Allowance

Allowance...I know some people totally believe in it and others don't. Dave and I have kind of taken a middle ground. Probably about three years ago we instituted our form of allowance. We started off with a list of chores that had a price attached to them...normally like $.25. If the child chose to do that chore, they'd receive a check in a column and at the end of the week, all would be added up. That worked not that great. Josh would rather get out of work than receive money at that point, and I ended up doing chores I had previously expected my kids to accomplish.

So we changed our tactic. Each Saturday (in theory) the kiddos receive $2.75. $1.25 goes into their spending money jar, and then $.75 each to long-term and short-term savings jars. From the spending money they receive, they are expected to take out some portion for offering. We don't tell them how much it should be, but encourage generosity. The rest of their spending money they can pretty much spend at will although I will veto some things at times - like lots of candy in one purchase. Short-term savings mainly goes towards birthday parties the kids are invited to. I have them take out $5 (if they have it) to go towards the gift and I make up the difference. Hannah has also used some of that money this year to pay for her sewing supplies. Long-term savings has gone towards things like room decor...we haven't taken too much from there over the years.

This allowance is not based on chores accomplished. It is pretty much given to them just because they are part of the family, and we desire them to get used to having their own money. It has almost completely eradicated the whining for new toys as I just ask them if they have enough money of their own to purchase the desired item. It has also been marvelous at understanding coins and how money works. Hannah is a definite saver and has over $50 in her spending money (some of that is from gifts). Josh likes to spend his money pretty quickly and probably has less than $5 in his jar. I expect he'll grow out of that somewhat as he appreciates the value of money more as he gets older. They have also come to appreciate yard sales as their money goes so much farther.

Overall, I've been completely satisfied with our system. Hannah and Josh do the chores I ask of them each day with the understanding that they are part of the family, and they receive a small amount of money each week to get used to spending/saving. Here are some pictures of them with their jars. As you can see, we just used Costco nut/chocolate jars, put some construction paper around them with a printed label, and added stickers.

Prov 13:11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.

Lake Fun

We enjoyed another beautiful time at the lake yesterday and today. The kids had a super time paddling around and playing in the water. We also boated across the lake, cooked our dinner over the fire, and roasted s'mores. Yum!

Don't kids look cute in wet suits?

Math

It was nice to finish up with the "official" math text today. We'll still keep on with a few problems a day over the summer so we don't have to struggle back through 2 digit multiplication and long division. It hasn't been the most enjoyable year for the kids, but I think 2-4/5th grade just has a lot of things you have to buckle down and get into your brain. I can't wait till we get to Algebra.

Anyways, we've used Abeka these past two years. Saxon was our initial choice, but caused tears with great frequency so we decided to switch. I have looked at lots of Math programs and still am not totally convinced that Abeka is the best, but I haven't found another I like better. I like the spiral method of review, happy workbook pages, good teacher's guide, and a more advanced level. The kids still don't particularly like it, but I think a lot of that has to do with them not being super quick at their basic facts. That will be one of my focuses over the summer. I purchased a program called Mastering Math Facts about 2 months ago and have been using it to work with the kids. I liked the philosophy behind it...mainly that kids should have automatic recall of facts and learn them at a slower pace rather than be given tons of facts with little proficiency in them. Here is a neat article about it.

Pictures the kids drew around Christmas of our family

Kona

I didn't really have anything compelling to write about tonight, so I figured I'd post some pictures from our time in Kona. Dave is able to choose places he'd like to go for conferences so we decided to take a family trip to The Big Island this past February. It was fun exploring a new island and enjoying lots of time in the sun.

Terrestria Chronicles

I wanted to highlight a favorite series of ours that is allegorical in nature (similar to Pilgrim's Progress). The Terrestria Chronicles is a seven book series that follows the adventures of Josiah from his bondage to Argamor till the Final Battle. There are many wonderful word pictures about the Christian life and struggles we all face. Young kids will enjoy it as a read-aloud, but probably won't get much of the symbolism. Older kids could read it on their own, but I think it is best read in a family setting where the parents can bring out points they would like to discuss (and they'll enjoy it also).

Piano Recital

Hannah had a piano recital this evening. It was held at the Woods House Conservatory - doesn't that sound fancy? It has really been delightful having her learn piano this year and I think she is finally enjoying it. :)

Verse Memorization

One thing that I am really terrible at is working with my kiddos on memorizing verses. It has never been a priority in my personal life so I haven't made it a priority with my kids. I know my bible well, but as someone said (not about me personally), I am a concordance cripple. :) Anyways, I am going to try and be more diligent about it and so I decided if I commit to posting our weekly verses on the blog, maybe I'll have some accountability and stick with it more. So, each week (in theory), I'm going to post our verse in the sidebar. If you want to join with us and do this, that would be super. And, if you happen to see my kids, please feel free to ask them what their weekly verse is. We also did something a while back that I may try and institute again and that was having them format their verse in a Word document using whatever fonts/colors/etc. they would like (I would give you an example, but our main computer isn't working). We then hole punch that paper and put it in the kid's bible verse binder. Josh particularly liked that and it was good to glean some computer skills as well. I may also use the Charlotte Mason approach that my friend referenced on her blog.

I just like posting random pictures...hope you don't think that's odd. :)

My Kitchen

I came across this poem while working on my Rod & Staff curriculum order. It was a good reminder of the importance of our work in the kitchen for our families.

My Kitchen

God bless my little kitchen,
I love its every nook.
And bless me as I do my work,
Wash pots and pans and cook.

And the meals that I prepare,
Be seasoned from above,
With Thy blessing and Thy grace,
But most of all, Thy love.

As we partake of earthly food
The table for us spread,
We'll not forget to thank Thee, Lord,
Who gives us daily bread.

So, bless my little kitchen, God,
And those who enter in.
May they find nought but peace and joy
And happiness therein.

--Unknown

Eternal Rewards

We were talking about rewards and crowns this morning in our Fundamentals of the Faith class. The discussion was about how it appears wrong to do good works to receive a reward. It jogged my memory of a MacArthur sermon I listened to earlier this week about that same issue:

It's time to do what you're going to do for the Lord and do it now. We're to watch, to be ready and to serve. You say, "Well, what's this big deal about service?" Well the Bible simply says that you need to be serving Him because when He comes back, look at it, verse 12, "My reward is with Me to give to every man." You say, "Well isn't that materialistic?" And I've talked about this and I've maybe have shared with you this before but people will always disparage that is a motive when it is not a bad motive, to serve Christ for a reward, that's a natural thing. This illustrates to me so many times in athletics, if a guy runs a race, runs his very best and wins, you don't say, "Oh, materialistic, crass, selfish." You expect him to do that, right? If a general takes his army out to battle and he wins the battle, you don't call him materialistic. If a guy loves a girl and comes to her and says, "I love you so much I want to marry you," she doesn't say, "Oh, materialistic, it's not enough to love me, you have to marry me." That is strange because that's normal. There are some things that are the natural reward of other things and reward from our Lord is the natural result of faithful service.

My grandfather had in his Bible a poem written and it goes like this, "When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ and He shows me His plan for me, the plan of my life as it might have been, and I see how I blocked Him here and checked Him there and would not yield my will, will there be grief in my Savior's eyes? Grief though He loves me still? He would have me rich but I stand there poor, stripped of all but His grace, while memory runs like a haunted thing down a path I can't retrace. Then my desolate heart will well nigh break with tears I cannot shed, I will cover my face with my empty hands, I will bow my uncrowned head. O Lord, of the years that are left to me, I give them to Thy hand, take me, break me, mold me to the pattern that Thou hast planned."

We need to be busy serving the Lord. We need to orient our priorities. We need to strip out all the garbage in our lives and get down to the business of immediate obedience, immediate worship, immediate proclamation and immediate service...It's time to get it together and do those things that need to be done in these last times. I think we can spin our wheels and as I said this morning, we can fool around with diddly things that mean absolutely nothing to anybody and not be ready when Jesus comes to receive a full reward. Look to yourselves, said John, that you lose not the things you have wrought but that you receive a full reward.

---Also, in poking about the Internet looking for information on crowns, I came across this website that gave a good synopsis. Please note, I don't know anything about this website, it's content, or it's beliefs, but this section on crowns appeared biblically based and accurate. I particularly appreciated how they noted that we will give our crowns to Christ out of love for Him.

Almond Bars

This is one of my favorite desserts and things to bring to potlucks and such. I received this recipe from a dear lady named Dorothy who made it for a Christmas Cookie Exchange many years ago in CT.

Almond Bars

Base
1 pkg Yellow Cake Mix
1 stick margarine/butter (softened)
1 Egg
--Mix and press into 9x13 greased baking dish

Topping
8 oz. package cream cheese (softened)
2 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
3/4 t almond extract
1# powdered sugar
--Blend well and spread over base

--Sprinkle with sliced almonds

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes
Store in refrigerator

Home Depot Day

One activity that we have really enjoyed as a family is Home Depot Day. On the first Saturday of each month, Home Depot hosts a free kids workshop where kids build something out of prepared materials. As far as I know, all Home Depots offer this. Our kids have built everything from napkin holders to race cars, art caddies to herb planters. Today they had a choice (which doesn't normally happen), and Hannah chose the butterfly house and Josh chose the soccer game. We also make a extra fun day of it by stopping for donuts on our way there! Yum!

Notice all the kid's pins. Every time they complete a project, they receive a pin.

Spelling

Today we finished Spelling off. We've actually done two curriculums for spelling this past year. We started out with A Reason for Spelling which is a Christian spelling program. It had a lot of very positive aspects, particularly that there were many activities and ways to learn how to spell the words for the week-way more than we ever did in a week. I picked up some good ideas to use in the future from it. It also includes a weekly story which corresponds to the handwriting program which we use. The stories had quite an assortment of themes such as homelessness, divorce, lying, making fun of others, etc. The point was always good, but sometimes I was a little unsure where it was going while I was reading it. As we neared the end, we started bulking up the lessons each week since the kiddos could already spell the words.

So, then we went on to another curriculum for the last couple months. It is called Spelling Workout. It also has a good variety of activities to learn the spelling words and begins with an interesting story the kids read themselves of about 2-3 paragraphs. There is a proofreading section at the end of each lesson which I also like. We went through the lessons a couple a week just focusing on the words the kids had trouble spelling.

For next year, I am going to stick with Spelling Workout primarily because it is less time intensive and a good overall program. We are going to jump to Level E which is essentially 5th grade and see how the kids do. Josh seems to have gone backwards a couple steps these last couple weeks, but Hannah really likes spelling and does quite well with it.

Self Hardening Clay

We made some self-hardening clay a couple of weeks ago and it has been sitting around the kitchen since waiting to be painted. So, last night, we got out the paints and finished up. Here's the recipe:

Self Hardening Clay

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon alum

1 1/2 cups salt

1 1/2 cups water

Mix flour, alum and salt together in a bowl. Add water gradually to form a ball. Knead (pound, roll & pull) the clay, adding water until it no longer falls apart. Store in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator. Allow the clay to come to room temp for easy use. Let your finished project dry at room temp for 2 days. It will become very hard and can be painted.

I wouldn't say it is the best clay for anything that has height, but works well for flat or small objects. It worked well to make a vase or a bowl.

I liked how their hand prints turned out. Josh's isn't as big as it looks in this picture.

Spiritual vs. Physical Bread

I've been reading a book called War of Words by Paul Tripp and wanted to share an excerpt with you. It's from the chapter entitled, Following the King for All the Wrong Reasons:

The blessings God gives you in your family, job, home, church, friends, and community are meant to do something for you. They are meant to point you to the deeper and fuller blessing of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. He is life! Abundant life is not your spouse, children, house, car, possessions, job, friends, or church. Abundant life is Jesus Christ! The amazing reality is that he is ours and we are his! This is the bread worth living for. Not the bread of physical blessing, but the spiritual bread, Christ, that his gift of earthly bread represents. Some of us are only excited about Christ because we think he will deliver more physical bread. We fall into spiritual depression when he removes the physical bread so that we would hunger again for the Bread that really satisfies. Can you see beyond the physical bread to see Christ and the glories of his grace? Or do you consume the physical bread without any desire for the spiritual blessing that he gives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

In John 6, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." Ask yourself this question: Which bread do I hunger for? What kind of bread do I really want to feed on? I'm not saying that physical things are of no consequence or that we should not seek to improve our lives (marriages, jobs, churches, families, etc.), but I think that we can miss the point. We too can see the miracles and miss the sign. We can rejoice over jobs given, friendships restored, homes supplied, and bills paid and fail to hunger for the spiritual blessings that physical provisions represent. We can be like the people who pursued Jesus only to keep their stomachs full. They didn't really want him as their King. They wanted him to be their Great Waiter, dedicated to keeping them physically satisfied.

Many of us come to Jesus today because we are holding onto our dream and we want Jesus to somehow help us get it. If we are honest, we would have to admit that this is all we really want from him. And if we don't get it, we are miserably disappointed.

If we are living for earthly bread and see it as our source of life, we are going to be in big trouble when we don't have it. But if we are living for spiritual bread, for a deeper communion with Jesus Christ, then our lives (with all their problems) become wonderful places to know and grow in fellowship with the One who is life. (pgs 95-96)

He goes on to say that a lot of the problems in our communication are because we are focused on the physical bread we want that others get in the way of so we respond badly. Rather we should be focused on the spiritual bread of becoming more like Christ that daily trials give us frequent opportunities to respond rightly to.

The Moody Family Series

We finished up this series this evening before bedtime. There are five books, so far, in the series and we've read them intermittently over the last year or so. They are about a homeschooling family of four (now six) children and their adventures in daily life. The author diligently tries to intersperse her writing with good examples of obedience, spiritual disciplines, and a well-run family life. She is the oldest daughter of the Maxwells, who wrote the book Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit from a post a week or so ago. As with their other things, they are very conservative and probably more on the extreme side in some areas, but great values and the kids really enjoyed reading them.

Pancakes

Dave was home this morning so the kids decided they wanted to make pancakes. I have a very old Disney cookbook from when I was a kid that they have been looking through. Having everyone working together to get a yummy breakfast prepared was so delightful. It's those simple pleasures that I enjoy the most.

Spanish

We are beginning Spanish next year (which is probably why I forgot it earlier on the schedule). We've done Latin the last two years; the first, Song School Latin, and this past year Latin for Children. We loved Song School Latin - pretty much all vocabulary based with simple lessons and happy songs. This past year doing Latin for Children was just too much, too fast. We were spending so much time on noun declensions and verb conjugations which are things that will never be used in real life since no one speaks Latin anymore. I am sad to loose Latin for all the vocabulary and English roots (which we really enjoyed)...but in the spirit of wise time usage, Spanish seemed like the best long-term investment. We have a substantial migrant population in Wenatchee so Spanish is something the kiddos could use in our own area in addition to any future mission trips.

The kiddos have had an entry level Spanish class at VAL this year so they have some level of familiarity, but aren't ready for anything crazy high level. After searching around a lot on the Internet, I decided to go with a program called Risas y Sonrisas. It has tons of extras like games and music as well as teaching sign language at the same time-interesting, huh? I don't know anything else about it and haven't heard of anyone who has used it so will give a review about it sometime next year. Hopefully it will be a good fit.

Here's the new schedule. I decided to stick Spanish in the afternoon since there really wasn't any room in the morning and it should be a fun subject.

Lake Time

Dave's parents own a cabin on Lake Chelan and are very generous in letting us come up whenever we'd like. So yesterday till today was our first time up this year. Dave's parents and his brother's family were all up so we had a full house and lots of fun. The kids played and ran and spied and cracked walnuts and paddled around hours on end. It was a great first trip up!

These pics are from previous years as I didn't bring my camera and there really wasn't enough beach left to have a campfire this year.

Trailblazer Books

This series highlights a Christian Missionary/Famous Person in each of their titles and tells the story from the point of view of a young boy or girl at that time. Generally the young boy/girl is fictitious, but many of the main characters or events are not. I really love the idea and the kiddos have enjoyed the probably dozen books we have read. My one drawback, though, is that often much of the story goes on without a lot of interaction with the main character. I would still say the books are worth reading and a decent introduction to the characters, but not really a biography of the person's life (although it does have a synopsis at the end). I have most of the series, so if you see one you'd like to read, let me know and if we have it, I'll loan it to you. One of our favorites most recently was Drawn by a China Moon.


Totally separate side note - I realized in bed last night, I totally forgot about Spanish for next year's school schedule, so I'll post on that sometime later. :)

2010/2011 School Schedule

We chose our classes at VAL this past week and I was able to enroll both kiddos in all the ones I had noted in an earlier post. So, Tuesday is our day. I am really looking forward to just going to VAL one day a week rather than two. Less commitments make me happy. :) Since that's been completed, I decided to work on our weekly schedule for next year. I've liked the schedule we've had in place the last couple of months the best so have basically kept it for next year. Here it is. It does look full at the moment, and it is, but we so often take a day off to ski or do something with Dave or whatever, so getting a lot done on our "regular" weeks really helps in our more scattered weeks.

I've also pretty much kept the same curriculum for next year:

Math - Abeka 4 - I still don't particularly love this program, but it's the best overall for us that I've seen
Reading - Rod & Staff 4
English (means grammar) - Rod & Staff 4
Spelling - I'll probably continue with Spelling Workout by Modern Curriculum Press, but may perhaps go to Level E which is 5th grade - the kiddos just already knew most of the words this last year
Handwriting - A Reason for Handwriting - Transition for Josh and Level D for Hannah
Writing - Writing with Ease - Level 2, maybe 3 (I know this is below grade level, but we just started it end of April this year)
History - Story of the World - Year 4, last of the series
Science - Apologia - Swimming Creatures

For any of you who don't know Josh and are confused because I never seem to put down his level work, it's just because he works at Hannah's level in all subjects, save handwriting. Little boys and fine motor skills don't mix.

Also, just as a side note, I purchase most of my books through Amazon Used or Ebay (although rarely workbooks). VAL does pay for any non-Christian materials I use, but most of mine fall under the religious title. I do chose ones that are in good condition and have been very pleased so far with what I've bought.