GeoGuessr

The boys and I discovered this the other day via Facebook, and have been enjoying it ever since.  GeoGuessr is a simple but fascinating online geography game.  Click to start, and you are plopped down at some random location in the world via Google Streetview; look around you for clues--landmarks, vegetation, road signs, even the angle of the sun--to figure out where in the world you are.

GeoGuessr

This game is a fascinating way to explore the world.  You might be surprised at what you see and learn.  Have fun!

Boys

Seems like I haven't written about my children for a while, so...

Elijah is still a bookworm and still learning by leaps and bounds.  His latest interests center around science, particularly electricity and physics.  The other day at snack time, he set his bowl of popcorn spinning in a circle, pieces flying in every direction.  "Look Mama, centragifagul force!" he said.  Okay, so his pronunciation needs some work. :)  I'm hoping to begin properly homeschooling him this fall, with a schedule and curriculum and all that, if I can ever make up my mind which curriculum to use.  I think the first part of the school year will probably be spent teaching him him to focus and get things done in a timely manner.  He is quite easily distracted!

And...Noah is learning to read!  I haven't done much with him other than the Bob Books (which I highly recommend), and pointing things out here and there as I think of them.  If he hasn't learned to really read by this fall using my informal "a little of this, a little of that" methods, I plan to go through the book Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons with him (which I also highly recommend, and which proved useful with Elijah, though he only needed the first 30 lessons or so).  Other than learning to read, Noah has been drawing lots of pictures and writing strings of letters, with real words sprinkled here and there (he laughs and laughs at my attempts to sound out the nonsense he's written).

My favorite part about being a mom to these boys, other than watching them learn, is watching them interact with one another.  There are squabbles, to be sure, but more often I see companionship, and inside jokes, and shared traditions.  I'm glad they're not being sent off to school to be separated from one another for most of the day, as I think spending all of their time together has made them quite close.

Excellent Lecture on Christian Education

My brother Caleb, knowing that I would be interested, sent me the link to this lecture by Rev. David Silversides of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland.  Mr. Silversides argues for the necessity of a Christian education for our children.  I stayed up late after the children were in bed to have a listen, and it was worth it.

Do We Need Christian Schools?

Mr. Silversides made some excellent points.  Here is an outline of his lecture, copied and pasted from Sermon Audio:
______________________________________________

The argument and emphasis presented here is for the

consistent godly nurture of our children which

necessarily involves a strictly Christian education.

Positive and biblical reasons are given, and some

objections to an exclusively Christian education are

answered.

Some basic questions:

1. Who tells us what to do with our children?

2. Who does God hold responsible for the care of his

children?

3. Is the nurture of children ever neutral?

4. Does the bible say we must have schools?

5. If we have schools must they be Christian ones?

Some objections:

- The hot house objection. Are you not creating a

hot house for your children?

- Won't children rebel against such a stifling

stricture?

- Are we not in danger of doing the Holy Spirit's

work?

- State education didn't do me any harm.

______________________________________________

I especially appreciated Mr. Silversides' handling of his third point, and his responses to the objections (not all of which are listed in the above outline).

Let me know what you think!

Half an Hour of Unschooling

You may have heard me say that I'm "unschooling" my boys for the time being, except for our more structured studies in Bible and math.  Have you wondered what "unschooling" is?  I'll give you a hint--it's what most parents are already doing with their small children: talking to them and showing them things--only kicked up a notch or two.  Check out this post on our new homeschooling blog for an example.

Half an Hour of Unschooling

I hope you all have an excellent Monday!

New Homeschooling Blog

Hello friends,

A few homeschooling moms including myself have started a new blog about homeschooling. 

Our goal is to open a little window into the lives of several different homeschooling families, so that anyone who is interested can see what homeschooling is really like.

We do this for several reasons: firstly, in hopes of dispelling a few persistent and inaccurate stereotypes about homeschooling and homeschoolers; and secondly, in hopes of inspiring and encouraging those who are thinking about homeschooling, and those who (like me) are just getting started and could use some ideas.

The authors come from different sizes and sorts of families in the UK and US, and no doubt our homeschooling methods vary quite a bit, too.  But what we all have in common is our Reformed Christian faith, which motivates and colors all that we do.

I'm looking forward to reading the new posts, aren't you?  Go ahead and bookmark the link, or follow in your favorite reader.  I'll post the link on my "other blogs" page.

Training Up Our Children

Whenever I get around to writing up a "Why I Homeschool" type of post, I'll post that here as well as on the homeschooling blog.  But all the nitty-gritty details about homeschooling and its challenges will go on the other blog.

I hope you all have an excellent Friday.  I know we will; it's sunny, breezy, and cool (low 70's is the forecast).  And we're going to the library today!

Education: Three Points to Consider

My wise brother has pointed out that there are really three separate questions to consider when thinking about the education of our children, and that when people discuss the subject, the three questions sometimes get muddled together, when they really ought to be kept separate.

So here are the three questions.  What do you think?


1. Should the education of our children be explicitly Christian?  As a sort of sub-question, one might consider, can an education really be neutral?
2.  Can a child be taught as well by his parents as by a professional teacher?
3.  The question of influence: does the child influence the school, or the school the child?

In case you couldn't guess, my answers would be:
1. Yes, and no.
2. Yes.
3. The school influences the child.


What do you think? 

Being FP

I came across this article on Cath's blog about Free Presbyterian cultural identity.  I found it quite interesting and thought I would share here, though of course I must add the caveat that this is FP culture as seen through the eyes of one Scottish FP, and perhaps other FPs might differ with a few points.  For instance, FPs in the US and Canada--and a growing handful in Scotland--don't share the antipathy towards homeschooling, and find the association of homeschooling with monasticism to be particularly baffling (one can only assume that the Scots are not actually familiar with how homeschooling families usually operate).  But I digress.  Here is the link:

1893 and all that

Skip to the next-to-last paragraph if you're in a hurry. :)

While I'm linking, here is Cath's brief history of the FP church. 

FPism

Edit:  I'm tagging this post with "homeschooling" since that's the direction the comment discussion has taken. 

Elijah Is Writing a Book

Elijah is writing a book.  While Elijah can read anything you put in front of him, he can not spell.  At all.  As you can imagine, this means that he requires quite a bit of assistance with writing a book.  When the scene below begins, we are halfway through the second chapter, which means I have been doing this for a. long. time.

Elijah: Mama, how do you spell "how"?
Me: H-O-W.
Elijah: what was that again?
Me: H-O-W.
Elijah: How do you spell "many"?
Me: M-A-N-Y.
Elijah: writes M-N-A-Y.
Me: Oh Elijah, that spells "mnay."  Erase the N and the A and switch them.
Elijah: Ohhhhhhhh.  *perplexed*  Why didn't you say so in the first place?
Me: *sigh*
Elijah: How do you spell "people"?
Me: P-E
Elijah *writes*: Okay, what else?
Me: O-P
Elijah: What else?  What else?
Me: *lost in thought*
Elijah: What else, Mama?  What else?
Me: What do you have so far again?
Elijah: P-E-O-P
Me: L-E.
Elijah: okay.  How do you spell "do"?
Me: D-O.
*a moment of blissful silence while Elijah spells "you" all by himself*
Elijah: How do you spell "want"?
Me: Um, how many chapters is this book going to have again?
Elijah: Four.
...
and this is the point where I start to think this is kind of funny, and head to the computer to write a blog post about it.  Which Elijah, of course, reads over my shoulder with a big grin on his face.  Oh, he wants me to tell you that the book's title is "Tass's Friend."  And both he and Noah are thrilled to see this picture on my computer screen:

Great Math Resource for Homeschoolers

I've posted before about www.starfall.com, a great resource for children learning to read.  I looked and looked for a site that would be just as good as Starfall, but that would teach basic math skills, perhaps with simple math games.  (How I wish that the old MathBlaster game was still around--the new versions look awful!)  Well, I didn't have much success in finding a site for math activities, until today, when I found this one:

Math Magician

If you're like me and you're not thrilled about "magic"-themed activities for little ones, rest assured that the "magic" is in the title only.  The math games themselves are very simple and easy to operate; and like Starfall, there are no ads.  I'm looking forward to using this site with Elijah to strengthen his math skills.

These kids!

In the space of 24 hours, Noah finally got his pronouns sorted out.  He now uses "he" and "him" when referring to males, and "she" and "her" when referring to females.  This is quite a breakthrough!  In the same 24-hour period, he also learned to pronounce his L's and his R's!  Way to go Noah!

And....Elijah set a new record yesterday when he memorized his Shorter Catechism question and proof text in fifteen minutes flat!  We do fifteen minutes of memory work a day (well, most days), and he is usually able to learn one question or one verse in that time frame; but yesterday he was moving at double speed.  He learned question #34, What is adoption?  And the proof text was 1 John 3:1.

I think that most of my readers are probably quite familiar with the Shorter Catechism, but in case you're not, here's an explanation which I will lift from the Wikipedia article:

The purpose of the Shorter Catechism is to educate lay persons in matters of doctrine and belief. The WSC is in a simple question and answer format to facilitate memorization. Typically, the parents and the church would use the shorter catechism to train their children in the ways of the Lord.

Puzzles

We love doing puzzles. Here are the boys with their latest favorites. Elijah is working on a 600-piece train puzzle, and Noah has just completed a 24-piece of Winnie the Pooh.

Now before you get too impressed, I must point out that the boys get a lot of help with these puzzles. I help Elijah by sorting pieces and by giving him verbal cues when he gets stuck, like "Where does that piece go, Elijah? Look at the picture on the box--see here? I think it's part of the blue train's wheels," etc. I help Noah by handing him the next piece that he needs, and by identifying pieces, as in "Here is Tigger's hand," though once he's done a puzzle a couple of times, he doesn't need so much help.

I have a hard time getting pictures of moments like these, because my camera's flash isn't working. Pictures of little boys indoors often turn out blurry. This one isn't too bad though.

EDIT: After a couple of days, the boys are on their own with these puzzles. Noah breaks his up and re-does it over and over, and Elijah sorts his own pieces and comes running to tell me when he finds something important. I think it will take him a couple of weeks to finish the whole thing. :)

Interesting Post About Homeschooling

I enjoyed this post by Jasmine Baucham on homeschooling:

"I Realize You're Just Parroting What You've Been Taught."

I don't always agree with everything Jasmine has to say, but on the whole, her blog is a good read--and I'll admit I'm envious of her ability to crank out well-written posts at an impressive rate!

I spent some time in three educational environments--homeschool, a private Christian school, and public school. My experiences might not fit the stereotypes. Homeschool, at least done the way we did it (no hard deadlines), left me with a tendency to procrastinate, though I'd like to think that I've since improved in that area. :) The private Christian school proved, in the long run, to have a very negative influence, due to a prevailing attitude amongst the students that it wasn't "cool" to be too religious (at least, that's how I took it). And I had a relatively positive experience with public school, perhaps because I was quickly welcomed and befriended by some nice Christian girls, and because several of my teachers were openly professing Christians.

But in the end--and I might step on some toes here--I have to say that generally, I think that homeschooling is the ideal choice for serious Christian families, both academically and spiritually, at least through the elementary years. I do think that there are circumstances where homeschooling is not the best choice, which I would go into further if I had more time. But I'm very thankful that I'm able to homeschool my boys, since I know that homeschooling would not be an option for most single parents. Thanks, Mom and Dad. :)

We went to the ocean the other day...

Me: Look boys, the seagulls are cleaning their feathers with their beaks.
Elijah: Oh yes, they're preening. They squeeze oil from a gland just above their tails.
Me: Oh, right, I knew that.

Credit goes to this book...
...the Usborne Complete Book of Nature. I found it at Half Price Books for less than $5, and it has been worth every penny. It is full of interesting information and excellent illustrations. Elijah and Noah both enjoy it quite a bit. It seems to be out of stock at Amazon, but if you have young children and happen across a copy somewhere, I would recommend purchasing it. :)

Homeschooling!!?! Yikes!

Elijah is officially reading now, well enough that he can sing along in the Psalter, for instance, or read most any children's book. He still does quite a bit of bouncing off the walls (literally) and building with Lego, but now he also spends large blocks of time reading to himself--standing on his head, as often as not; right now he's sort of rolling around on an end table while reading "The Sleepy Story."

He's obviously learning quite a lot on his own, but lately I've started to think that perhaps I should be directing his education a bit, via some proper schooling. I started looking at homeschooling curricula, and boy, talk about system overload! There is so much to choose from, it's overwhelming. Plus, there are many radically different opinions about how children ought to learn--so far, "unschooling" has worked pretty well for us, but recently I read this article:

Homeschooling With Textbooks

Mrs. Maxwell makes some good points about textbooks, I think. I don't think she quite understands the motivation behind things like unit studies, and Mom-selected learning materials--she assumes that it's all about making learning fun, but I always thought it was more about going straight to the original sources for info, rather than getting things filtered through a textbook author's lens. I like the idea of reading "real books" a la Charlotte Mason.

But she makes a good point about textbook learning being much easier on Mom. As a single mom, I do have to work a bit, though so far I've been blessed to be able to work from home. Still, I don't have the freedom to devote all of my time to educating my children, so if textbooks would make it easier for them to learn on their own, I need to consider them. Also, I do feel strongly that my children need to have the self-discipline to work and learn independently, even on topics that aren't their favorites, and perhaps some textbook work could help them to learn self-discipline.

But which textbooks? That decision alone is enough to make me learn towards unschooling--besides, textbooks cost money, and the library is free. :)

If you have an opinion to share, feel free!

this and that

What are the boys up to lately? Hmmm...

Elijah continues to learn to read. We make regular trips to the library. His latest favorite is a book about the planets (he can't read it all yet, but he likes to have it read to him). The last couple of nights he took it to bed with him because he said "When I wake up in the morning, you can read it to me the first thing." He loves our MegaBlocks/Duplo/whatever they're called. And he has been asking tough questions like the following: "I was just thinking about something. Do the worms like it when the birds eat them? I'm not sure about that." LOL That was a tricky one.

Noah is talking quite a bit now. He loves to be read to--his favorite is "Goodnight Moon" and he likes to find the mouse on every page. He is learning his colors and some of his alphabet letters--so far he knows A, M, and O. He recognizes the word "Daddy" which I discovered when I wrote it on a piece of paper to keep him quiet in church, and he pointed and shouted "Daddeeeee!" quite loudly. Any other word that I write for him, he assumes says "Mama." Ever since he got over his tummy illness, I have been hearing a lot of "Eat someping, Mama? Eat someping? Hunnngeeeee." His favorite foods are spaghetti and ketchup. He also likes applesauce which he calls applesalsa. Oh, and he is very polite, always saying "Peese" and "Thank you" or "No thank you," usually without being reminded (he learned that soooo much more quickly than Elijah did!) Last but not least, he has a cute sense of humor. Here is a conversation from the other day:
Me: Do you like to eat pizza?
Noah: Noooo!
Me: Do you like to eat peanut butter?
Noah: No! No thank you.
Me: Do you like to eat chocolate chips?
Noah: No thank you. Eat CARS! *laughs and laughs* Noooo, no eat cars. (said in a "how silly" sort of tone)

And what am I up to lately? Hmm...well I put myself on a strict schedule which has made me surprisingly productive. I made sure to schedule some crafting time too. :) Perhaps I'll post some pictures soon of some of the crafts I've been working on.

On Feb 10th we took our first walk to the park. (2.7 miles round trip, thanks again g-map pedometer) Elijah seems to have gotten out of shape over the winter--last summer he would happily run/walk the whole way there, but this time he prefered to ride in the double stroller, which of course made it much more challenging for me. I am still longing for a nice double jogging stroller, and if I ever find one used, I will buy it, even if I do have to resell it in five months when I move.

Last but not least, I got a new computer from a friend of a friend, whose workplace was selling their old computers for $25...this one runs sooooo much faster, and even my internet works better, strangely enough. Oh, and I discovered Google Analytics. Pretty nifty. I can track traffic to my blog and to my Etsy shop (yes, I have an Etsy shop, but there's nothing in it yet--when I put something in it, I'll post the link here).

Okay, that's all for now, and don't miss the next post about my new favorite piece of music.

Elijah can read!! ...Almost

Elijah is now sounding out simple words, thanks in part to this website:

www.starfall.com

The kids (the older three anyway) love this site--Noah lets out an ear-piercing shriek of excitement whenever he sees me pull it up on the screen. We started with the ABC's page and that's still where the kids spend the most time, but Elijah has now developed quite an interest in the beginning readers' page too. A couple of times a week when it's time for me to prepare lunch, I'll pull up this site and put Elijah in charge of navigation. Elijah, Noah, and K (the 3.5 year old girl I watch) will huddle around the screen and watch with fascination. Today the favorite letter was "T" for tiger, ten, and taxi. They must have watched that tiger roar at least a dozen times in a row.

So if you have a little one learning his/her alphabet, check it out. :)

Elijah

Okay, three posts in a day--this has to be a record. Anyway, the other day Elijah was playing with dominoes, and after a while he announced "I made 'lion'!" I took a look, and sure enough, he had carefully lined up the dominoes to spell: LIEAN. Which does say 'lion' if you think of it as LIE-AN. I thought this was very cute. :) Oh, and he had it backwards, reading from right to left.

So far he is self-taught--I really should get my act together and teach him some proper phonics. I started the book "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," but stopped when I realized he was not even close to being able to do the writing sections. A couple of months later I thought about the book again, and realized, duh, who says we have to do the writing sections? We can just skip them. Now it's just a matter of remembering to do it with him (at an opportune time, like when the other little ones are napping).

Okay, that's really all for the day.