended to, and you must please forgive me and remember how ignorant I am and how hard it is for me to express myself properly....If you only knew how far short I fall of my own hopes you would know I could never boast. Why, it keeps me busy making over mistakes just like some one using old clothes. I get all ready to enjoy a success and find that I have to fit a failure. But one consolation is that I generally have plenty of material to cut generously, and many of my failures have proved to be real blessings.

Hear, hear.

And then, tonight, this, not in Mrs. Stewart's book, but in the Book:

I will love You, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my strength, in whom I will trust. My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18: 1,2)

Choosing a Math Curriculum

2012-01-12T15:04:00.000-05:00

"Country Schoolhouse" by Morgan Weistling

http://iamachild.wordpress.com

1857 edition of Ray's Primary Arithmetic

About a mile from our home sits a cute little house that was formerly a one room school. I like to imagine that something like the picture above took place there, though I know this nostalgic painting gives a rosy view of a job that had to be very taxing. Hard as it must have been to instruct a classroom with more than a dozen children of a wide variety of ages and abilities, one part of the job must have been simpler than today: curriculum choices. Educational publishing houses were few and therefore teachers (or parents or school boards) didn't have to wade through the seemingly endless stream of options that homechooling parents today face. McGuffey Readers were standard fare in little schools around the country from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century while Ray's Arithmetic series was a popular math curriculum for perhaps fifty years or so.

When we began homeschooling in the late 1980's, homeschoolers had far fewer choices than they do today, but new possibilities appeared rapidly. While I tried to find the "perfect" program, we switched math programs so frequently when my oldest children were in elementary school, I sometimes wondered if I was ruining them for life. Here's a peek into our travels on the road to finding quality math products for our children, in the hope that it might be helpful as you seek out the best fit for your students. At the end I list some questions that can help you think through the important qualities in a math program.

Andrew and Kara began with Miquon Math, a program which developed in Montessori classrooms back in the '60s. I loved Miquon then, and I love it still, though we've used it more as a supplemental resource than our primary one for the youngest children. Miquon excels in encouraging creative, logical math thinking skills, and rewards children for coming up with different ways to solve problems. Cuisinaire rods, those most versatile of all manipulatives, play an essential part in this program. We also used other supplementary Cuisinaire rod books such as the Alphabet Book; Hidden Rods, Hidden Numbers; and Picture Puzzles. (Miquon - is designed for K/1st -3rd grade.)

The question of what to do next arose after Andrew finished the Miquon books in second grade. Being a novice homeschooler, I turned to that standby, Saxon. Andrew, whose native language seemed to be math, had no difficulty with the problem sets in Saxon 54, but the repetition of concepts threatened to erase all the love he naturally had for mathematics. Ugh! He was bored, and so was I! Something had to change! So the next years were a flurry of trying various products: Moving with Math, Math-U-See, Making Math Meaningful, Scott Foresman, the Keys to Series, and maybe a few more that I can't remember. Sometimes I required the children to complete two programs simultaneously. (Yes, I was a curriculum junky in those days, something I've repented of since.) The frequent changes didn't seem to phase Andrew, though I wondered what they were doing for child #2, not a natural math head. She generally seemed to take it in stride, though probably more consistency might have been helpful for her. (On the flip side, working in multiple programs requires kids to learn how to approach problems in different ways, and can actually strengthen their math muscles, if they are game.)

A few years later when Singapore Math (Primary Mathematics) was introduced to this country, we began using it for the elementary students, and I breathed a deep sigh. Finally! The program I'd been looking for! This curriculum teaches math thinking along with math skills, just like Miquon does. It goes deeper than simply showing children a standard method for solving a particular type of problem, and encourages logical, orderly, and creative math skills while teaching math concepts. The word problems are particularly challenging, and a method is taught to solve problems that would otherwise require algebra. Singapore also excels in teaching mental math strategies. Excellent!

By the time my oldest two hit Algebra and Geometry, we again found a program that scored top ratings: Harold Jacob's Elementary Algebra, and then his Geometry text. Both courses teach logical thinking, though that's particularly evident in the geometry text with an introductory chapter on logic and a great emphasis on proofs. Mr. Jacob's strong content with a large dose of wit make these two books a great choice for 8th-9th grades, especially for abstract thinkers.

After that, our curricula of choice is the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project series. Because I'm hooked on the Jacob's books, we don't begin UCSMP until Advanced Algebra, but the series has upper level courses for grades 6-12. This excellent program, though, is not a designed for self-teaching, and I don't have the time it requires, so at this point I prefer to get some help by using either a tutor or online class. For two of my seven so far to hit upper level math, we've not followed this approach, but actually taken the Saxon route for reasons specific to those students and/or our life at the time. My current Saxon student also uses the DIVE CDs to give a bit of personal instruction before he hits the problem sets. Saxon is not my favorite, and I would not recommend it for any child who might be heading toward a math or science field, but it has its utility as times.

So, that's our particular patchwork of curricula. In addition, there are several supplements that we routinely use at each stage. I'll save that for a later post.

But more to the point - how does one go about choosing a math program? What are the important factors to consider? Of course no program is entirely one way or the other (conceptual instead of computational in orientation, for example), but these generalities still give some framework for you to think about.

1. Is it primarily computational or conceptual?
Some programs focus more on teaching the basic facts (A Beka, for example), while others emphasis teaching mathematical ideas and concepts (Singapore or Math-U-See).

2. Does is primarily take a mastery or spiral approach?
Spiral programs (Saxon, Horizons, A Beka) teach little bits of new information, but give lots of review of old problem types. Mastery programs Singapore, Math-U-See, UCSMP, etc.) are organized by chapters on a particular topic, and review is done separately.

3. Does is have a rule orientation or is it more manipulative or hands-on?
Saxon54 and up and A Beka tend to stress memorization of rules and facts. Math-U-See and Moving With Math use manipulatives heavily to introduce topics. Singapore takes a three step approach from concrete (real objects) to pictorial to abstract.

4. Does it teach or encourage mathematical thought or focus more on memorizing step-by-step algorithms to solve problems? Singapore and Miquon excel at the first, while Saxon stresses the second. For some students one approach is best, while for others the opposite can be more effective.

5. Is the content comprehensive? Are there missing elements? Check out scope and sequences or reviews that you trust. If you otherwise love a particular curriculum, but it is thin in a particular topic, you might be able to supplement.

6. Is it designed for independent learning or is it teacher-based? If the latter, will you have the time needed to implement it? If the former, is it "easy" to use because it is a "math lite" program or because it uses an excellent self-teaching method?

7. Is it pricey? Consumable or reusable? Budget issues always play a role in curriculum choice as well.

There's no one-size fits all math curriculum. We need to consider the individual needs of each of our children plus the peculiar dynamics going on in our home and school. Here's a good article on choosing a homeschool math curriculum. Make sure to check out trusted reviews. Cathy Duffy's are absolutely terrific, and then it often helps to read opinions from folks who have been working with a particular curriculum for some time.

Topics I hope to cover in future math installments: Super supplements; Making and using triangle flash cards; Drill websites; Khan Academy; Time tested manipulatives.

Let me know if something else interests you, though.

A Fly on My Wall (Four Years Ago)

2012-01-07T14:00:00.002-05:00

Recently Lauren asked a number of great questions concerning fitting everything in. A while back I wrote a post on establishing routines and a second with some ideas for scheduling and homeschooling which deal with some of these things. Lauren also asked what an average day looks like in our home. A couple of years ago I wrote a piece for the "Day at our House" section of the magazine I write reviews for, Practical Homeschooling. It is VERY long and, in my opinion, kind of boring, not to mention out of date, but if you really want to know what goes on in our three ring circus, here goes.

By the way - this was written about one particular day, April 2, 2008. Of course things are somewhat different this year with new ages and stages of the children. We've had animal changes (we're goat free) and a number of curriculum changes. (Tapestry of Grace has been our history mainstay for the past several years, for example.) Finally, Kristen is now away at Purdue for much of the year. Also, the way things run on a typical day in 2012 (or 2008) bears almost no resemblance to what things looked like when we had only young children. But if you want to see how things work out in our house, here's a peek...

A Day in the Life of the Wegener family

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Home for us Wegeners is a 110 acre farm in beautiful southern Indiana. We currently have a couple of Angora goats, a lovely flock of chickens, some adorable baby chicks in our laundry room, and a kitchen garden, but our main crop is children. Tim provides for the family with his remodeling and home building business, and Anne teaches the children and tries to keep the home managed smoothly. Our oldest two children have graduated from our homeschool and more recently from Purdue University. Andrew, 23, is still in West Lafayette, IN though, continuing his electrical engineering studies at the graduate level. Kara, 21, graduated last May with a degree in Classical Studies, and returned home because she had met a wonderful young man at our church. Kara and Collin, a plant ecology grad student at Indiana University, plan to marry June 14. We’re continuing to teach our younger children: Kristen (17), Jonathan (14), Peter (12), Amanda (11), Faith (9), Paul (7), and Benjamin (4). Here’s a peek into a typical day in our crazy household. Please don’t think life is perfect in our home, because it is not. Children do sometimes complain or bicker with one another. Tim and I get harried and very often are exhausted. But we love one another and we love the Lord Jesus, and we are very thankful for the opportunity to raise these nine amazing people. Our pastor recently said to Tim and I, “The lines have fallen to [you] in pleasant places,” (Psalm 16:6) and he was certainly right.

7:00 Time to start breakfast. We follow a weekly menu for breakfast and lunch, and Wednesday means that Swedish Puff Pancakes are on the queue. I love the rich golden color our fresh eggs give the batter. Once that’s in the oven I dash upstairs for a quick shower. One of the children will keep an eye on things while I progress through my morning routine. I chat briefly with Kara before she heads off to her job of cooking at a natural foods grocery and deli. Kara studied classics in college not because of the types of jobs that would allow her to pursue, but to give her a strong base to homeschool the children she hopes the Lord will give her. (She and her fiancé, Collin Hobbs, hope to have lots of little “Hobbs-its.”)

7:30 Everyone is up and eating. Tim kisses me goodbye and leaves for the day. He’ll be spending his day installing crown molding in a new home and getting ready for a foundation for a major addition to someone’s home.

8:00 I start a load of laundry while Peter heads to the barn to feed and water the chickens and let the goats outside. The youngest children get dressed and ready for morning chores.

8:15-8:30 Morning chore time! The idea is that everyone runs around working hard for fifteen minutes until our timer goes off. Everyone has assigned duties, some repeated daily and others variable. Amanda and Faith unload the dishwasher (assisted by Ben who takes care of the silverware) and re-fill it with breakfast dishes. They will also clean the counters and prep the kitchen for the day. Paul brings down dirty clothes and then helps me fold clean laundry. Some days sheets are changed, others floors are vacuumed, others mirrors are sprayed. When someone finishes a task and doesn’t know what to do next, they are to come to me and ask for a new assignment. There’s always something to be done! Later in the day everyone has other chores, but this is one time we always work simultaneously.

8:30-9:00 Bible time. Kristen and Jonathan have their Bible time on their own. They are currently working through some of Larry Burkett’s materials on biblical financial principles. Kris and Jon work largely on their own through the main school hours. My time to tutor them comes mostly in the evenings and Saturdays, though I touch base with them at various points throughout the day. As teens they seem to wake up more as the day progresses, and are happy to continue working rather late at night.

The younger five children and I start out by singing several Scripture memory songs from the Sing the Word CDs. I love the beautiful arrangements written by homeschool dad, Steve Harrow, plus the fact that the music is available in songbooks as well as the CDs. As I play the piano, the children sing Psalm 103, “Run the Race” (Hebrews 12:1-13) and Psalm 19 from The Heavens Declare set. I try to pick a combination of new and review pieces. Sometimes I chose something that I especially need to hear that morning. One of my favorites is Lamentations 3:22-23:

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

We’re currently focusing on stewardship and Africa with KONO’s “In a Bag” country unit study. Some days we take our Bible studies from the KONOS stewardship activities or from Larry Burkett’s Money Matters for Kids. This morning we instead read about Pygmies in Windows on the World. I pass out prayer requests, and we pray for them and other needs we are aware of. Grandpa Jonathan, my father-in-law, is much in our prayers as he has been recently hospitalized for internal bleeding and other issues. After we finish our Bible time we have a short time of poetry memorization. Before the year starts I pick one poem for each month. Periodically we review old poems, though we are not as systematic as we ought to be. I keep copies of all the poems in sheet protectors in a binder. April’s poem is “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes.

9:00-9:30 Peter, Amanda, and Faith head upstairs to dig into the books they are currently reading. Each child has a book list with books related to our history or science units, plus lots of other good literature on his or her level. I assign point values to books and give a goal for each one. My girls, though, are such avid readers that they have demolished the list and I am continually having to come up with more ideas. Thankfully our house is filled with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and we are blessed with a fabulous library and bookmobile. (I can even tell the bookmobile librarian what our current topic is and she will hand pick books for the next week.)

My theory has always been to work with the youngest children first, so after sending the middle ones off, I have a special time with my two youngest boys. This year we’re primarily reading the Sonlight preschool books, though we add in lots of other things – poetry, art appreciation, and art or science activities. I’ve found that when I “fill-up” my little ones first, they are usually happy to then play on their own while I work with their older siblings.

9:30-9:45 While Paul reads to me from a Dr. Seuss book, I put a few more stitches in Kara and Collin’s “Lover’s Knot” quilt which I have pieced and am now hand quilting. Paul is my wiggliest child ever, and by the time we finish he is ready for a little trampoline time. Ben, though more of a cuddle-bunny, is also ready to run outside.

9:45-10:30 Writing time! Several years ago, when I was weary with my ninth pregnancy, we discovered The Potter’s School, a fabulous online school that offers rigorous classes for junior and senior high students. Since then we have had our oldest children take many classes from journalism to robotics. As a former chemist, I especially turn to TPS for help in teaching English. This year Peter has his first TPS class, Writer’s Workshop, and he is working on his current assignment on a laptop upstairs. We’ve asked Kristen to help Peter this year, and that has worked out very well. Jonathan works on his assignments for his English 8 class. He’s currently studying Animal Farm and writing a persuasive essay about the Linux operating system. Kristen’s English course this year is Early American Literature, also a TPS class. This week she is taking a midterm and writing an essay on Poe.

I’m teaching Amanda and Faith together from Institute for Excellence in Writing materials. We’ve used Andrew Pudewa’s system to teach writing structure and style for many years, and I have been especially pleased with the history-based lessons that have come out the past couple of years. The little girls are working through Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons. Amanda writes faster than Faith, so she uses her extra time to either write poetry or practice typing. She’s looking forward to taking her first TPS class next year. In our home taking online classes is a mark of growing up.

I give Paul a lesson from First Language Lessons. I try to alternate this book with work in a Memoria Press copybook. Paul also works in an Explode the Code phonics book. Ben is just starting this series with the Get Ready, Get Set, Go For the Code books. Ben is a new reader and on days when I can squeeze it in I give him a lesson from 100 Easy Lessons. Sometimes I feel bad that he doesn’t get more individual attention, but he has lots of other perks with so many older siblings to play with, and as I have seen with the others, he picks up so much just by being around the other ones.

10:30-11:15 Math. The younger children work in the kitchen in their various Singapore books while the older ones do math in their rooms. Jonathan works in Jacob’s Algebra while Kristen uses UCSMP Function, Statistics and Trigonometry. I love math, but until I found Singapore, I was never totally satisfied with an elementary curriculum. We still supplement with various things as well. Paul supplements with Miquon books and Amanda has been having a fun time with Hands On Equations. Peter’s now working in Singapore’s New Elementary Math (which, contrary to what it sounds like, is post-elementary in our American system.) Faith finishes early, so I have her play a math game with Ben. Speaking of Paul, where is he? I track down Mr. Wiggles in his room, listening to a Story of the World CD and playing with playmobiles. Paul is very bright, but like most of my boys at young ages, is pencil phobic. This year we are working on self-discipline and self-control.

11:15-12:00 Latin has been my language of choice for many years, mostly because I find it the easiest language to teach. Likely that is because it is so wonderfully orderly, which fits the way my brain works. I love conjugating verbs and parsing sentences! Not all of my children are as enthusiastic as I am, but they at least put up with my strange quirks. Two years ago we started using the Latin For Children series, and it is my favorite elementary Latin curriculum of the three I have used over the years. On Wednesdays we read together a story from the history readers, Libellus de Historia. Faith is in Primer A and reads “Iesus est Vivus!” (Jesus is alive!) while the next three children are working in Primer B and they read “Inquisitia Hispaniae” (The Spanish Inquisition). Children I am not currently working with study on their own. When I am pressed for time I have Amanda teach Latin to Faith. They enjoy studying together, often quizzing one another on vocabulary or spelling words. Ben and Paul often join us for our Latin chants, and Ben is excited that next year he will have his own Latin book when he starts the new Song School Latin program published by the same folks as Latin for Children.

12:00-1:30 Lunch, recess, and chores. Wednesdays the kids eat pizza, which is the easiest of our lunches, so I have time to squeeze in a 10 mile bike ride. I’m pretty compulsive about exercising outdoors nearly every day. Either very early in the morning, at lunch, or after school I try to slip out for a walk on our trails or a bike ride. Exercise nourishes my body, and I need the quiet time to be able to once a day think continuous thoughts and to pray without interruptions. For many years I walked with a baby in a front or back carrier, but now that my youngest is four I have a bit more freedom. Spring is starting to come on here in southern Indiana and the daffodils are beautiful, but it will be a few more weeks before the redbuds and dogwoods are out in their glory. Often I sing hymns as I ride past woods, fields and ponds, thankful that there is little road traffic at this time of day, though the cows and horses sometimes stare.

This year our internet speeds are too slow for our kids to take their online classes at home, so they have been driving in to our church, about 20 minutes away. Kristen heads off for her lit class. She’ll stay afterwards to do some online SAT prep as well. Jon will man the fort while I’m riding.

After lunch the kids head outside. The younger ones are building a new home in the woods. Near our creek they have built a village with homes made of large stones and sticks. The village has a general store, a school, a park, and houses for each of the younger children. Amanda later tells me about a wild turkey she started in the woods. Peter takes care of the lunch dishes. Home again, I grab a quick bite to eat and move the laundry along. We’ve taken a long lunch break for years, partly because I used to need the time to nurse the current baby and put the toddler down for a nap. I’ve thought of shortening the time, but the break still works well with our life.

1:30-2:00 Spelling and math drill. I work with Peter on spelling using Spelling Power. Amanda, Faith, Paul and Jonathan work in traditional spelling programs. Some days I give spelling tests or pretests to all five at once in a round robin. Kind of crazy, but it works. I’m still searching for the ultimate miracle spelling program to help my boys who seem to lack visual memory. My oldest son, a brilliant student, would still be in trouble without spellcheck, but I guess that is common for engineers. His history of technology professor told the students that he wouldn’t take off much for spelling errors because he knew they were all engineers and couldn’t spell. For math drill we use Calculadder. We’ll be doing standardized tests in a few weeks, so I want the kids to be sharp on their calculation skills.

2:00-2:45 KONOS time. Today we read about monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas. As the kids feed me facts, I write on the wall-sized slate blackboard that is in our kitchen. The blackboard originally came from a one-room school house. Peter, Amanda and Faith take notes and draw illustrations to make a tri-fold booklet which shows the similarities and differences between these primates. Paul and Ben listen in, but don’t take notes. The girls then help Paul and Ben make little monkeys out of supplies found in our KONOS-in-a-Bag kit. Paul and Ben love them and can now use their monkeys with the clothespin crocodiles they made yesterday to re-tell a folktale we recently read, The Monkey and the Crocodile.

This afternoon Jonathan is studying for the Physical Science test he will take tomorrow and prepping for the song he will lead at church tonight. Jonathan is taking guitar lessons from a young man at church, a classical violist and instrument maker.

2:45-3:15 Read Aloud. I’m reading from Mary Slessor: Forward into Calabar. I’ve figured out how to place the book so I can quilt at the same time I read. Many of my children, like me, listen better when their hands are occupied. If they still have handwriting to do, they are supposed to do this now. Today Amanda, Faith, and Peter are building model Pygmy houses out of pipe cleaners and raffia. Sometimes the children knit or draw pictures. Amanda has been making a large map of Africa, beginning with a grid she drew on blank paper. Faith might see how quickly she can put together our Africa/Middle East Geopuzzle. This is certainly a painless way to memorize names and locations of the countries. From time to time I give the kids a blank outline map and test their knowledge.

3:15 Phew! We’re done with the bulk of school for the day. I spend a few minutes picking up, then turn my attention to wedding plans. Our dining room has turned into Wedding Central. We’re putting the finishing touches on the 250 invitations we’ve been making, and hope to get those out in the next couple of weeks. I’ve almost finished sewing Kara’s dress and veil, flower girl dresses for Amanda and Faith, but still have the bridesmaid dresses to go. By making the dresses we can end up with simple but lovely, modest and still stylish, dresses. It’ll be a summer garden type wedding with bouquets of wildflowers that Collin will pick for Kara and the other girls. Kara is going to make a daisy wreath just before she walks down the aisle to wear on top of her veil. I’m currently sewing my niece, Elizabeth’s dress. Kristen, the maid of honor, is sewing her own dress, as is Collin’s sister. So, after this one, I only have one more to go!

Kara comes home and we talk briefly about our plans for teaching the girls at church tonight. Amanda and Faith practice piano while the little boys play in their room.

4:30 Time to start dinner. We’ll be eating early today to make it to church for Wed. night programs. Tonight it’s going to be chicken lo mein with broccoli.

5:30-6:00 Dinner. A bit rushed tonight as everyone eats, then heads off to gather things to take to church. Evening dishes, Kristen’s responsibility, will have to wait.

6:30-8:30 Church programs. Kara and I, along with one other lady, work with the older elementary aged girls. We take a two-pronged approach, teaching them practical homemaking skills plus lessons in godly girlhood. This year we are teaching them to sew with the Sewing Machine Fun series. Tonight they are sewing simple dogs and cats. I’ve used these books at home with my older girls, and really like how they develop skills and control with sewing machines. For the second half of the class we are doing an overview of the Bible and making a lapbook (available from Tobin’s Lab) to summarize the contents of each book. Kara, my artist, comes up with visual representations of the themes of the books. Eventually we gather all the children and head home. Collin brings Kara home. They’ll work a bit on wedding plans, but mostly just want to spend every possible minute enjoying being with one another. How sweet it is watching them. Collin is going to make an awesome husband and father.

9:00 It’s late, so family devotions time is short tonight. Tim reads a chapter from I Thessalonians, prays, and then sends the kids upstairs to “jamify”. (Translation – put on pajamas.) I help the little boys brush teeth and then tuck them in. The girls still have a bit of time to read before lights must be out. Peter and I look over an outline he has made for a pro/con essay he needs to draft tomorrow. He’s going to write about whether our family should or should not get a pony. Peter, who adores the chickens and considers them his children, is not so wild about the idea of getting a pony, so he’s taking the con side.

9:30 Andrew calls from West Lafayette with a question about how and when to plant peppers. We chat for a bit about his classes and research, and then I hand him over to Collin, a botanist. (My most frequent conversations with Andrew are when he calls asking how to make some recipe or where to find some exotic ingredient at the store. Left to himself Andrew can survive on frozen pizza, ice cream from the box, and Taco Bell. But he and his roommates have made it a goal to practice hospitality at least once each week, and when cooking for guests Andrew likes to go all out.)

10:00 Jonathan goes down to the barn to collect eggs and lock the chickens and goats in for the night. He then puts up all the stools and benches in the kitchen to do the daily sweeping so we can start with a reasonably tidy kitchen tomorrow. I’ve been working some more on Lizzie’s dress, but by 10:30 I’m ready to quit for the night. I spend a few minutes reading over my lesson plans for tomorrow and gathering books. I write extensive unit study lesson plans each summer, which are essential to making life work during the hectic school year.

10:45 Time for a quick email check. Maybe I can order a couple of books from ABEBooks to use next year when we are going to be using Tapestry of Grace for the first time. This year we have enjoyed taking a break from our normal chronological history studies, but next year we’ll start cycling through again. I’ve found that I have a fairly low tolerance for repetition, so I try to strike a balance between using some new curriculum each year and sticking with tried and true favorites in other areas.

11:15 Many nights our older children end up in our room wanting to talk, but tonight they are tired from being out. One of the challenges of raising children over a wide age range is that the little ones still wake up early, but older ones come more alive as the day wears on. I’m thankful the older kids all still talk to us so much, and pray that we will have the energy to give each one what he or she needs.

Snuggling in bed with my husband is my favorite time of day. It’s finally quiet, and Tim and I catch up, and read a bit before the lights go out. We can hear the lovely peepers (little tree frogs) singing outside, and the occasional howl of coyotes. Good night!

Kindles, Kids, and other Electronic Devices

2012-01-03T21:01:00.001-05:00

While they were busily working on some braided trivets before Christmas, one of the 4th-6th grade girls I help teach on Wednesday nights casually mentioned that she and all her classmates at a local public school would be getting iPads after the first of the year. Woah, baby! This led to a somewhat heated exchange between the girls on the merits of reading books electronically versus on paper. One stalwart fourth grader said, "Well, I can't imagine a world without books!"

I have to agree. Books fill our house. I love beautifully illustrated new books, beloved old tomes, and out-of-print treasures. And yet...

A weird thing has happened in the past year: I've become a Kindle convert. At least for certain purposes. For my last birthday my parents, non-technical septuagenarian bibliophiles and also avid Kindle users, gave me my own e-reader. I was interested, but skeptical. What could this little thing offer me that I couldn't get better from "real" books? (The New York Times refers to them as "dead tree books!") Plenty, it turns out. In a nutshell, here are the things that have endeared my little black gadget to me:

1. It makes for the best bedtime reading. Lightweight and easy to read. Unbeatable for aging eyes. Tim and I have spent more time reading to each other than we have in years because the Kindle makes it so easy.

2. Storage space. My Kindle holds up to 3500 books. That's probably nearly equal to the books we have spread throughout our house.

3. It's economical. So many public domain books are available free! Some of the authors I've downloaded include E. Nesbit, Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thornton Burgess, and so many more. You can download books by H. E. Marshall (Our Island Story, This Country of Ours, etc.) and poetry like Gelett Burgess's Goops. Amazon "sells" some public domain books for free, and others are available at sites like Gutenberg. Classics such as Spurgeon's devotionals are inexpensive. Converting from EPub or PDFs to the Kindle MOBI format is a cinch when it becomes occasionally necessary.

4. It's terrific for travel. What a great replacement for my old habit of taking multiple volumes along on even a short trip. And nothing beats an e-reader for that boring airport and plane time.

5. Mostly hands free reading allows you to do something else with your hands like hold a baby, dry your hair, or knit!

6. Useful for holding other documents such as knitting patterns and PDFs of Peter's distance race results.

7. Electronic storage of books makes out-of-print books much more accessible. Book only stay in print as long as enough readers purchase them. Some old books have become very difficult to find, but if someone uploads a text to Gutenberg or Googlebooks, it's available for everyone.

8. Amazon has fabulous customer service. We had a sad story involving two boys wrestling on parents' bed, a smashed Kindle screen, and a very kind Amazon customer service agent. "Yes, we understand that accidents do happen," he said. I tried to argue with him, pointing out that it was completely our fault. Upshot: free replacement device received two days later.

Does this mean I'm ready to give up on paper books or unilaterally endorse e-readers? Not by a long shot. I'm still routinely ordering new and (wonderfully smelling, slightly musty, crusty, well-loved hardbacks) used books especially from dear old AbeBooks.com. I can't really imagine a world without physical books, and I don't foresee that happening any time soon.

Kindles work terrifically for any book that you read straight through. If you need to "flip" back and forth, you can bookmark sections, but this is somewhat cumbersome. So I'm using my Kindle for daily Bible reading, but not for Bible study. It works great for reading fiction or linear nonfiction, but not so much for a book you might want to jump around in like a cookbook or craft instruction book. (Though I do sometimes put PDF files of knitting pattens on the Kindle.)

But what about kids and e-readers? The Redeemed Reader Blog has an interesting interview with Mike Sugimoto, a film studies prof at Pepperdine about this whole topic. Mr. Sugimoto takes a pretty dim view of children using e-readers and other devices. He says, "The research I’ve uncovered – and there is quite a bit now – is actually fairly strong against ereaders and computers, in general, specifically in terms of developing a childhood love of reading." Some of Mr. Sugimoto's criticisms, while aimed generally, do not apply equally to e-readers and tablets, however. The ability to find distractions or surf the web is much more limited on a basic e-reader than on an iPad or Kindle Fire, for example.

The younger the child, the less place I think e-readers, computers, and any electronic devices ought to have in their lives. "Real" books, read with Mom, Dad, or big brother or sister, beat an e-book hands down for little ones. Young independent readers are also best off with actual ink on paper books. I don't think you can beat the complete package of holding a book in your hands, seeing different types of print face, experiencing the richness of illustrations on paper, feeling the pages turn in your hand, and even smelling old paper that's been in someone's home for years. However, once a child has become an avid reader, the source of the printed word becomes less significant than the availability. So, in my opinion, e-readers can have a utility for older children, just as they do for adults. (I should note, however, that while my kids occasionally read something on one of the two e-readers in our home, their preference is for tree-books.)

Digital books have some interesting applications for homeschoolers, too. While I was working on this post, I received my latest batch of review materials for Practical Homeschooling magazine. Most intriguing in this set is a series of CDs from Heritage History. This company offers a number of civilization specific libraries (including Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, British Middle Ages, British Empire, Early America, and a Young Readers set) all based on sets of digital public domain books. You'll find volumes written by esteemed authors such as H.E. Marshall, Howard Pyle, M.B. Synge, Jacob Abbott, James Baldwin, Andrew Lang, Helene Guerber and Alfred Church. Each CD comes with 40-80+ books, each one in available in PDF, MOBI, and EPub files. Students can read them on Kindles and other e-readers, iPads, directly on a regular computer, or print out as entire books. In addition, the full curriculum disks have maps, timelines, and summaries of the historical eras covered in that particular CD. At $25 for a Complete Curriculum CD or $20 for a library, these CDs are a phenomenal value. Even though a number of the books are available free online, many others are not. The ancillary material including book summaries and reading recommendations make these collections even more valuable. Heritage History also has lists of their books that are used in other curricula such as Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside, and Living Books.

In my opinion, it shouldn't be a strict either-or decision. I sure hope that "real" physical books continue to be published, read, and treasured by future generations. But digital books can also fill some useful roles, and I am glad to have one more option for reading wonderful old (and newer) books.

"But what's going to happen to the future of book burnings with digital books? What are they going to do? Get lots of people together with their e-readers and say, 'OK, now. One, two, three - DELETE!'?" - Heard recently from one of my children

The Elves' Projects 2011

2011-12-31T16:36:00.000-05:00

Squirrel proof bird feeder in process

The elves were very busy the week before Christmas in our house. Our children do a "draw" between themselves for gift giving, and the giver must make his or her gift. This year most of them decided to do woodworking projects. Guess who that put the pressure on? Well, not this tool klutz. Because so much secrecy is involved, Tim and the kids ended up setting up four different workshops: garage, Turtle Creek farm shop, basement shop, and pantry. Yes, our house smelled like stain and polyurethane, but the kids turned out some neat projects from a redwood planter with trellis to a bird feeder that dumps rogue squirrels onto the ground. Other projects included:

a shoe rack for Peter,

a gun rack for Jonathan,

a Cribbage game for Andrew,

a Viking hat for Ben,

a piano bench for Faith,

and forced bulbs for Amanda.

Somehow I missed getting photos of the others: a beautiful lapis lazuli knit shawl, etched glass mugs with cocoa mix, and a shelf to go over Paul's bed. It's always a bit tense trying to get everything done, but so fun to see the kids putting their creativity to use for one another.

Annie's Montessori-style Quilted Numbers

2011-12-31T16:23:00.002-05:00

"Irresistible Numbers"

I didn't do much sewing for Christmas this year, but did make two sets of quilted numbers for granddaughter Annie and my little niece, Audrey. This idea comes from Growing Up Sew Liberated!: Making Handmade Clothes and Projects for Your Creative Child by Meg McElwee. Basically you make little quilted numbers that can be used similar to the Montessori sand numbers. The numbers can be clipped onto clothespins which are glued on either a branch (Annie's here) or a dowel rod (Audrey's.) The branch or dowel then hangs from a ribbon.

The embroidered edges of the numbers help guide the child's fingers to stay in the track of the number shape. (I used stem, chain, and buttonhole stitches.)

You can use the Montessori "Three Period" method to playfully teach numbers as follows:

Montessori Three Period Lesson

1. First Period: Naming - "This is..."

Have your child choose a few numbers to work with on a flat surface (mat, table, etc.) Name them repeatedly: "This is 3, 3, 3." Trace with your finger and encourage your child to do so as well. Identify each of the numbers several times. Put numbers away for another day.

2. Second Period: Association/Recognition - "Show me..."

This is where you have some fun! You can ask your child to hand you the three, put the six under the table, or trace the seven, or put the four next to the front door. Be creative and playful.

Work with these first two periods until you are pretty certain your child can recognize and identify the numbers by name. Then you're ready for the final period.

3. Third Period: Recall - "What is this?"

After playing around in the second period, ask your child, "What is this?" and see if he can remember the correct number name. If not, don't say anything, just continue with the first two periods for a while longer. He'll get it before long!

This "Three Periods" idea works to introduce and teach all kinds of concepts to preschoolers. It's a powerful tool, and fun as well. You can also play other games with the numbers such as "Knock, Knock" in which you place several or all of the numbers face down. The child "knocks" on the back of a number and asks, "Knock, knock, who's there?" Then turn over the number, trace, and say its name. Later, you can use the numbers to associate the symbol with quantity. Ask your child to pick a number and then have him jump (give hugs, take steps, etc.) that many times. Alternatively, you can put together a set of counters such as buttons, and use these to teach your child to count the correct number of objects for each number card. These ideas and more are found in Ms. McElween's fun book.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne on Bible Reading

2011-12-26T12:06:00.000-05:00

"Do everything in earnest--if it is worth doing, then do it with all your might. Above all, keep much in the presence of God. Never see the face of man till you have seen his face who is our Life, our All." - Robert Murry M'Cheyne

My brother-in-law, David, gave me a copy of Robert Murry M'Cheyne's Bible reading plan in a booklet form published by Banner of Truth. Besides the convenient layout of the year's readings, the pamphlet includes one page with instructions from the original. Pastor M'Cheyne devised this plan for his congregation, St. Peter's of Dundee, so that they "all might be feeding in the same portion of the green pasture at the same time." What an excellent idea for churches, small groups, or families! Pastor M'Cheyne went to be with the Lord at the age of 30, just three months after publishing his Bible reading plan.

Here are a couple of other instructions he gives:

- "Our private reading should be the first thing we do in the morning. God's voice should be the first we hear. We shold mark tow or three verses which seem richest to us and pray over them."

- "Above all, the Word of God should be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path - our guide in perplexity, our armour in trials, our food in times of weakness."

First Day of Winter

2011-12-22T12:37:00.000-05:00

Time for a Hard Reset

2011-12-21T09:29:00.001-05:00

Hard Reset (Hardware Reset): A system reset made by pressing the computer's Reset button or by turning the power off and then on again. A hard reset is used only when the system has crashed so badly that pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot does not work. (LSU GROK Knowledge Base)

Sunday afternoon I decided I needed a hard reset. I was out of whack in just about every way possible - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But what to do? Just where is my reset button, anyway?

First, I had a lovely two-hour nap which made a good beginning. (Our two week break from school should go some distance in helping with the reset as well!) But after waking from my refreshing sleep, one idea kept bouncing around my head: I need a good washing with the Word. I've grown haphazard and lazy in my Bible reading - bouncing here and there, with no plan, and worse, not reading consistently day by day.

So here’s what I've decided: First, I’ve determined each day to not read anything else, including on the computer, until I have first spent time in the Word. And second, I’m going to return to systematic Bible reading.

With the New Year approaching, now is an excellent time to decide how you want to approach Bible reading for 2012. I've used several different methods in the past from simply reading three-four chapters a day to using a "Chronological Bible." There are seemingly endless Bible reading plans out there. I'm not as crazy about methods that have you jumping around all over the place, but if that works for you - hurrah! Just pick a version you think you can stick with and go for it!

Here are a few options:

NAV Book-at-a-Time Plan: Has two daily readings, a short one from the Wisdom books or Isaiah, and a longer one from either a OT or NT book (one at a time.) I also like that there are periodic "reflection days" built in so you can think more deeply about passages or catch up if you've missed a bit. This is the plan I've decided to use.

NAV 5x5x5 Plan: Spend five minutes a day, five days a week, and dig into the passages in five different ways. Reading one chapter a day, you'll cover the New Testament in a year. This might be a good plan if your reading time is very limited. Also, it seems a good choice for young readers.

M'Cheyne Plan: Scottish 19th century pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne created this plan which has four daily reading in different parts of the Bible. Covers the NT and Psalms twice, and the rest of the Bible once during the year. Excellent, but ambitious. Some folks slow it down and spend two years going through the plan. Others pick one of the tracks for family devotions. (Pastor M'Cheyne originally labeled two of the daily tracks "Family" and the other two "Secret.")

Straight Through Plan: I saw this one on Pastor Andrew Dionne's blog . This one keeps it uncomplicated, taking you right from Genesis to Revelation and helps you break your reading into the right sized bites to finish by Dec. 31.

Romans 12: 1, 2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Come to Earth to Taste Our Sadness

2011-12-15T16:54:00.001-05:00

I have a new favorite Christmas carol this year: Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. Though I've sung this one for years, the incomparable Good Shepherd Band has introduced me to a lesser known verse of this hymn written by Charles Wesley. Most hymnals, and even Wikipedia, that fount of knowledge, only list two verses, though some split them up so they appear as four stanzas. But Wesley's original included at least two more verses. (The first and last are the common ones, with the one in bold the extra one that the GSB band includes:)

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free; 
From our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art; 
Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.

Joy to those who long to see thee, Dayspring from on high, appear;
Come, thou promised Rod of Jesse, of thy birth we long to hear!
O’er the hills the angels singing news, glad tidings of a birth;
“Go to him, your praises bringing; Christ the Lord has come to earth.”

Come to earth to taste our sadness, he whose glories knew no end;
By his life he brings us gladness, our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.
Leaving riches without number, born within a cattle stall;
This the everlasting wonder, Christ was born the Lord of all.

Born Thy people to deliver, born a child, and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever, now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone; 
By Thine own sufficient merit, raise us to Thy glorious throne.

This hymn speaks to so much - Jesus is the long expected Messiah, the one who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies. He came not only for those of Israel's race but is also the "hope of all the earth," and the "dear desire of every nation." But this carol also speaks of the life that Jesus brings to those who acknowledge Him as the "joy of every longing heart" and "Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend." He is the King who reigns over all, but by His Spirit He also rules in individual hearts of His children.

Recently I'm finding myself increasingly overwhelmed with the amount of sadness and suffering all around - in the lives of friends and family near and far, in our church body, and right here in my own wretched heart. Sin, both our continual daily sin, and the effects of the curse from Adam's first sin, messes with every single aspect of life from our physical bodies to relationships with those we live intimately with. So this picture of Jesus coming to taste our sadness has been a very real comfort, and one I find myself returning to again and again.

After I started looking, I saw this thread in other Christmas carols. Here are a few:

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer/Our spirits by Thine advent here;
And drive away the shades of night/ And pierce the clouds and bring us light!
Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel)

And ye, beneath life's crushing load/ Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way/With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours/Come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road/ And hear the angels sing. (It Came upon the Midnight Clear)

Jesus is our childhood's pattern/Day by day like us He grew;
He was little, weak, and helpless/Tears and smiles like us He knew:
And he feeleth for our sadness/ And He shareth in our gladness. (Once in Royal David's City)

No more let sins and sorrow grow/Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessing flow/ Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found/ Far as, far as, the curse is found. (Joy to the World)

What a joy to know that Jesus, while without sin himself, tasted our sadness, and then went on to make the sacrifice to bring us healing from the destruction and penalty of sin. Yes, one day, He will "wipe away every tear from (our) eyes, and the death shall not be any more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain, because the first things did go away" (Rev. 21:4).

ACT Scores and Homeschoolers: Good News and Bad News

2011-11-25T20:25:00.001-05:00

Nurse, chef, bookkeeper, laundress, housekeeper, interior decorator, organizer, social secretary, and on and on. Moms wear so many different hats in all our various roles! Homeschooling adds a few more hats: teacher, curriculum planner, and my least favorite, guidance counselor. But with three kids in high school this year and the next (one graduates; one joins them), I might as well get used to this last one. Tim certainly puts on this counselor hat plenty, too, as he takes on most of the overall life and career direction and the college visits. The paperwork, though, is my baby. Jon's been busy with applications and scholarship essays, while the counselor documentation has been in my court. Happily, he's finished with the only two schools he really cares about, IU and Purdue, and has just this week learned that IU is offering him an attractive (basically full tuition) scholarship. We're waiting to see what Purdue comes up with now.

Along with college prep come the dreaded standardized tests. For homeschoolers these tests (SAT, ACT, AP) often carry more weight than for traditional students. College admission officers tend to view the GPAs of homeschooled students with some skepticism, and the tests are seen as more objective. (For what it’s worth, the high school GPAs of my oldest three kids were virtually identical to their college GPAs.)

And since I’m immersed in this stuff right now, I was intrigued to read in Practical Homeschooling magazine the results of the 2011 ACT scores. Here’s a summary of the results for high school graduates and homeschoolers. (This all comes from the ACT’s 2011 The Condition of College and Career Readiness report.) The “benchmark” number is the number the ACT describes as “the minimum scores needed on the ACT subject areas to indicate a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher or a 75% chance of obtaining a C or higher" in an entry college class for that discipline. (Courses noted on table above.) In other words, they are the scores needed to be ready for beginning college courses without remedial work.

So for homeschoolers, here's the good news: Homeschooled students generally performed better than the "High School Graduate" category. Students schooled at home did better in the overall scores and in reading, English, and science. No surprise here, as various other surveys show homeschoolers routinely do better on standardized tests.

But the bad news: Both homeschoolers and general high school graduates underperformed in both science and math with homeschoolers doing even worse in math than general high school graduates!

What's the take home lesson?
While standardized tests by no means are a perfect indication of what kids know, or obviously even what we want them to learn in their school years, they can give us a hint of some basic competency. And while homeschooling parents, as a group, are doing a great job teaching their children to read and write, we could use some improvement in the areas of math and science.

There might be a zillion explanations for why homeschoolers excel in English but not so much in math and science. For one, teaching history and literature, with associated language arts, are just so much fun! As a unit-study loving mama from the beginning, I love digging into a historical era, making costumes, maps, food, and timelines, and then reading tons of "living books" to deepen our understanding of an era. For so many of us moms, teaching history has given us the education we didn't have as we've learned more of the story behind our history, and begun to catch a glimpse of the big picture of God working throughout time. But we've got to make sure that we don't get so excited about history and language arts that we forget to give our children a solid foundation in other areas.

In addition, some homeschool philosophies emphasize the more word oriented subjects at the expense of number oriented ones. (This is one of my beefs with many applications of classical education.) Sometimes math just gets pushed a bit to the back burner. Since math is such a sequential subject, falling behind just a little bit each year, maybe not quite covering all we should, adds up over time.

All kids need a solid grounding in mathematics, even if they are heading toward a word oriented career. And if you are raising future scientists, engineers, businessmen, OR homeschool moms, they especially need a strong preparation in math and science. Math is important not only so our kids can handle money and deal with practical geometry applications or real life story problems, but because it teaches them to think and analyze situations with logic. As we study every area of science, from nature topics to advanced physics, we catch a glimpse of God's marvelous work of creation, and each study will lead us to see His attributes a bit more clearly.

So let's maintain the good work in teaching our children to read critically and write with clarity, but let's also work to keep math and science instruction up front and center as well.

(If time allows, I hope to publish a couple of posts with some ideas for teaching math.)

Slime Science

2011-11-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

First, a disclaimer. Back in early August I wrote something about hoping to get back to a semi-regular blogging pattern, maybe once a week. Silly me. You would think I'd have learned when I say something like that, it is almost guaranteed that life will start to get really crazy, and blogging time will go from scarce to almost nonexistent. So, I wondered, could the opposite be true? If I tell you that I'm up to my neck with (delightful) teenagers, a seriously ill parent, and requests from offspring to take a look at fellowship essays, scholarship essays, nursing papers, and the like (seven of my nine needed editing advice this past week!), maybe, just maybe, in the next few weeks life will slow a tiny bit and I'll have time to take some of the ideas floating in my head and get them into words on the screen. Maybe???

Not having time to dig into more serious topics, I thought I'd share some fun science activities my youngest boys enjoyed this week. This year I get to teach chemistry on two levels - hurrah! Paul and Ben are dipping their toes into chemistry topics on an elementary school level, and Peter and Amanda are tackling the topic at a high school level.

I don't think the younger two have enjoyed anything more than playing with boron (as found in Borax) this week as they made slime and floam. Both of these recipes involve the same reaction, which uses glue and Borax to create polymer chains.

What's a polymer? Simply a large molecule made of repeated units. Naturally occuring polymers include shellac, natural rubber, and DNA. For synthetic polymers look no further than your tennis shoes, PVC pipes or Tupperware bowls.

Ben used a straw to make this slime balloon.

Slime:

Solution A:
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. white glue
food coloring

Solution B:
2/3 c. warm water
2 t. Borax

1. Mix ingredients in Solution A together in small bowl.
2. In medium bowl, mix ingredients in Sol'n. B. The Borax won't fully dissolve, but stir thoroughly to dissolve as much as possible.
3. Slowly pour Solution A into Solution B. Don't stir!
4. Gently roll the Solution A around in the Borax solution 4-5 times.
5. Lift out the glob and gently knead it for a few minutes.
6. Enjoy! Store the slime in an airtight container, preferably in the fridge.

"Floam"

This one is just a variation of the above, but makes a cool moldable Floam-like substance. This recipe comes from the curriculum I'm using with Paul and Ben, R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Chemistry, which I think is pretty super. Currently we're making our way through the periodic table, family by family, meeting many of the elements and learning basic chemistry terms.

Solution A:
1/4 c. glue
1/4 c. water
Food coloring, if desired

Solution B:
1/2 c. water
2 t. Borax

You will also need: 1 c. styrofoam or polystyrene beads (I stole some from one of our bean bag chairs)

Mix Solution A and Solution B in separate bowls. (As in the first recipe.) Pour Solution A into a gallon zip bag, then add 2 Tablespoons of Solution B. Don't mix it yet. Quickly also add in the polystyrene beads. Squeeze out the air from the bag, tightly seal, then knead gently for several minutes. The putty will quickly change consistency. Take out of bag when it has solidified as much as it is going to. Now you can play with this concoction! Mold it, make bouncy balls, or just explore it's weird properties. If you leave a sculpture out, it will dry and you can paint it. If you store it in an airtight container, you can keep it for some time.

Here's what's happening:
The polyvinyl acetate in the glue reacts with the Borax (sodium borate) to form a flexible polymer The Borax acts as a crosslinking agent to connect the polyvinyl acetate molecules into long chains.

Want to try even more recipes or check out other properties of slime? This link has some great ideas including a Metamucil Flubber and Silly Putty.

Ben holds the Floam below and the slime above.

"Something Told the Wild Geese": Rachel Lyman Field

2011-11-03T19:47:00.000-04:00

Rachel Field (1894-1942), author of Calico Bush and Hitty, Her First Hundred Years,

penned this lovely fall poem which is Paul and Ben's November poetry memory selection this year.

Something Told the Wild Geese

Something told the wild geese

It was time to go;

Though the fields lay golden

Something whispered, - "snow."

Leaves were green and stirring,

Berries, luster-glossed,

But beneath warm feathers

Something cautioned, - "frost."

All the sagging orchards

Steamed with amber spice,

But each wild breast stiffened

At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese

It was time to fly -

Summer sun was on their wings,

Winter in their cry.

Toddler Tornado + Twelve = Trustworthy Teen

2011-10-30T15:12:00.000-04:00

She looks sweet and innocent, doesn’t she? But this little angel packed quite a punch when it came to her toddler tornado capabilities. While not in the F6 “Inconceivable Tornado” category, she might have qualified for the F5 “Incredible Tornado” level. This is dear Amanda Hope, better known as Manda these days. Back then she usually went by Panda or Panda Bear. (But don’t try to call her that now – her father is the only one who retains that right!) When she was in full tornado mode we called her Pandemonium.

Speedy since the day of her arrival when she made her appearance ten minutes after we stepped inside the hospital, Manda has always been in a hurry. And when she was a toddler, though that wasn’t necessarily her aim, she left devastation in her wake. Scissors and paint were our little Panda Bear’s preferred medium, and she seemed to have a sixth sense for finding them. Once when I’d stepped outside to walk down to the mailbox, a three minute round trip, she somehow discovered a paint set in the kitchen junk drawer, opened it, stepped in multiple colors, and proceeded up the carpeted stairs, leaving little footprints all the way up! Many times she found scissors and cut everything from her beautiful curls to her dresses to all the floppy ears on Kristen’s beloved bunny quilt. (Eventually we managed to find all of them, and I sewed them back on. Kristen still has the quilt, but it has never been quite the same.)

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that our most active toddler tornado held the sixth place in the sibling line-up. With the first several children mama usually stays right with the little ones more, and the house can be toddler proofed. By the time you have older children, not only is your attention more divided, but the older ones have toys with intricate parts like Legos or jewelry making supplies. Perfect toddler fodder.

I’ve been remembering Manda’s days as our most powerful toddler tornado because at fourteen she’s so very different, and yet in some ways maybe not quite so different after all. Today Amanda still loves to be creative, but her efforts produce beautiful things instead of disasters. While she still likes paint – this summer she painted her room a lovely violet- she creates with everything from grapevines to plastic grocery sacks.

Today Amanda’s favorite medium consists in plants, especially wildflowers that she finds on our farm and transplants to her special area in the woods complete with a tree house, hammock, and paving made from creek rocks.

Instead of leaving chaos in her wake, these days Amanda leaves behind calm and order. Yes – as crazy as it seems, this child who wins the prize for most destructive tot of our nine, grew into a young woman who loves to bring beauty and harmony to her world! When she is bored, Amanda will tackle a closet, bathroom cabinet, or the food pantry just for fun. Never in my wildest imagination would I have dreamed this outcome a dozen years ago when I stood staring openmouthed at the little scissor cuts my sweetheart had made all over her curtains and many of her dresses when she was supposed to be napping.

If you have a tornado in your house, I want to give you some courage. Take heart! He or she will only be in this stage for a short time! Keep training these sweet little ones, precept upon precept, but also love each one for who he is, including who he is at this moment in his life. Before you know it, he will know just what should and what should not go in the toilet, and will not derive any great satisfaction from trying to flush your cell phone, but will be asking when he can have his own.

Isaiah 28: 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.

That we also may be like all the nations

2011-10-16T21:36:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday morning as Tim taught the Junior High Sunday School class from I Samuel, he impressed on them the importance of not going along with the crowd. Remember the reasoning the Israelites gave for wanting a king? Samuel had just warned the people of the hardships that having a king would bring to their lives. "Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, 'No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles' " (I Sam. 8:19, 20). And God gave them what they asked for, and they suffered as He had said.

Do you ever get tired of looking strange and different from your neighbors or extended family? How often we want to just blend in a bit with the culture! Most deceptively of all, some of the time we don't even recognize how much we acquiesce to the world we live in.

For sure, Tim and I don't do this kind of analysis nearly as much as we ought. Even now, with three teens in high school, we are discussing whether or not there is a better option than the traditional college route for post-high school education. With our oldest three children, college was almost a default option. While we are still likely heading there with the next couple of teenagers, we are now more critically examining the landscape and looking for alternate possibilities. Just because a four year (or more) college degree is the norm, is this the best way to go for each of our children?

Here's a simpler example. Kristen has always loved to dance. For many years she took ballet classes, then Irish step, and later modern dance. Dancing at IU gave her wonderful opportunities, and she loved it. Yet early on we knew that we did not want Kristen making dance her focus in life. It needed to hold a place of recreation, not performance. At times she was disappointed with decisions we made, but we were trying to keep the end goal in sight and not merely make her happy at the moment.

J. C. Ryle speaks to this in his excellent The Duties of Parents. He says:

This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children. In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, "How will this affect their souls?"

Soul love is the soul of all love. To pet and pamper and indulge your child, as if this world was all he had to look to, and this life the only season for happiness — to do this is not true love, but cruelty. It is treating him like some beast of the earth, which has but one world to look to, and nothing after death. It is hiding from him that grand truth, which he ought to be made to learn from his very infancy, — that the chief end of his life is the salvation of his soul.

A true Christian must be no slave to fashion, if he would train his child for heaven. He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways, merely because it is usual; to allow them to read books of a questionable sort, merely because everybody else reads them; to let them form habits of a doubtful tendency, merely because they are the habits of the day. He must train with an eye to his children’s souls. He must not be ashamed to hear his training called singular and strange. What if it is? The time is short, — the fashion of this world passeth away. He that has trained his children for heaven, rather than for earth, — for God, rather than for man, — he is the parent that will be called wise at last.

Let us not blithely follow the pattern of living of our peers. Instead we ought to critically examine everything from the amount of time given to sports and music study to means of education and choices in literature, apparel, and media. Be willing to live counter-culturally, even when you feel like a weirdo and your children are temporarily displeased. More is at stake than their momentary happiness.

Sarah Edwards :Faithful Women (Rerun)

2011-10-14T20:10:00.000-04:00

My younger daughters and I are reading through Noel Piper's Faithful Women, which profiles five "ordinary women" who serve an extraordinary God. Once again, I have been so encouraged by reading about Sarah Edwards. I started to write a post about her, but remembered that I already had done so when I first read this book four years ago. So, here's a re-run.

People who knew Sarah usually mentioned her beauty and ability to put people at ease. In some ways she was very different from her introverted husband, but they were also similar. Both were highly intelligent, loved music, and were devoted to the Lord. They had met at least by the time Jonathan was nineteen and she was thirteen. From notes he left in a Greek grammar book, he was clearly pretty distracted by this young lady. Two years later they were engaged, and married in another two years. Marriage was good for Jonathan. Mrs. Piper writes:

Marsden says, “By fall 1727 [about three months after the wedding] Jonathan had dramatically recovered his spiritual bearing, specifically his ability to find the spiritual intensity he had lost for three years.”
What made the difference? Perhaps he was better fitted for a church situation than for the academic setting at Yale where he taught before accepting the pastoral position. It also seems likely that the recovery was closely related to their marriage. For at least three years prior to this, in addition to his rigorous academic pursuits, he had also been restraining himself sexually and yearning for the day when he and Sarah would be one. When their life together began, he was like a new man. He had found his earthly home and haven.

Sarah’s role was chiefly to free her husband “to pursue the philosophical, scientific, and theological wrestlings that made him the man we honor.” Jonathan was apparently not the easiest person to be married to, (one famous biography of Sarah is called Marriage to a Difficult Man), but Sarah worked to make their home a happy place for him, creating an atmosphere where he was free to work and think. I love this quote from Samuel Hopkins, a man who lived with them a while:

While she uniformly paid a becoming deference to her husband and treated him with entire respect, she spared no pains in conforming to his inclination and rendering everything in the family agreeable and pleasant; accounting it her greatest glory and there wherein she could best serve God and her generation {and ours, we might add}, to be the means in this way of promoting his usefulness and happiness.

In our age, women are told we need to seek our own ministry. I remember years ago when Tim was interviewing for a youth pastor position being asked, “But what will your ministry be?” I told my questioner that I viewed my role as supportive of Tim. We planned to use our home for hospitality and I would work alongside him, especially with young women. This didn’t satisfy the woman. “But what about YOUR ministry?” I told her I would probably also teach young children and work with moms, since I was doing that then (and now), but I don’t think I ever really satisfied her.

Women are made to be their husband’s helpers, not the converse. Our chief ministry should be helping our husband’s to do the work God has called him to, and working along side him. His vision should become our vision. And we should not minimize the importance of making the home a secure, warm, peaceful, welcoming place for our husband, children, and guests.

Sarah Edwards wasn’t just a wife. She was also a mother of eleven children, all of whom survived to at least adolescence, which was not at all a given in colonial America. You’ve probably heard of the remarkable accomplishments of the Edwards offspring. Samuel Hopkins had this to say about how Sarah managed her brood:

She had an excellent way of governing her children; she knew how to make them regard and obey her cheerfully, without loud angry words, much less heavy blows…If any correction was necessary, she did not administer it in a passion; and when she had occasion to reprove and rebuke she would do it in few words, without warmth [that is, vehemence] and noise…

Her system of discipline was begun at a very early age and it was her rule to resist the first, as well as every subsequent exhibition of temper or disobedience in the child…wisely reflecting that until a child will obey his parents he can never be brought to obey God.

There’s much more, including about Sarah’s walk with the Lord, but I’ve been too wordy already. No, wait – one more story, dear to my chocolate-loving heart. One reason we know some details of the Edwards’ family life is that they saved scraps of paper – old bills, shopping lists, first drafts of letters. Paper was expensive, so Jonathan would sew these scraps together and then write his sermons on the clean side. Apparently many of the shopping lists included a reminder to her husband to not forget to buy chocolate!

And there are four more such profiles in Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God. Each one leaves me asking if I would be found faithful in such circumstances. Every woman ought to read this book!

Applesauce and Apple Peel Jelly

2011-10-08T21:53:00.000-04:00

It's apple season, which of course means applesauce!

For years I've tried to figure out whether I prefer to throw the apples whole (or minus the core) into the pot, then use my food mill to separate the good from the bad at the end, OR to first peel the apples and just mash the results. Each method has its pros and cons.

Peeling, though, is tedious. So, when I saw an inexpensive apple peeler in the Bed, Bath, and Beyond flyer, I decided it was time to try out this gadget. Yes, the reviews were mixed, but for $15 (after a $5 coupon), I figured it was worth testing out.

This picture illustrates one of the supreme benefits of this item - kid power! Because it's fun, easy, and fast, this is an ideal job for a young helper. For Ben an added bonus is grabbing as many apple peels as he wants. He's crazy about apples, and would eat three or more each day if we let him.

You can set the devise to do any variation of peeling, coring, and slicing. I've been having it do all three. Is it perfect? Nope. Skin sometimes is left behind, especially if the apple is off center. Very soft apples will fall apart before you remove them from the machine. But overall, the time savings is terrific, and I'll take the little bits of skin for the extra hours.

But what can you do with the apple peels, besides feed them to hungry children? Last year we made apple peel jelly for the first time, and it was a hit here. Just make sure that you have thoroughly washed your apples before you peel them, and then you can put them to good use. The recipe makes a pretty sweet jelly. I don't have enough experience to cut the sugar without messing up the set. Perhaps you could adapt another recipe to use with low sugar pectin.

Apple Peel Jelly:

Apple peelings (and cores) - enough to fill a gallon ice cream tub
6 cups water
+++++
7 c. sugar
cinnamon, nutmeg - as desired

Bring apple peels and water to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes, stirring only infrequently. Cover with lid and allow to steep for several hours. Strain liquid through cheesecloth and colander into large bowl. Don't squeeze the apple peels or you will make your jelly cloudy. Measure liquid. Add water to bring to 5 cups if necessary. Place this 5 c. of liquid back in the pot. Gradually stir in one box of pectin. Add 7 c. sugar all at once, stirring until dissolved. Return to boiling and then allow to boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in cinnamon and other spices as desired. Can in 1/2 pint or pint jars. Process for 10 minutes (20 for pints)in water bath. Makes 7 1/2 pints.

When the Frost is on the Punkin'

2011-10-02T19:02:00.001-04:00

After checking the weather forecast before bed Saturday, I hastily ran outside to cover my favorite tomato plants with a couple of sheets, hoping to keep them around a few more weeks. Not much else is left in my worn-out garden except for a fall crop of lettuce which should just get sweeter with the colder temps.

Even though there aren't any pumpkins in my garden, last night's frost made me think of "When the Frost is on the Punkin'" by the master Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley. Some time ago my friend Heather pointed me to this marvelous recitation of this poem by Kent Risely. He really nails the Hoosier dialect that Riley so expertly captures. Enjoy!

Age Appropriate Chores

2011-09-29T20:07:00.000-04:00

What types of work can a six year old do? Often the answer is more than we think! Amanda was six when Ben, who spent several weeks in the hospital, was born. She amazed my mom at the quantity and speed with which she could sort, fold, and put away family laundry. Ben, himself surprised me at the same age. One night he was left home with his father while the rest of the kids and I attended the mid-week programs. Dad was upstairs reading, and Ben, my skinny kid with the bottomless stomach, needed more fodder. So this little guy pulled out our oversized griddle and a box of pancake mix and went to work. Tim was blissfully unaware until Ben brought him a snack of pancakes and syrup. I’d been underestimating this boy, something that I’m afraid tends to happen with younger children in a big family.

But this is nothing compared to what children in past centuries were expected to do. Our history studies currently have us in the 1600’s when it wasn’t uncommon for children as young as five or six to be taught to knit stockings for the family. Girls would take drop spindles along as they took walks with friends. Little boys might start spending the entire day in the fields with the men, tilling and planting as young as age seven. Children’s contribution to the household work were not just helpful but vital.

Even though kids are capable of a great deal, sometimes it can be difficult to know what is reasonable to expect at a given age. How do we hit the balance between stretching the skills of our children without becoming unreasonable slave drivers? Happily many, many people have written about the types of jobs that are appropriate at various ages. Of course you’ll have to take into account your own child’s unique abilities. Here are some sites with lists that can give you an idea of the types of jobs that you might want to teach your children.

Lots of Kids - This website has a nice list of chores by ages. I like that it starts with ideas for toddlers as young as nine months.

Homeschool Your Boys - Obviously geared for fellows, this site has interesting lists as well. Besides inside jobs, you'll find ideas for yard work, away from home, and etiquette.

Clean Organized Family Home - Provides daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and yearly lists. (Unfortunately, this site is cluttered with ads, a pet peeve of mine.)

Another way to go about deciding the jobs you want your children to do is to think backwards, something that parents need to regularly do. What are you hoping to achieve? What is the end result you are aiming for? Or, when it comes to practical skills, just what is it you want your children to know when they leave your home? Do you want your daughter to know how to sew curtains and reupholster furniture? Start by teaching her basic hand and machine skills early, and then give her increasing opportunities to experiment in her teen years. Do you want your sons to have basic auto mechanic skills? Build in time to learn how to change the oil and do routine maintenance. Thinking this way will help you figure out what you and they ought to be about in the relatively few years they live at home. Christine Field's Life Skills for Kids:Equipping Your Child for the Real World can be a help in this.

Field Trip: Solsberry Sculpture Walk

2011-09-15T19:36:00.001-04:00

I just love the crazy, fun things that sometimes show up here in southern Indiana. Recently I was riding my bike down our rural road and I saw a St. Bernard playing with a little boy. Then I did a double-take. Was that really? Yes, it was! Romping with the boy and the dog was a young pig! And they were having so much fun! I just wish I'd had a camera.

But I did have a camera when we took a field trip one evening to the Solsberry Sculpture Trails, another unexpected find in our rural area. What makes this museum so much fun is that the 60+ pieces of art make their homes among the woods instead of inside of the usual walls which enclose exhibits. The trails wander through the woods, too, with no prescribed sequence that you must follow, adding to the whimsy of the place. You never know what you will find around the next bend - something made of limestone, stainless steel, cast bronze or woven cables - fun, crazy, or thought-provoking. Make sure you pick up a brochure which tells the names of the works, and have fun puzzling how each one garnered that title. Many of the pieces, which have been made by artists from all over the globe, were cast on site at the Green County Foundry.

Faith and Ben try to pose as part of the sculpture.

Check here for directions.

(Oh, and while the rules of the museum say there is no running or mountain biking, they don't say anything about not using the beautiful grapevine swing found in one of the clearings.)

Now once you're all the way out in the Greene county boonies, you might was well trek over to another world-famous sight - the Solsberry-Tulip Trestle. It's a bit hard to find the first time, so you might stop and ask for directions at Yoho's General Store in Solsberry.

Built between 1905-1906, this is 2,295-footlong trestle is the longest in the US and the third longest in the world, according to Wikipedia. And it sits among some isolated farm fields in beautiful Greene County, Indiana!

Baby toes

2011-09-08T23:39:00.000-04:00

Children and Worship

2011-08-31T21:30:00.000-04:00


Norman Rockwell's painting of Tom Sawyer at church. He'd just let loose a pinch bug which was aggravating the dog who was then distracting the congregation.

Tim and I remember a particularly embarrassing Sunday evening service. It's too long ago to recall the exact circumstances, but one child had misbehaved and Tim needed to take her out of the sanctuary for a few minutes to discipline her. As he grabbed the misbehaving preschooler and carried her down the center aisle she screamed, "I won't go!" Our pastor, who still happens to be our pastor even though this event took place many years ago in a different church, said from the pulpit, "Oh, yes you will!"

Sometimes all we want from our children during church is that they will sit quietly and not embarrass us. But in our better moments, probably all of us want much more. Rather than caring what they look like on the outside, we want them to join in worship as we sing and pray corporately, and we want their young hearts and minds listening and responding as God's Word is preached. We want their lives to be turned to the Lord.

Clearly God desires the presence and the praise of children. (See Ps. 8:2, Mt 21:16, Mk 10: 14, Lk 18:16.) But just how do you prepare your children to do more than just color their bulletin during church? How can parents help our children become active worship participants?

Years ago I read Parenting in the Pew by Robbie Castleman which was a real help. Happily this book is still in print. Mrs. Castleman, a pastor’s wife, writes about her passion for worship and how she taught her sons to join in worship, too. I’ve been re-reading the book recently, and have been again challenged and encouraged to continue the work of training children in worship.

First, Mrs. Castleman says, we need to examine our own view of worship. We ought to go to church to “Bless the Lord, O my soul” (Psalm 103: 1,2). But too often we go to church seeking, “Bless my soul, O Lord.” She also reminds us that worship is work and not a time to kick back and relax for an hour and a half. And worshiping alongside little ones requires even more work, but it is worth it.

What we do before Sunday morning can help set the stage for an easier lift-off. For example, especially with young children, it helps to make sure that clothes (including socks and shoes!) are laid out the night before. Baths or showers should be taken. Help your children get to bed at a reasonable hour on Saturday. (The same goes for us parents, too!) If your children have memory verses or homework, go over this on Saturday instead of scrambling on Sunday morning.

Finally, it’s Sunday morning! Keep food simple on this day. We always have yogurt and bagels for breakfast and very often something from the crockpot for lunch. Do make sure your kids have something for breakfast, though, and not something full of sugar. Both an empty stomach and one filled with junk make it hard to listen attentively.

(As an aside, I’ll put in a plug for the early morning service, if your church has one. It may not work for your family, but if your children are early risers, as so many are, the first service might be a great fit. Yes, it takes some planning and preparation to get out the door early, but often an early service works better for children’s nap and eating schedules. And tired, hungry kids aren’t best equipped to join in worship with their whole hearts. )

What do you talk about on the way to and from church? (This section of the book was convicting to me!) Do your children sense your enthusiasm for worship? Afterwards, does your conversation focus on what you learned, how the Lord convicted or taught you, or do your children hear complaints? When children start to learn how to worship, they can begin to experience God in powerful ways, and these post-service discussions can be fascinating. Sometimes before the service I’ll give my children one question to think about.

Before worship starts, make sure your children use the bathroom. Children (or adults) moving in and out during worship are pretty distracting for other worshipers, not to mention the pastor. Emergencies will arise, though! Once Tim practically rushed out of a Good Friday service with a toddler whose nose had started gushing blood. Sit with your children and eliminate distractions such as books, Sunday School papers, toys, and coloring books. (An exception I might make: Very occasionally I have created worksheets with the purpose of helping my children listen more attentively. So I might make a bingo type card with words on it that I thought the pastor might use in his sermon. When one was used, they could X out that work, or they could make tally marks for each time a particular word was spoken.)

Edith Schaeffer writes in Hidden Art how she sometimes would draw pictures to illustrate the sermon for a child sitting next to her. I’ve tried this a bit, and found it difficult to be this creative on the fly, though the child for whom I was drawing loved it. If you can find a copy of this book, you should take a look at her wonderful sermon drawings on pages 53-60. If this idea excites you, you could keep a special notebook collection of sermon drawing. It’d be a great way for your child to review the sermons.

I’ve had sons who were embarrassed to sing. Often they end up coming out with a monotone that they think sounds nondescript, but actually is worse than trying to hit the pitch. We’ve had to talk about the fact that we aren’t singing for other people or to sound good, but to “make a joyful noise to the Lord.” My current self-conscious son is starting to get over it. If you are able to find out ahead of time what songs will be sung in church that week, you can practice them at home. (I’d love it if we sang one song each week for a month, for example, to help children to learn that song well.)

Children’s Church can be a controversial topic, and each family needs to decide what is best for their children. (As in our family, this decision may even vary over time or for each individual child.) Some may want their children with them from young ages while others opt to send them to children’s church. A number of young families in our church keep their little ones with them through the singing, Scripture reading, and prayer of confession, but take them to the nursery just before the sermon. This seems like a good way to introduce little ones to worship. Sometimes you’ll see hands of very little people raised in worship, which brings joy to my heart. In Parenting in the Pews Mrs. Castleman recommends celebrating as a milestone the age when a child is “old enough” to stay for the whole service, whatever that is in your family.

OK, just one more idea. An excellent place to prepare children for church worship is during home worship. Our family devotion time is much shorter than a Sunday service, but it has been a good training ground for young ones to sit and listen actively. Tim reads a chapter of the Bible, most often asking questions as he goes. Then someone he designates prays. From time to time, most often when we have an older child home who can play guitar, we add in singing. It’s short and simple, but something we’re able to carry out daily.

Resources:

Parenting in the Pews: Guiding Your Children into the Joy of Worship
Besides the topics I've already mentioned, this book also deals with singing, prayer, confession, and more. She has an excellent chapter on the sacraments, discussing how to tell when your children are old enough to be baptized and partake in the Lord's Supper, a topic that came up recently with some friends.

One other helpful resource is Pam Forster’s booklet A Day of Delight (Doorposts), though it has more ideas for how to celebrate Sundays at home than things to do at church. (Bonus - this book has the most excellent challah bread recipe, which my daughters have used to win many recipes at the county fair!) Also – you can check out some posts Pam has on her blog about this subject.

Psalm 8:2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

Life skills taught to daughters and sons - 100+ years ago

2011-08-21T15:03:00.004-04:00

"Before any daughter has left our home for one of her own, she has been taught all I know of cleanliness about a house, cookery, sewing, tending the sick, bathing and dressing the new born. She has to bake bread, pie, cake, and cook any meat or vegetable we have. She has had her bolt of muslin to make as she chose for her bedding, and linen for her underclothing. The quilts she pieced and the blankets she wove have been hers. All of them have been as well provided for as we could afford. They can knit, darn, patch, tuck, hem, and embroider, set a hen and plant a garden. I go on a vacation and leave each of them to keep house for her father a month, before she enters a home of her own. They are strong, healthy girls; I hope all of them are making a good showing at being useful women, and I know they are happy, so far at least."

"Wonderful!" said Mr. Pryor.

"Father takes the boys in hand and they must graduate in a straight furrow, an even fence, planting and tending crops, trimming and grafting trees, caring for stock, and handling plane, auger and chisel. Each one must select his wood, cure, fashion, and fit his own ax with a handle, grind and swing it properly, as well as cradle, scythe and sickle. They must be able to select good seed grain, boil sap, and cure meat. They must know animals, their diseases and treatment, and when they have mastered all he can teach them, and done each thing properly, they may go for their term at college, and make their choice of a profession."

- From Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter

Though this book was published in 1913, it is set in the time just after the Civil War, and gives a beautiful glimpse of rural Hoosier life of the period. It's on my all-time favorite book list.

Rome City in northern Indiana showcases "The Cabin at Wildflower Woods", former home of Mrs. Stratton-Porter, one of Indiana's best-loved authors. (Girl of the Limberlost, Laddie, The Harvester, Freckles, and more.)

First Day of School

2011-08-19T22:25:00.010-04:00

We had a bit of a rocky start to our first day of on Monday. Several children began the day with grumpy attitudes and were sure that the summer had slipped by too fast. (One girl, on the other hand, made a paper chain a few weeks ago, counting the days until school began. Her only complaint is that her online English and Starting Points worldview classes won't start until September.) And then I kept finding things that I had forgotten to plan for or places I'd double booked myself or someone else. Throughout the first two days I kept a running list for noting things I needed to tweak, order, or in some way rectify. How could I have failed to anticipate so many things, I wondered?

But even on that first less than perfect day, many good things happened. I'm so glad to be able to teach my children, to learn alongside them, and to watch that lightbulb come on as they interact with big ideas. Biggest surprise for me: This year my high school junior and senior and I are tackling economics, and it is shaping up to be a fascinating journey for all of us. And then there are the sweet moments, like when my youngest one handed me this marker board.

"I love you mom. Your the best and the same with Dab"

OK, we need to work on his d's and some spelling, but that's fine by me.

You wouldn't think a house with eight people living in it could be empty...

2011-08-19T22:10:00.000-04:00

Midway through Gene Stratton Porter's book Laddie, two of the daughters have recently married and the family is reduced to having only the youngest four at home. (Candace is the cook and Miss Amelia is the school mistress who boards with the family.)

There were eight of us left, counting Candace and Miss Amelia, and you wouldn't think a house with eight people living in it would be empty, but ours was. Everything seemed to wilt. The roses on the window blinds didn't look so bright as they had; mother said the only way she could get along was to keep right on working. She helped Candace all she could, but she couldn't be on her feet very much, so she sat all day long and peeled peaches to dry, showed Candace how to jelly, preserve, and spice them, and peeled apples for butter and to dry, quantities more than we could use, but she said she always could sell such things, and with the bunch of us to educate yet, we'd need the money.

- From Chapter VIII of Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter

We, too, are down to eight people in our house again now that Kristen has returned to Purdue for her junior year. Just like in Laddie, it doesn't seem reasonable, but somehow having eight around the table seems empty. Some of the spark has left our home. We miss Kristen's lively personality and her beautiful smile.

Unlike Mrs. Stanton, I'm not keeping busy drying peaches, but Kristen's summer legacy to us is a pantry full of canned peaches. Between peaches that were being discarded at B-foods and a few batches we bought from her favorite Amish farmer, she and I canned about eight gallons this summer.

Thank you, dear daughter! We miss you already, but are praying for God's blessing on you as you continue your nursing studies. May He use you this year to bring light and life to those you study and work with!

Children and Chores: Journeymen (Ages 6-12) and Master Craftsmen (Ages 13+)

2011-08-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

Journeymen (Ages 6-12)

One of Tim’s professors in Bible college said that the elementary school years are the rocking chair years of parenting. Babies and toddlers take loads of physical care while teens require enormous mental and emotional energies, but the elementary years seem to almost glide by. This is a great time as you continue to teach your children how to work, too. If your children have been helping you since they were toddlers, they will already be in the groove with work expectations, and their increased capabilities allow them to do more than complicate your tasks.

What should you focus on during this time? Training, consistency, and success

Training: You need to actually TEACH your children new skills you want them to have. If you want your eight year old to take over cleaning the bathroom, don’t just make the assignment, but take the time to show him what is involved, step by step. You need to both SHOW and TELL. Then, make sure to check on his work. Young children will do what you inspect, not necessarily what you expect.

Training an apprentice via the Buddy System (?)

To teach a new skill, either work with your child or use the buddy system and assign an older child to work with a younger one. Sometimes I’ve told an older child that he could work his way out of a job by teaching a younger sibling.

One way of helping kids remember what is expected in a particular job is to make reminders or checklist of the steps. (For the bathroom, you could post the list on the back of the bathroom door.) This also works well for bedroom cleaning. So often we just say, “Please clean up your room!” but don’t explain what is entailed.

Consistency: Figure out a system that works in your household, and then stick to it. This kind of repetition pays off as your children will begin to do their chores without being asked, and, if you have some kind of emergency, you might be surprised at how much of the home management they can carry out because they’ve learned the routine. We’ve found it very helpful to start our day with a 15 minute concentrated chore time. Everyone has chores that need to be done at other times of the day as well, but this short burst of chores gets us off to a good start with the breakfast dishes done, counters cleaned up, laundry started and other loads folded and put away, etc.

Success: Just like you want your toddlers and preschoolers to gain confidence as they to help, you want your grade school children also to experience success. Make sure to provide the tools your child needs to accomplish his jobs, and remember to recognize a job well done, whether that is with words or with some type of reward.

Master Craftsmen (Ages 13+): Independence, Responsibility, and Service

By the time your kids hit their teen years, they should be pretty skilled at all the routine jobs they've been doing around the home. They should be adept at cleaning a bathroom, making meals, doing their own laundry, and taking care of the lawn and garden. At least that's the goal. Now is a great time to take stock and see where each one stands. What skills has he acquired? What are still lacking? After watching our oldest subsist on frozen pizzas, ice cream, and Taco Bell, we decided that a graduation requirement for his brother and sisters would be that they can prepare a minimum of seven different dinners. (Jonathan's going to have to prove his abilities this year before he heads off.)

Besides filling gaps (and everyone has them!), this is a great time to foster independence. As you see your teens taking increasing initiative and responsibility, you'll be able to grant more freedoms. These two qualities (responsibility and freedom) should have a direct relationship. During these years kids tend to be self-focused, so give them plenty of opportunties to serve both your family and others with their work. This can go some ways towards counteracting the natural selfishness so common to these years.

Finally, this is a great time to do more advanced skills, perfecting and digging into certain areas. Maybe one child will become your IT guy, caring for all the computers in the house. (Mine is a senior this year, and I'm thinking he needs to train a replacement.) Some kids might want to become experts in food preservation or breadmaking. Let teens explore different areas and gain expertise in an area or two.

One of my favorite books is Laddie, Gene Stratton Porter's largely autobiographical story of a large Indiana farm family in the 1800s. The mother has the practice of leaving her home for a bit some time before each daughter gets married. This allows her daughter the experience of running a home all by herself, and provides a great test to make sure she's ready for the tasks awaiting her. As we think about our teens, we might envision similar situations which will allow them to test our their skills and wings!

Silly teens in the garden

Proverbs 15: 19 The way of the lazy is as a hedge of thorns, But the path of the upright is a highway.

Hello, dear Laurel Catherine!

2011-08-14T22:42:00.000-04:00

We're so thankful for the arrival of our second granddaughter, Laurel Catherine Hobbs on August 13!

Laurel made her appearance a week or so early, arriving about nine hours after her daddy returned home from a conference in Texas where he presented a paper on his research into the genetic variation in hemlock tree populations. We're also thankful for the very short and sweet birth, and we greatly look forward to getting to know this new little one!

Psalm 144:12, 15 Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace; ... How blessed are the people who are so situated; How blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!

Future Posts

2011-08-06T21:01:00.000-04:00

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery at Discoveryschool.com

Now that Tim and I are back from our trip, and I'm almost caught up with the laundry and other backlogged items, I'm hoping to get back into a semi-regular blogging pattern. I'll aim for once a week, but sitting at the computer to put thoughts in print takes a backseat to other responsibilities. (Like the laundry and feeding my crew.) Here are some of the things I hope to post in the next weeks:

1. Continuation of Children and Chores series

2. Children and Worship - I'd like to slip one or two pieces on this topic, suggested by Lydia, in between the Chores series.

3. Useful websites I've run across this summer for doing things like planning quilts and learning calculus. (Or relearning it! So much fun!!!)

Anniversary Trip

2011-08-06T20:29:00.008-04:00

To celebrate 30 years of marriage, Tim and I wanted to do something big. We've been able to get away for an overnight the past couple of years but had never felt we could leave our children for much longer than that. (Once we went cross country skiing in Michigan and planned to be gone two nights. Alas, I was worried about how things were faring at home and we drove home early after finishing skiing.)


Colter Bay cabin built in 1922

A trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone seemed to fit the bill. Seven years ago we'd been there with the whole crew of kids who ranged from 10 months to 19 years. We especially loved the old cabins in Colter Bay which were built in the 1920s, and decided this was a place we'd try to return some day.

The Tetons are still as stunning as they were the last time we were there, and how wonderful to be able to spend five days with my beloved together in this part of the world that displays God's majesty so abundantly! We took some amazing hikes, the best we've ever had, and the only problem was that we were left wondering if we might just get back again some day.

The Jackson, WY airport is actually in the national park. After picking up our rental car (small bug there because I forgot to bring that paperwork and we couldn't remember which car company of the six we had an arrangement with) we drove to Jenny Lake. As a precaution, we'd also rented some bear spray in town. Since we'd been traveling since 5AM, we wanted only a short hike the first day and chose to hike around String Lake. It was gorgeous, partly because of the views of the mountains but also because the terrain varied so much in the short 3.4 mile loop. And best of all, near the end we came upon a couple that whispered to us there was a black bear just off the trail in the woods. We followed along as the bear ambled in parallel to the trail about 20-30 yards away. (That husband also had a can of bear spray, which gave us more confidence than we probably should have had.) I didn't get great pictures, but here's the bear:

Bear is in the center of photo

Close up - Sorry about resolution

Animals abound in these two parks. Tim says they are like zoos without walls, and many of the tourists come particularly to catch a glimpse of a moose, grizzly, or wolf. We love the scenery most, but we did see plenty of critters.

Elk are plentiful...

as are buffalo, especially in Yellowstone.

Here's a mule deer that hanging around our cabin:

On the last day we found this chubby marmot sunning himself on a rock:

And here are some pics from our hikes:

Cascade Canyon in Grand Teton National Park:

Lunch site

Hidden Falls

Mount Washburn, Yellowstone

There was still snow on Mt. Washburn

Top of Mount Washburn. From here there are excellent views of most of the park. You can see the Yellowstone Canyon near top of picture.

Finally, a few shots of some of the gorgeous wildflowers. They bloomed everywhere, but different varieties grew at different altitudes. Some alpine meadows were dotted with red, orange, yellow, and purple blooms. Stunning!

We're so thankful to our children who stepped up to the plate to manage things during the five days we were gone, for our friends, the U's, who kept Paul (!), and for Kara having Ben over for several play days with Annie! We only worried a bit, especially during the time we had no cell service and no internet, but God was gracious and kept everyone safe and pretty happy. The worst crisis was that Jon and Faith couldn't find her piano teacher's house and ended up having to reschedule for another day. Also, for some reason, two of the boys decided that this was a good time to try bleaching their hair. ;)

Clouds over Jackson Lake

Psalm 125: 1, 2 Those who trust in the LORD Are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people From this time forth and forever.

Full Heart

2011-08-02T20:33:00.001-04:00

Found on a site while looking for encouraging verses to read during childbirth was this tagline from one of the commenters:

When people say, "you have your hands full," I say, "and my heart!!!" It changes their negative attitude into a positive one in a few seconds flat.

Love it!

(And if you want a snappy answer to that boorish question, "Don't you know what causes that?" ask me privately and I'll tell you how my husband responds.)

Chores: The Apprentice Years (Ages 1-5)

2011-07-17T14:22:00.002-04:00

Have you read Helen Oxenbury’s sweet Tom and Pippo series? In Tom and Pippo Make a Mess, toddler Tom repeatedly tries to help his father, but ends up creating disasters.

Little children are natural imitators, and they love to be with their parents, doing the same activities. Toddlers are also beginning to take great satisfaction in “doing it myself.” While the outcome isn’t always perfection, instead of pushing your little ones to the side so you can get the housework done, take advantage of their desire to help by teaching them to work alongside you.

When is a child ready to begin doing simple work? As soon as he or she can walk and understand basic commands! Sometimes we are tempted to put off all our work until the little ones are napping, but for at least part of your work, try to include your toddlers. Even though the “help” will likely make the job take longer, or occasionally, as in Tom’s case, mean that you will have to do the job over later after cleaning up a mess, try to keep your long range goal in mind. You are about much more than just accomplishing today’s work: you are raising future men and women! (Tom's dad gets it, and in the end finds work more suited for a toddler, working together in the garden.)

Andrew apprentices in cookie making.

When considering work and children, Tim and I have found it helpful to think about three different stages. In the Middle Ages a young man who wanted to join a guild had to begin as an apprentice. Later he would progress to become a journeyman, and, if all went well, eventually he would be a master craftsman.

We’ve found this three tiered progression a useful idea to employ as our children learn how to work in and around our home. Here’s how we divide the stages of young workers:

- Apprentice (Ages 1-5)
- Journeyman (Ages 6-12)
- Master Craftsman (Ages 13+)

During the apprentice years there are three things to focus on:
1. Obedience

Chores give you one more sphere in which you can teach this all important character trait. We found it helpful to teach our children to obey QQCC: Quickly, Quietly, Cheerfully, and Completely.

2. Basic Routine

Before adding in additional family chores, it's important to establish a daily routine of things like getting dressed and brushing teeth. Pictures speak more than a thousand words to a non-reader, so one way to do this is to make a picture chart. Here's one I used to teach a daily routine with toddlers and preschoolers:

I posted a copy of this on the fridge, but as my child learned it, we could tick off the fingers together to see if he had followed through on all his tasks. Thumb - Have you made your bed? First finger - I can see that you are dressed - good job! Middle finger - Did you remember to put your PJs away? Oops - OK then run back to your room and do that. Ring finger - Have you brushed your teeth? Let's go do that together. The pinkie is for one simple daily job, maybe feeding the dog or emptying a small trash can.

3. Confidence

You want to encourage your child's growing sense of independence and confidence by making it possible for him to be successful at his work. You can do this by letting him try different jobs, giving him appropriate tools, and re-thinking your home's organization.

What kind of work should apprentice stage children do? This will vary by age and ability. With your youngest ones, keep them alongside you. If you need to fold laundry, give him all the dishtowels and washcloths to fold. He can help you sort clothes into darks and lights, and fill the washer or dryer. Granddaughter Annie's job is putting the recycling in the box. Give him smaller tools such as a Swiffer with fewer segments screwed together. He'll love seeing the white cloth get dirty as proof that he's doing a good job. A hand-held vacuum is another child-friendly tool. I'm not a big fan of toy tools, but did find a nice set of broom and dustpan at a Teacher's Store.

Besides child-friendly tools, think about child-friendly home organization. If you want your preschoolers to unload the dishwasher or set the table, you'll need to store your dishes somewhere he can reach without too much hassle. I've heard of some women who put their plates in a bottom cabinet so their young ones can access them. We switched to plastic plates and cups for everyday use to cut down on the stress that comes from breakage when young children are doing most of the dish handling. Do whatever makes it possible for your children to take responsibility and succeed.


Yep, it's Andrew again. Bet you couldn't guess that he's my first-born.

Next up: The Journeyman Years (Ages 5/6 - 12)

What kind of inheritance will I leave?

2011-07-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

Tim and I are in the process of making a will. Yes, we should have done it about 26 years ago. But our coming trip to Wyoming pushed us to finally get around to it. We could care less about who gets the dishes or my grandmother's jewelry. Our only concern is who will care for our minor children should something happen to both of us, and that they have the resources necessary to do the job. For years we weren't sure how to deal with the care of our children. Who could handle a large brood? Well, we've waited long enough for the problem to be solved. Oldest son Andrew has agreed to step in and care for his younger siblings should that be necessary. (We've told him that gives him a big reason to pray for safe travels and no grizzly attacks.)

I've been reading Charles Spurgeon's Faith's Checkbook devotional this year. (It's excellent!) A couple of months ago the topic was "What to Leave Children". Here it is:

"The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him" (Proverbs 20:7).

Anxiety about our family is natural, but we shall be wise if we turn it into care about our own character. If we walk before the LORD in integrity, we shall do more to bless our descendants than if we bequeathed them large estates. A father's holy life is a rich legacy for his sons.

The upright man leaves his heirs his example, and this in itself will be a mine of true wealth. How many men may trace their success in life to the example of their parents!

He leaves them also his repute. Men think better of us as the sons of a man who could be trusted, the successors of a tradesman of excellent repute, Oh, that all young men were anxious to keep up the family name!

Above all, he leaves his children his prayers and the blessing of a prayer-hearing God, and these make our offspring to be favored among the sons of men. God will save them even after we are dead. Oh, that they might be saved at once!

Our integrity may be God's means of saving our sons and daughters. If they see the truth of our religion proved by our lives, it may be that they will believe in Jesus for themselves. LORD, fulfill this word to my household!

Benefits of involving children in household work

2011-07-07T16:25:00.000-04:00

My great-grandmother, Amanda Belle, didn’t think twice about asking her twelve children to contribute to the work of the household. With a farm to run and a husband who was often away on his Methodist church circuit riding route, everyone played a vital role in the family survival. Her daughter-in-law, my grandmother, also depended on her children, especially her oldest, my mom. While my grandparents ran a feed and grocery store, my mom took care of the younger siblings at their next door home. All of this was completely normal, and the way things had been done for eons.

Things had changed by the time I was born in 1960. Children of my generation frequently had little responsibility outside of schoolwork, caring for the family pet, and some nominal chores. Our parents had grown up during the Depression and then World War II. Life had been hard for them, and they were determined to make things easier on their children. After all, childhood is short, and kids need time to be kids, right?

So, is requiring children to work, and work reasonably hard, a selfish thing? Should parents instead shoulder all but token amounts of work and allow children to simply pursue sports, music, and pleasures?

Today busy moms still rely on their children to help accomplish the work of the household as a survival strategy. This is a good thing - not only for the smooth running of the home and the mom's sanity, but especially for the benefit of the children themselves! By learning how to do all the tasks necessary to carrying on life in your home, your children will gain useful skills that will last a lifetime. When I grew up we had a weekly housecleaner and an ironing lady. Guess what two domestic jobs I am least equipped in? Yep - ironing and housecleaning! I don't want my children to have to waste time in their adult years learning these basic skills, so by practicing cleaning the bathrooms, mopping the kitchen floor, learning to do their own laundry, and taking care of chickens now, they can use their adult time to take on more exciting challenges.

The second benefit your children gain from learning to work cheerfully and diligently in their youth is good attitudes and habits that can serve them in whatever endeavors they attempt.

Toddler Andrew trying to mop the kitchen floor.

Here are some of the character traits and abilities you will be instilling in your children:

- self-discipline
- ability to see a jo to completion
- initaive
- attention to detail
- organization
- responsibility
- working with all their heart, as for the Lord

Eighteen some years later, Andrew, home from college for a break, still likes to help out. Here he is building a new garden bed one Mother's Day.

These good attitudes about work will apply to whatever responsibilities come along - whether it is schoolwork, serving someone in need, working for an employer, or starting a new business.

As your children start to play an important role in the household duties, they will gain a sense of their contribution to the family. There is a true satisfaction in knowing how to do various job and a satisfaction that comes from a job well done. I have one girl who absolutely loves to organize things. She takes pleasure in seeing the kitchen cabinets or the linen closet go from a jumble to peaceful order. She’s amazing! And this is the same child who was my most destructive toddler tornado a dozen years ago!

In the early years, having your children work alongside you can be tiring. You have to keep directing and gently teaching. So often you know you could do the job faster (and better) if you just waited until your little ones were in bed. But, take heart. In time your work of training and teaching will pay off and your children will begin to contribute truly useful work to the family. Older children who have grown up working since their youngest days are a fantastic blessing to a busy home. And the things they learn and the attitudes they cultivate while doing the often very simple tasks around a home will in turn bless them throughout their lives.

Colossians 3: 23, 24 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

Next up: The Apprentice Years - Ages 1-5

Children and Chores: Teaching the Value of Work

2011-06-30T19:31:00.000-04:00

What life skills do you expect your children to have by the time they leave your home? Cooking? Cleaning? Changing the oil in a car? Apparently colleges don’t expect much from their incoming students. At Purdue orientation a couple of years ago parents were told to make sure their children knew how to do their own laundry. (No kidding!) Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology even provides maids who “change school-provided linens, vacuum floors, clean bathrooms and take out bedroom trash.” According to USA Today, Rose is not the only school to do so. This was a real turn-off to my son, Andrew, when he visited Rose-Hulman as a prospective freshman, but apparently his is a minority position. "From my perspective it's an imperative part of residence life," said Pete Gustafson, vice president for student affairs and dean of students. "It's probably one of the top selling points among students living on campus here." Now whether this is because Rose doesn't believe the students capable of cleaning up after themselves, want to continue indulging privileged kids, or just know engineering students and want to protect their dormitories, I can’t say. But I don’t think it speaks well of our way too often spoiled young people.

A good place to start when mulling over what chores your children ought to do is to consider where you want them to end up before they leave your home, whether it is to go off to college, to spend time with missionaries in a distant land, or to begin their own family. Working backwards can help you keep the big picture in mind. But remember, you have eighteen or so years, so you don’t have to expect a six year old to do it all!

Here are the topics I hope to cover over the next several posts:

1. Benefits of teaching children to work in your household
2. Ages and stages from Apprentice (1-5) to Journeyman (6-12) to Master (ages 13+)
3. What children can and should do at different ages
4. Different assignment ideas
5. Motivation
6. Boys vs. girls

Summer Reading Club

2011-06-26T21:52:00.001-04:00

Donalyn Miller teaches English and Social Studies at a Texas public middle school. Caring more about developing life-long readers than merely ticking off objectives on a list, Mrs. Miller doesn't follow the typical path of assigning a few books and requiring her students to plow through work pages or possibly fun, but largely irrelevant, literature related activities. But read her students do! She asks each of her 6th graders to dig into at least 40 books of their own choosing during the course of a school year, reading across ten different genres. And it works. Even the kids who enter her class as non-readers leave with a very different outlook, and since her students excel at the state-mandated English exams, she's allowed to follow her non-traditional path.

Mrs. Miller tells the story of how she began teaching in this way in The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. This is probably the most intriguing book on teaching that I have read in quite a while. This is true even though Mrs. Miller and I have decidedly different opinions on many specific books that young adults ought to read. (I am just not a fan of much of the realistic fiction marketed for young teens these day, though there are occasional diamonds out there in new fiction.)

My approach to teaching reading and instilling a love for the printed word already shares a fair bit of common ground with Mrs. Miller's. But as I read The Book Whisperer I found some great new ideas I wanted to try out. And when better than during the summer, when the kids have loads of free time for reading? Thus was born our Summer Reading Club.

I have two basic goals for our reading club:
1. That everyone will keep reading enthusiastically during the summer.
2. That each of us, myself included, will read broadly across various genres.

So here's what we're doing.

1. We have a weekly Book Club meeting. During this time I spend about 10-20 minutes teaching a mini-lesson on some topic. Some of the time this will be on the various genres that we are tackling or how to find good books. In our first week I discussed characteristics common to enthusiastic readers. Next, everyone has a time to give a brief book-fomercial. This can be as short as 30 seconds and they must not give plot spoilers! In our first session even though none of the kids knew ahead of time I would be asking them to do this, we had a rather long appeal for us to read about William Carey, a dramatic and altogether silly review of a historical fiction work, and a "Guess what book I'm describing without me using any names." Very good fun!

2. Book Club Journals
These notebooks include a tally list with the ten genres we are aiming for this summer, a book log (title, author, genre, and a rating from 1-5 stars), a "Books to Read" section, and a Response section. The latter is a place for each child to write a short letter to me giving feedback on what they are reading. I'll write back in letter format, probing about themes, characters, etc. depending on the age of the reader. (And since this is summer - I've told them that this last section is optional, though I would make it required if we were in school.) I'm keeping my our book journal as well. Yes, keeping up with our journals is the hardest part of this whole thing for every one of us!

3. Frequent trips to the library. We make weekly trips to the bookmobile year round, but the library offers more exciting fare, so we'll try to hit it weekly during the summer.

4. We have a couple of rules about the books we read. First, it is OK to re-read something we've enjoyed before. Second, if you begin a book but don't like it or find something objectionable, it is just fine (necessary at times) to drop it. Just make a note about it in your notebook. And third, books greater than 350 pages count as two books.

How's it working? Well, we've only had two club meetings so far, but they've been a blast. And since I'd been talking about the idea for a while before we began, the kids really hit the ground running. Manda, my once avid reader who has decided she disdains all fiction, read ten missionary biographies (full length adult books) in the first week and a half. She's working on Pilgrim's Progress and Augustine's City of God as well. I'm hoping to find some fiction that she might think is worth dipping into. And even my son with some form of dyslexia, for whom reading is enjoyable but slow, has been seriously reading daily, something he would not necessarily do in the summer without some motivation. I'm being stretched to think beyond the few categories of books that I typically turn to. So - yay! I think we're going to have some fun with both books and one another in our Summer Book Club. Maybe you would like to try one in your house this summer, too!

Revisiting Chore Assignments

2011-06-24T15:58:00.002-04:00

It's a good thing I have older kids to keep me on my toes with raising their younger siblings. This week the older ones have decided (rightly so) that Paul, 10, needs to move up in chore responsibility.

"Mom, don't you think Paul ought to be added to the dishes rotation? He needs more work!"

"Yeah! I started doing dishes when I was seven!"

"So did I!"

"Me too!"

And so it went. Each summer I take a look at chore assignments, bump up the younger ones to new jobs, and rearrange the flow. I hadn't even begun to think about this when the conversation related took place. When you have a young family, you rely on your oldest children heavily. That's why the oldest kids tend to be hyper-responsible and capable. But we're at the other end of things now, and it's easy to become lazy (or just plain worn-out) with the youngest children in a family. In addition, having already trained the older ones, thing flow pretty well, and making changes will shake up the system.

But shake we must, if our little guys are going to be equipped for life and know how to work hard. Because I'm thinking of this topic, I'm going to take a look at notes I made a few years ago for a talk on teaching children to work, and hope to write a few posts on this subject.

Now for some fun. Our family enjoys many of the short films made by the Josts, a family from southern Alberta with eleven children. This one is about Post-Traumatic Dishwashing Disorder.

Crafting Flavored Vinegars

2011-06-22T18:34:00.001-04:00

Currant vinegar in process. Currant-basil on far right.

A fun and easy summer craft is creating flavored vinegars using herbs and fruits. Our family favorite is currant vinegar, which we make from the rather seedy berries that grow on our lone currant bush. I like to use this vinegar to cook with meats, in salad dressings, and to flavor coleslaw.

Most flavored vinegars begin with a base of white vinegar, though you might try apple cider vinegar with some fruits. And then you can add whatever herbs and fruits or citrus peels strike your fancy! These recipes both come, more or less, from the Ball Blue Book. If you like to preserve foods, this is a wonderful resource! You can usually find copies for $5-6 at this time of year in supermarkets and big box stores.

Basic Berry (or Berry-Basil) Vinegar:
4 c. white vinegar
4 c. berries
Optional: zest from 1 lemon
Optional: 1 c. basil leaves, loosely packed

Combine berries and 1 c. vinegar in glass bowl. Lightly crush berries. Place berries in clean glass container such as canning jar. Pour remaining vinegar on top. Place cap on top. You don't want the metal of the lid to contact the vinegar, so put some waxed paper between the jar and screw top. Place in dark location and let steep for about 1 month, stirring or shaking jar every couple of days to mix.

When flavor is at desired strength, strain through several layers of cheesecloth or through coffee filters. Store vinegar up to 6 months in tightly sealed jars or longer if you process in water bath. (Heat vinegar to simmer, ladle into hot canning jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints for 10 minutes.)

Lemon balm vinegar

Lemon Vinegar

We're trying lemon balm vinegar this year.

4 c. white wine vinegar, (or plain white)
1/4 c. sugar
2 c. mint (or lemon balm) leaves, loosely packed
Zest from 2 lemons

Simmer sugar in vinegar until sugar dissolves. Pour into glass canning jar. Crush mint and add to vinegar. With zester, remove peel from lemons and add to vinegar. Cover with waxed paper and jar lid. Let steep in cool, dark place for 1-4 weeks, depending on desired strength. Strain through cheesecloth. Store in glass jars or can as above.

I save old soy sauce and cooking wine bottles for our finished vinegars. When our chive plants flower, I'm going to try some chive vinegar as seen here. The possibilities seem limited only by one's imagination! If you've made some scruptious flavored vinegars, please share your recipes!

My greatest snare is myself

2011-06-12T22:00:00.010-04:00

Isn't it perverse how we are able to find some way to take pride in just about anything? The more I know myself, the more I recognize this ugly ability. My sister-in-law recently sent me this Puritan prayer from The Valley of Vision. She read it in Humility: A Forgotten Virtue (Wayne and Joshua Mack) which she highly recommends.

Self-Deprecation

O Lord,

My every sense, member, faculty, affection, is a snare to me,

I can scarce open my eyes but I envy those above me,

or despise those below.

I covet honour and riches of the mighty, and am proud and unmerciful to the rags of others;

If I behold beauty it is a bait to lust,

or see deformity, it stirs up loathing and disdain;

How soon do slanders, vain jests, and wanton speeches creep into my heart!

Am I comely? what fuel for pride!

Am I deformed? what an occasion for repining!

Am I gifted? I lust after applause!

Am I unlearned? how I despise what I have not!

Am I in authority? how prone to abuse my trust, make will my law, exclude others’ enjoyments,

serve my own interests and policy!

Am I inferior? how much I grudge others’ pre-eminence!

Am I rich? how exalted I become!

Thou knowest that all these are snares by my corruptions,

and that my greatest snare is myself.

I bewail that my apprehensions are dull,

my thoughts mean,

my affections stupid,

my expressions low,

my life unbeseeming;

Yet what canst thou expect of dust but levity,

of corruption but defilement?

Keep me ever mindful of my natural state,

but let me not forget my heavenly title,

or the grace that can deal with every sin.

Memory Maps (Mapping the World By Heart)

2011-06-11T21:40:00.001-04:00

I am told that there are people who do not care for maps, and find it hard to believe. The names, the shapes .. the courses of the road and rivers...are an inexhaustible fund of interest for any with eyes to see or two-penceworth of imagination to understand with. - Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)

All memory maps are completed and as promised, here they are. My pictures don't show the details well, but each student choose a different theme to decorate his or her world map.


Manda's map. She decorated with country maps, which sadly are partly eaten up by the frame.


Peter's map - aviation theme


Faith's map - antique theme

Jon's map - Spy theme


Paul's memory map of the U.S.

Ben (in Indian costume) with his Indiana map.

Ms. Frizzle - here I come!

2011-06-07T21:50:00.002-04:00

Three of my girls think I've gone over the edge of nerdism on this one. One sides with me. (Thanks, Faith!)

Last Sunday as I sat in church admiring a young lady's earrings before the service began, I was hit with the idea that it would be cool to make DNA earrings. DNA is just such an elegantly beautiful macro-molecule! Unfortunately, my jewelry making experience is nil. However, I figured if someone had come up with a knit model (see previous post), surely some other crafty soul would have designed DNA earrings. And such is the case. I found several tutorials, but my favorite is this one which happens to come from our local university.

Faith had most of the necessary parts, and we improvised for the rest. I think the result is kind of fun. Faith says she might even wear them when she starts volunteering next week with Amanda at Wonderlab, our local science museum.

Summertime, and the living is... not quite as crazy as usual

2011-06-07T21:30:00.002-04:00

Once school is out, daily pressures decrease somewhat. But with many different bodies in our family, we end up heading quite a few directions. Here's a glimpse of what my children, grown and not so grown, are up to this summer.

Andrew, 26, is spending the summer in Dayton, OH, working with a research team at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Andrew is nearing the end of his graduate program in electrical engineering at Purdue, and Lord willing, should graduate with his PhD in about a year or so. He was happy to learn that the apartment he's subletting for the summer is a few blocks from a climbing gym and that his colleagues asked him to bring his kayak along.

Kara (24), Collin and sweet Annie (20 months) are eagerly looking forward to the birth of Annie's little sister sometime in August.

Kristen (21) has just completed her sophomore year at Purdue and is home for the summer. She's loving nursing school, and misses assessing patients and giving meds. Yep, she's one of those nurses who delights in poking people. Her summer work at a local natural grocery and deli doesn't satisfy her nursing desires, so she has to take that out on her siblings. Here she auscultates willing victim, sister Manda.

Seriously, it's been a great year for Kristen, and the Lord was very gracious in giving her some wonderful professors, excellent clinical experience, and a sweet roommate. Kristen and Andrew go to the same church, and once again we are thankful for Andrew watching out for a younger sister. Kris has written a bit about her year on her blog.

Jonathan, 17, will be spending his summer mowing lawns and writing computer code for the church website. Jon has one more year at home, and will be trying to figure out the Lord's plans for him following high school. For fun Jon does Brazilian jiujitsu.

Peter, 16, is has become an avid distance runner in the past year and a half. Since he doesn't have a high school team to compete with, he participates in a local road race series. Running has been so good for Peter as a way to develop self-discipline and meet folks in the community. Here's a picture of Peter (blue shorts) at the start line of a race at McCormick's Creek where he came in first over all!

Manda, 14, enjoys spending time outside, especially creating a lovely garden area near her tree house. She buys some plants and transplants other wildflowers and ferns, and has created a large patio and paths from stones she and her siblings bring up from the creek.

Faith will turn 13 in a couple of weeks, bringing our teen count up to four. As you might guess from this pic, she's our goofster and drama girl. Life's always fun with Faith around! Here (taken a month or so ago) she's hugging some blueberry blossoms in anticipation of eating her favorite fruit. Faith loves to play the piano, read and pick blueberries.

Paul, 10, can often be found up in a tree. If not there, he might be at "Hotel Summerdell" a place Paul and Ben have worked on deep in the woods where our creek makes a bit of a water hole.

Ben, 7, likes to climb trees as well. But his all-time favorite activity is bouncing on the trampoline. When we are in school, he takes frequent short breaks by running outside to jump for a bit. It keeps him happy and lets him bounce off steam. While he jumps, Ben entertains himself with crazy little stories he makes up.

Well, that's what the kids are up to. Tim and I have the usual activities. Tim's working, serving the church, and raising kids. I'm trying to bring order to the house by cleaning and decluttering, tending the garden, writing some reviews, and prepping for the next school year. Next week we're making a short trip to Mammoth Cave National Park, and Tim and I have something pretty special planned in late July to celebrate our 30th anniversary. But more on that later!

Knitting Therapy for the ADHD Mom

2011-05-29T17:27:00.001-04:00

I sometimes say, half-jokingly, that I have adult-onset ADHD. Maybe it's an occupational hazard of having many children. All those years of trying to keep track of where each child is and what he is up to, not to mention, what things I ought to be teaching him or the character issues I ought to be working with him on, seems to have left my brain permanently splintered. Even though I'm beyond the years of wondering what havoc the toddler is creating and where I've left the baby, I still spend time each day keeping track of everyone, only now the concerns take a different turn. ("Oh, I hope Andrew is having a productive meeting with the visiting team from Wright Patterson Air Force Base today! Sure hope his summer internship with them goes well. And Lord, please guide him to a good church in Ohio for the summer. And maybe he could meet a godly young lady." And that's just what's playing on Track #1 for the firstborn.) This, I think, accounts for the distracted part of the ADHD.

And then there's the hyperactive component. While I may have had seeds of this (I used to jump on our bed when Tim and I were first married), chasing after lots of little people for many years has brought it to the fore. I can't tell you how much I miss having a fussy baby to hold during church so I could stand at the back of the church and rock.

And here's the rub - homeschooling involves a good bit of sitting! (Not that it doesn't have plenty of activity, too, thankfully! With kids working on all three levels of our house, I find myself racing up and down stairs all day - hurrah!) Still, there are many times when I need to just sit down and work one-on-one or teach several at once. And with no baby to hold any longer, I get antsy!

Enter - therapeutic knitting! Keeping my hands busy with yarn has gone some way to helping me focus and sit still. Knitting works better for me than other type of handwork because it is easy to do just a little bit at a time, set it down, then pick it up again later. I can knit while sitting at the table working with a child or listening to a young one read. Also, knitting, unlike hand quilting, which I've tried, is much easier to accomplish while reading aloud to my children.

Here are some of the projects I've finished this year during school:

This is a dress for Kara and Collin's new baby, due in August. It's supposed to be 6 month size, but I think she may not fit into it until next spring or so.

This fun yarn (same colorway in a variety of fibers) was a gift from one of my sisters-in-law. First I made a throw blanket

and then I made this shawl from the Angora yarn in the batch. (Aeolian shawl directions here.)

I ran out of the Angora yarn just as I was finishing, so I had to use up odds and ends of the little bits I had left over from the blanket. I was quite relieved when I reached the end with just tiny snippets to spare.

Ben loves anything warm and snugly, so I knit this sweater for him from a wool-blend. (Pattern from 99 Yarns and Counting by the Green Mountain Spinning Cooperative)

And here's an Entrelac cover I made for my Kindle. (Directions here.)

Finally, I've discovered there's a whole subset of science knitters out there who have created some really cool, and some pretty strange, projects. (You can find patterns for microbes including H1N1 and salmonella!) I feel in love with this DNA model, ostensibly a baby toy. Paul, who loves all things science related, asked me to make him one, so this is his. I'm also working on a second DNA with a bit of a different color scheme for Kristen, who must be as warped as I am.

Knitting can be useful for more than just antsy moms. It, or other handwork, is a great way to help some children listen more easily when you are reading aloud. And it turns out that others believe knitting is good therapy for kids with ADHD. In an article on classroom knitting I found this:

I strongly support knitting as an activity for all children but I think that it has added benefit for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. For them, it can be very helpful to have a project going that they can be busy with between assignments. In fact, many with ADHD are actually able to listen better to lectures or classroom discussion if they are also knitting. This may not work for all students but over my years of work in both out-patient and residential programs I have learned that some people listen better when they are “using up” some of their hyperactivity. The soothing and
repetitive quality of knitting can occupy just enough of their attention so that they are not as distracted from listening. - James Krag, M.D.

I probably don't qualify as really having ADHD, though we have one son who would likely be so labeled. However, I sure can vouch for the benefits of having hand work going to help settle a body down or optimal listening.

Mapping the World by Heart: Maps in Progress

2011-05-19T16:55:00.002-04:00

Amanda and Faith early in the process.

We're down to crunch time. As a culmination of our year long study of world geography, the kids are now making memory maps. Jon (11th), Peter (10th), Manda (8th), and Faith (7th) are drawing the world, while Paul (4th) is mapping the U.S. and Ben (1st) is making a map of Indiana.

Over the past couple of months, the kids have learned locations and coordinates first for continents and then for countries, practicing on blank laminated longitude and latitude grids. Each night they are allowed to review and practice drawing, and then in the morning - with no notes or resources - they draw as much as they can.

We've more or less followed plans based on the Mapping the World by Heart curriculum which I used over a decade ago with my older children. The latest edition include ideas for younger children to map the U.S. alone. But my much older version otherwise seemed quite serviceable, and I didn't want to lay out $70 for the newer model just for that. Instead, I found an e-book from CurrClick called Memory Mapping America for just $9.95. This program really fit the bill for Paul. Designed to be used over 14 weeks, we had to condense it some, but I love the printable maps which gradually weans students from guidelines until they can create a United States map on a blank grid, just like the older kids are doing with the world.

At times during the three week drawing process various ones have had severe reservations about his or her ability to complete the task. One young perfectionist who could draw the U.S. very well on his practice maps was almost paralyzed when faced with his full-sized artist's paper.

Paul drawing on his practice grid.

But day by day the maps are coming along very nicely. The older ones should have all countries drawn by the end of this week, leaving the last week to add some artistic touches. I'll post finished maps soon.

Update: You can see the kids' finished maps here .

Or check out our edible geography series in these posts:

North America
South America
Europe
Asia
Africa
Antarctica and Australia

Practically Painless Poetry Memorization

2011-05-13T20:15:00.001-04:00

I can read pretty well and I know ever so many pieces of poetry off by heart—"The Battle of Hohenlinden" and '"dinburgh after Flodden," and "Bingen of the Rhine," and most of the "Lady of the Lake" and most of "The Seasons" by James Thompson. Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back? There is a piece in the Fifth Reader—'The Downfall of Poland'—that is just full of thrills. Of course, I wasn't in the Fifth Reader—I was only in the Fourth—but the big girls used to lend me theirs to read.

–Anne Shirley in response to Marilla’s question about her prior education (Anne of Green Gables, Chapter V)

Back in the day, as one of my sons likes to say, poetry memorization was a routine part of a child’s education. Sometime after the 1940’s however, this practice fell out of favor with “progressive” educators when what they disparagingly called “rote memorization” became a disdained method. Before this “in every epoch of Western history we find educators insisting that their pupils serve an apprenticeship in the work of masters of poetry and rhetoric.” (From In Defense of Memorization by Michael Knox Beran– an absolutely fascinating discussion of the history and purposes of memorization!)

Augustine memorized large portions of the Aeneid, British schoolchildren committed to heart scads of Shakespeare, and American pupils recited the Gettysburg Address. Poetry memorization built cultural literacy and developed young minds. By the time of my childhood in the 1960s and ‘70s, memorization was pretty much a thing of the past. I remember learning only one poem in school, and that was to include as part of a presentation on the Hoosier Poet, James Whitcomb Riley. (Even with my sieve-like memory, I can still recite the first stanza of “The Jaybird” with a bona fide Hoosier accent.)

Happily, many homeschoolers have returned to practice of memorizing poetry, and with good reason, too. Encouraging your children to learn poetry by heart is one of the most powerful things you can do to build a library of complex English syntax and a rich vocabulary in your little scholars’ brains, serving to “turn on kids’ language capability" (Beran). In fact, Andrew Pudewa, creator of the Institute for Excellence in Writing series goes so far as to say that the two most important things parents can do to help their children become good writers are to read aloud regularly to all ages of children, and to require their children to memorize quantities of poetry. (One Myth and Two Truths).

I can imagine some readers thinking, “OK, Anne. That sounds great. But we are already struggling to get through the basics each day while trying to keep the laundry from overtaking the house! Now you are telling us to add on one more thing!?!?”

So, here’s a practically painless method for poetry memorization that has worked for us for years. It really has been very easy to implement, but does take some thought and a bit of preparation beforehand. This past summer I neglected this prep, and guess what? We have been sporadic in our poetry memorization this year until a friend gave me a gentle nudge a few months ago. We’ve done better in April and May, and I’ve renewed my determination to spend the time needed this summer to better plan for next year. Hopefully we’ll pull off a complete year more successfully. And that’s why I’m writing about this now – not to give you a guilt trip about one more thing to do, but to give you some ideas for the coming year.

1. Choose one piece to memorize for each month of the school year.
Read through your favorite poetry collections. Think about seasonal events, and keep in mind the ages and interests of your children. Come up with a nice variety of humorous, inspirational, thoughtful, and just lovely poetry.

Side note: Work on building a well-rounded and beautiful collection of poetry books. Must haves include nursery rhymes, A. A. Milne’s two collections, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Child’s Garden of Verses, and several collections with a wide variety of styles of poetry and illustrations. Try books from your library to see what you like before buying your own. If you want to see what kids were memorizing a century ago, you can check out Poems Every Child Should Know by Mary Burt. It's still in print, but you can download a copy for free from Gutenberg. (I have a copy on my Kindle.)

2. Make copies of each poem to be learned, preferably with illustrations. Print a copy for each reading child and one for a family book. The pictures will help prompt your non-reading children.

3. Put one set of the poems into sheet protectors and compile them into a family poetry binder. You will add to this each year, and can use it to review poems previously memorized.

4. To memorize – we simply read through our poem of the month a couple of times each day right before our daily read aloud period. If that timing doesn’t work for you, pick some other period of the day you can hit with consistency. Children may read along with their copies or just listen and chime in as they are able. As time goes on, I have them say more and more on their own. Usually within the month, everyone knows the piece. Try posting your piece on the fridge and reciting together as you eat lunch. Simple repetition, with regularity, should do the trick.

5. Don’t forget to review pieces previously learned.

If you want to read more about memorization techniques, here are a couple of helpful links:

A. Step-by-Step By Heart : About.com

B. Poetry X - More on how to memorize

Fun Poetry: Carl Sandburg's "Arithmetic"

2011-05-13T19:34:00.003-04:00

Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head.

Arithmetic tells you how many you lose or win if you know how many you had before you lost or won.

Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven — or five six bundle of sticks.

Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.

Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky — or the answer is wrong and you have to start all over and try again and see how it comes out this time.

If you take a number and double it and double it again and then double it a few more times, the number gets bigger and bigger and goes higher and higher and only arithmetic can tell you what the number is when you decide to quit doubling.

Arithmetic is where you have to multiply — and you carry the multiplication table in your head and hope you won't lose it.

If you have two animal crackers, one good and one bad, and you eat one and a striped zebra with streaks all over him eats the other, how many animal crackers will you have if somebody offers you five six seven and you say No no no and you say
Nay nay nay and you say Nix nix nix?

If you ask your mother for one fried egg for breakfast and she gives you two fried eggs and you eat both of them, who is better in arithmetic, you or your mother?

Fun Poetry: At Last

2011-05-13T19:33:00.000-04:00

At Last
By James Stevenson

Dogs in the back seat,
Always in the back seat,
Miles in the back seat,
Hours in the back seat.

But in the parking lot of shopping centers,

You'll see: Dogs get their chance

At last

To drive.

Hemlock Cliffs and Lost River - Southern Indiana

2011-05-02T22:13:00.002-04:00

One of the most beautiful places to hike in southern Indiana is Hemlock Cliffs in Hoosier National Forest located near English, IN. The hiking trail is very short (1.2 miles), but you can take some side branches or just mozy along the box canyon, enjoying the scenery, waterfalls,

and (at least in April) stunning wildflowers.

Tim and youngest six enjoying themselves. They were pretty boisterous, not to mention, LOUD. We worried a bit about scaring away the naturalist photographers.

Maybe...

I didn't really want up there, anyway!

On our way north to home, we stopped off at the Wesley Chapel Gulf of the Lost River near Orangeville. This is also part of Hoosier National Forest and is a designated Natural National Landmark. A by-product of the karst landscape, here you can see swallow holes, sinkholes and caves. In the spring, especially this very wet one, you can see where the Lost River temporarily comes out of the ground and then boils back down underground again. Pretty cool! (As was the large snake we saw, but I ran the other way instead of taking a photo!)

Either of these sites is worth visiting alone, but since both of the hikes are short and they are reasonably near one another, they make for a great double header.

Plucking Strawberry Blossoms

2011-04-26T18:41:00.001-04:00

I pinched the blossoms from my baby everbearing strawberry plants today. It was painful. Kind of like the discipline session that had just preceded my gardening time. With both, it’s the long-haul I’m concerned about. While I’d love to see those lovely blossoms turn into red fruit in the next few weeks, but by plucking them until July, the plants can concentrate on growing strong and healthy. The idea is that by doing this the first year of these plants’ lives, we’ll get much more fruit in coming years than we would if we allow impatience to rule now.

Disciplining kids takes a long-term vision as well. Sometimes, especially as I grow older and wearier, I want to just ignore selfishness, strife, or sloth. But when I do this, or when I go for the quick fix instead of dealing with the root of sin, I’m settling for the short term “peace” at great cost. Left alone the fruit of sin is always death. (James 1: 14, 15).

I Kings 1: 5,6 gives a very sober warning to parents from the life of Adonijah, David’s son and usurper. It says, “His father had never crossed him at any time by asking, ‘Why have you done so?’ And he was also a very handsome man, and he was born after Absalom.” Fathers and mothers need to have courage to discipline sons and daughters. We need to quickly deal with sin in children of all ages. Mamas, don’t be afraid to cross your children, even when they are in their teens. And don’t allow your love for your sweet offspring to blind you to budding sin, but look accurately into the hearts and actions of your children, helping them also see their selves with sober judgment. Take heart – you will reap a harvest at the proper time if you do not grow weary in well doing! (Gal. 6:9)

Hebrews 12: 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Mine, Mine Was the Transgression

2011-04-22T00:05:00.008-04:00

"O Sacred Head Now Wounded" is based on a medieval poem which considered the various parts of Christ's body, hanging on the cross. The beautiful passion hymn comes from the last part of the poem which addresses Christ's head, "Salve caput cruentatum." Usually we sing only three or four stanzas, but here is the entire hymn as translated into English by James W. Alexander in 1830.

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

Men mock and taunt and jeer Thee, Thou noble countenance,
Though mighty worlds shall fear Thee and flee before Thy glance.
How art thou pale with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How doth Thy visage languish that once was bright as morn!

Now from Thy cheeks has vanished their color once so fair;
From Thy red lips is banished the splendor that was there.
Grim death, with cruel rigor, hath robbed Thee of Thy life;
Thus Thou hast lost Thy vigor, Thy strength in this sad strife.

My burden in Thy Passion, Lord, Thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression which brought this woe on Thee.
I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore Thee; Redeemer, spurn me not!

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

My Shepherd, now receive me; my Guardian, own me Thine.
Great blessings Thou didst give me, O source of gifts divine.
Thy lips have often fed me with words of truth and love;
Thy Spirit oft hath led me to heavenly joys above.

Here I will stand beside Thee, from Thee I will not part;
O Savior, do not chide me! When breaks Thy loving heart,
When soul and body languish in death’s cold, cruel grasp,
Then, in Thy deepest anguish, Thee in mine arms I’ll clasp.

The joy can never be spoken, above all joys beside,
When in Thy body broken I thus with safety hide.
O Lord of Life, desiring Thy glory now to see,
Beside Thy cross expiring, I’d breathe my soul to Thee.

My Savior, be Thou near me when death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me, forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish, oh, leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish by virtue of Thine own!

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

Fun Poetry: The Goops

2011-04-18T21:09:00.000-04:00

Gelett Burgess, best-known for his "Purple Cow" poem, wrote a whole series of poems about the ill-mannered, bald Goops. My kids get a kick out of reading the antics of these naughty creatures, and maybe they learn a thing or two about how not to behave. Table Manners, above, is a good one to memorize. Dover has re-published a couple of Mr. Burgess's books designed to teach good manners to children over a century ago, and you can also find them at Project Gutenberg.

His way - Or mine with leanness in the soul?

2011-04-16T22:25:00.000-04:00

At our women’s retreat this weekend we had the joy of hearing how God has shown His faithfulness in the lives of a number of women who are part of our fellowship. How amazing to learn the different ways He works in each one’s life! As diverse as each woman’s testimony was though, there were definitely some common strands. One was how God uses suffering to refine His children and cause them to cling to Him alone. Another was that His plan for our lives is often not what we expect or would have planned ourselves.

I’ve been thinking about this last thought for some time now. Do I want my own will, or do I truly desire God’s will? How often we (I) decide what would be best for our own lives, and don’t really want God to have His way with us. Because, as several of the women shared this weekend, our loving heavenly Father rarely gives us the picture perfect life that we dream of, even when our dreams are based on good and righteous goals. Will we trust Him or will we demand our own way?

Sometimes when we demand our own way, God gives it to us. But then the very blessing we have requested becomes instead a curse. Consider the Israelites in the wilderness begging God for some meat rather than thankfully receiving God’s gift of manna. He sent them quail -- and a plague as well. (Numbers 11.) When they later rejected the Lord as their king, asking for a man as king so they could be like their neighbors, God gave them Saul . Later again, Hezekiah “wept bitterly” upon learning that he was about to die, and asked the Lord to remember what he had done. God hears his prayers, sees his tears, and adds fifteen years to his life. During this time, though, Hezekiah’s very wicked son, Manasseh was born. Yes – God is sovereign over all these “wrong” choices! He knew and allowed each one, using them to work His perfect will! But they are written down as a warning to us.

The life of my hero Elizabeth Prentiss can be summed up with the words, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Though her most difficult struggles came over the losses of her children, she is wonderfully honest about her battles to give up her own will with lesser issues as well. Once, later in life, she and her husband were trying to decide if he should leave the busy New York City church he pastured to take a seminary position in Chicago. Neither of them wanted to go, but they desired to be obedient. Elizabeth wrote this to a friend:

The thought of giving up this home makes me know better how to sympathize with you if you have to part with yours. I do think it is good for us to be emptied from vessel to vessel, and there is something awful in the thought of having our own way with leanness in the soul.

This idea of having my own way with leanness in the soul comes from Psalm 106 which says this:

Psalm 106:13-15
13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. 15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul. (KJV)

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!

Eyes Wide Open - Spurgeon on Nature

2011-04-08T22:50:00.000-04:00

I cannot say that I sympathize with those people who shut their eyes to the beauties of nature. I have heard of good men traveling through fine scenery, and shutting their eyes for fear they should see. I always open mine as wide as ever I can, because I think I can see God in all the works of his hands, and what God has taken the trouble to make I think I ought to take the trouble to look at.

- Charles Spurgeon

(From a sermon delivered April 28, 1867)

April: National Poetry Month!

2011-04-08T22:48:00.000-04:00

Halfway Down the Stairs
A. A. Milne

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair where I sit:
There isn't any other stair quite like it.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top:
So this is the stair where I always stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up, and isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery, it isn't in the town:
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head:
"It isn't really anywhere! It's somewhere else instead!"

Flowery. Stuffy. Obscure. That's how I used to view poetry. But after two and a half decades of reading verse to my family, everything from nursery rhymes to Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson to Yates, A. A. Milne (still my favorite!) to Shelley, my opinion has completely changed. So much of poetry, especially that written for children, is just rollicking good fun, while other pieces offer inspiration or help you take a fresh look at something. So in honor of this month, I'm going to occasionally post whimsical pieces that our family has enjoyed. The one above is one of Ben's favorites.

Iron Sharpens Iron

2011-04-06T15:57:00.000-04:00

The more I reflect and the more I pray, the more life narrows down to one point-- What am I being for Christ, what am I doing for Him? Why do I tell you this? Because the voice of a fellow-traveler always stimulates his brother-pilgrim; what one finds and speaks of and rejoices over, sets the other upon determining to find too. God has been very good to you, as well as to me, but we ought to whisper to each other now and then, "Go on, step faster, step surer, lay hold on the Rock of Ages with both hands." You never need to be afraid to speak such words to me. I want to be pushed on, and pulled on, and coaxed on.

- Elizabeth Prentiss, letter to a friend, Dec., 1870

Edible Continents VI and VII: Antarctica and Australia

2011-04-04T19:12:00.001-04:00


Marshmallow penguins to go with our Antarctica maps

For our Antarctica edible maps, we threw a party! Andrew and Kristen were home on Spring Break, and we also invited Kara, Collin, Annie, plus Collin's brother, Dan, his wife, Nomi, and son, Eddy, so we had something like 16 Antarctica maps!

And of course, Antarctica wouldn't be complete without penguins, so we made these gorgeous guys from marshmallows, Oreos, Tootsie rolls (heads) and candy corn. (Recipe here.)Yum! Not really. But they were fun to make!

We choose to represent Antarctica with ice cream - what else? We had to eat our maps quickly, and all the white doesn't make for the best photographs, but I'm pretty sure this was the most appreciated map project of the year!

Here's our key:

- White chocolate chips = mountains
- Mini Marshmallow = Mt. Vinison (highest peak)
- Whipped topping = Lambert-Fisher Glacier
- Pretzel stick = geographic South Pole (I'd rather have had small peppermint sticks, but couldn't find at this time of year)
- Toothpick = magnetic South Pole


Faith shows off her creations.

Andrew and Annie seemed to enjoy the experience, too.

A few weeks previous we had made Australia maps from pancakes. I know it look garish, but apart from the gummy fish (Great Barrier Reef), it didn't taste too bad! (The small piece is Tasmania.)

Mini sausages: mountains

Powdered sugar: deserts

Green tinted coconut = tropics

Sprinkles = grasslands

Strawberry - Ayer's Rock

Gummy fish = Great Barrier Reef

Well, that's the end of our edible map series! In case you want to see any of the previous maps you can find them here:

North America (Cookie Maps)

South America (Tortillas)

Europe (Pizza maps)

Asia (Rice/Stir-fry veggies)

Africa (Injera Bread)

Our geography assignments have turned now from studying the peoples, cultures, and places of the world to learning how to draw memory maps of the world. (Paul, 4th grade, is focusing on drawing the U.S.) First, everyone must memorize a minimum of three coordinates for each continent and practice drawing the continent outlines on a Mercator map projection. We have large laminated maps and blank grids to use for practice. In another week we'll add in filling in the countries in each continent.

Then the fun begins, when over the course of three weeks, the students will spend time each day creating their own memory map. During the evening they are allowed to study by looking at reference maps, but no outside resources may be referenced during the daytime before or during drawing time. Hopefully, I will post pictures of finished maps in late May!

Sweet contentment, even with illnesses in the family

2011-03-31T20:45:00.001-04:00

This winter seems to have brought more than the usual amount of illness. We haven't been hit as hard as some of our church families with younger children, but we've seen plenty. Currently I have two down with strep, including our youngest, Benjamin, who has also had three separate bouts of that nasty stomach virus.

No mama likes to see her children wiped out from a high fevers or dealing with a rummy tummy, but while caring for my sick ones I so often think how much more difficult this job was for women in previous ages. Last night when Jon's temp spiked to 104, we were able to help it decline, albeit slowly, by alternately giving him both acetaminophen and ibuprofen. And today, after a positive strep test, both sick boys are on antibiotics, which should wipe out that streptococcal bacteria in no time.

Compare that to what strep meant in the past. Scarlet fever is a rash that sometimes accompanies a strep infection, but when it was noticed in days gone by, children (and tending mamas) were often quarantined for 40 days. For good reason, too. Untreated, strep infections can lead to extremely serious issues.

I've just finished reading a biography of Elizabeth Prentiss, author of Stepping Heavenward and composer of that great hymn, "More Love to Thee." Like other women of past generations, Mrs. Prentiss spent much time in the sick room, nursing ill children. (Often she herself was the patient, too, as she experienced poor health throughout her life, some of which, according to the author of the bio I read, might have been due to mercury poisoning. It seems that a common remedy given to children in the first half of the 1800s was a "little blue pill" which was actually a mercury compound that led to headaches, dizziness, mental cloudiness, and tremors.)

The defining period in Mrs. Prentiss's life occurred when she lost two of her (ultimately) six children within a few months. One was a boy of three and the other a month old baby girl. This suffering served to draw her more deeply to her Lord and to prepare her for heaven. She then used the comfort the Lord had given her to comfort other bereaved women throughout her life.

I hope to post some excerpts from Elizabeth Prentiss's letters in future posts, but here I want to leave you with just one. After nursing her 10 year old son, Henry, back from a serious illness, Mrs. Prentiss wrote this to a friend:

I have had some really sweet days, shut up with my dear little boy. He is better, and I am comparatively at leisure again, and so happy in meditating on the character of my Saviour... I wish I could put into words all the blessed thoughts I had last week about God's dear will: it was a week of such sweet content with the work He gave me to do; naturally I hate nursing, and losing the air makes me feel unwell; but what can't God do with us? I love, dearly, to have a Master. I fancy that those who have strong wills are the ones to enjoy God's sovereignty most.

And to think that I sometimes complain about having to miss church two weeks running! May I exhibit this sweet contentment with the work God has given me.

Good Music

2011-03-27T21:25:00.001-04:00

God has blessed our church with an incredible wealth of classically trained musicians who give their talents to serve the Lord instead of their own egos. Most of what we sing each Sunday consists of old hymns, but which have often been set to new settings or melodies. Our church band, the Good Shepherd Band, has put out a new EP (Extended Play) called "Glorious Things" which you can download for free here!

Speaking of music worth listening to, if you aren't familiar with Judy Rogers' CDs, check these out too! Mrs. Rogers is a pastor's wife with an amazing gift of setting to music biblically rich texts on topics from the Children's Catechism (Why Can't I See God) to her newest recording about the Beatitudes. We've been listening to Mrs. Rogers' music for a long time, but I recently received Blessed in one of my review batches, and I have renewed my love for her work. Mrs. Rogers began writing music in the 1980s when her own children were young so she could give them “songs that would be distinctively biblical, thought provoking, and melodically addicting!” And that they are!

Though Mrs. Rogers' music can be enjoyed by the whole family, some of her albums are tailored for young children (such as Why Can't I See God and Go to the Ant) while others are written primarily with teens (Walkin' Wise and Stand Up) or adults in mind.

The more I have listen to Blessed, the more I've grown to love this CD which is the first Mrs. Rogers has released in over ten years. Inspired both by sermons on the Beatitudes her husband gave and from reading Puritan pastor Thomas Watson, Mrs. Rogers created ten songs which do far more than scratch the surface of this well-known text. “Those who Mourn” talks about mourning over sin, and “Peacemakers” differentiates between peace at any price with true peace, both with God and with man. Musically, Blessed also excels, incorporating a harp, ullieann pipes, and an Irish flute in addition to the more standard guitar and keyboard. Several songs take on a Celtic flavor, including the final two songs, “The Hammer of Hell” and “Yours is the Kingdom” which both address faithfulness in persecution.

You can hear samples of every Judy Rogers' song at the online shopping area of her website.

Good Books

2011-03-27T21:07:00.000-04:00

World magazine senior writer, Janie Cheaney has teamed up with Emily Whitten to write a new blog about children's literature, Redeemed Reader Blog : "Kid's books. Culture. Christ." This pair of women, one a former and the other a current homeschool mom, tackle both newly published books and classics, giving readers insightful, thought-provoking reviews on such volumes as Jane Eyre, the Percy Jackson series, and the current Newbery winners. I like the different perspectives that come from one of the women being on the older side of things and the other just starting out as a parent. It looks like it is going to provide some excellent leads on new books plus some warnings about others.

World Events: Praying With Our Children

2011-03-20T21:19:00.002-04:00

Matt 24:6-8 And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for [those things] must take place, but [that] is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are [merely] the beginning of birth pangs.

Birth pangs. It seems that the pace of world events moves ever quicker. Since the beginning of this year we've seen revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, a civil war in Libya, now with European and U.S. involvement , and unrest across North Africa and the Middle East. South Sudan voted to secede from the north. Australia faced severe flooding and a cyclone, New Zealand a major earthquake, and Japan is reeling from the aftermath of their own devastating earthquake and tsunami. The contractions seem to be increasing in intensity and coming ever closer.

Now, more than ever, we ought to be talking about world events with our children, and praying for the Lord's work in the lives of men and women throughout the world.

Matt. 24: 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.

Window on the World is an excellent book for helping your children get a glimpse of God's work throughout the world, and allowing them to participate in it through prayer. Written with elementary aged students in mind, this book covers 92 countries and people groups from Afghanistan to the Zulus. It's filled with beautiful pictures, short stories of children in each place, and prayer points. My only complaint is that the book is becoming somewhat dated, published in 2001. (There is a more recent printing, but what I have read indicates the text is still the 10 year old one.) Take one day a week to read through a portion of this book and pray for that area of the world. I highly recommend this book for families with school aged children.

Even preschoolers can begin to understand that God has people who love Him all over the world. You might consider having one night a month when you serve a meal inspired by foods from one country and talk about life in that place. We used to do this when we had only a couple of children, and it was quite enjoyable. You can talk about what God is doing, and then pray for the people of that land. When possible, have missionaries and international students in your home.

With older children, make some time to talk and pray about current events. Since we are currently focusing on world geography, this has come pretty naturally this year. But I think it is something that should be part of every family's curriculum, whether they are homeschooling or not, and whether they are officially studying geography or focusing on ancient, medieval, or Early American history. Assigning occasional current event oral reports to be shared with your family can go a long way in helping kids tune in to current events. I've seen that happening around here. Having a particularly exciting year makes this easy.

Back to Japan, how can you pray for that country?

Operation World, the grown-up version of Windows on the World (actually, this book long preceded the children's edition) is the standard reference book of prayer needs for each country. Frequently updated, you'll find statistical information which gives a snapshot of the demographics in a particular country and the state of the church in it.

From the Operation World website, you can find shortened versions of the selections in the book. Here's a bit from the Japan page on the website, written before the events of the past week or so:

Uncertainty about the future has prompted spiritual searching. This is partly in response to many economic and social changes that threaten the status quo in Japan. The constant threats of a major earthquake, of economic decline, the widening generation gap and the feeling of social isolation (hikikomori) that so many suffer provoke widespread soul-searching.

The combination of the decade-long recession in Japan with the current fear and loss from the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor issues, has brought about an unprecedented opportunity for believers in the country to show the truth of the Gospel. Let's pray with our families that the church in Japan, which has been shrinking in recent years, will stand strong at this time, and reach out to love and serve their neighbors in practical and spiritual ways.

In Libya, once one of the most closed and unreached countries in the world, historic events are also taking place, events which are undoubtedly bringing about new opportunities for believers, both ex-pat workers and the few Libyan believers, to share the reason for their hope (I Pet. 3:15). The selection below is also taken from the Operation World website and was written prior to the recent events. Though the situation is changing daily, this still gives important background information:

Answer to Prayer
The spiritual climate in Libya has changed significantly. God is doing a new work in this land (a response to the sustained and specific intercession of past years?). There is notable spiritual hunger among Libyans, but not enough Bibles for those seeking them. Increasing numbers of Libyans are coming to Christ (though still only a few), and expatriate Christians now enjoy greater spiritual liberty than in the past. Praise God for these developments and pray that they would continue.

Challenge for Prayer
Libya’s long isolation is ending. Sanctions have ended, foreign investment and trade are increasing and the government is becoming more moderate. Libyan nationals have distinguished themselves as gracious and friendly; pray that they might be open to the gospel as it is shared sensitively. Pray also for Libya’s future; its ruler will not live forever, and whoever succeeds him could shape the nation profoundly.

Other sources of information for kids about current events and the church worldwide:

God's World News - Published by World Magazine, these age appropriate newpapers resemble the Weekly Readers I remember from my youth, but approach current events from a Christian perspective.

Kids of Courage - "The Voice of the Martyrs publishes Kids of Courage (formerly LINK) materials for children 5 to 13 so that families and schools can include children in learning about and serving the persecuted church."

(Almost, but not Quite) Running on Empty

2011-03-17T16:00:00.002-04:00

Ugh. I needed to force myself to get started on the day. But with just five hours of sleep, I didn’t exactly feel ready to “carpe diem.” Still a sick boy awaited, ill with a high fever and vomiting for the third time in the past month or so, and five healthy ones who needed a teacher with a functioning brain. (Not to mention Kristen, home on Spring Break, and Andrew, expected to arrive tonight, and a patient husband, all of whom also prefer a mom/wife capable of meaningful interactions.) Life’s been exhausting lately, with the normal cares of life coupled with my siblings and I trying to help my parents deal with serious aging issues. I’ve even started randomly falling asleep while sitting on a couch, something I don’t ever remember doing before.

As I lay struggling with the bed magnet, the words to “How Firm a Foundation” ran through my head. Frustratingly, I couldn’t come up with all of the verses Tim and I had memorized years ago. After running downstairs to get breakfast on the way (granola, prepared last night, thankfully, and oatmeal), I quickly checked email and then looked up the missing words to that hymn. It turns out there are seven verses, not just the five we’d learned. And tucked into this glorious hymn was one stanza that I think the Lord had particularly wanted me to see this weary morning:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Overall maybe not as powerful as its sister stanza's, the second is the one I needed to read this morning. Hey - there was an allusion to the verse I named my blog for - Deuteronomy 33:25! Verse six, also, speaks to me more and more as the hoary hairs increase on my temple. Thank you, Lord, for this reminder that YOUR strength will be sufficient.

Finding Your "Kitchen Sink"

2011-03-10T23:15:00.002-05:00

No, I don't mean doing an archeological dig to unearth your kitchen sink, though if it is filled with dirty dishes, by all means deal with those first!

Dinner dishes piled in sink, awaiting the attention of Peter, the evening dishwasher.

Housecleaning is not my natural forte. So, over the years I've turned to others for help. Internet cleaning guru, Marla Cilley, AKA the FlyLady is among those from whom I've learned some tricks of the trade. Working in short segments (15 minutes) with a timer has been a boon in keeping me focused on one task and preventing me from running after the inevitable other things that also need to be done. I find the zone system fairly useful, at least when it works out with what's going on in my life. And strangest of all, the FlyLady system turned me into a shoe convert, as I found that when I put on lace-up (running) shoes first thing in the morning, it helps put my brain in gear to work hard. However, one part of the FlyLady system has baffled me from the start.

Just what is her obsession with her kitchen sink, anyway? If you are familiar with the FL system, the first "BabyStep" is to scrub your kitchen sink. Apparently Mrs. Cilley found this little job to be life transforming, so she tells those who follow her plan to begin here, no matter what! (If you have dirty dishes in the sink and no dishwasher, she recommends putting them in a tub under the sink until you can get to them!)

My kitchen sink after Peter has finished his evening chore. Phew! I have a child assigned to do dishes for every meal, except on Sundays when I give them the day off. I've had children helping with the dishes for over 18 years now.

Well, I enjoy a clean sink, too, but somehow beginning here every day just didn't make sense to me.

Recently I was reading (yet another) cleaning book, The House That Cleans Itself. Author Mindy Clark has an interesting take on the kitchen sink thing. She maintains that every woman has her own "Home Base Zone" which is the place that bothers you most when it is untidy. For the FlyLady, this is obviously her kitchen sink. Mrs. Clark continues that when your Home Base Zone is clean, you can feel a sense of peacefulness even if the rest of the house is in dire need of attention.

This idea resonated with me. For me, my HBZ is my kitchen, and more specifically, my kitchen counters. When the counters are uncluttered and crumb-free, my kitchen looks clean to me, even if the floor desperately needs to be mopped. My girls figured this out before I did. Years ago the oldest girls would delight in cleaning the house when I was gone. The first room we walk into from our garage is the kitchen, and they loved to hear the happy exclamation when I saw the clean kitchen, which of course if made evident first and foremost by clear and clean counter tops. My younger girls have taken over this delightful habit, and they also love to tidy everything when I'm gone, but most especially the kitchen.

So here's how this Home Base Zone idea works:

1. Figure out what your Home Base Zone is. What part of your house makes you happiest when it is clean? Or what part stresses you when it is a mess? It could be your bed, the guest bathroom, your kitchen floor, the front porch, the toilets, or even your kitchen sink!

2. Purge and clean that zone.
Clear everything off/out of that area, clean thoroughly, and then think about each item before putting it back.

For me, this meant that I needed to evaluate all the things I keep on my counters. I only want things I use every day left out. So the antique bread box and knife block were allowed to stay as were the toaster and canisters with staples. My can opener and Bosch mixer were relegated to under counter cabinet space. The biggest change I made was to purge cookbooks. They'd long ago overflowed my cookbook cabinet, and I kept the ones I used most frequently on a counter, rather neatly I thought. Ha! But after throwing and giving away more than a dozen titles which I don't really use, I had room for all of them back where they belong. I still have tons of lose recipes waiting to be filed in binders, thus the messy folder in the middle shelf. But overall, its an improvement, and I can close the door on the whole thing.

Cookbook cabinet opened so you can see the good, the bad, and the ugly (pink folder).

3. Commit to maintaining your Home Base Zone.
Don't let your hard work go to waste! Spend a little bit of regular time keeping up that area that gives you a sense of restfulness. Before I go to bed, I usually spend a couple of minutes in my kitchen, returning stray items and spraying down the counter. Jon comes in late at night and sweeps the floors, so when I come down in the morning to make breakfast, a tidy room greets me, which helps get things going on a good start.

And that's it! I've found the philosophy of The House That Cleans Itself refreshing. This summer I'm hoping to have time to work through Mrs. Clark's suggestions room by room. But for now, this little HBZ idea is enough to give me a little bit of refreshment.

P.S. Oh, one other thing I've learned about kitchen sinks from this book. Think of the sink as the last dish to be washed, and you can leave it in pretty good shape each time you do the dishes.

A Life Well Spent: Charles West Cope

2011-03-04T23:01:00.000-05:00

http://iamachild.wordpress.com/category/cope-charles-west/

Not naturally given to all-things Victorian, this painting by Charles West Cope nonetheless delights me.

First, Cope has masterfully captured the atmosphere of a contented mother, calmly, yet busily caring for her four children. (Don't miss the baby in the basket on the right.) Mama's happily knitting away on a pair of socks while listening to her son recite his lesson. The scissors she's using to hold the book open bear the stamp of authenticity. (I'm forever placing stray objects to hold open the book I am reading aloud to my children so my hands can be free to knit.) I like to think the container of cloths about to spill on the floor are laundry she's finally gotten around to folding. And don't you love how the daughter in the foreground is able to read, oblivious to everything else that is going on around her? It looks like she might have discarded her lesson or even a bit of her own knitting, seeing the slate and the stray yarn poking out from under her dress.This painting just rings so true to me.

And then, there's that beautiful title: "A Life Well Spent." Yes, indeed.

Parenting as a Functional Atheist

2011-02-28T22:29:00.001-05:00

Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word. (Psalm 119:17)

Sunday Pastor Stephen Baker preached a powerful sermon from Psalm 119: 17ff. Taking a look at the assumptions the Psalmist makes about God and himself, Stephen helped us compare those assumptions to the ones we actually live by. Far too often, Stephen said, we take the default position of living as functional atheists. We have no thought of our desperate need of God, and we try to fight and grind through life on our own. We are self-sufficient, self-confident, and self-satisfied. This is in contrast to the Psalmist who knew that God is able and willing to deal bountifully with His servants, and he lived consistently with his beliefs.

How often as a parent I do just as Stephen says, and revert to behaving as if God is not actively involved in my life and the lives of my children! How often I end up trying to go it alone, making decisions without asking for His guidance, and slogging through the day in my own strength rather than relying on His! Oh what riches I miss when I do this!

As Stephen was preaching, I reflected on something I’d read earlier in the week. Several years ago Annie G. recommended a book to me called Mothers of the Wise and Good, originally published in 1846. (Solid Ground Books reprinted this book ten years ago, and it’s also available on Google Books for free.) Author Jabez Burns gives short inspirational pieces about mothers of famous and not-so-famous men. And while I’ve been enjoying these little vignettes, I’ve found even more helpful a series of essays towards the rear of the book. I’ve particularly been chewing on one with the robust title “On the Qualifications Essential to the Discharge of Maternal Duties,” which comes from a lecture given by one Rev. James Cameron. The first of the eight qualifications the author lays out for mothers is to “cultivate a deep and abiding sense of your own insufficiency.”

After delineating some of the reasons we should quake at the thought of raising immortal beings for God when we ourselves are equal sinners to our children, Pastor Cameron encourages his hearers that it is only when we see the hopelessness of accomplishing this task in our own strength that we throw ourselves wholeheartedly on the one who is the source of all wisdom and strength. Are you weary and despairing of your fitness for the task of raising your children to love God with their hearts, souls, minds, and strength? Good! Because it is just at that point that we realize the vanity of going it with our own efforts and begin to rely on His.

Concluding his section on this topic, Pastor Cameron writes:

Again, then, I repeat, cultivate a sense of your own insufficiency for the great work to which God has called you, and let this be so thoroughly interwoven in the very texture of your minds – let it so thoroughly pervade your whole habits of thinking and feeling, that you shall be kept in the very lowest depths of self-distrust, feeling that your only safety is in clinging, as with a death-grasp, to the soul-sustaining declaration, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is perfected in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians xii. 9. It is only when a deep sense of insufficiency, and a strong confidence in God are combined, that you are at all likely to be successful in your arduous work; your sense of insufficiency will make you cautious, tender, watchful, prayerful; and your confidence in God will nerve your soul, and strengthen you to grapple with the difficulties, you have to encounter (p. 240).

Will I live and parent today as a functional atheist, or will I walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, yielding my life to Him each moment of the day?

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Gal 5: 24, 25)

Mamas, Teach Your Daughters Well!

2011-02-26T08:52:00.000-05:00

Titus 2: 3-5 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (ESV)

Annie helps her mama wash some dishes.

When I entered marriage some twenty-nine years ago, I deluded myself into thinking I was pretty well prepared for the domestic side of things. After all, I knew how to bake bread and make delectable desserts, garden and can the produce, and sew clothing and quilts. I’d even, in one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, won the “Crisco Award”, a prize given to the top home economics student in my junior high school. I somehow glossed over the fact that I’d hardly ever cooked a complete dinner, almost never did the laundry, and knew next to nothing about cleaning a house. Better prepared for a career in a chemistry lab than a home, I had to play catch-up for the first many years of our marriage. In some ways, I still am.

Women of my generation often had mothers who wanted to make their daughters’ lives easier than theirs had been, so they shouldered all the home duties themselves or had outside help. With a cleaning lady to take care of the routine cleaning and an ironing lady to do that task, the fact that those jobs needed to be done barely crossed my mind, much less the most efficient and effective ways to accomplish them.

I don’t think things have changed all that much in recent years. If anything, young women seem to come to marriage with fewer skills than my peers did back in the ‘80s. As moms, we have all sorts of reasons for neglecting to teach our daughters to be home-keepers. Here are some of the common things we tell ourselves:

I want my children to have time to enjoy being children.
I didn’t have to work when I was young, so why should my little ones?
It takes twice as long when I have my child(ren) working with me.
The job is never done well enough when a child cleans the bathroom (OR does the dishes, sweeps the kitchen, etc.)
They make so many messes when learning how to cook! (Or break so many dishes doing the dishes!)
But I treasure the time each day to cook alone!
She’s so busy with schoolwork, music practice, and sports, she doesn’t have time to take on home responsibilities!

So we teach them how to tie their shoes, how to read, how to conjugate Latin verbs, and how to solve simultaneous equations, but we neglect to teach our daughters how to cook and clean a home, how to mend and wash clothes, and how to love and care for children. We should not neglect the former, but certainly also do that latter!

Guess what? This failure to pass on home-making skills isn’t anything new! Read this passage written by Lydia Maria Child nearly 200 years ago!

The fact is, our girls have no home education. When quite young, they are sent to schools where no feminine employments, no domestic habits, can be learned; and there they continue till they 'come out' into the world. After this, few find any time to arrange, and make use of, the mass of elementary knowledge they have acquired; and fewer still have either leisure or taste for the inelegant, every-day duties of life. Thus prepared, they enter upon matrimony. Those early habits, which would have made domestic care a light and easy task, have never been taught, for fear it would interrupt their happiness; and the result is, that when cares come, as come they must, they find them misery. I am convinced that indifference and dislike between husband and wife are more frequently occasioned by this great error in education, than by any other cause.

(From The Frugal American Housewife published in 1829.)

Mamas, it is plain hard work to teach our children, both sons and daughters, how to work in the home. But as we do so, we will be blessing them by helping them build a strong work ethic and giving them skills they will use throughout life. As they grow in competency, they will become great helps to you as well. Begin early. Let your young ones work alongside you, and then increase their responsibilities gradually as they mature. With our daughters, we need to be helping them develop skills that will allow them to flourish as managers of their future homes. Be intentional about what you teach, and as your daughters reach their teen years, look over each one’s abilities to see which skills need more practice. We’ve found 4-H very helpful for teaching practical skills such as sewing and cooking. But, however you do it, make sure that you are faithfully passing on your domestic knowledge and preparing your daughter to be keepers at home.

Audrey's Garden Quilt

2011-02-23T12:34:00.000-05:00

My sister and brother-in-law adopted a beautiful, lively, and happy little girl from China in December. This weekend we met sweet Audrey for the first time!

Here are a couple of pics of the quilt I made for Audrey. It's a simple churn dash pattern made in floral prints. It looks like a garden to me, so I call it Audrey's Garden.

Now that I've finally finished Audrey's quilt, I can start making one for Kara and Collin's new baby who is due mid-August. The question is, should I go with the really cute design I have in mind, even though it is one that will be decidedly more appropriate for one sex than the other? (OK, Tim and I both think the baby is a boy!) On the other hand, maybe I should play it safe and work on two quilts, one for a girl and the other for a boy. That option, I fear, is rather more ambitious than I can pull off, however. So, what do you think?

If It's Monday, It Must be Muffins: Meal Planning IV

2011-02-21T07:39:00.002-05:00

When I first wake up in the morning, I don't want to waste time dithering over options, so for breakfast we rotate through a simple, predictable selection of foods. Generally it looks like this:

Breakfast Rotation

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Muffins: blueberry, Pumpkin, Lemon poppy seed, Oatmeal Applesauce Pineapple, etc. Or Scones (variety)	Cold cereal	Puff Pancakes OR French Toast (griddle or oven)	Oatmeal OR Granola/ Yogurt/ Fruit	Scr. Eggs + tortillas, bagels, or toast	Pancakes + bacon	Bagels + yog. OR W.W. Cinnamon Swirl bread

Fruit (or orange juice some days) is usually freely available to supplement the above.

For lunch we follow a similarly simple plan, but I build in a bit more flexibility. Also, left-overs are always fair game for lunches in our home, though premium ones have to be divvied up fairly.We usually put out fruit and carrots at lunch, and the girls like to make quick side salads.

Here's a list of our typical lunch fare:

Soups (most often canned, though occasionally homemade)
Pizza (frozen; or homemade crust; rice crust; English muffin, Fr. Bread, bagel pizzas)
Tortillas + cheese, ham, and/or humus
Sandwiches – PB/J, or meat
Grilled cheese made on the griddle. Kids esp. like these made with mozzarella cheese, cut into strips, and served with spag. sauce for dipping
Macaroni or other pasta
“Griddle” = anything that can be easily cooked on that surface. Usually eggs, hash browns, etc.
Hard boiled eggs + fruit, cheese cubes
Cheese and crackers and humus + fruit smoothies
Baked potatoes with broc/cheese, chives, etc.
Frozen fish, lasagna, chicken nuggets
Egg/hash brown/cheese brunch-type. casserole
Cheese strata (12 slices w.w. bread, buttered, sandwiched with 2 c. cheddar cheese. Mix tog. 4 eggs, 2 2/3 c. milk, salt, pepper, and 1/4 t. dry mustard, then pour over bread. Bake 45 min at 350 until puffed and set.)
When my young children were young, I sometimes assembled individual ice cube trays filled with fruit and yogurt, plus a few cheese cubes. Children can spear fruit with toothpicks and dip in yogurt.

My general advice is similar to that for making a dinner master plan. Brainstorm lists of food you like to make and can do so quickly, then put them into a pleasing arrangement. My daughter, Amanda, 14, the most organized one in our family, got tired of our sometimes spur-of-the-moment lunch decisions, and so she is the one who put together our current lunch plan, and posted it on an inside door of a kitchen cabinet. :)

Hope you find some of that helpful!

Paper Making

2011-02-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

For art last week, Kara helped her siblings make handmade paper. She's been teaching the older ones how to draw with ink, and they will be using this paper for some future projects.

Paper making from recycled paper is quite simple, and handmade paper makes a nice vehicle for pressed flowers, cards, or other artwork. It can be as simple or fancy as you wish.

Step 1: Tear up newsprint into little pieces. We have an end roll from a newspaper printer, and it comes in handy for all sorts of projects! You can also recycle other types of paper, but newsprint easily makes a pulp, unlike some firmer types of paper. If you want colored flecks, you can throw in bits of colored construction paper or even add little pieces of flowers, leaves, glitter, or small threads. This time we just wanted plain paper as a blank canvas with a tad more interest than ordinary paper.

Step 2: Place in blender, filled 3/4 full with water, then pulverize!

Step 3: Pour the slurry onto a 2-part frame. Tim made ours years ago by building two simple frames with an outer dimension of 7x9" and an inner opening (the size the finished paper will be) of about 5x7".Then on one of the frames, he fastened a sheet of window screen the same size as the frame. The piece without the screen is called a deckle. Your frames can be any size, but you will need to have a tub large enough to contain them, so our small size works pretty well.

Place the frames together with the screen side sandwiched in the middle. Pour pulp onto screen which sits in a tub to catch the overflow and excess water. Another technique is to fill the tub with the slurry and dip the frames into the slurry. The pouring version results in less waste, however.

After covering the screen, shake slurry to distribute well. Make sure you have no holes.

Step 4: Holding both parts of the frame together, lift out of tub and allow water to drain. Remove the deckle, and then cover your paper with a piece of large white felt, cheesecloth, or other large piece of fabric. Flip frame/screen, paper, and fabric onto a towel. Before removing screen, press excess water out of paper and soak up with another towel or rag. Carefully remove frame. Iron paper to help dry. You don't have to iron to complete dryness, as paper will air-dry within a day or so.

Step 5: You don't have to iron to complete dryness, as paper will air-dry within a day or so.

Step 6: Decorate! Most of our paper still awaits ink in a future art assignment, but Amanda made a quick test sketch on one of the reject pieces of paper. (We wondered if the ink would absorb too rapidly. Some recipes suggest adding starch as sizing to help with this, but we think the paper works decently even without starch.)

(Drawing is taped onto an antique school slate from the 1840s.)

For further instructions, check out this website.

Dear Mr. Raccoon

2011-02-15T18:53:00.000-05:00

Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms. Raccoon:

Your St. Valentine’s Day Chicken Massacre was not appreciated by the residents of Pleasant Hill Farm. Your wanton waste of gentle poultry who are just gearing up to enter their most productive season after being mere grain consumers all winter particularly disgusts us. 

Nonetheless, you are welcome to return tonight, though you will not find any chickens in the hen house. Tonight the surviving hens and lone rooster are safely billeted in the garage. Instead, please direct your ravenous appetite toward the liver you will find in one of the traps, er, the interesting metal sculptures set up around the hen house. And, don’t think you will get away with merely tipping over said metal structure to steal the bait as you did last night. We are on to your tricks and are prepared.

We hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Pleasant Hill Farmwife

Slow-Cooker Cookbooks

2011-02-14T08:08:00.000-05:00

There's been some discussion of crock-pot recipes in the comments section recently. Here are a few sources of ideas for making maximum use of your slow-cooker.

Saving Dinner (Leanne Ely) This is NOT exclusively a crock-pot cookbook, but it does include a number of such meals. This book has grown on me in the several years I've had it, and I continue to find new inspiration here. I like the healthy recipes and the fact that they are quick but use *real* ingredients and not lots of canned soups, etc. Menus are seasonally arranged, a nice feature.

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann)

This comes from a recommendation from my friend, Heather, and I currently have it checked out from the library. If you think crock-pots can only be used for roasts and stews, this book will convince you otherwise. I'm particularly intrigued by the grains and porridge chapters as years ago we had an out-of-the-world oatmeal concoction at a B & B in Sedona, AZ that I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to recreate since. Filled with both traditional American and ethnic cuisine, this book has tons of interesting looking recipes. I think I'm going to need my own copy of this one.

Make it Fast, Cook it Slow (Stephanie O'Dea)

This is the other cookbook my bookmobile librarian has recently brought me. Stephanie O'Dea, neither a nutritionist like the author of the first book, or an experienced food writer like the authors of the second, made a New Year's resolution to use her slow cooker every single day for an entire year (2008). Mrs. O'Dea blogged about her family's crock-pot adventures, both the hits and the flops, at A Year of Slow Cooking. With an endearing and entertaining writing style, the site became a huge success and resulted in a book deal for Mrs. O'Dea. Some reviewers think that Mrs. O'Dea is a better writer than cook, so the recipes may be somewhat uneven. I've not made anything from the book, though I have taken some ideas from her blog from time to time.

A special note for Emily B. or anyone else with gluten-intolerant family members:
All the recipes in Make it Fast, Cook it Slow are gluten-free!

Edible Continents V: Africa!

2011-02-12T18:47:00.002-05:00

This week we wrapped up our geographic survey of Africa with our most ambitious, but least enthusiastically received, edible maps. It seems we bit off more than we could chew (sorry) with these maps in which we tried to incorporate something of the flavors of an entire continent.

Here's what we did. For our base land masses, we made Ethiopian injera bread. Previously, we've made pseudo-injera bread using white or whole wheat flour and club soda as a leavening agent, but this time in a quest for authenticity, I made a more traditional injera sour-dough batter with teff flour and allowed it to ripen for a few days before we used it. After cooking, each child cut a piece to resemble the continent (plus Madagascar, of course!)

The injera bread wasn't bad, though it certainly had a different taste from other flat breads we've tried.

But things started to get gustatorially complicated when we added the toppings, each representing a different ecosystem:

grasslands: mesir wat (Ethiopia)

savannah/bush: mashed sweet potatoes

jungle: Botswannan spinach

mountains: peanuts

desert: Kenyan ground beef curry

Mediterranean/coastal: yogurt

We found recipes from Extending the Table, a wonderful collection of dishes largely from Mennonite missionaries around the world, written in a similar style to the More With Less cookbook. This is one of my favorite book of international dishes because it covers everyday foods eaten around the world.

By the way, if you are looking for international recipes or information about dietary customs in various countries, check out the Food in Every Country website. I ran across this site recently and think it looks pretty promising.

Here's what one finished map looked like:

We really liked each individual dish, but somehow, the composite effect was not as pleasing. Nonetheless, I was happy for the kids to try some new flavors. Everyone had to eat with their fingers and feed their neighbor at least one bite, traditions in parts of north Africa.

While they ate, several of the kids played 10 Days in Africa.

This is a terrific strategy game! You draw ten cards, then have to make connections by walking from one contiguous country to another, or driving to countries a bit further apart, or flying from one country to another. Driving requires a car card, and flying requires an airplane of the same color as both countries you are connecting. I like the fast pace and the fact that I can join in for a single round which might be completed in 15 minutes. Other versions of the game exist for different continents. Highly recommended as a way to painlessly gain familiarity with a continent!

We're down to just two more edible versions of continents, and I'm pretty confident those are going to have more kid- appeal than did our Africa maps. Next up: Australia!