Thursday, November 29, 2012

Boy Scouts and Pirates have something in common...

Primus has been excited about doing a unit on pirates ever since last summer.  This morning I finally pulled out my resources to start making a lesson plan.  I suggested to Primus that maybe we should ask Grandpa to teach one day.  I told her that he knew how to tie knots and use a compass. 

Her eyes got really wide as she excitedly asked, "Did he go to Pirate High School??"

I gave her a funny look and responded, "No.  He's a Boy Scout."

Maybe I should have let her believe that he was a pirate.  It wouldn't be so hard for her to believe that Grandpa is a few hundred years old, right?  Either way, we are very excited to have a guest teacher next month!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Finding the Blessings

While we were enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws' house, somone was breaking into our new home. 

When we arrived home Thursday night and made the discovery, we experienced a very scary few minutes.   Instead of bore you with the details of the evening (which took up 5 separate posts on my family blog), I wanted to share what we have learned and why we are in such great spirits.

We are truly so blessed. Even in this horrible experience, we are being very optimistic and seeing it as a blessing.

Things could have been so much worse in so many ways.   For example, they didn't take very much.  Also, we weren't home at the time. 
We are so blessed to live in the wonderful neighborhood that we do.
We are so blessed that the police were able to respond so quickly.
We are so blessed that our landlords (my in-laws) live nearby and were able to come immediately and help us out.
The girls have been saying things like, "It's good they didn't take our pillows! It's good they didn't take our stuffed animals!" I love their attitude! The things of true value to them weren't effected at all.
The most important pieces of jewelry I own are always with me: my wedding and engagement rings.

Before sending the kids to bed on Thursday night, we did our family scripture study and prayer, as usual. On this night we focused on 1 Nephi chapter 17.

1 And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness; and our women did bear children in the wilderness.
2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.

3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.
4 And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yea, even eight years in the wilderness.
5 And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish.

Even though Nephi and his family were experiencing affliction and tribulation in the wilderness, they were still blessed in amazing ways. The Lord was mindful of them and protected them. If we keep His commandments and not murmur, then we will be blessed. And in the end, when they had proven that they would submit to the Lord and trust him, they were rewarded for their faithfulness. After the trials of the wilderness and having to subsist on raw meat, they were lead to the land Bountiful, which was full of fruit and wild honey.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Kids are more capable than we (I) sometimes think...

I am constantly amazed by the things that kids are capable of, if we only give them the chance. 

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I had a whole pot full of hard-boiled eggs that needed to be shelled.  I asked Secundus to help and taught her how to do it. Of course Tertius wanted to get in on it, too.  So I handed him one that had cracked while it was boiling so I wasn't worried about him ruining it because it was already ugly. 

They both did great!  Both of them went on to shell several eggs for me and Tertius only ruined one!  In fact, I think some of the ones that Secundus shelled looked prettier than the ones I did. 

Monday, November 19, 2012

Friday, November 16, 2012

Thinking Outside the Box

The following was a question in Primus' Daily Language Review today:

Circle the word that does NOT belong.
tractor    barn    skyscraper    haystack

She circled tractor.  Her explanation was that the other 3 are things that don't move.

I love that I had the opportunity to hear and validate her reasoning! 

Whenever something like this comes up, I make sure and explain to her that if she was at "regular" school, she would have had it marked wrong.  "Regular" school doesn't usually accommodate for this kind of out-of-the-box thinking.


In other, unrelated news, she found out about the concept of "A+."  I had already been putting how many she got wrong (or "100%" if they were all right) at the top of her tests.  She asked that I start putting A+ also when she earns it.  She was SOOOO excited today to see that scrawled on top of her math page this morning.  It's the simple rewards that make a difference, I suppose.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Dora vs. Diego

Reasons why "Go, Diego, Go!" is better than "Dora the Explorer:"

*The Bobo brothers seem to be simply clueless, not malicious like Swiper.

*The Bobo brothers always apologize.  Swiper is never repentant.

*Swiper even gets rewarded sometimes, despite his thievery.

*The songs in Diego (Rescue Pack, Click the Camera) are infinitely less annoying than the ones in Dora (Backpack, Map.)

*My kids actually learn a few things about various animals from Diego.

*Diego has a zip-line!

Friday, November 9, 2012

A benefit of homeschooling...?

Just because your child is "sick," doesn't mean they have to miss school. 
I would tend to call this a benefit.  I'm guessing most children would not agree.

My family has had a minor stomach bug going around this week.  I was feeling at my worst on Sunday and since then have been mostly fine, except for being so. darn. tired!  Primus is acting totally fine but she puked once yesterday afternoon and then again today (she overdid it mowing the lawn.)  Before and after each incident she was jumping around and being mostly normal (maybe just acting a little tired.)

So, if she had been attending "regular" school, they would have sent her home early on Thursday.  And then I would have been expected to keep her home today to make sure she was fine.  So that would have been 1 1/2 wasted school days!  And then she would have had to make up that work after the holiday weekend. 

But since we homeschool, we were able to keep on schedule! 

Poor kid, I'm sure she's going to hate that "perk" as she becomes older. 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

I'm a horrible, horrible person...

I wanted to reach through the computer screen so bad earlier and punch the little kids in my daughter's live online book club class. 

Today was the first time that Primus (or I, for that matter) has ever done something like this.  Overall, it was fun and informative and she is excited to participate again next month.  But I was getting so annoyed that I had to keep stepping away. 

The "classroom" is set up with a video of the teacher in the upper left corner. To the right of her is a large box with shows the videos, questions, and PowerPoint that she is presenting. And then below that is a chat box where anyone can type questions or comments to the class at anytime.  I don't know how old these kids were, but the book we read was 2-3 grade reading level.

Here are some of the things getting on my nerves (and the worst part was that some of this was specifically prohibited in the class description that they should all have read before class, and the teacher said nothing about it.)

*Kids were typing in the chat box non-stop!!  If they had been talking out-loud in a real classroom, then that would be very distracting and rude.  And seeing all that "noise" in the chat box was just as distracting and rude, in my opinion.  "Shut up" and listen to the teacher's presentation, for Pete's Sake!

*Instead of typing, "cool."  Some would type, "ccccccccoooooooooolllllllllll."

*TYPING IN ALL CAPS.  And, no, their caps lock was not just stuck.  I noticed that certain kids were purposely turn it on and off at random points. 

*There was one girl who kept typing, "I feed and petted dolphins once in Florida."  (The book was called Dolphins at Daybreak.)  She started "saying" this right at the beginning of class and kept saying it again all the time.  We get it!  Let it go!  Not relevant to what the teacher is trying to teach right now!

*Instead of just typing their answer to the question in the chat box, (ex: "2") one or two kids would type, "my baby brother says 2,"  or, "my puppy says 2."

*One girl kept complaining that the questions were too easy.  Eventually, the teacher recognized her comment and laughingly apologized.  The very next question was multiple choice and the teacher specifically said, "Pick 3 correct answers."  (They were supposed to remember the colors of coral mentioned in the book.)  This girl's answer was, "I pick all of them."

Parents, PLEASE teach your kids online etiquette!  Apparently it's never too early to learn!