Field Trip

Some homeschooling women in the area put together a stellar field trip experience. It started with an emergency/fire experience trailer.

A person showed you how to work a fire extinguisher.

Then you went inside the trailer where things burst into flames and the children had to put the fires out with an extinguisher. My children loved this.

Then an earthquake was simulated. Very loud. My children loved this as well.

Of course, lots of good information was given--it wasn't all about the special effects.

After the trailer we explored the fire station--including the truck used for forest/prairie fires.

And an ambulance. The kids thought it was pretty exciting that the firemen all had bedrooms to sleep in plus a kitchen and tv room.

Great information; fun field trip. Kudos to the women who put all the effort in to put it together.

Along with the touring type activities, the women also gathered Red Cross information, gave each child an emergency bag with things like hard candy, a toothbrush, and a bandaid (plus numerous other things). They gave the parents a fingerprint/identification kit for each child.

So, as an extension activity, for FHE I focused on our family's preparedness level. It is pretty sad. I pulled out the emergency backpacks (we have one for each child--nothing for the adults) and found that most of the spare clothes were now too small (it has been awhile since I put them together), the granola bars had mysteriously disappeared, and Eli had nothing in his backpack at all.

We went through each backpack and wrote down a list of what was needed for each child and updated what clothing we could with the supplies I had on hand. Then we talked about our family's preparedness goals. We decided that smoke detectors somewhere in the house would be a good idea. We also decided that we needed an emergency plan in case there was an emergency and we weren't all together. My hubby wrote everything down and we made a plan to meet our emergency preparedness goals.

Then we filled out the fingerprint/information card for each child and I put them in a safe place.

Overall, it was a good extension of what the children learned on their field trip and it was a necessary revisiting of the idea of being prepared. We try, of course. We have an emergency backpack with food, water, and first aid essentials in both vehicles. We have the kids' backpacks--which are a little better than nothing.

So although we've done a little, it is always a good idea to make a few easy goals to improve.

Thanks again for the people who made the field trip possible. It was awesome.

Baptism Prep

I've been wanting to post about Baptism Prep for weeks now, but haven't had the time I wanted to put the post together. I finally decided that I never have enough time for anything, so posting an imperfect post was better than continuing to not talk about this wonderful feature of this year's homeschool.

Since Miriam turned seven this June, I've been thinking about how to prepare her for baptism. It finally hit me that I homeschool. Does anyone else forget that? I made Baptism Prep an official subject that takes place every day during the younger kids' quiet time. I read my scriptures while Miriam reads silently for 20 minutes (this helps me prepare for Baptism Prep and let go of any of the annoyances of the morning and also helps impress on Miriam the importance of reading your scriptures), and then Miriam joins me at the table.

I decided to start with the fourth article of faith: We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ; second, repentance; third, baptism; and fourth, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We start each Baptism Prep session with a prayer. At first, Miriam was really hesitant to pray with me. I said the prayer the first few days, and that helped Miriam figure out the kinds of things it was appropriate to say for the situation. Now we alternate days saying the prayer. After a prayer, Miriam recites the fourth article of faith. We've been working on it for awhile now and she almost has it word perfect. I think that is pretty good for only saying it once a day.

After reciting the article of faith, we move on to the subject we are studying that day. Obviously, we started with faith. The following are the resources I printed from the church website to help me teach the principles. There were a TON of resources to choose from. I picked what I thought would most help Miriam. I also printed a copy for my own Baptism Prep book. Meaning, I put together (or have started to put together) a book for Miriam as her own personal reference. Everything that we read or do that will fit in a binder has gone in it and will continue to go in it. I thought it might be a nice reference for her, or something I can tell her to look through on Sundays. I don't know that it will be useful, but I thought it might and so I'm putting it together.

I also put together a copy for me so I can make copies for my other children without having to do as much time-consuming prep for them. Seriously, you can look through lessons about faith on lds.org for months. I might find that I feel impressed to revisit different resources with other children, to fine-tune baptism prep to the needs of my other children, but I didn't want to misplace the resources I knew I wanted.

Sorry this is so long. Below are listed the resources I've used so far that I've liked and Miriam has really responded to.

FAITH:

Gift of Faith by Thomas S. Monson. President Monson tells the best stories. This one is about children in Samoa who prayed that the apostle who was assigned to visit them would shake their hands, each individually. You can figure out what happens. I admit, this one made me cry and Miriam shook her head over me. She's fairly used to my getting emotional, though. It happens often enough when I read the Friend.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=54ad7c8fe52ab010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

I Can Have Faith by Shawny Ernst is a short poem about faith. I picked it for Miriam's binder because Miriam loves poetry and because it mentions some of my favorite scripture stories. Miriam read through it several times. Like I said, Miriam loves poetry.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=60f2ff52fc41c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Walk by Faith by Lena Harper is a collection of 20 scripture stories that illustrate the concept of faith. This was a great activity and took us two weeks to complete. Miriam can read so she looked up all the scriptures herself (while I reminded myself constantly that the point wasn't to go fast), and read the scriptures out loud to me. Then I let her pick the picture that the scriptures matched--otherwise she couldn't concentrate on anything else. Once she'd found the picture, I had her explain how the scriptures illustrated the idea of faith.

I loved all the scriptures. I loved that Miriam was able to practice looking up scriptures. I loved the discussion. HOWEVER, the pictures were very hard to match to the scriptures. In my arrogance, I thought I would be able to figure it out and didn't print out the answer sheet. Don't do that. Print the answer sheet. When we tried to put together the secret message at the end, none of the letters made sense and we eventually gave up. That was very frustrating for Miriam, who is a bit more of a perfectionist than I am. So, you've been warned.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=7ce26c667a6af110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD


PRINCIPLES AND ORDINANCES IN GENERAL:

Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel Lead Me to Jesus Christ by Sandra Tanner and Cristina Franco is a sharing time activity. Along with the instructions comes a paper quilt divided into four squares. The four squares are faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost respectively. I made a copy for Miriam and then cut it up into pieces. Miriam figured out how it went together and then she glued it to her own paper and filled in the boxes with information about each topic. After she was done, we talked about why a quilt was a good metaphor for the first principles/ordinances of the gospel. A great hands-on activity that was then taped on the wall (Miriam insisted). Eventually it will go in her Baptism Binder.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=911ade009da38210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD


REPENTANCE:

Logan's Baptism by Jane McBride Choate could easily fit under the faith category, or repentance, or baptism. This was one of Miriam's favorite stories. It is about a talk that a man gave at a baptism. The man put seven squares of paper on the floor and talked about the steps you have to take to get back to Heavenly Father. Each square of paper represented a necessary step. Because I am lame and did not do enough pre-planning, I didn't have paper ready, but that didn't stop us. I read the story while Miriam stepped from one imaginary piece of paper to the next. Despite the imaginary nature of her walk across the room, she still got the point and enjoyed it. Highly recommend this story (and having squares ready!!).
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=fae67fae6f3eb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Returning Safely to Heavenly Father by President Uchtdorf. This is a shortened piece from a longer talk that was published in the Ensign. Some of it was over Miriam's head, but it allowed for a good discussion on whether or not obeying the commandments keeps you safe. Plus, the "Things to Think About" section at the end spurred a good conversation.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=50f0105560440210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Friend to Friend by William R. Bradford. Elder Bradford talks about a time when his son got covered in mud and he helped clean him off. The son talked about how great it was to be clean again, and Elder Bradford took the opportunity to talk about dirt that you can't wash off--sin.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=cfe7ca99be2ab010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Sweet Repentance by Ann S. Bushman. Miriam and I just read this together today and it was a powerful teaching tool. Highly recommend. It is a story of a girl who steals her sister's candy the week she is supposed to be baptized. When her sister calls her a thief and a liar, she realizes that she is not worthy to get baptized. She postpones her baptism for another month while she works and earns money to get new candy for her sister and go through the repentance process.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=2e3781313e1ab010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

A short fill-in-the-blank about repentance. It comes from the September 1974 issue of the Friend.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=3f90e07368d9b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

All Clean by Darlene Young about a young boy who wishes he could be baptized over again. His father explains to him about repentance. The main point is stated thus: "When you take the sacrament you are showing Jesus that you have repented of the things you did wrong that week. And then, as you eat the bread and drink the water, you become clean, and you are ready to start over."
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=4a3a742e35474110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

I'll keep posting about what we do in Baptism Prep and what I think is working and what is not working. What have you done to prepare your children for baptism?

More Art by Becky

why covering your kitchen table in craft paper is brilliant:



mural making time
draw a line and practice daily writing
oodles of math sentences
draw a dinner table with place settings and make sure to draw your dinner, too.
draw the seasons across the table
or even just draw what the weather looks like today

go nuts, use your imagination.
this is going to be a new think for us.
tell me what you think.

Art Class by Becky

Art Lessons with Becky and her Kids and Some Friends:



so, i like art.
love art.
adore art.
and i like art history almost as much.
but the it is a season of holidays,
so instead of preparing a lesson on matisse's penchant for collage self-portraits,
we made collage pumpkins.



first, i scrounged up a bunch of magazines from the front and back bathrooms
(sad, i know...does it make you feel better that we read actual books outside of the commodes?)



and then i dug into my ever present stack of glue and glue sticks
and then found some scissors (though finger tearing makes for much better texture).



and lastly i printed out a silhouette of a pumpkin.
after cutting that out and gluing it onto the orange pieces of construction paper provided,
i started talking about what collage was, what texture was and then i showed them how to rip out all the pages with orange on them.



from there the kids were able to go to town and enjoy themselves.
i try to repeat the "lesson intent" a few times casually throughout the activity
and even pointed out all the different techniques everyone was using.



we are actually going to do the matisse self-portraits next week,
and i ordered some circle "dobber-thingies" for my pointillism lesson.
that one is going to be a favorite i think.
so, stay tuned...

so, on the next art post, would you want a detailed lesson plan
or is it enough to get inspired and do it yourself?
let me know, and i'll write it accordingly.
have a great week homeschooling.
it's worth all your love, attention, effort, patience and self-control.

Animal Classification--Invertebrates

We're still going strong with animal classification, and we're still enjoying ourselves. I left you hanging after Day One where we did some intro stuff and then read two books about invertebrates.

Day Two:

Step One: Review what we learned about invertebrates on day one and write down the info on the chart.

Step Two: Read through My Big Backyard and Ranger Rick magazines and decide, with each animal mentioned, the animal's appropriate classification. This was great fun. We love those magazines.

(As an off-topic sidenote, we bought a subscription to National Geographic for Kids magazine at one point and it was terrible. Mostly advertisements. I was so disappointed, I called and canceled our subscription after the first few months. However, Ranger Rick has never disappointed.)

For those of you in my neck of the woods, the Clearfield branch of the Davis County Library System--known as the "North Branch" subscribes to Ranger Rick. Lovely.

Day Three

Step One: Review material we've covered so far.

Step Two: Make popcorn.

Step Three: Watch a good movie about invertebrates with your kids. I'm pretty anti-media, so my kids don't watch many movies. However, I had forgotten how much fun it can be to snuggle up with your kids and watch something all together. The movie was great and the kids felt like they had been given this huge treat. Which they had.

Step Four: Watch Bill Nye's episode about invertebrates on youtube. Actually, I don't recommend youtube because the picture is pretty shabby. However, I didn't have access to the episode through our library. Also, while I remember enjoying Bill Nye in my youth, I found some parts of the show a little . . . over the top and/or inappropriate. Well, inappropriate might be too strong a term, but there was a little three minute mini-story about a girl who falls in love with a slug. Maybe it is just me, but I didn't find watching a girl kiss a slug very funny. Gross, yes. But not funny. Also, there was a girl wearing an immodest outfit who sings a song about invertebrates. My children were shocked. Like I said--I don't give them much access to media. We watched a few seconds of the song and then skipped over it.

On the other hand--Bill Nye had some fantastic experiments to demonstrate life without bones inside your body. It was a really great visual reinforcer of the things we'd been talking about. So, mixed bag there.

Day Four: Go to the library to pick up a bunch of books about fish and birds. Let your children look them over when you arrive home to build excitement.

(In reality, our Day Four consisted of me having a melt-down about the state of affairs in our home and the length of my to-do list. We didn't do school and I plunked the children in front of the tv to watch Disney's Davy Crockett and was only interrupted when my son broke a lightbulb and sliced his thumb, and when my daughter came upstairs hysterical because she fell/was pushed off the bunk bed and sprained her wrist, and when I had to go downstairs to yell at everyone for letting the dogs climb in through the window. My to-do list didn't shrink much. Day Five (today) was library day and tomorrow we will jump back into classification.)

Socialization--by Becky

the "socialization" debate:
an introductory post



this last Saturday, i hosted a casual little art class party.
we learned about collage and texture and ended up with a variety of little pumpkins.
i had to do my son's for him.
because ten minutes before everyone arrived he asked,
"so, which boys are coming?"
to which i responded,
"um, i don't know. let mommy make some phone calls."
which were in vain and half way through our morning,
he was done, finished, collapsed on the couch in mock exhaustion/exasperation.
he had had enough of the whole girl thing.
because all his friends are girls and all the boys his age go to school.
he just wants a boy to play with.
one stinkin' little boy.
he doesn't have to be bright or strong or even fun to play with.
he's just go to show up, have the right equipment and be willing to throw mud in the backyard.
we're working on it.

anyhoo, the next day my father-in-law made some comments about his ball catching skills,
and proceeded to compare him to his one year older girl cousin
and explained that he was worried that luke wouldn't do thinks like the other kids
and that it would effect his self-esteem.
i'm not that worried.
so what, he doesn't play catch that often.
(he can kick a soccer ball across the lawn and back all day long)
i repeat, i'm not worried.
we're going to sign him up for some sports camps this year,
stick him in a karate class
and will continue to play ball with him and invite his friends over when we can.
but, i won't become fearful for his self-esteem.
i don't think anyone can argue that the social construct of the modern playground
is building up strong, confident children.
especially as bullying hits an all time high, and aggressive physical and sexual acting out become the norm.

does anyone else have thoughts on this?
what are your worries, concerns, thoughts, ideas on the ever present debate about "socialization"?
and how do you respond to all the "non-homeschoolers" when approached with this ever present concern?

A Math Success Story

Miriam and I experienced a little math miracle the other day. In that Miriam begged me to continue doing math after I'd told her she could stop.

I'm sure you remember that Miriam, with my help, learned to dislike math last year. I was too rigid. Taught too much out of the math book. Pushed when I should have eased up, and, in general, did whatever possible to kill all math love.

It was an accident. But still.

This year I've done a few things to try and rekindle in her a love for math. My most important strategy is to use children's picture books to teach the concepts and then only practice until she is proficient and then stop practicing. That sounds basic, but last year I got really hung up on doing all the problems on the page. Big mistake.

Back to the miraculous math day. A few weeks ago, I noticed that fractions were coming up in Miriam's math book. I immediately called my sister and begged to borrow this book:

It is pretty much one of the best math books ever written.

My dad gave it to my sister a few years ago, and it has been a favorite of her family (and me) ever since. I knew that Miriam would love the elves, the info about apples, and the adorable illustrations. It was a must going into fractions.

So the day of "intro to fractions," I told Cowen he was done with school for the day and then told Miriam it was time to start her math. Predictable whining started until she noticed that I was on the couch. With a book in my hand. Immediately, she and Cowen were rushing over to sit by me and see what the book was about. Math is so much more exciting on the couch than at the table.

We read the book together. It took a long time. We giggled over the pictures, counted up how many elves were purple vs. green (etc. etc), discussed the apple facts and our favorite kinds of apples, and also managed to discuss the fractions.

Then, just to keep the reading enthusiasm up, we read this other book my sister dropped off at the same time:

It is not as brilliant as Apple Fractions, but it is a great visual resource for fractions. I was going to completely skip the fractions and decimals, but Miriam liked reading the numbers, so she did.

After reading the books, I told Miriam she needed to do a page about fractions in her math book. Still intrigued by fractions, thanks to the books, she happily went to the table (while Cowen disappeared somewhere--that was good too). She did the page on fractions, then another page on fractions.

Then she saw a page about greater than/less than/equal to that she insisted I explain to her. I wasn't going to at first because I had wanted to get a book to introduce that, but really--how do you say no when your child is insisting you teach her something? You can't. You don't.

So, she learned another new concept. Thanks to the wonderful creators of Mathematical Reasoning from the Critical Thinking Co. all the pages of practice for the greater than/less than/equal to concept were really fun and Miriam loved them. For example, on one page there were pictures of animals. Each type of animal was assigned a number. Then you had to do things like figure out which animal subract two equalled another animal. The answers to the problems included things like: pigs plus three equals dogs. Miriam thought it was hilarious.

After two pages of that, I told Miriam it was time to stop for the day. Before putting the book away, Miriam started flipping through it and found two more pages about fractions. She begged to be allowed to do them.

Amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

I realize this was lengthier than necessary, but sometimes it feels good to be able to write about a true, blessed success--one where you figured out what you were doing wrong and found a few things that work better.

If nothing else, you now know about Apple Fractions and your life can only be better for it.