Simple Gifts

This blog might step on some toes.  It definitely would have stepped on mine a few years ago, so take it with a big old handful of salt and use what is relevant for you.  Differing opinions will not bother me, you have my word!

Simple.  Everyone wants simple. 

But simple does not make very much money, does it?  And money is what makes the world go 'round. 

Specifically in regards to homeschooling and teaching Bible (and we ALL do it - remember, you are your child's first teacher even if you send your child to public school), I've been drawn more and more to simple. 

Full confession:  I have a bachelors in music education, taught children's Bible classes since I was 16, and I was a music and pre-school teacher before I became a stay at home mom.  I LOVED making beautiful bulletin boards, handwork, decorating my classroom, etc...  I poured a lot of time, work and much to my husband's chagrin, money, into teaching other people's children.  And if I am being completely honest with myself, most of that work was not for my students.  It was for me.  Much of it really didn't enhance the actual learning of the students very much.  (There are a few exceptions, but sadly, very few.) 

I like coloring, cutting, pasting, laminating and making things pretty.  So there. 

And I still do!  But as a homeschooling mom, I don't get very much by way of daily prep time for that kind of thing.  And because of the situation in our local church where my kids are the only children that attend our small, just-getting-started group right now, I am their perpetual Bible class teacher.  This has caused me to re-evaluate just what is important and just what really enhances their learning and what is just... fluff.  Pretty fluff.  But still fluff. 

My time is valuable.  Their learning is important.  I have needed to be more discerning to make the most out of what we have.

All those adorable Pinteresty things for homeschooling and Bible class... how many of those projects are really only for the teacher/mom?  Be honest.  And there is nothing really wrong with that.  But I just don't have that kind of time any more.

I need to sleep and take my vitamins.  I need to get outside with my children.  I need to read them piles of books and cook them healthy food.  My husband needs lovin' time.  I need to wash the dishes and do laundry.  A couple of times a week, I really just need to get a shower. 

I'm a thirty-something-year-old mama and I need to keep things simple. 

And simple works.  It really does. 

We don't do crafts in Bible class.  We have a simple timeline posted on a wall.  We have a bookshelf with Bibles and a stack of white copy paper on it.  I have the ESV Family Bible and a set of Betty Lukens felts for a visual aids.  If we didn't have that, a whiteboard and some markers would do.  We have a box of crayons.  And my boys are learning at a tremendous rate!

This is our simple Bible class "program" for two boys, ages 5 and 3:

• We pray
• Sometimes we sing Bible songs that go with the lesson.  Nothing complicated though.
• We go through the Bible and read a Bible story.  We work in chronological order.  
• We find our Bible story in our simple timeline.
• Sometimes we look at things on maps if it is relevant to the story.
• We review the story with the felts.
• The boys "narrate" the story back to me as they draw key events with crayons on the plain paper.  

Most people would say our classroom is bare.  But it is simple.  It is without distraction.  Preparing a lesson every week is practically no work for me, which is important since I have been teaching without a break for about 3 years and don't expect to stop any time soon.  (Just FYI - I only teach on Sundays.  Midweek we meet with the adult class, since we do so much Bible teaching at home also.)  Simple only seems to enhance their learning.

And it is the same for homeschooling.  Mostly it is about the books, and when it comes to Bible, it is about THE Book.  We don't spend a lot and we don't need a lot.  But you won't be able to find this sort of thing at a convention or in a catalog. 

Your most valuable resources are things you already have:  your Bible and your mind

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Snapshots of our School Days

Big Little turned five this past fall and while we have been homeschooling him since the day he was born, we've been slowly working towards a little more structure in our day.  I do not believe all five year olds need this kind of structure, but our son really seems to crave it, and thrives with the mental stimulation that he is getting.  Starting at the beginning of January, I adopted the above "routine" and we are all just about used it it by now.  We are aiming for "doing school" three or four days a week at this point and I am actually amazed how much we get done and in how little time! So I will share some of what we are doing, but please know that this is just what works for our family and do not hold it up as some kind of standard.  As you will see in the pictures, the boys are still learning mostly through play and I believe this is as it should be.

If your are interested in more information, I use Ambleside Online year 0 and we follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy. 

Some of our learning looks fairly traditional.  Note the look of concentration as he does copywork.

Biggie got to the letter "d" and wrote it the way you would write a half note - he didn't do the downstroke to the bottom of the line. I pointed that out and he answered, "Oh I never do that part. It's just a spot of bother."

Some of it is disguised as play.  (See the letters made out of legos?)

Some looks like "work".  (Trying out parsnips for the first time in our soup!)

sorting out lowercase and capital letters while Little Littles plays along

And we do lots and lots of reading.  And apparently, playing with string.  :)

Notes -
We are working through the Singapore Math level A book and we both like it very much.  We supplement with sorting buttons, working with an abacus, and various other math games.

For piano, I used to teach beginning piano, so I am just doing little 10 minute sessions with him using the Jane Smisor Bastien "Very Young Pianist" series, which I really, really love.  It uses wonderful illustrations, teaches the basics of music and it is simple and not cluttered with overly flashy cartoony stuff.

Science and Art and such very much follow our interests and whims... painting with watercolors, practicing with scissors, bird watching, etc...  As the weather warms up, we will be spending more time outside doing nature study.


And in between all of this, you will find me running laundry to the washing machine, folding it, working on a grocery list while the boys paint, etc...  Work, play, and school are all woven together into a rich and vibrant life.  It is a lifestyle that we feel blessed to live.

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9 Books for Beginning Readers

I have had a lot of friends ask me about teaching reading, so I thought I would do a few blog posts on the subject for the next couple of Fridays.

I do not think you need to do exactly what we do, but maybe some of what I say will be helpful as you make decisions for what is best for your family.  I hope that today's post will help you find some good, quality resources for when the time comes.

Do you have questions about teaching your child to read?  I would love to hear them!  I may not have the answers, but I enjoy some good dialogue.  Maybe you have some valuable experiences to share or some favorite first books your children enjoyed.  I'd love to hear what you have to say, so please leave a comment!

9 Favorite Books for Beginning Readers -
(In order from easiest to more challenging.)




1.  For a solid start in phonics, I recommend this book.  It worked very well for us and I liked that the lessons were nice and short.  We were done in 10 minutes each day, which was a good amount of time for focused learning for my little guy.  We did not do the writing portion of the lesson because my son just wasn't ready with his fine motor skills.  For us, nothing was lost by skipping it.  For other more kinesthetic or tactile children, this may be more valuable.  I plan to spend more time talking about this book in another post in the series, so stay tuned.



2.  About 1/3 of the way through "100 Easy Lessons", we started reading some BOB books and the second level was just right for that.  My son was very proud to be able to "read a whole book all by myself!"


3.  Hop on Pop has long been a favorite.  I like that the child can start out reading the large bold words at the top of the page and you can read the rest of the dialogue, until the child graduates to reading all of the words himself.

Side note - I have learned that I need to store beginning reader books on an out of the way bookshelf lest they be read and read and read and thus memorized beforen the child turns 2!  This is what happened with most of our Dr. Seuss books.  And Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff.  After Big Littles finishes with them, I'm putting my Arnold Lobel books away so Little Littles doesn't memorize them before his time. 


4.  Speaking of Arnold Lobel, he does some wonderful readers and most of them are probably at your local library.  Look for the Frog and Toad series, Owl at Home, and Grasshopper on the Road.  His books have been favorites, and Mouse Tales the most favorite of all.  Something about it really tickled Big Littles' funny bone. 


5.  There are several Little Bear books that we enjoyed, and they are all sweet books.


6.  This was a random garage sale find, and what a happy one it was!  This old book was such a delight for my son.  The first two chapters were a little slow, but once he got into the story, he read the rest of it in a single day. 


7.  This was recommended on Raising Olives as "the single favorite reader of all of her children".  With such a high recommendation, I requested it on Paperback Swap and it became a favorite of my son's as well.  This is another book he devoured in a day.  Do remember, this is Pompeii, so there will be people dying in this book.  It rather shocked his Nanna to hear him so excited to read Chapter 3 - "Buried Alive".  But the book is well done and the most exciting thing he has read so far. 


8.  My son was ready for a step up from classic readers, and this has been a great series for that next level.  The print in the Dover editions is large and there is adequate white space between the lines.  There are lots of good challenging words for him to learn to read and the chapters are just the right length for a reading session for him at this time - about 3 pages long.  As for the stories, they are delightful, old fashioned stories about forest animals that have obvious character flaws, but they learn from their mistakes.  With about 25 or so short chapters in each in Thornton Burgess' series, we can also stick with a book for a while, which is also a good challenge.

I was happy to find these because I was looking for a step up to challenge my son, but I knew that if the chapters were too long, he would tire out, so we needed some good middle ground.  Based upon a recommendation, I first got the Christian Liberty Nature Reader, which had chapters of a good length, but they were a little too dry and boring for us and stats about each animals height, weight and what they eat were just not engaging enough for him.  These lively stories about animals with which he is very familiar were a better fit for us.



9.  And finally, I was looking for a good Bible that he would be able to read himself.  This was the most difficult search of all!  I wanted large print, adequate white space, and heavy paper for the pages (i.e. - not the easily ripped onion skin paper), but I also didn't want something too large and too heavy for him to carry.  In my searching, I was realizing that large print adult Bibles just wouldn't be sturdy enough for him to use.  (I have since found that a large print, hardcover ESV pew Bible might have worked, but I'm still happy with the Discoverer's Bible.)

I don't like most children's Bibles because I don't like much commentary, especially when I disagree with the doctrine being taught in it.  The Discoverer's Bible is well done, though.  I did tear out one page on "The ABCs of Becoming a Christian", but nothing else was lost with that one page coming out.  In all other ways, it is a good Bible for him to read.  It is also available in the King James Version, but I thought the language would be too much for him at this time.  When we have our Bible Time or our Family Bible Studies, it is a great Bible for him to use for reading aloud or following along when someone else reads aloud. 

Another helpful resource:
The Four Moms did a post on Books for Early Readers.  I've linked The Common Room there, and you can read her post and click on the links for the other three moms to see what they recommend.

Note - All of the books pictured above are Amazon affiliate links.  If you order anything from Amazon through my links, I get a small percentage back.  It is usually between 4-6%.  It does add up and all of the proceeds go to buying Homeschool books for our family.  Thank you to the kind readers that have made Amazon purchases through my links! 

If you don't order through my Amazon link, you might be interested in Paperback Swap.  This is how I get many of my books and I think it is the cheapest way to get books other than a yard sale.  You can learn how to swap books here.  If you sign up by clicking on my banner below, I get a couple of free book credits.  Yay for me!



Happy Reading!

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Water Play for Summer

I'm all about simple fun for the summer.  We don't have a pool or a slip & slide, but we have our own kind of fun with water!

Watering the flowers is one of the most anticipated events of the day.  It keeps them occupied for about 20 minutes.  Which for my children is AMAZING!

Playing with string is another favorite.

But the most favorite activity for summer evenings is the Water Wall!

Basically, it is a bunch of tubing, funnels, cups, old bottles, tubs, etc... set up for water play.  Soap bubbles are optional.  We got the fancy little water wheel at a yard sale for $.50.  Preacher Man changes it up from time to time.  This is so fascinating to them!  I got this idea from The Common Room. 

What kinds of water play do your kids enjoy in the summer?

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Dandelion Pre-School

Yesterday, I followed a Facebook link put up by a friend to a post describing The Wonderment Curriculum by Raising Arrows.  I clicked on the link out of curiosity, but was highly skeptical that I would find much merit in a pre-school curriculum.  Her post moved me to tears.  Joyful tears. 

This is it!  This is what we do!  And she described it so well.

To illustrate how this plays out in real life, I'll show you what a part of our day last week looked like.

It was sunny and mild, and we try to spend the better part of every such day outdoors.  I hung up the laundry while the Littles became fascinated by the dandelions growing in the yard and kept bringing "flowers for mama".  Who can resist flowers so sweetly given?  I set my gifts in a tray used to sprout seeds so they wouldn't blow away.

And then came the idea... why not fill each section of the tray?  (I realized the added benefit that picking the dandelions before they went to seed would mean less to spread through the yard, so I encouraged as much dandelion picking as they were interested in doing.)  So Big Littles went about filling the tray with Little Littles adding to it occasionally.  Big Littles and I did some comparing/contrasting of the sizes of the blooms, counted them, noted patterns in the tray, later we talked about why they wilt after they are picked... who knew there was so much learning that could happen by casually picking dandelions?  Big Littles became so engrossed that he filled a second tray!

 Meanwhile, on his own, Little Littles got out his wheelbarrow and got to work.  He trotted around the yard and picked at least a HUNDRED dandelions!  He was such a focused little worker and he was so proud of his accomplishment! 

These are precious moments of wonder, and this is the way we do pre-school.

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The Alphabet Tree

A spontaneous homeschool lesson...



...on the book The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni.

Leo Lionni is a wonderful author of children's books. Our Littles particularly enjoy Swimmy, Inch by Inch, and Fish Is Fish. I keep an eye out for his books at yard sales and at the library. I had a special time with Big Littles this past week after we read The Alphabet Tree. I asked him, "would you like to make your own alphabet tree?" Of course, the answer was, "YES!"

I am learning that every art project I do with my children is much better when it is all THEIR work (and not me trying to make it "pretty" to grown up eyes), so I had him do most of the work. I cut out a simple leaf shape from construction paper, but had him draw the tree and trunk and paste them on where he wished. I would have liked it if there were more leaves filling it out, but when he was done, he was done and I didn't want to tamper with his work by adding more.

The wonderful thing is that this particular book can be used for a wide range of ages. The storyline begins with a tree full of letters. The letters learn that they can group themselves into small words. The small words learn that they can group themselves into bigger words. Then they learn that they can form both short and long sentences.

Big Littles knows all of his letters, and this was a good review for him. We made his name with the leaves, but for now, I kept it as simple as that. An older child could use this project to practice putting together words and even sentences.

I didn't plan this lesson... I really don't plan any lessons at this point, I just try to seize the moments as they come. What spontaneous learning moments have you had lately?

Putting a Song in Their Heart

Songs to teach your child for every week of the year!
My 52 picks -

Songs Every Child Should Know

1. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
2. Mary Had a Little Lamb
3. Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
4. Eency Weency Spider
5. Starlight, Starbright
6. I've Been Working on the Railroad
7. Ring Around the Rosy
8. The Farmer in the Dell
9. Skip to My Lou
10. Rain, Rain, Go Away
11. Old McDonald Had a Farm
12. London Bridge
13. Row, Row, Row Your Boat
14. This Old Man
15. Hush Little Baby
    

Folk Songs Every Child Should Be Familiar With
(When they are grown, they may not know all of the words, but I hope they will have sung these songs and will recognize the tunes.)

1. All the Pretty Little Horses
2. Sleep, Baby, Sleep
3. Bluebird, Bluebird, Through My Window
4. What'll We Do With the Baby?
5. Great Big House in New Orleans
6. one of the John Henry songs
7. Erie Canal
8. Goodbye Old Paint
9. Froggie Went A-Courtin'
10. (My Cat Said) Fiddle-I-Fee
11. Shenandoah
12. Mary Wore Her Red Dress
13. Sally Go 'Round the Sun
14. Polly Wolly Doodle
15. Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush
    

Bible Songs
(Children should also learn adult hymns, but including them would make the three times as long!)

1. This Little Light of Mine
2. Jesus Loves Me
3. Jesus Loves the Little Children**
   
4. My God is So Big
5. The Wise Man
6. Peter, James, and John in a Sailboat
7. Roll the Gospel Chariot
8. The B-I-B-L-E
9. I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy...
10. Oh Be Careful Little Eyes...
11. Who Made the Big, Round Sun?
12. Read Your Bible, Pray Every Day
13. The Lord's Army
14. Can You Count the Stars?

** I change the words to say "red, brown, yellow, black and white".

Patriotic/American Songs

1. The National Anthem
2. God Bless America
3. America, the Beautiful
4. America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)
   
5. This Land is Your Land
6. Yankee Doodle
7. Simple Gifts
8. Battle Hymn of the Republic
   

I know I must have missed some favorites. What are your favorite songs from childhood or your children's favorite songs?

A Picture From Our First Day of School

Back to School... Back to School... Back to School...

It's the buzz I've been hearing for about a month now. Big sales, new backpacks, clothes, lunch boxes, books, curriculum, lesson plans... Today, being the day after Labor Day, is the traditional first day back to school, and it is an exciting time for many. I also see our first day of school as being exciting, but the picture is a little different than most.

Preacher Man and I have a philosophy of education that is very unlike what is going on in public and private schools. We are excited about home schooling. We are both natural teachers and we live a learning lifestyle ourselves. I feel like my real education was just beginning as my formal schooling ended. Once I learned how to learn, it became my habit to passionately research, satisfying my desire for wisdom and knowledge. It is the way I live my life and this is the way we teach our Littles.

Children are born persons. They are persons even in the womb where they begin to learn the sounds and sensations of the world they will soon enter. Each child is a unique individual and is a gift and a blessing from God Himself, made in the very image of The Creator.

The first definition listed in the dictionary for the word school reads, "an institution for educating children." This would make the institution of the family the first "school" for a child, and the mother and father the very first teachers. Unlike the situation in most public and private schools, Mama and Daddy are the child's teacher year after year, and really, this is true whether you send your child to public school or teach them at home. A child's parents are his most important teachers.

For us, all of life is school. The most important thing that we teach is to "Fear God and keep His commandments" and we use Deuteronomy 6:4-9 as our model for how to do it -

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

When does this teaching begin?

On the first day of school.

Isaiah 28:9-10 - To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.