Farm education, wooly style.

On my parents little sheep farm























near a small town in South Dakota

the kids got to watch the sheep sheerer
























one rainy morning in June.
















Educational stuff, to be sure.


(Can I just throw in there how bad my back would hurt if I were bent over at such an angle for hours on end each day? Ouch.)

TOS Review: Christianity Cove

I’ve had the privilege lately to be studying with my children two different materials from Christianity Cove. I received the Activities to Teach the Fruits of the Spirits pack and the Lord’s Prayer Lesson Pack.

Both files I received were PDF downloads – but not just any PDF. Colorful and fun, these were really well written. I wished I had a book of them instead of a computer screen to view them – and a sub-par printer that wouldn’t do them justice. It was like having a glossy page of colorful fun in front of me – except not. Each lesson contained hands-on lessons that all four of my older kids “got”. I’m pretty sure Charlotte just saw the apple and grapes as snacks – but she’s 2. She’ll get there. Sterling (6), just after the first few lessons, could recite all the fruits of the spirit and the importance of staying connected Jesus. (I added into this story also being connected to the body of Christ – the church.)

From the get go, I could see how passionate Christianity Cove is about spreading the gospel to kids – and writing it so that it’s at the child’s level, understandable and relevant. Comparing grapes on the vine, growing and alive, to raisins, shriveled, lacking much of their original nutrition, to Christians growing in Christ vs. alone and spiritually dying, was pretty spectacular. That’s the first lesson we did, and we dug in from there. The Juicy Jump Rope Rhyme is good in theory. Problem: none of my children can maintain the jumping long enough! It was fun to try though. What Makes Apples Turn Brown? was a fun experiment with a lesson attached.

 

The Lord’s Prayer lessons actually has them praying through the Lord’s Prayer – not just reciting it from memory. (They also learn to do that.) According to Martin Luther, this is a way to learn to pray effectively. I was impressed with how they approached prayer, meaningless “empty” praying, and meaning what you pray. It gave a physical picture to what prayers look like, and who’s to argue with “Oreo Prayer Snacks”?!

Both packs contain printable worksheets. I tried to find the age range each are recommended for, but I haven’t been able to find it anywhere on their site. I did it with Liberty, 9, Eden, 8, Sterling, 6, Ruby, 4, Charlotte, 2, and Pierce, 1. While the worksheets are more for the readers, down to Ruby seemed to grasp the lesson well. It was definitely over Charlotte and Pierce’s head (although the snacks spoke volumes). I’d put the age range from 4 to age 10-12 as capable of understanding, although the ability to read and write makes the worksheets more doable.

This would be fantastic for a Sunday school or VBS. Great. Expensive, perhaps, with the Fruits of the Spirit one, but it would be easily adaptable I think. The experiments and fun to be had was with ordinary or easily obtained objects, and most of them we had on hand.

The Activities to Teach the Fruits of the Spirit are available here as a PDF download for $19. The Lord’s Prayer Lesson Pack is a PDF download for $19.99 and available here. Both offer a money back guarantee. You can read their statement of faith here.

To read more reviews on this and other materials from Christianity Cove, check out the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Brothers.

After a minor (though Sterling would most certainly debate that word) mishap on his bike, Pierce was highly compassionate toward the agony of his brother. (Interesting, since Pierce regularly attempts in inflict said agony on said brother. Funny how that works.) I particularly enjoyed the cheek pinching and ear pulling. It’s compassion… in a one year old’s world.

Sterling.

 

On the very same driveway where I learned to ride my bike twenty-odd years ago, my newly-turned six year old son learned to ride without training wheels.

 

And then he fell down,

whined about it for a bit while while his brother watched him bleed. (And I compassionately photographed the event.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then wiped his tears, climbed back on, and rode again.

 

More carefully.

TOS Review: Let’s Make a Web Page

Liberty (age 9) and I got to use Let’s Make a Web Page from Motherboard Books for the Old Schoolhouse Magazine Review Crew. I received the PDF download and Liberty and I worked through it together on the computer. Let’s Make a Web Page states that children under age 10 will need an adult alongside, and we found this info to be spot on. Liberty needed quite a bit of help, but as her computer knowledge grows, I think she’d be able to take this one all on her own fairly soon. All told, it took just a few hours, a little bit at a time, most of the time spent playing around with animations and backgrounds. We spent anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes a day, doing a few lessons each time.

It’s pretty simple. Let’s Make a Web Page assumes you know nothing and helps you build from the ground up. The user learns a bit about html and how it works, and points out how it changes as you make changes to your page. It suggests a free software download to make your page and steps you through the process. Having blogged for several years now, most of what it talked of I have already learned (the hard way!) but Liberty hadn’t. She was pretty confused for most of it and I had to help quite a bit. In the end, I expected her to be frustrated and anxious to finally finish our project, but when she saw her page online… yeah, no frustration there. In her words, “This is cool! Wow, that’s so fun.” I’m not sure if it was the process or the finished result, but she found it well worth her time and earlier frustrations.

I was a little disappointed. It seemed more like a tutorial on using CoffeeCup, the free trial download that is recommended, with just a little extra instruction thrown in there. We learned valuable information, but I’d rather hoped to learn a bit more about writing our own HTML instead of just how to make a webpage with a program that writes it for you.  It explained HTML well in easy terms and made a point of mentioning and telling how changes are made when text is edited. It did spark Liberty’s creativity and her desire to see her own work online. I see a blog of her own on the horizon to get her started.

We published Liberty’s web page she made with Let’s Make a Web Page here, or you can click on the “Liberty’s Interview” page in the bar at the top of the page. Her interview and the page she wrote based on it, was pretty interesting. I don’t know if she’ll be a webpage designer, but she has writing skills at any rate! She picked her questions, wrote down my answers, and typed up the whole page herself. She also has apparently gained my love for all things simple. Given the option of animations and fun backgrounds, she went for plain. Girl after my own heart.

Let’s Make a Web Page is a PDF download that can be purchased here for $19.95. It contains 10 lessons that step you through the process, and an appendix that helps with information you might need.

To read what other members of the Review Crew thought about Motherboard Books and their products Logo Adventures and Let’s Make a Web Page, check out the TOS Review Crew Blog.

The story of us. Part ten.

Read part one here.

Read part two here.

Read part three here.

Read part four here.

Read part five here.

Read part six here.

Read part seven here.

Read part eight here.

Read part nine here.

So Ruby was born via c-section for breech presentation one September 3, 2008. Blaine and I now had four children, ages 5, 3, 15 months, and newborn. Dear Sterling, laid back child that he is, didn't walk for four more months. It was the days of the double sling, running one ring sling across each side of me, crisscrossing Sterling and Ruby across the front of me. As for my reproductive years, I was 24 years old, had four children, and I was done. Very done. No. More. Children.

Sterling loved Ruby though. He acted as if I'd given him the greatest gift. I was rather inclined to agree, but most of my children didn't appreciate being "replaced" as the baby. Sterling was never happier as they day he became a big brother. Now often referred to as Oil and Water in our home, Sterling and Ruby are polar opposites as far as personality. She keeps him on his toes and he mellows her out a bit. They are a fun combination to have as middles in our family.

Blaine was working second shift at the newspaper at this point. It was great all around - he was home for much of the day and I had the opportunity to go out by myself if I needed to run errands in the mornings. Life was easier than it's ever been as far as that goes. The neighbors continued to be an interesting part of our lives, we hated the area we were living in, and we were struggling with a church choice, but I had help.

Ruby was seven months old when we switched churches. Four months later, we made the decision to move out of Pennsylvania. Unsure as to where, just knowing we didn't want to be in PA and the only thing we liked there was our new church and Blaine's job, we went on vacation the summer of 2009 and visited friends in Missouri. We loved it. In August, we moved to Missouri. The house we rented off Craigslist (Another story for another day.) and we had a savings to live on until Blaine found a job. The only for sure we knew was there was a church, the denomination we were coming from New Jersey from, and we moved. Warmer and midwestern was what we were after.

The day after we unloaded the truck into our new rental, we went online to find out what time "our" church met. They had a big notice.

"Church CLOSING and Church FOLDING in two weeks, on September 6, 2009."

What on earth had we just done?!

TOS Review: Math Mammoth

Liberty and Eden have been trying out Math Mammoth for the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew lately. We got to use three different worksheet sets, all from the Make it Real Learning series: Arithmetic I for grades 3-6, Arithmetic II for grades 4-7, and States by the Numbers – South Dakota for grades 3-7.

Not a complete curriculum by itself (although Math Mammoth has that too), these are extra worksheets for applying concepts and strengthening problem solving abilities. Using census data, store fliers, and the like, Math Mammoth has created real life problems. With product is a better price per ounce? Buy two small ones or one large? How many people live in South Dakota? (Answer: Not many!)

I chose South Dakota because it’s my home state. It was pretty fun to read about, and my girls enjoyed reading of their birthplace as well. After the first day of sitting with the girls and taking turns answering questions about place value and putting words to the numbers, I set them off by themselves. I loved the fact that I didn’t have to print these out. I’m cheap like that. The girls loved that they got to use the computer – that made it way more fun than handing them a stack of papers. Eden (age 8 and just having finished 3rd grade) especially enjoyed these worksheets – she actually asked to use them! From the girl who groans through math, these were amazingly right up her alley. When it came to applying what she already knows, she had a great time. I’m thinking we might need to change our approach to math for her.

Math Mammoth teaches common core standards. If that is what I think it is, it’s what the uproar lately is about regarding public school curriculum that will, most likely, filter down into our homeschools if it’s not stopped. I have to admit, I cringed when I read “common core” on their website. Upon consideration, though, I wonder if something along these lines, if worse comes to worse, won’t be crucial to being able to pass the tests that it would seem are in the making. I don’t know. What I do know, though, is that I love the math in real life concept. We learn and learn and learn, but applying it – that’s when it becomes real to us. I’ve often said common sense isn’t common – it has to be taught. Using the things we learn in books to figure out things in life helps teach that, in my experience.

Reading bar graphs and sharing among friends, averages, fractions, and working with money – and the fact that owing money really means you have less than zero, and therefore a negative number – were all things studied in Arithmetic I. Arithmetic II covers unit cost, large numbers, possible numbers, (How many ways can you change the same digits and come up with different numbers?) budgets, foreign currency, and more.

Arithmetic I is available here for $4.99 as a PDF download. Arithmetic II is available here for $4.99 as a PDF download. Both have 46 pages with 10 activities. States by the Numbers are PDF downloads and are available for $2.99 per state of $19.99 for all 50 states here. Each of the States by the Numbers have 38 pages with 80 activities. All three of the files we used have the typewriting tool enabled to allow the student to work directly at the computer, or they can be printed out.

Read more reviews from the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew on this and other math helps from Math Mammoth at the Review Crew blog.