Sep 17 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 38 – Truth and Crowds

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

Truth is not popular. Have you noticed? Have you stopped to consider this? Truth and crowds rarely go hand in hand. That’s why we talk about “mob mentality.”

The vast majority of people think a certain way and do not search any further. They choose willful ignorance regarding religion, money, how to have a happy marriage, how to raise successful children, whatever that means and so on. It was good enough for their parents and it’s good enough for them. Why rock the boat?

So let us think about homeschooling. By choosing to homeschool, a family already puts themselves in the non-crowd zone. I understand some people would love to homeschool but they cannot afford it. I am not discussing those people. I also understand that many people decide to homeschool after they get married and have children (I fall in that category), but then their spouse has 0 interest in this route. Thankfully for me, my husband is flexible enough in his approach to life, he gave homeschooling a chance. Now, you would not be able to change his mind back to public school. He has tasted homeschooling for two years with our kids and sees the results. You will not be able to find a bigger homeschool advocate than my husband.

So I get that there are people whose circumstances are difficult. They would like to homeschool, but they cannot afford it or they do not have enough emotional support on the home front etc. Then, there are the people who absolutely can’t think of themselves as teachers. They say things like, I am an engineer. I am a marketing person. I am a baker. What do I know about teaching? I understand lack of self-confidence in the teaching arena. After all, we are all trained to think of teachers as people who can teach one or maybe two subjects at the most. That’s what we experienced in school, right? Continue reading »

Sep 13 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 7

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

Chapter 7 describes how Islam became an Empire. It is a rather long chapter. It took us three sessions to finish it. We did the map work at the very end, for some reason. We started out with the snake crafts. These represent the valley of the snakes from Sinbad’s adventures.

We hung two from the ceiling and turned the ceiling fan on. They flew around and twirled and got tangled up, but it was still neat to see them going.

My daughter’s snake craft

My daughter did not want to hang hers up. She did not want a button on hers, either. She just wanted to hold onto hers and play with it. Of course, it did not last long. She has not played with her snake since the day she made it. I have gotten used to these patterns now. Continue reading »

Sep 10 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 37 – M.I.B.

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

It’s not a typo. I actually meant to write M.I.B. It stands for “Mind in Boat.” It was one of the slogans the University of Washington rowing team used to help themselves focus and win gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I am reading all about their story from The Boys in the Boat, a nonfiction book which reads like a novel, written by Daniel James Brown. (affiliate link)

I have been going to the Anna Porter Public Library Book Group monthly meetings for a year now. We vote on several books we propose in the summer. We read one book a month, except for December. In January, we have a lovely dinner after the regular meeting, generously provided by John and Lee Mellor at their Buckhorn Inn.

I love the intellectual stimulation these books provide. You see, I would love to go back to school and get a graduate degree in law or French. If I had to choose today, French would probably win. But I cannot. I feel compelled to homeschool my children, blog about it, and publish books to help others. Compelled is another way of saying called. I feel called. Continue reading »

Sep 6 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 6

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

Chapter 6 deals with the rise of Islam. We worked on the craft first. I definitely did not want to make an oasis scene with all the candy recommended, so I was glad they provided a low-sugar version. Even so, I decided that we could use LEGO bricks for the camel, since we did not have animal crackers.

Camel and bedouin in an oasis

The kids got into it when I told them to build me some palm trees.

Putting the oasis together

I prepared the sand by crushing up some old wheat crackers in a zip lock bag, with a rolling pin.

I made “sand” by crushing wheat crackers

They surprised me by adding a mini-figure to the scene. The water was aluminium foil, which I kept in place with double tape. Maybe it should have been something blue, like in the sugared up version of the scene, but aluminium works too, as it reflects light the way a body of water does.

Bedouin on camel coloring sheet; can you tell which one was colored by my kindergartner?

As I read the stories to them, they colored the bedouin on his camel (coloring sheet provided in the Activity Book). Then, I asked them the review questions. Finally, we worked on the map. It’s very tempting to do it all. But I decided this was enough for this chapter. There are three other activities recommended in the book, for those who do not have the book.

Sep 3 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 36 – Tennis Lessons

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

I like tennis. Very, very much. I would have written that I love tennis, but I think love is such a sacred word, throwing it around for everything we enjoy in our lives sort of cheapens it. So, I wrote I like tennis, but I really should write that it is my favorite sport and I regret that I never took tennis lessons as a child.

I looked for tennis lessons for my children, but maybe not hard enough. I am not willing to drive an hour for this. Besides, we already have so many extracurricular activities, I would not know where to fit tennis in. For now, we watch tennis on TV if a slam event is going on. And I think about it. Sometimes. I like it, but it does not dominate my life. I might look into lessons for them here in Gatlinburg.

Anyway, all this to say, I am learning a lot about parenting and homeschooling by listening to tennis players being interviewed. Someone once said that the top 100 players in the world all have the same basic tennis skills. The difference between them is in their … minds. The mental aspect of the game cannot be underestimated.

Donald Young, a young American player, recently said that the difference between himself a year ago and today is all mental. He does not take comments from the public seriously anymore, he does not let something someone said bother him, he does not get upset over a mistake he made 10 points ago. He lets it all fall off his shoulders. He shrugs negative things off and moves on. The interviewer quipped, “It’s called maturity.” Continue reading »

Aug 30 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 5

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

Chapter 5 deals with Medieval India. The best part was the weaving craft, although the two stories were pretty interesting, too. The kids learned the word “dynasty.” New vocabulary is always fun and it is one of the reasons why I chose to do history with them in grades 1-4.

Sometimes it does seem like too much when so many people simply focus on the 3 Rs, but I really think there is something to exposure to vocabulary, true stories, geography and historical figures.

They liked coloring the map and the man riding on an elephant, which was the coloring sheet provided for this chapter in the Activity Book. I can already tell the Activity Book has more projects and on a higher level than last year. I can see a progression of difficulty level.

The kids were really excited about weaving. They used the nail to poke holes and my son even made a pun when he said, “I nailed it!” My daughter got discouraged with the weaving process and I had to encourage her to continue and to persevere. “This is only your first time trying weaving, so give yourself some room to make mistakes,” I said, or something to that effect.

Finished product

She really enjoyed coloring the elephant. I know she needed to do something more familiar after all that weaving, so she threw herself at coloring with all her might.

Aug 27 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 35 – Wings

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Psalm 91. The image of sitting under the shadow of God’s wings strikes me every time with peace and quietness. The idea of putting God and feathers or wings in the same sentence is striking, of course.

I found a profound article online about why Jesus chose the image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings when He talked about trying to reach out to Israel and Jerusalem over the centuries. When you love someone, you want to protect them. Children being like chicks, they need lots of cover from harm. Mothers feel the need to protect their children. Some of us have chosen to homeschool because of this ancestral urge to cover, protect, and keep from harm.

Unfortunately, schools have become battle grounds. Children are exposed to a lot of hawks and foxes out there. Many times, they do not have the mechanisms to cope with it all. They succumb to peer pressure and choose to follow the fox, not knowing that, once they turn the corner, the fox will gobble them up. Continue reading »

Aug 21 2015

Story of the World, Vol. 2, Chapter 4

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

Chapter 4 dealt with the Byzantine Empire, Justinian, Theodora, and St. Nicholas. It was a long chapter: four different stories. Lots of coloring, cutting and pasting fun with paper dolls and pictures of Empress Theodora, Hagia Sophia, and Theodora’s crown happened today.

The kids were ready to color though. It’s like we can go a few days without history and then they miss it and are so ready for it. I was a bit nervous about the story of St. Nicholas, a.k.a. St. Nick and then the connection with Santa Claus. But it was done well in the book and I had nothing to worry about.

Aug 20 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 34 – Consequences

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

My children do not always have a perfect attitude. Please tell me that you knew and expected that, given the fact that we are human beings and I never made any announcement that we have reached perfection. So, we have “those days” when they moan and groan about chores or learning or practicing violin and piano. What do I do?

Well, I am not perfect either. Some days I make mistakes in the way I handle their bad attitude. Then we make up and apologize to each other and we are the stronger for it. Other days I manage to keep my cool, say a prayer for wisdom, and find a way to motivate them. It is going to be a long life in the homeschooling lifestyle if my children have attitude problems every day, right? Good thing they don’t.

I expect they will have less and less of those days as we consistently show them there will be no videos until they finish their chores, learning, and practicing their instruments. Or other consequences. Continue reading »

Aug 13 2015

Thoughtful Thursday Week 33 – Discoveries

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Adriana Zoder

For the first couple of weeks when school gets back in session, our violin teacher does not teach any lessons. She says the kids are too crazy with going back to a school routine to do any meaningful practice or to even pay attention in violin lessons. So she stays away from students for the first two weeks of school to give them time to adjust and get their bearings. How wise!

This is now our third week of school in this new school year (2015-2016) and we are finally settling into a routine. I have made some discoveries while trying to teach both of them “officially.” My youngest is now in kindergarten, so I have to involve her in four hours of learning every day. And here’s what I have discovered:

1. She can join us for my son’s language arts classes. She sits in my lap, which she loves. My son reads for his Reading class, listens and repeats after me for his Grammar, and then listens some more and does some writing for his Writing class. We have story after story in these classes, and I figured out my kindergartner can sit and listen. She enjoys being with us, sitting in my lap, and I can count this as school for her. She leaves when we do Spelling and Math. It’s not that interesting, unless we play a math game like Go to the Dump.

If you are a Right Start Math mom, you know what I am talking about. If you are not, it’s like Go Fish with making 10 out of two cards. She loves to use the abacus to see what makes 10 if she has a 6 in her hand, for instance. Hey, I can even leave the room for a few minutes to start lunch or a laundry load while they play and thus rehearse math facts. Who knew? Continue reading »

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