Free e-books of interest

As for that Weekly Planning post that is pending, I have it all written up, I promise, but it's pretty late now tonight, and my beloved awaits, so I'm off to bed.  I'll get it up here in the next few days.  I've really been enjoying blogging daily at my personal blog A Pilgrim's Project.  This weekend I put together a whopper of a post about the kids' trip with Micah up the river.  It was a nature study enthusiast's dream.  Pop over there to see some of the pictures.  I'll be posting some of the pictures of things they found in the next weeks.

But for today, I've found a couple of AWESOME links today for freebies that I just have to share...

HomeschoolFreebieOfTheDay.com is offering the following e-book divided up over the next week (you have to go there each day in order to get the whole book):

THE GIANT HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY

This is Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study - THE book for Nature study!

This is a HUGE (940 pages) and absolutely wonderful
teaching guide full of hundreds of nature study lessons, 
activities and discussion questions. It is a complete
multi-year nature study curriculum that you can use
for years to come. It is so big (over 100 megs in size)
we had to divide it into six manageable ebooks for you.

And I found through a link my friend Jimmie had put up, these cool web books FREE ONLINE!  There is a whole series of these "You Wouldn't Want to be a..." books by David Salariya.  I saw this series of books in a bookstore here in Peru in Spanish and ALMOST bought the one called, You Wouldn't Want to Be an Inca Mummy!: A One-Way Journey You'd Rather Not Make because it looked like so much fun.  I may have to go back and see if they're still there when we get back to civilization in March.  Until then, I'm thinking we're going to explore the FREE ones online!  I'm excited. I don't even care if they are TWADDLE!  So there.  :)

Here's the one I found in Spanish. I thought would make a fun one to have around the house here for guests and such.

Oh and just for fun, I found an article that is great support of homeschooling and socialization...

Despite what many might believe, a vast majority of home-schooled children say they have plenty of opportunities for socialization with other children and, as adults, come to excel in all measured areas of adult life, according to a new study.

READ MORE

I wholeheartedly agree...

"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and
supreme experience if only one had a coloured pencil
long enough to draw on the ceiling."

--G.K. Chesterton

I found this quote on Dewey's Treehouse 
Image courtesy of Dragon Art.

Homeschool Planning - Part one

3 ways to plan for order in YOUR homeschool:
a 3-part series :) 

original photo by typofi

1. Yearly Homeschool Planning Day(s) - part one... You are here :)

2. Weekly Planning - next post

3. Yearly Book Ordering - last post

Peace and order are some of my key words for 2010! In that mindset let's talk about planning for peace and order in the homeschool. Making time to schedule the above occasions to plan, has made planning not only a breeze but a real JOY instead of a constant sense of worry or guilt.  Surely you know what I mean by worry and guilt?  The worry that I'm not doing enough and the guilt of knowing that I haven't done things as well as I could have?

Taking at least one day a year to really plan has totally revolutionized my feeling about homeschool (If I can, I'll gladly use 3 days! 1 HPD per term*).  It helps SO much to get the majority of things worked out ahead of time so that I don't have a huge list of unfinished and undefined tasks hanging over my head.  Separate time a couple of weeks before the new school year will begin (or whenever it happens to be best for you) to complete the following steps or obviously adjust them to fit your personal needs.

Step One:  Brainstorm a list of all the homeschooling areas that need attention.

1. Subjects I'd like to introduce into our homeschool that we've never done before
   
2. Areas that I want to improve
   
3. Curriculum that has got to go and will need a replacement.
4. Behavior issues
5. Plan for Preschoolers
6. Scheduling issues
7. Etc, etc.
   

Step Two: The hard part.

Figure out how to make a homeschool planning day a reality.  Things do not run well without you, but you can let things slide for a day or two while you get things oiled and primed for the year.  When can you get away and who can help?  A weekend when dad's home?  A babysitter?  Grandma?  Plan for a WHOLE day out.  Either that, or 2-3 mornings in a row... You'll need it!  Whether it's the coffee or the actual planning time... :)

Step Three: Gather your materials.
For instance one HPD, I needed to hash out my home schedule, so I needed my brainstorm sheets and my laptop.  This last HPD, I actually needed to plot out the weekly readings from the books on the booklist and for a couple substitutions I'd made, so I took the actual books with me (it was a big and heavy bag!).  I also needed to work out this term's composer study so I took a couple CDs to browse through... but, you get the point.

Step Four: Go
Decide ahead of time to be ultra-efficient.  Don't get distracted!  Do the things on your list in order of priority.  Don't call home, and if you have to sneak back for something, do NOT get caught! (I recommend eating out even though it costs more... it is more efficient use of time and in future years you can budget this meal into the yearly homeschool budget.)  Don't go home unless absolutely necessary!

photo by lusi

Some planning forms: These help me immensely, and are just to give you an idea of perhaps where you'd like to begin

Teacher Planning (pdf) - This is basically an outline of planning steps I take for each school year.
Daily List (pdf) - This list outlines what subjects are covered each day.  This is vital for those days that we are totally running helter-skelter and can't get back to the schedule.  This helps me reorientate in order to get everything done.
Week 15 (pdf) - This is last week's schedule/list of individual assignments for each day.  Each boy now gets a copy of this as they are becoming more responsible for their own studies.  This is my big task on my homeschool planning days to get this detailed schedule worked out.  One day a term of planning and it's pretty much ALL done for 3 months.  This is my homeschool brain... I've finally gotten it down to a fine science**.

*Ambleside Online is a FREE online curriculum guide, based on Charlotte Mason's methods and philosophy as outlined in her Original Homeschooling Series.  Learning is based on a balanced view of education, using hands-on life experience and observation, living books when a real-life experience can't be provided and including such enriching subjects as nature study, artist & composer studies, foreign language (learned to actually be spoken). Download an informational brochure here.

The AO schoolyear is separated into 3 terms, Term 1: Sept-Nov, Term 2: Jan-March, Term 3 April-June.  However, this information is to be taken as a loose guide as many have differing starting dates or as in our case, school year round.  However, the Artist & Composer, Nature, Folksong, and Hymn studies are all scheduled according to the terms, for those of us who enjoy the camaraderie of learning along with other AOers and sharing resources.  Also, handy-dandy schedules are available that split up the booklist readings into terms of 12 weeks, for a grand total of 36 weeks/school year.  This is what I refer to as 'Term' in my blog, materials, etc.

**If a post on how to schedule would be helpful, please let me know.  I'm assuming anyone who reads this blog (anyone?) already would have some idea of scheduling.  But, I didn't know anything before I knew it... so you never know ;)

Some helpful links:

Basic Intro to AO

An AO Start-up Guide

Charlotte Mason's List of Attainments for a child of 6 and of 12 years old

Posts in this series:

1. Yearly Homeschool Planning Day(s) - part one... You are here :)
2. Weekly Planning - next post
3. Yearly Book Ordering - last post

Isaac Newton's day

H a P p y  B i R t h D A y ! !

Isaac Newton was born today!

4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727

What a guy!  He was a serious mathematician inventing calculus, discovered that light could be split into different colors, and explained gravity!  The Lord definitely made him for a purpose, and he fulfilled that by not only using his God-given intelligence to pretty well close to his full potential, but he honored God acknowledging Him with his adoration and reverence.  I did not know that Isaac Newton was a Christian until very recently when we read this book for AOy5:

We read this book aloud with all my children.  It was understandable for my y1 girl yet not overly simplified for the y5 boys. This book did not have the "I can't put you down" factor going for it, and is very clearly written for a younger audience; identifies the young reader with Isaac's childhood, has simple vocabulary, short chapters, etc.  I really appreciated how it pointed out Isaac's spiritual growth alongside of his scientific advances.  I wouldn't mind reading another biography on his life written with an adult audience in mind.  This book definitely whetted my appetite to know more. This man accomplished a LOT!  The problem is, he was so smart, his discoveries so technical, that it might be difficult for a biographer to write about him in an engaging way without bogging the reader down in the details of his scientific development... but the main point is, this book did a good job of that because:

My kids enjoyed it.

Here are some impressive quotes from the book:

"We know [God] by his most wise and excellent contrivances of things, and final causes; we admire him for his perfections; but we reverence and adore him on account of his dominion."    ~Isaac Newton

"We must believe that he is the father of whom are all things, and that he loves his people as his children that they may mutually love him and obey him as their father."                             ~Isaac Newton

Happy New Year: Peruvian style!

Peru: Holidays: New Year's Eve

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Would you believe me if I told you that the 201_ just accidentally got cut 
out of the picture?!  hahah, jk.

Happy New Year!  Here we are another year come, another one gone. Well, I hope that you all had a delightful, restful holiday. I'm telling you, we had enough excitement to share! This year, as I mentioned on my other blog, we celebrated the passing of the old year outside with our neighbors. It was interesting as well as educational, so here we have a little lesson in Peruvian culture!  Enjoy!

On New Year's Eve, I'm pretty sure that everyone and their brother head out to the streets. At 8pm, the streets were quite FULL of people doing last minute shopping, or perhaps more likely, just out to be out.  There were tons of vendors in the street with (illegal) fireworks, and more vendors selling ready made muñecos... I'll explain those in a minute :)  But by ten o'clock the majority of people were on their way home, or rushing to wherever they were going to spend the rest of the night (too many young people pass the night drinking and dancing in the New Year at the discotecas/night clubs). The aforementioned stores stay open until midnight (can you imagine, ringing in the New Year at your local 7-eleven for example? weird.) However,we didn't have any shopping to do at that hour, so we headed home from our weekly date night to spend the late (or early) hours - Micah at church and me with our two big boys. Unfortunately, Micah had been feeling pretty bad all day, so he skipped church and went to bed.  I woke him up for the excitement 2 hours later... Oh, come on!  How could I let him miss all the fun?!  Obviously!

Midnight is when all the real fun begins. The muñeco is lit, the kids light their hands on fire set off fireworks and all the neighbors young and old, come out to hug and kiss each other welcoming the new year, wishing each other prosperity and good fortune in the coming year. But that's definitely not the end!  The women have worked for hours cleaning out the house for muñeco stuffing (explained below), preparing the meal that is then eaten (turkey, chicken, 12 grapes - or raisins in the case of our neighbors, and other grains. Paneton and hot chocolate are dessert.), the young people start up their LOUD music and dancing (our neighbors were still going on strong at 4am! We were able to witness this from our bed since the music was loud enough it vibrated our bedroom wall). And the kids keep on lighting fireworks until they run out of money, or can beg no more (remember the stores are still open in case they run out!).

As you'll notice in the pictures, there were several neighbors wearing the traditional yellow, in particular underwear worn inside out (we did NOT see anybody's underwear for goodness sakes!), this is all for good luck.  And, they'll throw rice under the door frame if they're hoping for a wedding in the coming year. 

At half past midnight, WE went in and watched a movie!  (This was the first time we shared this part of the American holiday tradition of staying up late with any of our kids... such FUN!  Plus, it would have been difficult to attempt sleep with all the fireworks and music stilling thumping and popping outside)

Thus ends our Peruvian nochevieja/año nuevo experience.  I hope you all enjoy!  It really merits video for all the sights and sounds combined for quite a stimulating experience... but video doesn't come out well in the dark!

Important traditions / vocabulary & definitions

[Tradiciones importantes y vocabulario]:

Nochevieja [no-chay-bee-AY-hah]: New Year's Eve

Año Nuevo [AN-yo noo-AY-bo]: New Year's

media noche [MAY-dee-ah NO-chay]: midnight

muñeco, pilato [moon-YAY-co, pee-LAH-to]: The doll is life-size, made of old clothes and shoes stuffed with rags and other refuse (found and collected during that day's cleaning).  It is lit on fire at midnight, illustrative of getting rid of the old to usher in the new.  Not a bad symbol in my opinion!

fuegos artificiales [uh... when are you actually EVER going to say this...?!], cohetes [co-AY-tays], chispitas mariposas [...or this?!]: Fireworks, fireworks, sparklers

12 uvas, pasas [DO-say OO-bahs, PAH-sahs]: 12 grapes, raisins - Pop one in your mouth for each of the twelve strikings of the clock ringing in the New Year - will definitely bring to fruition all the aspirations and dreams in the New Year!  How easy is that?!

huevos duros: boiled eggs, if you put it under the bed, sleep on it, some prediction is made from the shape of the yolk... seriously, I'm not joking.

espigas de trigo [es-PEE-gahs day TREE-go]: grains of uncooked wheat - Chewed and believed to bring abundance in the New Year.

Paneton [pan-ay-TONE]: Like a blown out fruitcake!  Okay, not really, but it is sweet bread embedded with dried fruits.  It is more like bread though than fruit cake. We actually all like it now, and would even eat it not at Christmas time (with butter, it's AWESOME), but it was a little hard to get used to.

Chocolate [cho-co-LAH-tay]: hot choclate made with evaporated milk, baker's chocolate, cinnamon and cloves.  Different, but good. Recipe below:

Chocolate Peruano - by Amy Tuttle Enjoy at Christmas time and on New Years Eve with your paneton!
100g baker's chocolate 3 can evaporated milk 2.5 liters of boiling agua	2 sticks of cinnamon 1 TB whole cloves sugar to taste (a LOT :)
Melt the chocolate the boiling water. Add cinnamon and cloves. Boil for 10 min. Mix in milk and sugar to taste. Strain out the cinnamon and cloves before serving! Accompany with paneton to celebrate truly Peruvian style! **Tuttle tips: Stir with a candy cane! Lather your toasted paneton with butter! Delicious!

Here's a Peruvian website (in Spanish) that I used as a reference for the significance of the grain and rice.

A Merry Christmas

We hope you all had a VERY merry Christmas!

Out and about at the plaza de armas... a motokar covered in Santa garb... seriously.
Christmas carols	The Christmas story
Sleeping around the Christmas tree, a tradition.
Opening presents... thank you everybody!
Yummy dinner!! Martins & Nora, thanks so much for sharing it with us!

O Christmas Tree

This year, I have seriously reconsidered Christmas decorations. Not that I consider anything wrong with them. Not at all. But it is different living here in a third world country. Many of the people we mix with don't even have a single Christmas decoration, let alone a Christmas tree; that would be considered a luxury. In that light, to put up all my decorations would seem to me to be over indulgence. So, simple it is. And it is nice. We only have 4 small decorated spots in our house this year. 1) the tree, 2) the window sill - the stockings are hung there, 3) the table centerpiece has a small glass nativity and 4) the shelf in our entry way has an arrangement of cards, another nativity and a bunch of mistletoe and some other small Christmas paraphernalia.

Simple is good.

Christmas trees. I like them. Especially Noble Douglas Fir Christmas trees. The ones with the branches kind of spaced apart... well, I never have seen a fake one. But if I do, I'll want it. Putting together a fake tree is not quite the same experience as traversing the wild with dear friends and family, out in the biting cold to choose and cut down your very own... those are memories and dreams. But if the tree can't be a Noble, it has to be a skinny tree. I like skinny trees. Tall if possible. Of course, for us to bring it down here to Peru it had to be NOT tall. It had to fit in a box that meet standard airline requirements for measurement and weight. I digress. Well, without further ado, here's our tree: ahem... and as Mya would say...

Ta-dah!

The kids put it together, lighted and decorated it ALL by themselves,
and I can truthfully say that I only redistributed the ornaments hung by Miss Mya this year,
(she delicately put all 6 of hers on one branch).

Next to the tree, we have another most loved Christmas treasure, our collection of Christmas story books. Mostly picture books since we've been a family with little kids until only recently (I have been informed that my two eldest are now big kids). This of all the Christmas items, is THE most captivating to all, big and small. Who can resist the sentimentality of the stories that we only get to read one time of year? Gotta love books.

We're reading Mary's First Christmas at bedtime this week with the littlest, and Advent Foretold with everybody at meal time. Very different, both good.

Despite the fact that temperatures are in the 90s every day and it doesn't feel much like Christmas in that way, we are very much enjoying this time of remembering Christ, come as a baby. Immanuel. God WITH us. ABSOLUTELY astounding. Perhaps living here and celebrating simply has helped us to see in a real and tangible way Christ's own coming in humility and simplicity. From heaven to a stable. From angels to shepherds. From worshipers to those who were his own and received him not. Wisdom unsearchable, God, the invisible; love indestructible in frailty appears... Lord of eternity, dwells in humanity, kneels in humility and washes our feet. O what a mystery, meekness and majesty!

Bow down and worship, for this is your God.

This coming week separate time to stop, sit down and truly savor the sweetness of our Savior!

catch-up

We've been back for almost 2 weeks from our cross-country trip... everyday that passed was yet another day I did NOT blog! ;) Once arrived, we DID school however, and here's a quick list of some of the things we've done:

This week (12/14-12/19), we started week 13 of Ambleside Online's year 5! Week 13 marks the beginning of the 2nd term, meaning we've finished several books from the first term, which in turn will be replaced with some new books, yay! That's always fun! Always Inventing, Story of My Life, Exploring Creation with Astronomy are some of the new ones.

Including some hit and miss, try-to-school-while-traveling days, we have a good 3 weeks of MEP math under our belt! We've been experimenting and changing up and I think we are a little closer now to getting down what we're going to do. Jave will start math in the morning during the scheduled math time (max 40min) and I'll work with Cull & Bria in the afternoon. This is still a work in progress. I don't want to alter our schedule until I have a pretty good idea of what is going to work. I didn't want to have to do two sessions of math during the day, but it is working very well to separate the boys (read the whole adjustment process here).

With Exploring Creation with Astronomy, we are all listening together, AOy0'ers - AOy5'ers, in an all-in-one-course. This is the first book we are officially combining EVERYBODY on (besides Bible reading which starts at birth, family fun read alouds & nature study... okay we've done *some* combining) I'm very much looking forward to having even more subjects to combine. Until now it has very unofficial, the littles could listen/participate if they wanted to. Now, they GET to :)

So, I've been trying to separate time to blog, it just hasn't happened yet. Micah is gone this long weekend, so I probably won't have time 'til the week after next since it's CHRISTMAS!! woohoo!

Anyway, hi and bye for now!
Amy

Going on a roadtrip... yay?

Tomorrow we begin the ever increasingly familiar journey to the coast =

2 days x 9 hours driving each day
+ 2 adults
+ 5 children in one red Isuzu Trooper
+ uncertainty of road conditions because of recent rain
- a working cd/tape player in the car
= need for prayer and patience and lots of activities to do in the car!

Abuelito wishing our carful of kids traveling mercies

So, what keeps your kids busy in the car?

Here are a few of our favorites:

The Quiet Game :)

RaceCar (did you know you can spell that the same way forwards and backwards?) - This is a uniquely tuttle invented game where each child picks a vehicle within sight and claims it... then they keep tabs on 'their' car and who is winning at any given time by who passes who, etc.

Who owns the Road? - Another tuttle kid invention in which the kids are each self-assigned to a window to look out of. Whatever they spy out their window, is theirs; cats, dogs, crops of sugar cane, an ox and plow, electricity poles, condors circling some dead thing, etc, etc. They are amazing at keeping track of all they have accumulated and what everyone else has as well. They can then trade with each other to have a more well-rounded supply of whatever... seriously, this has kept them busy for many an mile!

Animal Log - I bet you didn't have llamas on your kids' checklist to see on your last roadtrip! Here it is actually a common occurance... The boys sometimes keep logs with the following list of animals: Donkeys, Mules, Chickens, Horses, Goats, Llamas, Snakes, Sheep, Cats, Dogs. Then they keep a running tally. This can be left off and picked up throughout the LONG journey. A more modern version would be keeping track of colors of cars or state license plates... at least that's what I did when I was growing up.

Wikki-Stix. All I can say is, these are AWESOME. Thank you Wikki-Stix inventor! And to Oma & Hammy... please send MORE! Stick them on the windows or on a plastic clipboard... you name it!

Twistable Crayons. Do you know how VERY good these are? Normal crayons melt, or the paper gets torn off and they get broken, dropped and lost or worse, melted between the seats. Colored pencils have to be sharpened every other 13 seconds... and would you like some wood shavings stuck to your sweaty leg or in your seat? But twistable crayons are the BEST! Love them... even if they still do get lost in the cracks of the seat. I admit, I thrill when I actually find valuable stuff in there.

A whole bunch of stickers and blank paper. You'd be surprised at the number of different uses my kids have come up with for these. However, stickers on windows is absolutely prohibited... *hint: GooGone may be the weirdest, yuckiest, greasiest substance on earth... but it takes off the sticky-ew-goo-glue!

Snacks and a timer. Having a bag of animal cookies (or some other perhaps healthier snack, or not) and a timer with a beep* is an interesting way to mark the time. We give out a snack at every hour on the hour, curbing the ever dreadful and constant, "Can I have a snack now?" This may have been instrumental in my children learning to tell time :) *important note: The clock must be visible and readable by the majority of travellers or else please choose to use a timer with a beep! Having to wait for the beep is useful in curbing the ever more dreadful and incessant, "Is it __ o'clock yet? No? Then, how many more minutes?" followed closely by, "How many more minutes now?"

Reading books aloud. This really is our favorite. Sadly, with 7 people in a 5 person car travelling through the jungle, a sizeable portion of our roadtime is spent with all the windows down. This not being conducive to the reader's voicebox... unless of course you are one who is accustomed to yelling at the top of your voice from the front seat, contorting your body and straining your neck around to face your listeners who can't hear you anyway. *note to self: don't bother bringing school work in the car... somehow with all the other fun stuff to do, we have yet to get to it!

Singing silly songs.

Tell a story. This is probably the kids' all-time favorite. One of them will create a wonderfully imaginative saga for the siblings' listening enjoyment that can be picked up or left off at will. Surely, a creative parent will be able to weave some really good tales. A dear friend of mine, Deb, is an expert at this and is an inspiration to me with her stories that actually even teach a lesson... that much might be a stretch, for me that is, to try and add in something educational?! oh my. But I have periodically *thought* of making a well-intentioned albeit a feeble attempt to embark on an oral tradition of storytelling.

For babies and toddlers, may I recommend:
Keep diapers dry. Non-drip sippy cup with water (I love you Klean Kanteen). Keep them busy with non-messy snacks. Use those bibs that have the part that folds up to catch crumbs. For 1-2yo, give them a container (basket, purse, etc) full of smallish things that are interesting to them. They can take them out one by one, again and again. Just reload the basket or have 2 to rotate. Items to put inside, are: small board book, Little people, spoon, a pen that has no ink in it, a hand mirror, chew toy, coin purse with zipper and something small to fit inside it (we use hair bands), a small doll with removable clothes, an old watch, etc. Things that aren't typically toys usually hold attention a little longer. Reach back occasionally to hold a hand or foot just for love.

So, what are your roadtrip/travel strategems?

Handi-Crafty Kids...

Homemade Christmas gifts are the best. The time invested on toiling over some project in order to make something for someone special is really worthwhile. That said, I prefer, if my kids are going to do some craft that they make something worth keeping or giving away. Charlotte Mason pointed out the educational benefit of handicrafting:

"...that nature and handicrafts should be pressed into service for the training of the eye and hand..."

"The points to be borne in mind in children's handicrafts are: (a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within their compass."

By nature, I'm not super crafty... artsy, maybe... but crafty? Well, perhaps I could be, it's just that I don't like the clutter of those finished crafts! What do you do with all that stuff?! I agree with Charlotte that children should not be subjected to such futilities as are many modern crafts! But the process of being creative, developing skills and care - that's the important part! So, I've found a fantastic craft site that has lots of really cute and practical crafts, that employ sewing, and other such skills to produce something useful. (You know, the kind that you would actually not be embarrassed to give as gifts, or that you might keep around the house awhile!)

Here are a couple that I've seen on the site lately. Either of the following ideas would make delicious and economical gifts for one of those small people in your life. Dress up the package with creative gift wrap, and yippity-skippity, you've crossed someone off your gift list!

Velcro-Catch ball

And my favorite...

Felt Harvest Meal


just follow the links for tutorials :)

Craft sites with lots and lots and lots of projects:

craftzine.com

Kids Craft Weekly

Some other creative gift wrap links:

customsholidays.suite101.com

familycrafts.about.com

www.marthastewart.com

stayathomeparents.suite101.com

Dealing with sleep issues

Of 5, only one my children has difficulty sleeping. And even one sleepless individual sure can make an impact on an entire household! This is a response turned blog post intended for my friend Jeanne at A peaceful day. In her thoughtful post Things that go Bump, she talked about her normally well-adjusted sleeper having trouble dealing with fear at night, and the things they've tried to settle her. She brought up the question: Does anyone else have any ideas?

Here's my response :)

As to the root of the problem being behavioral or genuine fear, I'll say two things. We have found a little of both with our precious non-sleeper. She has never really slept well, but there have been times of her life where she could actually sleep regularly through the night. Because of various fears however and not being naturally inclined to peaceful rest, she has suffered (haven't we all?) many periods of time where for many successive nights she would wake crying. Some of the things we did to calm her and/or cope did not bode well, and actually did cause a habit of 'needing' to be succored in the night. But I think with careful parenting and much prayer, you will be able to discern the best thing to do in your situation.

Coping techniques we've used:
1) Prayer is always the first thing we turn to. a)Going into her room to pray for her upon her waking and calling out to us. This resulted many times in my husband falling back to sleep in her bed... b)We pray before she goes to sleep this has become a requirement. c)We have taught her that she too must pray when she's afraid - that is trusting God.

2) Allowing her to come to our room where she could prepare for herself a mat on the floor made available for the purpose. (She is violent in sleep - tossing and turning recklessly... we learned that she had to have her OWN domain) Knowing that she was allowed to come to us gave her some power, but then she had to decide if she had enough courage to actually traverse the hallway in the dark!

3) Providing a magic blue night light that 'scares away all spiders and creepy-crawlies'. I don't believe this is lying... it is using our imagination! We've done several versions of this over time. Contriving elaborate stories of how the blue light works :)

4) Singing. We have a children's CD that has a song "When I am afraid I will trust in You". She learned it from the CD and I would sing it with her before bed. When she would wake, I would sing from my bed asking her to sing with me.

5) Supplying her with a CD player near her bed with Scripture CDs or Scripture songs. She usually falls asleep to it (serves a double purpose... great way to inundate with Scripture as well as calm fear!) and can turn it on by herself in the night when she is afraid. Obviously, the volume has to be kept low enough (she shares a room).

6) Explaining to her as I tuck her into bed, that she has a choice of whether or not she's going to be afraid. I've told her that if she's afraid of the dwarf that eats children when they least expect it (thank you neighborhood children), then she can either believe them and be afraid or STOP pretending with them that there really is such a dwarf! 'But I'm afraid!'... then stop pretending he's real! God is REAL and those things are NOT. Those children told you those stories to scare you and to be mean, they were not being true friends to tell you those pretend stories. **We are currently dealing with this, and I have had some luck with the previous topic of conversation... we'll see if it holds long-term success (she's almost 7yo).

7) We've left lights on as well, but that didn't actually deal with the fear itself which was to her so real whether faced in the dark or light - to her lights left on made no difference.

Discerning Manipulation:
At some point about a year and a half ago, I realized that she was habitually calling my husband in to sleep with her because she didn't like being alone or even because she was truly afraid, and it was really disruptive not only to sleep but to our relationship as well. He went on an extended trip, and I tried some of the other previously mentioned ideas. This is tricky and I continually felt that I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing. But, I called her bluff, and told her that she was to stay in bed, that I knew she was a big girl to sleep all the way through the night. I offered her a much coveted incentive for 5 nights successive sleep. She didn't sleep the first two nights, but I woke and reminded her that she could decide to go back to sleep and win her prize. This was motivating for her. I don't think she knew that she could do it! She won her prize for 5 successive nights without calling out to me (she probably woke, but she put herself back to sleep without a peep). This showed me that she COULD do it. When my husband got home, she tried her old tricks on him... I calmly called to her reminding her that she COULD sleep... she'd proved it to me... and voila! We had several months of peaceful sleep :)

Anyway, peace to you! This too shall pass! :) Pray!

PS. I'm curious what CM would say about fears... I've read something about it, but can't recall. I might go look it up!

Amy

Fisher Academy International Teaching Home
Tarapoto, Peru

A Writing Sample: 11yo

The assignment:
Use as many of the following spelling list words as possible
to write a fictional entry in your diary:

been	feel
capture	diary
broke	history
deed	dozen
exhaust	sorry
inspect	pear
practice	criticism
expect	else
vote	fifth
equip	yesterday

Rated P.O. = Parent's Only

for contents that include violence.

Dearest Diary,

I feel inclined to write the history of a dear, dear friend of mine, whose name was Buck Smith. He was tall, strong and the bravest of the bunch. Yesterday, five men walked through the town dressed in black and struck the town with the edge of the sword. But Buck came to the rescue! They were no match for Buck Smith! BOOM! BANG! CRASH! SMACK! Those were the sounds of his mighty club. He felled four of them like logs, but the fifth got away to tell his master. That made Buck hero of the year. People all around the world said, “That dude is awesome!” And the people of the town said:

“Let us make him our leader! Let him protect the world!”

So, he practiced Kung Fu to the highest level! He did the same with sword, ax, bow and arrow, and club fighting. But an army of infinity bad guys came. They were too much for Buck, but he fought bravely. He sent them up in the air by the dozen! BOOM! BANG! CRASH! SMACK! But he could not expect to beat those bad dudes. “Pick on somebody else!” he said. But they were very naughty dudes and did not listen. Then they captured him. They chained him between two poles and whipped him 'til his mortal wounds were many. When he was exhausted, and when they stopped laughing at him, they piled wood and hay around him and lit it. Then they threw oil on the fire. It flew high. They heard a crack, and then a roar, and out of the fire came Buck, hot chains swirling. And that was the last time we saw the bad dudes and Buck Smith.

Sincerely,
Rip Van Javen

** Written in the Kung Fu Panda style by:

An Evolution of Math Drill

Learning basic math facts has been a bittersweet experience in our family. I'm sure many people can sympathize! While one of my kids really enjoys math, another does not. I have come to realize that much of their individual success or failure with math has had to do with how well they know their basic math facts. I never knew just how important this is! I'll explain why it is indeed so important, and how drilling math facts can be of help in this area.

photo by rolve

IF you know your addition facts, then subtraction is WAY easier and vice versa. Having the facts on the tip of your tongue cuts down on time spent on math considerably.

Imagine if as an adult you need to do the problem 876-284, and you have to get out your base 10 blocks for each simple operation. 6-4=2, find the six block, the four block - good. Now, 7-8... oh, get the blocks out again...7 is less than 8, so I'll have to borrow from the 8 hundreds space, which makes that 8-8=0, okay, get the blocks out then 7-2=5...Yes. This must be frustrating even for the kids! Knowledge is power!

IF you have your multiplication tables down, not only will you spend less time doing bigger multiplication problems, but division will be much less intimidating as well. The better you have the facts down, the more you can do in your head, the quicker the whole thing goes! Sometimes it's not really that math is hard, but that it takes too much time... more time than we want to spend on it!

photo by januszek

SO... Realizing how important it is to learn these facts, we could see no other option but to put other things aside and just concentrate for some time on mastering those necessary evils. Thankfully, my husband took charge of this area spending time with the kids and their flashcards! I recommend using fun math games throughout that reinforce the math concepts being memorized/mastered. If your child has memorized the facts without drill, way to GO! The following advice is for those having some trouble with memorizing basic math facts.

Here's how the use of math drill might evolve over a longer period of time:

Step one: Let the kids have some time for the facts to set in naturally, through experience and play. Don't drill. Though, for certain kids who WANT to drill at this age... by all means, drill!

When our kids were first learning their math facts, we didn't drill at all. We just kept it light hearted. Counting objects, adding some, taking some away, etc. We let them be entirely dependent on their math blocks and visual aids. This lasted at least until the boys were about 8 years old, around 2nd grade or so.

Step two: When they have had ample exposure to the natural method, and you are ready to have them start buckling down and memorizing, start with short and simple. Go through the facts orally, or use addition flashcards here, here, or make your own. Find multiplication flashcards here, here, or again, make your own. Start by letting them build the problem with their blocks if they don't know the answer right off. Or, if they don't answer it within 5-10 seconds, before their face falls, quickly tell them the answer. Have them repeat it after you. "Five and five makes ten." Don't use the timer at this point (unless you have a very competitive child who likes to compete with their own time - I have one of these). Spend 10min on this 2-3 times a week.

By the time our kids had gone over all the facts, when they knew a good number of them if they had all the time in the world to think, we started drilling with flashcards. We kept it short and simple. For 5 minutes, or 2-3x through the +3s for example and that's it for the day. We did this while continuing on with our math curriculum. When I felt they had a pretty good handle on the facts I took a break from this.

photo by iprole

Step three: If in the course of time, the kids still are not fluid with their basic math fact recall (mine were not), you might choose to spend some time really cementing the facts before moving on. This might include separating time a week or more where the only math you do is drills. Print off some drill sheets and start timing them. Perhaps you won't tell them you are timing them if they would be intimidated by that. In that case, you'd just keep the information for yourself in order to see their problem areas and progress. Use the information (repeated trouble with the +7s for instance) to know which facts to work on. Go back to the flashcards or find a fun game to play to reinforce those missing facts. See my links below for drill sheet links and a downloadable record sheet.

We had finished Beta (Multiple-digit addition and subtraction and other topics) and recently started on Gamma (Single and multiple-digit multiplication and other topics ) when I realized, the boys were slow with their +6, +7 and +8 facts. They were having to count on fingers or get out their math blocks for these simple operations. It was taking too much time, and they were getting frustrated. I realized that it was essential that they master these facts before moving a step further in their curriculum. So, we stopped everything and decided to drill.

Here's how we did it:

We made reusable drill sheets: I found drill sheets online at donnayoung.org (in those days she didn't have so many level options available!) I made the sheets reusable by printing Drill Sheet A on one side and Drill Sheet B on the other side of a sheet of card stock, then had it laminated. The boys used overhead markers (less smeary than dry erase). When they were finished, I just rinsed the sheets off under the faucet (no paper towel mess).

We started out having the boys fill in the sheets taking as much time as they needed. After a week of this, I started timing them secretly, but I didn't tell them their times, and just kept the records for myself. I also kept track of the date, drill sheet used and number of problems missed. Download a copy of my record sheet here. They started catching on, and wanted to know their times and soon it became a great game. I intentionally never pitted them against each other, that would have been disheartening for the one boy. I would correct their sheets (or better yet, have them correct their own work) and they would make corrections. Often they would do this later in the day as they were about done after the drill itself.

After a couple weeks of this, they had their math facts down! Because we were doing this as remedial work, we actually did addition, subtraction and the x0, x1, x2, x5 at the same time but on a separate laminated drill sheets. In retrospect, I would advise doing a little bit of drill all along the way from earlier on through maintenence long after the facts are mastered. I would definitely recommend the use of LOTS of supplemental math games reinforcing the same concepts. We didn't. We just left it with that.

Step four: Once the kids have gained proficiency with their facts, decide on a day of the week or once every other week to pull out the drill sheets just for fun. Have them try to beat their old record. Keep it light and fun. This takes about 5-10 min.

Step five: Use online games throughout the whole process for timed drill practice to increase speed and accuracy... if they are anything like my boys, they'll have so much fun playing, they'll forget they are even doing math!

So, while it may be possible that lots of math can be learned using only fun and games, I believe there are some parts that require discipline and serious study. Basic math facts are so important that I think it worthwhile spending the extra time and effort to get them down.

**Please let me know if this information has been helpful by leaving a comment. :)

Timed Drills...Living Math?

After my two oldest boys had spent an entire year struggling to get down their addition and subtraction facts, we spent a month or two doing no other math than timed drills in order to cement those facts before moving on in our Math-u-See book. It helped a lot!

In particular the drills helped my eldest son (then 8-9ish?) not to rely so much on counting with his fingers. There was absolutely no time pressure, unless they wanted to try to beat their old time. I just used the information for my own use. I kept track of the date, the drill sheet used, the time in which they finished the sheet, and number of problems missed. I had 4 drill sheets that I rotated, they had different combination of problems. I didn't tell them their time, unless they begged for it ;) But I did have them go back and do corrections. I must add here, that despite the increase in speed and accuracy on their basic math facts, the drill practice did nothing for their love of math. This lasted for awhile and then we went on in the MUS book. (As a side note, I do think it would also be helpful to pull out the drill sheets once every other week or so just to keep fresh.)

For my BOYS who are by nature competitive, the use of timed drills has been very helpful.

Secondly, just recently actually, I am seeing the benefit of timed drills once again. They are now 10.5 & 11.5, and participating in theamericanmathchallenge.com contest week, which has a combination of non-timed drills as well as timed drills in the format of a race against other students for the most questions answered correctly within a set time. It has given life to my boys' previously practically non-existent interest in practicing math... once again because of the competition factor. They have seriously spent many hours over the last week and a half doing math!! This is amazing considering one of my boys wrote the following last week:

"I hate math. I can read. I can spell. I can build. I can lern everything esily, but not math. Math is not fun, it is not interesting."

Because of the online contest he is suddenly doing VERY well at math. He is attempting problems he's never even done before and excelling! (I put him at the level he should be for his age, though he is a year behind to keep the boys together in their curriculum... so he's doing next year's math in the contest!) Yesterday, he actually called himself a 'human calculator'. So it seems that the timed drills handled properly can actually raise confidence levels (for him, I put absolutely NO pressure and really didn't propose for him to participate in the contest, I only offered the option to his brother who likes math, soon however, after watching his brother, he too was lured in :).

So, timed math drills have earned a place in our home, even though I wouldn't have thought it possible! :)

My opinion: I am leaning more and more towards supplementing our math learning with 'living math' activities. At the same time, I think that cementing the basic math facts is so VERY necessary that even if it requires nothing but drill (may it never be so! ;) they ought to gain proficiency in quick access to these memorized facts. Timed drills may not be overly 'living', but for the boys because of the competition factor timed drills have worked quickly, efficiently and beautifully. However, for some kids it might not work at all! For some the pressure of the time, or the fear of not doing well might inhibit success. In fact, if it would have worked for my kiddos to cement the facts purely through playing games, I would have loved it! But game or no game, they knew and resented that they were having to do math! :) I am super thankful for whoever posted the link on the living math forum to this math website, just when we were needing an extra boost in math motivation! I'll have to let you know how my up and coming daughter does when she gets to that age... she may not even need reinforcement of the basic facts if she keeps up at the pace she's going now! ;)

Well, there you have it! That sums up my research ala fisheracademy :) heheheh.

QUESTIONS:
What is your experience with timed math drills? How do you use timed drills in your family?
What success or difficulty have you seen? What other methods do you use to cement those basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts? Would you classify timed drills as living or non-living math activities?

CM Early Years giveaway

As I was saying...
I need to revamp our toddler/preschool techniques. Of course I LOVE CM principles and I put forth my best effort to keep learning and trying them out, learning more and trying them out, learning and... well, you get the idea. So, in keeping with that theme, someone has come up with a new Charlotte Mason preschool guide, The Early Years - and of course it's Simply Charlotte Mason! And what do you know, there just happens to be a contest to win it!

Go here for details.

So, I have a post of my own in drafts with my ideas for keeping our toddlers/preschoolers occupied and learning so that the rest of us can do the same... so maybe I'll just have to get that out and finish it! We'll see. Most of my time is spent in real-life doing which doesn't leave much time for writing about it all. Anyway, good luck in the contest :)

Amy

Here's one of my favorite recent pictures my little youngest preschooler, the toddler terremota {sp, earthquake} ...though from the picture you'd think she was an angel :)

Where did it go?

Last I knew it was September. I cannot even fathom the fact that everywhere I look and go people are saying it is now November. I barely blinked and October was gone... and that's even my birthday month, my absolute favorite month of the year! What this means is that 2009 is almost done, and the year of the Jetsons (I always thought that we'd all be driving hover craft by now), 2010 is right around the corner. Where has this year gone?! I guess for us, the whole year has been spent in moving (3x so far), and all the packing, traveling and adjustments that accompany this kind of lifestyle (especially when moving to somewhere with such extreme temps and living conditions!). However, considering all that, we have done a LOT this year. Praise the LORD!


For anyone who actually does occasionally read this blog, I just wanted to say that we are alive and well, happily settled in our new home in the jungle (only a few boxes left, that will have to stay until we have some closets... come Papa Jim!!).

Ahhh... the kiddy pool!
Are there words adequate to express how important this little recipient of water has been to our sanity here?!
Micah and the kids all regularly take advantage with quick dips in the pool to cool off.
I don't usually go to the trouble of changing clothes, drying off, getting dressed again,
all in order to be just as hot and sweaty again in a few minutes...
matter of fact, I have only donned my swimsuit twice since we came!
I have gotten wet a couple of times... I know, I am such a killjoy.

We are currently 8 weeks into our school year, and I feel really good about that. It has helped significantly that I didn't have internet as a distraction. Did you know that one can in fact live without an internet connection at home? I previously may have doubted that assumption, but now I know :) My trip to the States was a big success (amazing itinerary and all), and I was able to bring back everything needed for this school year, with exception to only a few minor things.*

Overall, school is going pretty well, though we are having to work on some minor motivation issues lately. Recent activities include (but are not limited to :)...

• Cullen (10.5yob) is excited and proud to be participating in an online math contest. Javen (11yob) may also participate if he feels confident enough, but he's not really into math, so there's absolutely no pressure there (note: motivation problem area #1). That said, he's doing really well thinking about it as a game, I'm so glad I didn't make it an assignment! ;)

  Go here if you have a child interested in participating.

• We are 8 weeks into our school year, and very much looking forward to a week off for Thanksgiving break, when we will be traveling to Trujillo.
• The boys are 2 weeks away from finishing this year's math book* ...yikes! I hadn't planned on them getting through it that quickly, so we're trying to figure out what to do about that. (It seems that Micah had them doing a LOT of math while I was gone! ...a week's worth each day!!) It's a good thing I brought a whole bunch of living math books back with me from the US in September! I also bought a subscription to Quarter Mile Math online... (which was looking like it was NOT going to work out while we wondered if we would ever get internet!) All that to say, we are forced to look at math a little differently as we don't have an official curriculum. I think it will be a Godsend actually :) I had been looking into converting to a Living Math atmosphere anyway, right?! We might actually become more motivated about math!!
• Bria (6.5yog) has finally officially started school this year which includes, reading, cursive practice, phonograms, intro to basic arithmetic, and even her own AmblesideOnline year one readings. She seriously beams when she shows me her work, or reads her words!
• I've been trying to encourage Siah (5yob) to be more creative in play, which is seriously a strange thing since it came so naturally to the older boys. I never even thought of teaching them how to play. But he has become obsessed with marbles (because now that's what the older boys are into) and has no desire whatsoever to do anything else most of the time... so we're working on that. We went hunting with sticks in the backyard the day before yesterday as we played Robinson Crusoe. We played goat pens, turtle eggs and all!
• Mya (2yog) is a serious challenge. I can't say more at the moment without risking sounding negative or complain-y... even though I don't feel that way at all... just as a taster I'll share with you that, today I turned around as she said calmly, "Mommy...Ow." There was blood dripping from her hand and bloody handprints on the salad spinner. She had cut her finger on the cheese grater attachment to the food processor. It was just last week that she finally attempted to climb over the gate into the kitchen, it has been non-stop disaster since then as we have zero cupboards. So... I guess we've got to update our toddler management techniques again. :)

Okay, so now that you know we're alive, I will sign off with peace of mind. I'll try to give a couple updates now and then. There really is so much I'd love to say, but to take any more time to say it would mean I'm not doing something perhaps more important... once again giving my life for my kids.

Have I ever mentioned that I don't do kiddy pools?! This is definitely a Daddy/kid activity in our home!
This picture documents the first time since we've had the pool (about a year)
that I've done more than just wet my legs! I am working on enjoying life more... :)

Enjoy the day!
Amy