Web Site

I don't think anyone is actually going to see this, but I thought I'd mention that I'm building a web site. It's at literallyhomeschool.weebly.com  and it a homeschool website. Right now I'm building preschool pages. I've got a list of best picture books and several other pages nearly complete. Once that site is more complete, I may come back to this blog and modify it a bit - probably for use in making Bible Studies that could be compatible with the program. For now, if anyone actually stops by this site, check that one out for something that looks a bit more polished and appealing.

Christmas Movies!

Doing the Charlie Brown Christmas made me think of other Christmas movies. I think I collected all the best Christmas movies and placed them somewhere on my Huge List of Movies Every Child Should See. It was surprising how large a percentage of the appropriate-for-a-five-year-old movies were Christmas ones.

The top rated one, How the Grinch stole Christmas, is an all-time favorite for me. There are some strange people who like the Jim Carey version, but I'm too large a fan of the traditional cartoon to care for that movie.

Rudolph and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town are great claymation films. Frosty the Snowman is a brilliant story too! And all of these have good morals in each of their stories. 

I included Yes Virginia on the movie list, another Christmas film, but it's not really a classic in the same way that all the rest of these are. I'm sort of ambivalent about whether it should even be on that 'must see' list, in fact. It's cute, to be sure, and certainly appropriate for a very young audience, but it doesn't strike me as something that, if you didn't see it, you'd be missing out on much. Also the message is one about how Santa is real - that your belief in that is important. That's not something I will be encouraging our children to believe, so it seems a bit counter-productive. to include.

For an older audience, I have Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, Muppet's Christmas Carol, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Christmas Story, and Scrooged. 

None of these, however, talk about the real meaning behind Christmas. It is a celebration of Jesus' brith and, sadly, there are not many hints of that in any of these films. With that in mind, I don't think we'll watch any of these on Christmas day. I intend to focus more on the idea of it being Jesus' birthday, including a birthday cake and discussion about Jesus' life and His continuing work in us. We'll see how this all plays out.

Anyway, the story behind It's a Wonderful Life is quite fascinating. It only really became a hit because it was a flop in its initial release. It was pretty much given to the networks to play for free every year, so that's what they did. In this case, familiarity didn't breed contempt, but delight in the eyes of the public. They grew to love it, so it became a classic in the end. Another interesting tidbit is that the watchdog groups overseeing movies of that time decreed that all villains meet their just ends, but in this movie, the 'evil banker' slips through without any consequence to his mean character. The film makers managed to sneak that past the censors somehow...

I can't say I'm a huge fan of the muppets, but A Muppet Christmas Carol is genuinely fun! It's probably my favorite version of the Charles Dickens classic. Another version, starting Jim Carey (that's the second time he's been mentioned here, isn't it?) is probably truer to the book, but it isn't as heart-warming or sweet.

Nightmare Before Christmas is weird. I could just leave it at that, because that statement seems to summarize the movie fairly well. That and creepy. All of Tim Burton's stuff is weird and creepy, really. But, despite the disturbing atmosphere, the story is actually pretty good and it is so darn original that I can't help but be impressed with it despite myself. In the end though, this may be more of a Halloween movie than a Christmas one.

The second black-and-white film on the list, Miracle on 34th Street is a film I've only seen a few times and so don't know it well enough to say too much about it. It was a cute movie though, one that I think would make for an enjoyable Christmas-time treat.

The movie about the BB-gun! I'm rather bemused by how many people absolutely love this movie. I must be missing the greatness here because I rather dislike it. I don't know why. The Christmas Story is culturally relevant (and I think my husband likes it), so we'll watch it.

The second version of Dicken's classic, Scrooged, is the last of the Christmas movies on my list...at least I think it is. Perhaps there will be more added later. I'm sure Hollywood is not done making movies on that popular holiday. In fact, there are a slew of other movies out there that other people would probably be appalled that I've left off my lists. Like Elf or The Santa Clause. Most of those movies are pretty stupid comedies though which I strongly detest, so they didn't make my movie list.

And Now I'm finished rambling.

Movie Time

Although I intend to have a weekly movie night, it's too soon to be sure how that will end up playing out, exactly. If it were entirely up to me, I would choose never-before-seen (by my children) films, we'd all watch the movie as a family, then discuss it.

But it won't just be up to me. My husband should have some input (I'm thinking of having him pick the movie every other week) and my kids will no doubt want to have their own input. And what about re-watching movies? Some of the best choices deserve to be seen more than once - how will those fit into the schedule? I've thought of adding a second time slot, this time with whatever the children pick.

I've also thought of giving them 'points', earned during the week for doing chores or finishing school work which could be spent on 'digital time' (movies, TV show episodes, gaming, whatever). So each day a child has the potential to earn enough points to watch a single half-an-hour episode show per day, or could save up the points and watch a full-length movie at the end of the week. In this way, the child has an opportunity to both exercise his/her choices, and also practice the concepts of spending and saving a resource.

Honestly, the above concept seems to be the best compromise between not letting the kids go overboard with too much time in front of the TV or computer and not letting them experience the shows and movies that 'everyone else' gets to see. A firmly limited amount of time that's earned might be used more wisely than if a child is given a vague boundary around how much time is acceptable. Granted, at this point I don't have kids, so the theory may be easier than actually living this out. We'll just have to wait and see.

College Entrance Essay Questions

I spotted some difficult essay topics and wanted to remember them (for the distant future) when my kids may need to practice writing these types of responses before they are required.

• Name a time you faced or witness discrimination and how you overcame it
• What do you consider to be the single most important societal problem? Why?
• Pick a controversial problem on college campuses and suggest a solution.
• What do you see as the greatest threat to the environment today?
• Describe how you have demonstrated leadership ability both in and out of school.
• Discuss a special attribute or accomplishment that sets you apart.
• Describe your most meaningful achievements and how they relate to your future goals.
• Pick an experience from your own life and explain how it has influenced your development.
• Who in your life has been your biggest influence and why?
• How has your family background affected the way you see the world?
• How has your education contributed to who you are today?
• Briefly describe your long- and short-term goals.
• Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
• Why do you want to get a college education?
• Choose a person or persons you admire and explain why.
• Choose a book or books and that have affected you deeply and explain why.
• Describe a time when you grew as a person

As a few of the more 'off-beat' questions I found:

• How do you feel about Wednesday?
• What outrages you?
• Write a haiku, limerick, or short poem that best represents you 
• Are we alone?
• What is college for?
• Please describe a daily routine or tradition of yours that may seem ordinary to others but holds special meaning for you. Why is this practice significant to you?  
• Make a bold prediction about something in the year 2020 that no one else has made a bold prediction about.
• How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.) 
• You have just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit Page 217

Personally, I think some of the weirder questions look a whole lot more fun than the standard questions. But that's probably the point. In any case, when High School rolls around for my kids, I'll probably assign them a few of these questions to get them thinking about how to write something about themselves without being too egotistical or bland.

Teaching Budgeting

I think teaching how to manage a budget is one of the most neglected areas - whether a person attends public school or is taught in the home. Which, sadly, explains a whole lot about our society.

Well, in our home, we follow pretty closely to Dave Ramsey's 'Financial Peace University' school of thought. We do a budget before we see a penny of income, then try to stick to that during the month, reducing each fund (food/gas/water bill/etc.) as we use them. Not only do we have a great idea of where we are financially at any point during the month, but we know when (if) we can buy anything extra without going into debt.

Since I feel that we have an excellent handle on our own budget, we will probably teach by example, in many respects. We'll start out when our kids first start earning an allowance by giving them three jars or envelopes - one for saving, one for tithing, one for 'play'. I honestly have no idea how the concept of saving and tithing will go for a young child, but I have some ideas of how to counteract problems if we encounter them. Seeing videos of the poor around the world and how our tithe money can help them is one method. Doing a Bible study on giving/generosity/tithing is another.

For saving, it might be easier to have a goal. This would be a good opportunity to see if there's anything they really want that's expensive and frivolous enough that my hubby and I have chosen not to get them. It could be anything from a game-system to a trip to Disneyland. We'll just have to see what it is that might motivate them. Seeing the money add up and the goal get closer will, I hope, inspire them to save for less immediate goals later.

When they are a bit older, we'll have them help create our monthly budget, balance the checkbook, pay bills, and all the other monthly tasks that go with being financially responsible adults.

Before they are old enough to go out and get a 'real' job, we'll have some formal teaching on why we do things the way we do. We'll probably actually go through the Financial Peace University as a family, plus do an in-depth study on what the Bible says about money and stewardship.

So I think that's the overall plan.

Diverse writting mediums

I think it's safe to say that everyone is familiar with writing on paper, but for a child, especially a young child, it can make an otherwise dull and tedious task of practicing things like spelling words more enjoyable by writing with more creative tools.

No matter the child's age, for a change of pace, doing something different like copying spelling words onto the sidewalk using chalk can make for a fun change. So this post is a list of ideas for different mediums to use for creating words.

Just to be complete, I'll start with 'the usual suspects':
Crayons
Pens
Pencils
Digital (typing)

Still using things (like pens) that are more common, but perhaps in ways bit outside the norm:
Highlighters
Write everything in 'bubble letters' - outlined block letters like this:
         _______
         |__    __|
             |    |
             |__|
Write using the non-dominate hand
Write the entire list or sentence with the eyes closed (longer passages, espeically with multiple lines
        of text can garner the most amusement with this one)
Write everything vertically rather than horizontally
Paint on scrap cardboard
Try to write with two pens - either holding one in each hand and moving them together, or holding
       both pens together to form one double line.
Use stencils

Materials farther outside the box:
Use alphabet noodles/cereal
Shape letters with toothpicks or broken spaghetti noodle segments
Write in shaving foam or whipped cream spread out on cookie sheets
Write in dirt or sand with finger or stick outside
Use pebbles to form words
Write using streams of toilet paper to form words
Give kids digital cameras to take pictures of letters around town and have them crop the photos and
       paste them together (can be literally pasted together if you print it all out, but I recommend
       keepting this all in the digital world and 'paste' into something like MS WORD. 
Cut out letters from a newspaper or magazine to combine into words
Use their bodies to 'spell' out words (also can work as a P.E. activity if they try to go fast through
       forming words!)
String or Yarn
Chalk
Play-doh
foggy mirror/window
Food such as raisins or M&Ms


I'm sure there are many, many more ways to get creative with this. Of course, the whole point of spelling lists are to encourage your children to learn the words, so I don't recommend doing so much of this that a child loses sight of that, but as an occasional creative outlet to bolster lagging enthusiasm, it might be a lot of fun coming up with new and innovative ways to form the words.

Copy Work ideas for Children

I have been creating lists of ideas for copy-work. For anyone reading this who doesn't know what copy-work is, it's just the act of giving a child a list of words or a phrase of some sort for them to practice handwriting/spelling/memorization. For younger kids, like Kindergarten age, the process would involve me, the teacher, writing down a short one-line something and then the child re-writing that a few times. It could be copied once or twice if the goal is to practice forming letters, but using the same list/sentence multiple times per week would certainly aid in memorization.

The older child could be giving a longer section and may move from copy-work to either memorization or spelling or both. For example, during a single week, for an older child using dictation to improve spelling and grammar might involve presenting him/her with a copy of a poem on Monday to copy out and the child works on remembering how to spell each word and the punctuation through the week. Then the parent, on Friday, reads the poem slowly aloud while the child re-creates it. This emphasizes the spelling and grammar, but instead of writing, the child could focus on memorization and speech skills by ending the week reciting it instead. Either method is a nice learning tool!

Anyway, I was searching out some ideas for copy-work for younger children and came across several ideas and thought it would be make sense to collect the scattered thoughts here.

Kindergarten/1st/2nd grades:

• Address/phone number
• Short proverbs (such as "No man is an island" or "The early bird gets the worm")
• Scripture - at this age I'd either start with small 'pieces' of verses (like "All have sinned" rather than the full verse) or do a larger section in multiple steps.
• Quotes - like proverbs, these can be very short. The difference between them is that these short sayings are not as universally known and have an original speaker attached. They can be quite humorous, silly, or profound.
• Lists of important 'groups':
• Colors of the rainbow
• Month of the year
• Days of the week
• Planets
• Continents
• Books of the Bible
• etc.

•  Rules (socially acceptable actions or behaviors you wish your child to remember. For example,  "Say 'please' when asking for something" or "Do not talk with your mouth full")
• Facts: Any 'everyone knows this' type of fact. For example, "There are 24 hours in a day.", "The Earth travels around the sun.", "Plants need sunlight to grow". These often fall under the category of science-knowledge. In fact, finding simply sentences out of a child's science text books might be a great source for these sentences. 
• Spelling words. You can use both lists of words, or the words incorporated into sentences. The child can even help create the sentences!
• Poems - Nursery rhymes, songs, and poetry are great to memorize, but I put this last on the list because these are often fairly lengthy and may work better as verbal memory work than written copy-work. 

3rd-6th grade:

• Limericks are perfect for this age. The often silly humor is very appealing. Just be sure to create your own list since many limericks can be pretty risque. 
• Geography - start memorizing countries, states and capitols
• Presidents/Kings/Pharaohs/Dynasties
• Quotes - you can get longer, more complicated quotes and really ruminate over the meanings. For example, "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." - C. S. Lewis. Although a younger child could copy out the words, it takes an older child to think about the meaning behind this. 
• Poetry (other than limericks) - There are so many great poems out there. Try 'Fog' by Carl Sandburg as a very short introduction or something like 'For whom the Bell tolls' for something longer. 
• Scripture - Memorizing the Bible is, in my opinion, one of the best things a parent can do for their children.
• More Science facts - there is a nearly limitless number of 'things to know' in the world, so this is a limitless category. Try doing some of the laws like "An object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an outside force." 
• Grammar rules. (i.e. An adverb is...)
• Spelling words. As before, you can do either lists of words or  place the words into sentences. Here might be a good place to practice that complicated grammar you may also be studying (for example, make sentences that use quotes or prepositions).

7th Grade and Beyond:

• Scripture - always more of the Bible! At this point fairly large chunks can be memorized/dictated at a time. 
• Poetry - fairly lengthy poetry such as sections of Shakespeare, can now be attempted.
• Quotes - again, profound quotes that inspire thought are abundant!
• Speeches - Famous speeches, such as the Gettysburg Address or the 'I have a Dream' speech.
• Systems of the Body (i.e. names of the bones), Periodic Table, and other science facts.
• Pretty much anything from the previous age bracket, only these ages allow for both longer segments of everything and more complex ideas. 
• Sections of classic literary work or dramas. 

I think I'll post again on this topic, only giving specific examples of quotes and poetry and proverbs and such. I'm in the middle of organizing what I believe I'll attempt to do each week for the first few years, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'm still gathering an overabundance of the above material.

Homeschooling art idea

So, I saw this somewhere (and, unfortunately don't have the artist's name or a link since I can't remember where it was I saw this), but I thought it would make a fantastic art project for kids! All we'd need was paint, string, and a place to gather sticks. What a fun idea!