Have We Fully Understood The Power of Written Words?

I am ashamed to say I have taken for granted the fact that I am able to read and write. It took my 6 yr old son yesterday to show me that. It made think about the power of the written word. The written word has changed the world and turned it upside down.

I have been focusing attention to teaching one of my sons reading. He wanted to learn after watching his older brothers reading on their own and couldn't wait. I have gone back and forth on different curriculum for reading and comprehension, phonics etc. but I must say there is one book I have come back to over and over "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons."

Available at Amazon for $12.48

I am not an English major and so I don't know the exact reason this program works, but we are on lesson 85 and my son is reading everything around him (like cereal boxes, the computer screen savers, billboards, receipts I mean anything with words) and loving it. He feels so empowered now and so much more confident that it amazes me. I had forgotten that feeling with my other sons learning to read . I thought teaching reading would be the hardest part of home schooling, and boy am I glad I was wrong.

Yesterday, I remembered the joy of learning to read when my son asked if he could use the restroom while we were out buying some plants for our garden.  He asked me "May I ask someone if they have a bathroom?" After a few minutes he came running back all excited and said "Mom guess what?" I said "What honey?" and he went on to say "I didn't have to ask where the bathroom was, I saw a sign that said Rest Room and went right in!" I can't express the excitement he had on his face to tell me that. It left such an impression on my heart and made me remember all over again why I love teaching my children at home. 

We give our children a reward that lasts a lifetime when our children learn to read: A Bible. We gave our son one a few weeks ago and he is eagerly listening to our devotionals and trying to follow along when dad reads.

It makes me think of 

Psalm 138:2 "I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."

and also:

John 1:1"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God."

I had forgotten the power of the written word and being able to read, and the Lord used my son to remind me about how important it really is to us and Him.

If you are looking for some cheap or free phonics lessons I would suggest here :tlsbooks phonics and also don't forget Everything Homeschooling. Enter for their free year's worth of lessons and lesson plans preK-high school you have until the end of March and each month offers another chance to win. I bought the years worth for $15.95 at Everything Homeschooling and haven't regretted it. They offered the tlsbooks site in their curriculum so enjoy the freebie and consider helping them out if you find stuff useful (they only ask a $1.00).

Remember the power you have in knowing how to read and consider giving that gift to someone you love.

St. Patrick's Day Fun and A Lucky Winner Will Win A Prize, No Blarney!

Looking for some St. Patrick's Day Themes For the Day!

Since it is St. Patrick's Day and I have a hint of Irish remaining in my family line I wanted to give a brief explanation of what the significance of the day means other than shamrocks, pots of gold, and leprechauns.

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, but in reality he was a missionary to Ireland about 2,000 years ago. More legend is written about him than truth. Since the Irish love story telling the legends got bigger. He was a shepherd and wanted to help the Christians already there and convert the Celts from their pagan practices. He used nature and the worship of nature to convert the pagans and the shamrock was said to be used to represent the Trinity. The Celtic Cross was a way to convert the pagan practices of sun worship by putting the sun behind the cross it was thought they would worship the cross and thus Christ.
Learn more here http://www.history.com/topics/who-was-saint-patrick

You can download a shamrock to color and other St. Patrick's Day crafts at a great website for homeschooling families here http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/st-patricks-day/shamrock-outline.html

Also I wanted to share a giveaway from a website that I subscribe to. It has a lot of ideas and help for home schooling families from pre-k up to high school and beyond. It is only $15.95 a year and the information is well worth it. No matter how many children you have the price is the same. I use it a lot, especially when I need some inspiration. This link is to sign up for a free book or a free years subscription to the website.
http://www.everythinghomeschooling.com/Homeschool_Freebies.aspx

And to leave you all with a blessing from Ireland

Spring is Coming: Get Ready With Creative Gardening Ideas and A Free Giveaway

While many aren't thinking about tilling up a garden yet, the time is now to get ready. Selecting seeds, enriching soil and starting some early vegetables indoors all can be done now. Even building a greenhouse is an idea that can be done over the winter months. But what happens when you don't have unlimited space or have restrictions where you live? When space or zoning causes problems for some, homesteaders don't just throw up their hands and give up, they search out ideas and get creative.

There are many ways to utilize a small place to grow your own food. Many cities now have community gardens, where unused plots of land are turned into personal garden plots maintained by people from the community, if yours doesn't have one why not start one by proposing it a town council meeting.

We have some books that have helped for people that have small acreage and want to utilize it to their fullest advantage. One short but comprehensive book we like is The "Have More" Plan  "A Little Land-A Lot of Living" by Ed and Carolyn Robinson.

I will do a drawing January 26, 2011 and give one copy away from anyone who posts a comment at the end of this article. It is a very helpful little reprint of a classic published by Storey Publishing and  it shows how to thrive with only 2 1/2 acres of land, how to purchase the right property, build the out buildings, make a part time living from the extras produced and all aspects of homesteading from animals to buying useful tools.

When we were missionaries in Ecuador, someone gave our family a copy of container gardening to take with us, knowing we would be living in a large city, it was gratefully received and there is a copy here: http://www.gardening.cornell.edu. . It has a lot of information to make container gardening profitable and fun for the whole family. The whole website has a lot of handy gardening ideas for everyone from the inexperienced, hobby gardener, or veteran farmer. In fact, I probably will try some container gardening this year, since last year our garden was a flop(more on our flop garden learning, next post). We lost hundreds of tomato plants due to scorching, bought more and then got a fungal virus and we ended up with a handful of decent tomatoes, it was sad and we almost gave up on trying to produce anything on our land.It was a good lesson on perseverance.

Quite a few years ago we had friends that lived in the city and rented an apartment, they grew a cucumber plant from a cup in their kitchen window and let the vine grow up their window. They were actually harvesting cucumbers without even trying. It was amazing to watch that one little seed grow all summer and produce more and more cucumbers.

There was also a family that spent some time with us last winter that were missionaries in China. They have since moved to Mongolia but they spent time learning under Joel Salatin and are using his techniques for teaching farming to the native people there so that they can be self sustaining. If you don't know about Joel enjoy learning more here:http://www.polyfacefarms.com/.

As for seeds, everyone seems to want to buy non-hybrid heirloom varieties, rightly so with all the GMO varieties out there. They can get pricey on all these survival blogs and websites, but we have been using a family owned business in Missouri that sells quality heirloom seed at a inexpensive price. Find them here : http://www.heirloomacresseeds.com/. Their seeds have worked well for us and they always appreciate people sending them heirloom varieties to expand their stock. Also, check out their catalog and get one mailed to you, it is an education in itself for planting your crops. We save the catalogs and use them when planting year after year.

A good way to get a head start on gardening is a greenhouse. While there are hundreds of greenhouse plans available to purchase, here is one  free greenhouse plan in pdf version  small greenhouse pdf. Here is a website source with a lot of choices to think about. http://www.bluegrassgardens.com. I've seen some portable greenhouses used and they work well if it's not windy where you are. But a portable one like this one:

 could be used indoors or on a balcony without taking up too much space for those who can't build a larger one outdoors.

If you start thinking how to creatively grow things it is amazing how it can change your outlook on being more self sufficient. The key is to keep trying, if one thing doesn't work, it's not the end, it's only part of the learning process. It is far better to learn now and fail, then wait till you have no other choice and have to fail when failure means your family starving.

Remember: Leave a comment and your name will be entered into our book giveaway. Start getting creative and share your ideas, we'd love to hear them.

DIY Wood Floor For Large Families

I have had many people ask about our floors in our home. So, I'll explain how the floors came about and how we made some plywood our floor, to be used and appreciated.

We were down to the last plans on our home and had tiled the kitchen over our cement foundation. We didn't want to tile the whole downstairs(it is an open floor plan 30X40). It would have been too cold and hard. There was an idea of staining the cement too, but again cold and unforgiving. After mulling over carpet we thought it would be too dirty, living in the country with little boys means a lot of dirt and mud. Wood flooring was expensive and we figured it would be trashed by their cars and other boy activities. So, we thought of tongue and groove plywood.
The floor has liquid nails applied underneath and then 9 tap cons( which are cement screws) in each piece of plywood.The holes are filled with wood putty. After that, we rented a sander and sanded the floors and I went to work personalizing the floor to be ours. My husband chose the verses and we placed them in the center of our floor. I wood burned all the lettering and the dove descending on an olive branch to match the verse. I used a sharpie to fill in the letters.
"...Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh Gal 5:16" and "Quench not the Spirit 1 Thess. 5:19" The dove idea was to symbolize the Holy Spirit and the dove Noah sent out on the ark that returned with the olive branch. It also is symbolic that we the church are the branches and the verses remind us we don't want to be cut off from the source of life Jesus Christ

Since it was a family floor we had a neighbor come over with his wonderful idea to use a blow torch to make our checkerboard idea and put it on the floor. He used some square pieces of wood to leave the areas clear and in about 10 minutes the checkerboard was finished. We finished customization with our cattle brand in a few different areas.

We finally put 4 coats of high gloss polyurethane and let it dry. The only regret is that we wished we used satin poly. Now, we can scuff and sand anytime we want and re-polyurethane the floor when necessary. It has some area rugs in our living room area and they can be shook outside to get rid of the dirt. I use a mop and Murphy's Oil Soap it clean the floor, we use lemon oil sometimes to shine it up, but everyone goes slipping when that happens. Our boys love that part! They just slip on some socks and run the length of the floor into a slide like they were heading into home plate.
The best part is the floor is one to be lived on not protected like it was white carpet! We can clean it, shine it and sand it or use it as an underlayment any time we want.
Oh, and the cost? It was about $9.00 a sheet and 30 sheets were $270.00 covering approx.1000sq. ft. Two cans of poly and supplies $60.00. Sander and sandpaper $30.00 for the day. Wood putty $5.00 a box. It all cost under $500.00 with the tap cons, liquid nails, and other misc. supplies.

Some Fun, Freebie Calendar and Craft Ideas For Children

Found a great blog with cute ideas and a freebie 2011 Calendar for children it is at Shabby Blogs (click this for calendar.
It features Fall Down Tree (click this for downloadable coloring pages) by Adam Record. His designs are fun for children of all ages or at least children at heart.
The drawings inspired us to get creative and here are a couple of designs we did. Hope you enjoy.

Here is one my daughter did, I told her she needed to be a bit more imaginative, because here is the original

"Ly Awn" by Adam Record   Fall Down Tree Etsy(8X10 on cardstock for $15.00)

 

My son and I did a little mosaic of a car

Thanks guys for the fun and inspiration we're gonna work on more creativity instead of plagiarism.
PS This was a great way to use Math, Art and recycling all those little scraps of paper. It is a fun way to use the imagination. Hope you can have some fun and get creative!

Oh, and Adam Record also will do custom work and take your family and make your own design you want here is an exampleCustom Work Family(click here for link)

"Family" by Adam Record

Boys Means Busy!

Let's face it. Having boys means being constantly busy. Having seven boys ranging from 5 months to 21 years old  means it can be super busy. It has been an interesting year so far. Trying to educate this age range of young men has been training me more than them. I am extremely thankful that our only daughter who is almost twenty is here helping alongside me.
So what kind of wonderful wisdom can I show you? As I state in this blog I am on a journey that is not finished yet.  I am looking for ideas from others who have foraged ahead in this area.  I will share some ideas that have helped with my boys so far and hope someone can contribute ideas as well.

Living With Boys Means:
1. Food: There seems that there is never quite enough food for everyone. Their appetites clean it up at every meal.  If there are leftovers, it means the meal didn't go over so well. It also means I have to get more creative with what I make with the leftovers.

2. Clothing: There are only hand me downs in the infant range to toddler.  Sometimes a pair of pants will make it to the next one in line or they are shorts for summer wearing. I am extremely thankful for thrift stores and family who hand us bags of clothes when we visit.  As far as cleaning them all, I think it would be easier to throw the boys clothes and all in the shower and conserve water, but for now good stain removers (we use spray n wash) and a good front loading washer help a lot.

3. Shelter: We have all helped in building our own home over the past three years and built beds for each of them. Somehow, however, they all end up huddled together on the floor with a blanket and a makeshift fort. :)

4. Health and Safety: Active boys that expound upon each others creative ideas make for a very busy prayer life. I watch them go out to play and just pray, pray, and pray some more.  Of course binding up the minor wounds and scrapes are part of the routine, thankfully nothing major has happened. The only "boy" who has had wounds beyond my repair techniques or needed multiple hospital visits has been my husband oddly enough. It is nice to have studied out natural health and eat healthy foods.The mission field has been a very useful tool to learn about staying healthy and preventing illness or infections before they start.  We use a balance of allopathic and natural medicines around here.

5. Education:  Life is education.  The big focus around here is reading-so they can learn the word of God, writing- so they can learn how to communicate effectively, and arithmetic-so they can participate and contribute to society in a profitable manner. They have learned through life about many aspects of history, science, geography and language that a government school education could never offer.

So for a busy life with boys, I think prayer sums up the focus we are using to get things done. It is my only sane guidance at times. My husband is the first line of defense for the rest of trying to focus our lives, if it weren't for his direction and guidance I could get off in so many directions that I (along with everyone else) would go crazy. He is my anchor that holds me down to reality, when I can tend to go off into creative land. Delegation comes in second.  We delegate responsibilities so that everything else can get done around the homestead. Without responsibility and accountability the chores would never end.
I am looking for creative ideas on what to do with the little free time we do have with the boys, so if anyone has some creative ideas please share them in the comment section.

September Is Here: So Let's Explore Education vs. Schooling

It is every parents goal to provide their children with an education. The way to give them an education varies greatly. Most parents consider education to be an institutionalized school setting. There is a growing number of parents, however, that see the Godlessness and agenda behind government school systems and have looked to other alternatives such as private schools and homeschooling.

An education is best summed up by William Butler Yeats “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.”

While school can be summed up by Tom Bodett when he said “The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

Some thoughts on whether we are educating children at home, sending them to private school or government schools are:

• How are we directing our children's future; are we giving our children schooling or an education? See: Deut. 6:7, Prov. 22:6
  
• What are some creative ideas to stimulate their young minds? Try here: http://www.fascinate-educate.com/
  
• Do we know our children's learning styles? http://www.fitwatch.com/ebooks/Learning-Styles-Children-FitWatch.pdf a great booklet on finding out learning styles and how to use them with your children's own unique way of learning.

• Remember: the idea is not to stuff the brain with facts but to increase a child's capacity to want to learn. This goes for adults too!

Let me hear some of your ideas and resources!