Christian Light Readers

I came across a great new set of readers by Christian Light that have wonderful character lessons and begin with a scripture verse. I was reading a couple to the kids this evening before bed, and we both greatly enjoyed them. We also have them in our church bag, and Josh finished one off over the course of two weeks or so. They are available from 1st up through 8th grade. There are even vocab words chosen out in bold and a sort of thought question to begin the text. So, if you wanted, you could use them as a school text as well. We've just read them for enjoyment.

I have found that there is not a lot of specific grade level readers that have good lessons and are not full of pointless stories. These have a wide range of stories with a couple from the Bible added in. There are also some poems scattered about. You can preview some stories via the Rod and Staff website. I've just gotten mine via Amazon used, but R&S's price is pretty reasonable for a hardback book. These are definite keepers.

From Last September

I am. I can...

...I ought. I will.

This motto was used by Charlotte Mason to help in the formation of habits. I've been reading a book based on her philosophy of schooling (which I'll review when I'm done), and came across this section which was very helpful. Here is a fuller explanation of that motto:

I am - We have the power of knowing ourselves.

I can - We are conscious of power to do what we perceive we ought to do.

I ought - We have within us a moral judge to whom we feel ourselves subject, who points out and requires us our duty.

I will - We determine to exercise that power with a volition that is in itself a step in the execution of what we will.

The thought she is getting across is that at every point in our lives we know what we want to do, know what we ought to do, can choose rightly between them, and should in fact make that choice. We are not subject to our feelings, whims, desires, etc. when they go against what we know is right or ought to be done. I have often said to my kids to "choose kindness/happy heart/to obey/self-control/etc." I know that life is made up of choices.

When we look at life in that way, we are able to make deliberate decisions. When my kiddos are behaving badly, I can choose to respond kindly and patiently rather than react in anger. When my husband isn't doing things how I'd like, I can choose to love and honor him rather than react in crankiness. When no one signs up for ministry needs, I can choose to serve happily and willingly rather than react in frustration.

It has been a priority for me these past couple of weeks to not be controlled by my reactions, but be in control of my reactions. God calls us to an incredibly high standard and unless I am actively aware of that, I will just fumble along my way not growing more like Him as a habit in my life. We are told to "do what feels right." God calls us to "do what is right." May we work on making deliberate choices to His glory and our godliness.

If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:15

Waterslides

One of my most favorite summer activities is going to the water slides. Growing up my dad would take us a couple of times a summer, and my sis and I just loved it. This past Friday my kiddos and the cousins went up in Chelan to Slidewaters. It's a great park with lots of good slides. The kids had a blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as well.

These are the smallest of the slides

Notice the boys in the bottom right corner :)

Caleb and Kate were off on other slides...

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

If there's ever a time that we don't make Wacky Cake for a Weber birthday, this recipe is likely the one to replace it. It's super chocolaty, warm and delicious with ice cream...a sure winner.

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

from Best-Loved Recipes of All Time Cookbook

1 1/4 c sugar, divided

1 c flour

7 Tbl Cocoa, divided

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c milk

1/3 c melted butter/margarine

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 c brown sugar

1 1/4 c hot water

Stir together 3/4 c sugar, flour, 3 Tbl cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into 8 or 9 inch pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 c sugar, brown sugar, and 4 Tbl cocoa. Sprinkle evenly over mixture in pan. Pour hot water over top; do not stir.

Bake 35-40 min in 350 oven until center is almost set. Let stand 15 minutes. Scoop onto plates making sure to include pudding sauce. Serve with ice cream. Yum!

Please Note: Don't put wax candles into this cake...they will melt. :)

Homeschool Methods

I was just looking at a friend's blog which had a link to a homeschooling article. They had a helpful breakdown of the five main methods of homeschooling that I wanted to make available to you as well. I would say we use a somewhat eclectic mix of traditional and classical, but that I am more and more leaning towards Charlotte Mason. I'll write more on that in some other blog post. :)

1. Traditional—Uses textbooks for the various subjects. Assigns a chapter in the textbook to be read and questions to answer from the content. Uses workbooks with fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice questions. (We often refer to it as “school in a box.”)
   
2. Unit Studies—Takes a theme or topic and incorporates all the school subjects (Language Arts, History, Science, Music, Art, etc.) into that topic. For example, when you study Ancient Egypt, you read books about Egypt (history), make a salt dough map of Egypt (geography), explore how they irrigated their farm land from the Nile (science), read a historical fiction book set in Ancient Egypt (literature), build sugar cube pyramids (art), learn how to spell “pyramid” (language arts), etc.
   
3. Unschooling—Basically goes with the interests of the children. No set curriculum. If a child is interested in butterflies, you research and learn about them until the child is satisfied. If he develops an interest in racecars, you give him information on racecars.
   
4. Classical—Children are taught in three stages, called the Trivium. The Grammar Stage (ages 6-10) focuses on absorbing information and memorizing the rules of phonics, spelling, grammar, foreign language, history, science, math, etc. The Dialectic Stage (ages 10–12) emphasizes logical discussion, debate, drawing correct conclusions, Algebra, thesis writing, and determining the why’s behind the information. The Rhetoric Stage (ages 13–18) continues the systematic, rigorous studies and seeks to develop a clear, forceful, and persuasive use of language.
   
5. Charlotte Mason—Based on the educational writings of Charlotte Mason, a turn-of-the-century British educator. She believed in respecting children as persons, in giving them all a broad education by using a generous curriculum, and in allowing them to read “living” books instead of what she called “twaddle.” These tenets are further developed in the methods she used. Charlotte’s idea was to “spread a feast” before the child and let him digest what was appropriate for him at that time. She sought to nurture a love for learning, not just present a body of information.

The Sacrifice

I keep forgetting to write about this book I finished recently, The Sacrifice. It's been quite a long time since I've read a pleasure book, but somehow I came across this author's name and decided to request one from the library. He writes very similarly to John Grisham, but with a Christian focus. Although, Grisham's The Testament was quite an amazing piece of evangelism for someone I didn't know was a Christian (I just Googled that, and apparently he is). Anyways, Whitlow is much more outspoken for Christianity in his books. The main story is about a somewhat new lawyer who is given a racially charged case and how he maneuvers his way through that trial, through a molding point in his personal life, and a greater threat that affects many people around him. I enjoyed the book although some of the Christian themes were a little contrived and made me wonder just what he believes. I don't know that I highly recommend this book, but it was a good, quick, nice summer read.

I know it is nowhere close to fall, but I liked these pictures...from 2004

Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories

It's been a while since I've done a kid's book review...mostly because we haven't seemed to have as much time to read so far this summer. I wanted to mention the Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories 5 book collection for any that don't already know about it. I remember reading some of the stories as I was growing up; at the doctor's office mostly, I think. They are a wonderful set to add to your collection. There are over 30 stories in each book most of which tell a character building story. There are a couple historical stories and a couple bible stories throughout the books as well. They are currently out of print, but can be found at CBD (quite expensive), or I purchased mine through Ebay (and I found a set at Goodwill one day). We've read through them a time or two and the kids still love to read them. Highly recommended.

Unexpected Visitor

Earlier this week, our cat, Sally, brought this little bunny to us. It was squeaking away and Sally wasn't too happy to give her up. The kids, of course, fell in love with her and wanted to keep her. When we looked up about keeping bunnies on the internet, the info wasn't too promising, and I guess you're not supposed to keep wild animals. So, we needed to let her go. That was fine for Dave and I, but the kids were bummed. We did get a couple pictures first... :)

Tire Course

Last weekend up at the lake, Josh worked quite a bit on two different obstacle courses for an inflatable tire to go down and jump into the row boat. He set up all types of chairs and inflatables to get the best results. He was able to get it into the boat a couple of times on this course although the video doesn't show it. (For some reason, he didn't want to try again for the video.) He was pretty pleased about how it worked. I think he wanted to do this because of this video we watched on YouTube the other day (I think it is really neat). Growing up I remember my favorite episodes on Tom and Jerry were when they had this type of course set up to catch one or the other. I love seeing kids minds at work.

Morning Walk

I'm sitting here eating scrumptious cherries feeling very free from care. Today our Ladies Bible Study began and with that all my pre-prep had to be done-it was a great first day. So, now there isn't much else that I have a significant commitment level to during the summer. Hooray!

Anyways, I felt like I haven't written much of real value lately so I wanted to share some excerpts from a CD series I've been listening to while walking a couple of mornings this past week. I also took some pictures this morning as promised so you can appreciate how absolutely breath-taking God created our valley. Here they go:

Someone will often come up to me and ask "What is wrong with this activity?" If that's our question...we need a major shift here. It's not what is wrong with something...the question is, "Is this God's best and His direction?" If we will settle for nothing less than God's best, how blessed our children will be.

----I really liked this concept as it challenges us not to settle for mediocrity and what the world finds as acceptable, but really live our lives with a Godward perspective.

What is it that is a difficulty in your home?...Those are good things. Because we are going to have the opportunity to see God show us His strength. How God is the one who works and it's not how wise we are...no, it's that we've learned Who to go to. And it's exciting to have the testimony of what God has done.

----I'm not sure the point came across well enough here, but the idea is that difficulties should be seen as opportunities to see God at work. When we are able to handle a problem "on our own", we don't showcase God's glory in our lives.

We must be willing to be unpopular...willing to suffer. We want our children to be our friends, but more than that, I want them to be men and women of God. How can we expect to raise men/women of God if we ourselves won't be men/women of God...to love Him, to serve Him. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac...he didn't understand, yet he was willing to please his Lord first, knowing God would work through the son.

---Basically the point here is that we as parents must make the hard decisions for our family and be willing to have our kids not have the things they may desire in lieu of the long-term blessings. We must trust our choice to obey what we believe God wants for us rather than give into our kid's desires or acquiesce to society's expectations.

Our actions prove our theology...prove our whole belief system..who we are trusting in.

---Just a sobering concept to remember.

You know what, anger gets results with our children. It's so easy to fall into that trap. It's so easy, yet so harmful. It may get results for a while, but there will come a time, because it is damaging that relationship...it is poisoning it...there will come a time when their hearts will not really be with us. Then as the older they get, and we are relying more on having their heart to train and lead them, it's not going to be there. And therefore we're not going to be able to have the influence in their lives that we desire.

---Good challenge to me to see the long-term picture of how getting angry with my kiddos can be so damaging.

The other thing, that helps us not be angry is physical closeness. It seems to be easier to be angry when there is a distance. But when I am reaching out to the children, the anger just doesn't seem to be as close to the surface.

---I think Ann Voskamp had something about this on her blog a while ago (I wasn't able to quite find it), and I think of it when I am feeling a strain in the relationship with my kids...gravitate towards them at that time, rather than away from them.

Don't you feel invigorated just looking at these pictures? :)

Horse Lake Trail

This past Friday Dave was off and we decided to test out Josh's new bike. Hannah was also taking a first ride on a bike that was new to her. Dave has been wanting to try the biking trail at the top of Horse Lake Road as it is a pretty flat section good for beginners. It is single track, and is in good condition-not all rutted out. The easy section is about 1.5 miles (3 miles round trip). There are a couple of spots where it drops off to one side, but more so gradual, not a cliff. Josh, without gears, did hop off the bike a number of times to get up the small hills. Hannah was a bit unsure from the start. She had had a bad experience a couple summers back trying out mountain biking so was reticent going in. She persevered for probably 3/4 of a mile and then called it quits. The downhill with the bike shifting around just made her too nervous. The boys finished off the short course and then met back with us.

At that point, Josh was pretty tired and the next section was too technical for him. Dave decided to take the trail all the way to the Maiden Lane access point where we picked him up. Another nice thing was that they had bathrooms and a short hike to a lookout (which we didn't have time for). Great beginner ride with nice views of the valley.

Curious George

It has been busy around here. Four out of the last five days my kiddos have gone to bed after 9:30. That is very late for them as they are usually in bed by 8:00 for Josh and 8:30 for Hannah. So, today, some plans got cancelled and we just enjoyed a day at home. They have been corresponding with Curious George (via my dad).

Curious George wrote them an email last week telling them how excited he was to be moving out to Wenatchee and asked them a couple of questions. They enthusiastically wrote back; once we had time to. And, today, they were busy at work making a home for Curious George and some special things for him. You may remember the Chick House from the very beginning of the blog; well, that was renovated for Curious George to live in. Then, the pipe cleaners came into play-you can do amazing things with pipe cleaners. And, the fabric paint was pulled out as well. So, Curious George should be quite set when he comes. I did have to tell the kiddos that Grampa may not be willing to have him live with us; they may have to settle for just a visit.

P.S. Don't tell Curious George about all this if you see him. :)

Special Pillow with banana on it

Monkey made from pipe cleaners - Josh did this all on his own

I'm not sure what they decided about this - I thought it should be a rug - it is covered with all kinds of fruit Curious George likes

Hannah worked on his house and made him a full bathroom with a sink and bathtub - she's holding her palm tree in her hand - boxes are amazing things

Happy 40th Birthday

My most wonderful and handsome husband turned 40 yesterday! I have been told for the last couple of months that I am NOT to be planning anything particular, especially a surprise party. So, as much as I would have liked to, I refrained. We spent our day up at the lake and had a very small, quiet birthday celebration with his mom and dad. It was interesting to see how much they felt affected by his turning 40. I can't imagine Hannah or Josh turning 40! It is also interesting to see how 40 no longer seems so old.

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Reading

I realized the other day that I never wrote about what we used for our Reading program. We've used Rod & Staff the last couple of years. The kids learned to read using Sing, Spell, Read and Write. The main reason I use R&S is because it uses Bible stories as the basis for it's reader. I have a hard time feeding my children pointless stories as part of our homeschool time (although the Sing Spell readers are that way). The kids have started in Genesis and gone all the way through some of the prophets and a bit of Christ's life in the last three years. They hit most all the stories, not just the ones every storybook has. After each story, there is some assortment of comprehension questions, vocabulary, story order, map skills, and other miscellaneous questions.

You definitely wouldn't choose this program because it is jazzy and lots of color. All R&S materials are quite basic, black and white with pretty much no glitz. But, in some ways, that is also why I like it. Sometimes we need to have something in life we do just because it needs to be done.

We also don't complete each lesson in it's entirety. There is way too much book work for the time we have to allocate to Reading. I basically just go through the workbooks and choose out which sections I want the kiddos to complete-always the comprehension ones and another one or two.

The kiddos were both about 1 year in these pictures