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.

A Vacation from Education?

Last week, my children and I joined my Mom for a quick vacation in +Branson Missouri. When Alyson was in public school, we were not as conscious of including learning in our vacation time as we are now. As a home-school mom, I have figured out how to have a fun day and still count much of it as school time. Please don't mistake this--I am not saying we should never have fun just for the sake of fun--after all, that is a part of learning too! I want to share with you what we have done in the past to incorporate learning, and what we plan to do in the future as well.

One of the best places I have found for a vacation that is both educational and fun is +Silver Dollar City Attractions. They even have some lesson plans already made up for you (most of these work better for children older than mine).

While at #SDC Alyson practiced budgeting: she wrote down each item she wanted to purchase as we walked through the park, and then figured out how much money she had and which things she could afford this trip versus which things she could live without until next time. Considering the length of her original list, I counted this as handwriting practice too.

She practiced map reading and orienteering as she looked for which ride, 

shop or show she wanted to visit next and led us there using the park map.

 We visited Sullivan's Mill and learned how corn is ground into cornmeal. 

Prompted a discussion on what cornmeal is used for.

 Peanut Brittle was being made at Brown's Candy Factory, so we stopped to watch the lesson 

and learned how to make 18 lbs of peanut brittle.

We also visited Hill Creek Pottery, and watched this young lady making large mugs/steins on the pottery wheel. Alyson was enthralled. She didn't move from this spot the entire time we browsed the store.

We joined the Gospel singing at the Wilderness Church which falls under music appreciation.

Things we did not do this time but have in the past include:

Tour Marvel Cave (Geology, Bats, Local history)
Watch the glass blowers at work at Hazel's.
Watch taffy being made at Phoebe Snapp's
History Lesson at the Oak Trail Schoolhouse
and much more!

We learn something every time we visit Silver Dollar City, so I almost always count it as at least a partial school-day What have you learned while on vacation? At SDC or anywhere else...?

A Writer's Journey of Self-Discovery

I want to be a writer. There it is--in print. No taking it back now. More accurately, I am a writer--I want to be an author. 

Why do I want to add something else to my already overloaded schedule? Well,...I enjoy it. Writing is an outlet for me, a way to experience life through someone else's eyes.

I have loved to read for all my life, and generally liked to write as well. Writing is only fun when I get to choose the subject though, or at a minimum choose between a few options. 

I write about things I love, things that irritate me, and places and times that interest me. 

My current favorite is writing historical fiction; the book I am working on now is set during the Great Depression. (Update: this book has been shelved while I write children's books for awhile but it is still a favorite.)

I am writing this post requesting the support of my family and friends through this journey.

I have a couple of submissions going out at the end of this month which may or may not get published. (Update: they didn't).

I don't have much written that is anywhere near finished, but have begun work on a book, and have a poem or two that I believe may be good enough. 

When I post new blog posts, I would love for you to read them. I hope to eventually post small excerpts of some of my stories and get honest feedback.

What I don't want from writing: I am not looking to make millions as an author, but would love to make enough so that I can stay home with my kids eventually.

I would love to make a little money, but mostly I want to share my writing with people who will appreciate it. I love being a home-school mom, and don't want to change that either. (Of course, this means less uninterrupted writing time, but my family will always come first in my life).

What do I want from you? I would love for you to follow my blog, or just check out my posts when I post them. They may or may not pertain to writing but I want to blog at least weekly about writing or share something I have written. 

I also like to exercise my abilities and stretch them to new lengths, so I welcome comments with suggestions you would like to see me do a blog post on. Or you can specify that you would like me to post a poem or short story about your subject. No promises whether it will be good, but it will be fun!

Thank you in advance for your support. I would love for you to follow me on social media also--use the links below to find me.

Twitter
Facebook
Blogger
Google+

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.

Cooking Lesson - Tuna Salad

Hmm...Ok, so do you actually have to turn on the oven or stove to have a cooking lesson? Technically I did turn on the stove to boil the eggs, but that was before Munchkin got involved. Oh well, I am calling this a cooking lesson anyway.

Ingredients for tuna salad (onion not pictured because...well, I forgot).

Munchkin scrapes our tuna into the bowl.

Adds a few crumbled crackers.

Mayonnaise and relish. 

Eggs (and onion!) And mix it all up.

Then ya get to spread it on a piece of bread and eat it...that's the best part!

Since we were in the kitchen with Mayo, Relish, and Eggs, Munchkin decided she needed a deviled egg. (She has been able to make deviled eggs fairly independently for a couple of years now.) 

Her finished plate...loving the fine china here, aren't ya?

I have kindly omitted the "after" picture here where she stuffs an entire deviled egg half into her mouth!

Tuna salad sandwiches can be a bit messy if you don't hold them just right...I managed to not drop the camera, while reaching over to hold her sandwich together.

When cooking, I have a tendency to not measure anything unless I am baking or following a new recipe...this is both a blessing and a curse. I can make things more quickly and it tastes good each time, but I have trouble sharing my recipes! For teaching Munchkin, I am going to have to start measuring at least some stuff...and writing down my recipes while I am at it!

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

Fall Break - Marketplace

This year, during fall break (for the public schools in our area), we participated in Marketplace 29AD. It has been going on for 3 years now, but this is the first year we participated. Here is a link for anyone interested in recreating this in their community (there is also the possibility of breaking this down to do it in a home setting, but it would lose some of the community type stuff). Marketplace link.

Marketplace was an opportunity to learn about what life might have been like in the time of Jesus. The kids were divided into "tribes" that consisted of children of different ages and backgrounds and included children from public, private, and home schools. These tribes explored the Marketplace together; they ate together, sang, did crafts, and went to synagogue school together. They learned how things were made in that time including bricks, rope, candy, jewelry, food etc. They sampled foods that would have been prevalent in that time period as well. Munchkin tried figs, dates, and pomegranates. She ate bread, grapes, raisins, and apples during snack time. This was an excellent learning experience, and she had a great time! We plan to participate again next year.

View of the Marketplace (an alley behind a church was transformed for this purpose).

Music time.

Learning about brick-making.

Gathering mud to make bricks.

Patting the brick down.

Picture of our whole family at Marketplace. I volunteered a couple of days, and my husband came for about an hour one day to see the marketplace. I took little man with me while volunteering, and wore him all day in a sling made from a bed sheet. All of the costumes were provided for the students and the volunteers. They were made of sheets, lengths of fabric, braided strips of cloth etc.  Everyone dressed up, even visitors..I think it really added to the whole effect. It was like being transported into another world, and another time.

I didn't get to take pictures of everything, but there are pictures on the website, and if someone wanted more information, I feel confident that the folks who organized it would be happy to share. 

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.

What does Home-School Look Like?

Of course home-school will look different for everyone but here are a few pictures of what it sometimes looks like at our house.

I drew this picture on a slate in the old schoolhouse at Silver Dollar City. We always visit the schoolhouse when we go to SDC and if we stay for the history lesson I count that as school work. Actually, you might be surprised how much you can learn at a park like Silver Dollar City especially if you plan for learning.

Munchkin working on her phonics while laying on the couch in her room.

Here she is using my Joy of Signing book to teach herself how to finger spell the word cat. 

(This time she is in my room).

Curled up in a chair at the dining room table working on a test.

Catching up on some work in the car.

Driving a pedal tractor at the corn maze. Sure, some of this was PE, but she also learned about problem solving, maps, and orienting in the maze, animal tracks as part of the kids activity, and she had a good time too!

There are many other pictures of what homeschooling looks like in our family, this is only a small sample. Sometimes we even sit at the kitchen table and use it to do our work...

Our day is not highly structured; we do not have a certain time to do history, a time for math etc. This may change when  I start teaching Midget and Munchkin both, but with just Munchkin in school this works for us. We do try to at least have some routine though...we eat breakfast and try to begin school right after breakfast with a break for morning chores, then back to school until lunch. If we haven't finished school work by lunchtime, we will work on it more after lunch, but normally we use the afternoons for creative things. We cook together, play or ride bikes outside, write letters, do puzzles, read, play games, or sometimes we have activities in town with the home-school group. 

Believe it or not, her "screen time" has actually gone down since we started home-schooling (Even with all this "free time.") She has seen that learning can be fun and spends much of her "free time" reading simple books or writing notes and letters. I love the change in attitude towards learning that I have seen since we began homeschooling.

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