Writing Prompt Wednesday 5/4/16

Well, it’s Wednesday and I still have not come up with a hip name for my Writing Prompt Wednesday, so guess what we are going to call it. That’s right! Writing Prompt Wednesday.

Here’s how it’s going to work. Each Wednesday throughout the summer, I will post some sort of writing prompt on this blog. It might be a picture, a word or phrase, or a bit of dialogue. It could even be a feeling or a smell.

Anyone who wishes to play along may write a scene or an entire story using the prompt. You can keep these stories to yourself if you like, using this as an exercise for your writing brain, or you may share with us in the comments below. Occasionally I will share my scene or story as well.

If you choose to share your story in the comments, please keep it clean. I started this series by request of a student, and would like to keep it where people of all ages and backgrounds can participate.

There are no winners and losers here, no prizes or fame to be had. My intent is for everyone who participates to have fun and be encouraged.

Here is the writing prompt for this week.

You open the door to your backyard and see this. How did it get there? Where did it come from? What are you going to do about it?  (These are just some questions to get you thinking...answer one, all or none.) Have fun.

Am I holding her back?

At one time or another, I believe most parents worry about whether their child is receiving an adequate education. 

Parents of children who attend public schools wonder if their child would be better off in a private school that just isn't in the budget right now; parents of private-schooled children wonder if their child should have gone to the super-elite private school that denied their application. 

As parents, we just want our children to have the best education and best opportunities possible. This worry never bothered me so much as when we embarked on the journey of home-schooling.

I recently went through a phase of worrying almost constantly whether I had made the right decision in pulling my daughter out of public school. 

I work full time as a nurse (12 hour shifts, 3 days a week--and lately have been putting in overtime), so we home-school on my days off. I work the midnight shift, so when I get home, I go to bed for a few hours. Sometimes munchkin wakes up and turns on the TV before I get up. This creates a problem because she doesn't work as well afterwards. She is more argumentative, and more restless. She wants to do the bare minimum and then go back to TV, or playing with her toys. 

Occasionally, I let her. I tell myself: "We will make it up tomorrow" or "The baby is fussy, and neither of us can concentrate on school work right now." Most of the time, we do make it up the next day, or the one after that...occasionally it is a week or two before I feel that we are caught back up. 

It is during these times that the devil sits on my shoulder and tells me that I am a failure. And I listen to him. I begin to beat myself up, wonder if she needs to be back in school, wonder if I am holding her back by not doing school 5 days a week...

And then, one night she crawls into my lap with a National Geographic Kids reader about Polar Bears and begins to read to me. She sounds out words she doesn't know, and uses the pictures to help her guess at the words she cannot sound out yet. She surprises me with the speed she is able to read, and her ability to recognize a word (she previously didn't know) when it shows up again. I realize at this point that I am doing the right thing, she is learning and is reading at grade level as she should be. It's still not going to be easy; things worth doing rarely are. But for now, I can flick that old devil off my shoulder and be content in knowing that I am doing what is best for my family.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Homeschool mamas, do you ever feel this way? How do you remind yourself that you are doing ok?

A home-school education is not inferior

When I checked my mail today, I was not expecting to receive a letter insulting my children and myself. This letter came from the county school board where I live and concerned participation in certain programs offered through the school system. (Title I, Title IIA, and IDEA-B). The letter in particular was not offensive, but this statement of purpose bothered me: The purpose of assistance under this project is to improve the educational opportunities" --sounds good so far, right?--"of educationally deprived (emphasis mine) children..." The purpose statement continued, but I had read enough.

I received this letter because I am a Home School Administrator (aka Home-school Mom) and apparently, my children are therefore "educationally deprived" and in need of assistance from the board of education. This letter did not come as a result of a failure to properly educate my child; it was sent to all home-school administrators who are registered with the county board of education in accordance with Kentucky law.

My "educationally deprived" first grader is learning sign language and Spanish in addition to her regular first grade curriculum. She is taught in our home with plenty of one-on-one instruction time. She no longer has to catch the bus at 6:30am, and be gone from home until 4:30pm. We have the flexibility to spend extra time in areas where she struggles, and to work ahead in areas where she excels." Our school budget for art, music, and PE has not been cut. We do Art and PE every day, not just on Tuesday and Thursday, and Music is not confined to the hour after lunch on Wednesday and Fridays. We do not skim or skip over chapters in history because they "aren't on the test."

My daughter is a happy, well-adjusted seven-year old who is, in no way, "educationally deprived." Needless to say, we will not be utilizing these "services" offered by the school board.

Climb Out of Your Home-Schooling Rut

Even as home-schoolers, sometimes we get stuck in a rut. We do the same lessons, in the same place, in the same order even, day after day. Moms who are normally loving and patient become mean, evil school-marms who get frustrated when their child asks for the hundredth time how to spell (fill in the blank).

This happened to my family last week--here is how I dealt with it. We decided to have an unconventional school day and teach Munchkin how to ride her bike sans training wheels. Some might consider this an off day, but Munchkin needs LOTS of encouragement to try new things...particularly when she might fall and get hurt. I had to remind her that since we were in "school," she was required to keep trying...if it had been a fun day, she probably would have given up trying. Here is a short video of her displaying her newly-learned skill.

The video is actually from the second day we tried...I was not able to let go long enough to get a video the first day. Looking back on the day, she learned so much more than how to ride a bike. She learned balance of course, and proper weight distribution, but she also learned about trusting me, trusting herself, self-confidence, and a little bit of independence. In my eyes, she learned several important lessons today, and it was well worth pushing back the "paperwork" for a day. (Not to mention, it gave us both a chance to get outside on a nice day, and we set into the paperwork a bit easier the next morning.)

What do you do to get out of the rut? I would love some feedback in the comments section!

Check out my link party page to see where I'm linking.

What Can We Learn on Vacation?

What can you learn on vacation? Anything you want! Today I will be sharing pictures of some of our many trips to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. (I am not being compensated for sharing my opinion.) SDC is my favorite theme park because it has something for the whole family, and so many opportunities to learn as well!

This picture was taken inside Marvel Cave at SDC. The cave can be used to teach Geology, Stalactite/Stalagmite formation, Early exploration (especially if you take the Lantern Light Tour), Rock Layers, Temperature differences on and beneath the Earth's surface, animals found in caves, etc. There are many possibilities here for learning.

Map Reading and Navigation skills can be taught with minimal planning. Let your child lead, and help him reorient himself if he gets lost. Or, you lead, while pointing out landmarks and then see if your child can trace the route you took while looking at a map.

You may have to teach a little democracy as well. With more than one child, it is always interesting to see how they deal with the problem of what to ride first.

You could teach a lesson on flowers and plants, which are native, and which are not. Teach names of flowers, what types of soil are necessary to make flowers grow...or, in the case of these Hydrangeas, you can even work in a lesson on acids and bases, and what makes which color flower. 

Learn about how candy was made at Brown's Candy Factory (don't forget to try a sample while you are there!)

Learn about the old west, and uses for things like the stage coach. (Munchkin is dressed up here for a costume contest).

Learn about pulleys and gravity.

Learn about other countries culture and customs.

These pictures were taken during various times of the year, so not all things pictured are available year round. Many coincide with the festivals and events throughout the year at Silver Dollar City. There are many things to do besides what I have pictured. Visit the homestead and learn about the animals there, visit the schoolhouse for a history lesson, or the Wilderness Church for a Gospel Sing Along (Music and Music Appreciation). You can dip your own candles at Carries Candles, or make your own rag doll with Wagon Train Dolls. Watch a bladesmith fashion a blade, or a blacksmith make a horseshoe.

We also use vacations to learn about money. Leading up to vacation we list extra chores which can be done to earn spending money, and at the park we remind them to make wise choices, and to not spend all of their money on the first day. We remind them how long it took or how hard they worked to earn whatever amount they are thinking of spending on a potential purchase, then they decide if it is worth it to them. Wherever you go, remember that learning does not have to be done at the kitchen table!

I want to thank Crystal's Tiny Treasures for featuring this post I did about learning about money.

Check out my link party page to see where I am linking.

Creation Truth

From the time that I was a child I have been taught that creation is true according to the Bible. I have believed that and do believe it still, but I never knew how to defend it to someone preaching evolution at me. I never realized that the fossil record actually backs up what the Bible tells us in Genesis...until tonight.

Tonight at church we had a special program called Animal Tales. (Click the link to learn more). The presenter taught us about how the fossil record backs up the truth of creation. 

We are taught in school that birds are descended from dinosaurs, and that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, so the Bible cannot possibly be true. 

Why is it that scientists believe dinosaurs lived millions of years ago? The layers of sedimentary rock that show various fossils "prove" dinosaurs lived long ago. 

But what happens if you put different types of sediment and silt in a jar with water and shake it up...then let it sit undisturbed? It settles back out into layers! (So the layers of sediment only prove that the flood in Noah's time really happened!)

The fossil record also proves in another way that the flood truly happened. Over 85% of the Earth's surface is covered with fossils of animals that suddenly died, all at the same time, by drowning. There are fossils of ocean fish and seashells that have been found in the mountains as well. Fossil record proves that a world-wide cataclysmic flood did occur.

Why are dinosaurs not mentioned in the Bible? The King James Bible was translated in 1611, but the word dinosaur was not used until 1841. The Bible simply used a different word. (In many verses the word used was Dragon.) There are mentions of Dragons also in log books of the Roman soldiers. 

I also did not know that reptiles never stop growing. In the time of Noah, reptiles could live for 300+ years...I can imagine they would get large enough in that time to be a "dinosaur." This also explains how they fit on the ark (the ones taken on the ark would not have been the 300 year old ones.)

How did Noah fit two of every animal on the Ark? He did not need two German Shepherds and two Toy Poodles etc. He only needed two of the most genetically complex of each type of animal (all breeds of dogs are descended from Grey Wolves...the most genetically complex of the dog type of animal). However, dogs only turned into other dogs...no dog went back up the ladder and made a more genetically complex dog, nor did it turn into an Eagle.

Tonight was truly a revelation to me; I wish I had learned sooner because I think it would have made my faith that much stronger. I felt the need to share this tonight with someone, so thank you for taking the time to read it. I am excited to share this program with my home-school group, and see if we might have him come and do a program for our children.

Check out my link party page to see where I am linking.

Learning About Money

This is something new we just started trying. I want to teach my daughter the about money in a real sense. No offense, but pictures of quarters and pennies on a flat page just aren't the same as real money in your hand. Munchkin earns an allowance as well, but is still having some trouble determining why she doesn't always get change back when she pays for things etc. Besides that, I want her to learn the (almost lost) skill of counting back change.

In the mornings when we are ready to begin school, I will sell her the supplies she needs, and throughout the day if she needs something else, like a new pencil or an eraser, I will sell her that item as well (the money is all mine, we are just using it for learning, I do not take money she has earned for this).

She uses a dollar to purchase a notebook that costs 73 cents.

I count the change back 74, 75, and a quarter (25c) makes $1.00.

Spending 25c for an item that costs 11c.

And her change is 14c.

At the end of the day, she will sell the supplies back to me and it will be her job to count back the change. I plan to teach her about depreciation this way as well later, by telling her that now that she has used her colored pencils they are not worth as much, so I will not pay as much for them when I buy them back. I may also "charge" her for her lunch or snack etc. This may get too difficult to keep up with in the long run, but for now it provides just enough interruptions that we welcome the break. Today I had her purchase each item individually, but in the future I plan to have her purchase two or three things at once and add the costs together herself. Sometimes I will ask for correct change as well. I also plan to change the prices at least weekly so that she gets the benefit of counting change for different amounts.

So far, this practical application is working well for us. What works for you in your family?

Check out my link party page to see where I am linking.

Illustrating with the Paint Program

Have you ever been caught off guard by your child learning from something that you thought was a waste of time? (Or not necessarily a waste, but not something you thought they would learn from). My daughter learns from the paint program on our computer...and not just art and mouse manipulation etc. She draws scenes and makes word bubbles and writes in them. She will ask me occasionally how to spell something, but mostly she does this all on her own in her "free time." It is amazing what a child who loves learning can find to learn from. Here is a scene she drew in paint last week.

This one she did all on her own without asking me how to spell anything. I am extremely proud of it because she spelled phonetically and did her best. Her creativity with the paint program is what inspired me to try illustrating the books I am writing for her using paint.

I normally do not have problems being creative...or at least, not until I make up my mind to be creative. When I do that, my mind becomes a blank slate, and I have lost the slate pencil!  So, when I decided I would write my own phonics readers for my daughter...I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to quickly write several little stories. As phonics readers go, they can be very boring, especially the word family readers like I am writing. Here is my solution: nice pictures which go along with the words. Okay, so nice might be a stretch, but these are created in paint using a regular mouse...so I think they are pretty good. Here are the first 2 pages of my book (I am still working on illustrating the rest). 

Dan ran. Jan ran.

Dan and Jan ran and ran.

I would appreciate any feedback. What do you think of the illustrations? Would they make a child more interested in reading my book versus another (word family -an) phonics reader with black and white illustrations? All constructive comments are appreciated...please no meanies!

Check out my Link Parties page for a list of all the parties I link to each week.

Post-It Note Clue Hunt

When I decided to begin this adventure of home-schooling, I knew there would be days when I didn't feel like doing "normal" school work, and days when Munchkin wouldn't feel like it either. That is the beauty of home-school...if you don't want to do school on Monday, you can add it back in on Saturday, or do a little extra each day to make up the difference. When we do fun activities, it gets Munchkin excited about learning, and we wind up way ahead of the game. (When this happens, we normally do not take days off, but save our days off for when life gets in the way or when we want to do something different on a "school day."

One such activity that Munchkin has really enjoyed is the Post-It Note clue hunt. It takes a bit of prep work, but it is definitely worth it. I wrote all of my clues on Post-Its and hid them around the house...each one leading to the next.

I used sight words and words that could be easily sounded out so that she could follow the clues with minimal help from me. This clue said "Dad is the man to see."

So she figured out that she had to get her next clue from Dad.

The "Look on the flag" clue led her to this one. She is doing first grade work this year and still learning to read, so we were focusing on short vowels and sight words. 

"Look under your bed"

She gave me the last clue each time she found a new one so that she didn't get mixed up. All together, she had to read about 25 sentences to get to her prize at the end.

We even took the game outside!

"Look in the back of the big red truck"

Munchkin loved her prize. This was something we had already planned to buy her, not a prize just for this game. She enjoys the game whether she is playing for a big prize or a dollar store prize...or even just a hunt to find a stuffed animal she already owns.

Enjoying her bean bag chair!

Sometimes she even gets to sit in her chair while we do lessons or read together. Also, we have used this game for math facts as well. To do that one, I wrote a problem on the first sticky note, then the answer on another...and a new problem on the back of the answer to the first one. She was only doing math facts up to 10 when we did that hunt, so I used 3 different colors of sticky notes and wrote "change to green" etc when the next answer was going to be on a different color. (So we did all pink, then all green, then all blue.) Again we had about 25-30 sticky note problems.

Hope you enjoyed this learning activity. Check out my Link Parties page for a list of all the parties I link to each week.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday Oct. 27, 2013

I am just joining the scavenger hunt, so some of my pictures I will admit are not from the last week, but I will try to do better next week. Here are my interpretations for this week.

 Change

This is a t-shirt and old sheet I turned into an Ariel dress for Munchkin. (Tutorial coming soon!)

My Mood Today

Youngest midget snoozes away on home-school field-trip.

Dark

It was getting dark when I took this picture after the cannons fired during Civil War Days at 

Columbus-Belmont State Park.

Welcome

When youngest midget was welcomed into the world in August. (Also, credit for this picture goes to my Mom, I was not in a picture taking mood at that point).

 Depth of Field

Taken from my viewpoint on the Nina reproduction ship, looking towards the Pinta reproduction. 

(Home-school field-trip).

 I hope you all enjoyed my photographic interpretations. I will try to do better this week at taking them during the week.

Check out my Link Parties page for a list of all the parties I link to each week.

Columbus Ships Nina and Pinta Home-School Trip

As promised, here are some more pictures of our home-schooling adventures. This was a trip we took with our home-school group to see the Nina and Pinta reproductions--they are a floating mini museum and the tour guides are very knowledgeable and informative. Here is a link for anyone interested...they tour all around the U.S. (anywhere the ships are able to sail) http://www.thenina.com/. The Nina is the most historically accurate Columbus ship reproduction ever built.

Munchkin walking towards the Nina. This ship is the one actually built to the scale of the original and with tools like what they would have used in Columbus' time.

Here, the kids are listening to the tour guide tell them about the shore boat on the Nina.

View of the Pinta from shore. This ship was built a bit bigger than the original scale, and built with more modern tools as well if I am remembering correctly. All in all this was a pretty fun trip with the group, though it got a little warm before the tour was over (we went in early September). 

This is my view of the Pinta from the deck of the Nina. I like the perspective here with the beam above me showing in the foreground. I need to play with these pictures some, because I know they would look nicer with some editing. I'll have to remember to do that in all of this spare time I have.

I do occasionally find snippets of spare time; it was in one such snippet that I wrote the following poem. (Inspired by how crowded I felt surrounded by the other home-schoolers...which our guide informed us was about how many sailors would have been on the deck.)

Standing hunched:

Ceiling too low.

Feeling bunched

As others crowd close.

We all want to see.

There floats a ship;

What once was a tree.

Covered in pitch,

Black in the night,

The moon and stars

Might be their only light.

Aboard the Nina,

Columbus' favorite ship,

I look toward the Pinta

Glad I didn't take this trip.

Three little boats

On the ocean so large

Wind in the sails...

Sailing so far.

But to where and to what?

West to the Indies...

But what if they got lost?

I wonder if they were scared.

I would be...wouldn't you?

Unwashed bodies

All crowded close.

No bathing for months...

That would be gross!

Long dangerous journey 

On a ship so small.

It's a wonder they lived,

Any one of them all.

But lived they did, 

And made history too!

There it is...hope you enjoyed it. I am planning to try to write poems about historical events, people, or places to make learning about them more fun and perhaps a little easier. This one was more for fun and my own amusement...and to sharpen my poetry skills hopefully.

Check out my Link Parties page for a list of all the parties I link to each week.

Home-School Headache

I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way, and certainly it is not limited to home-schoolers, but Munchkin has been driving me nuts today. Our routine was changed this morning due to needing to drive a-ways to do some shopping, and only having time to do it first thing in the morning. Sometimes these changes in routine don't bother Munchkin at all, but today it really threw her off. We are still doing school work and it is after 6pm.

Actually thinking back over this week I am thinking maybe she and I need a short break from school. There is a part of me that feels like to give her a break I am only rewarding her bad behavior from the past few days, but I think maybe we are just both a bit burnt out right now. If nothing else, I plan to change up the type of work we are doing...she has a mental block about having to finish her workbook work every day, but has no problems with worksheets...so we may do a worksheet or two. Honestly though, we may just go ride bikes and play at the park in the morning. She chooses activities in the evening that include learning, and begs me to let her read to me or do sight word flashcards or play games (that just happen to be educational). I wonder what the weather will be in the morning..?

To cheer myself up, here are some pictures of what home-school occasionally looks like for us. These are just teaser pics, I hope to post a bit more about what is going on in each picture in the next few days/weeks, as well as posting more pictures from that day.

Which picture do you want me to talk about first? Leave a comment or I can just pick one!

Check out my Link Parties page for a list of all the parties I link to each week.

Time to Blog!

The title of today's post has a double meaning: 1. It's time for me to get back to blogging, and 2. I finally found some time to blog!

Midget said "In your dreams, Mom!" as he woke up early from his nap just as I finished typing my first sentence. So here I am typing one-handed while feeding the baby with the other. I have made up my mind that, while I am still job-hunting, I am going to try to find the time to blog a little bit daily about our lives, which currently consists of eating, sleeping, diapers, home-school, church, job-hunting, and an occasional sewing project. Ahhh the luxurious life of a mom! (Loads of sarcasm intended).

Big Sis is doing her schoolwork as slowly as possible this morning. However, I managed to make a few phone calls and send an e-mail to organize some field trips for our home-school group, so I am feeling as though I accomplished something today at least.

I'll leave my post short and sweet today as I am needed to help keep Sis on topic with her school work.