love to paint

I think parenting is hard.  Maybe it's just me.  It isn't about me and is about me at the very same time. It isn't about me... When I was a senior in high school, I decided not to run track and field.  I came home to hear my dad say, "How could you do this to me?"  I remember that moment.  Later on my high school graduation when my dad, scolded me loudly in front of all my friends after I'd tried to find him and his girlfriend (my parents were getting divorced) saying "How could you do this to me?"  I remember knowing at a very young age that what my dad wanted from me was a child he could brag about to his friends.  My achievements weren't mine.  They were his.  My failures...  well, there weren't to be failures. I remember also knowing, even though I was the child in this relationship, that the decisions I was making weren't about him.  They were about me. I was a teenager and I was growing up.  I wasn't trying to be ma...

I realized two months ago that I needed to come up with a plan about what books my kids are going to read for assigned reading in grades 3-8.  Books in our house are free to be read and so I knew that if I didn't hide these particular books away, they would be read before their time.  No prediction practice, no "in the moment" inference practice, no surprise or expectation.  So, my first page was to make a chart with the grades and genres listed.  Then, I plugged books into the genres for each grade.  I came up with a pretty full list. Next, I put together my generic literature unit that could be used with any book.  I want to use this with half of the books, but not with all.  I want some specific literature guides that will help them think specifically about that text.  My hope (goal) is to find as many free resources for these units as I can. I wanted to share my list (and findings) with you in this post in case it might be helpful. I use...

Yesterday, I realized something.  The Word exhorts to not--give up the habit of meeting together.  But, we live in a world of lone wolf Christians.  There's so much teaching out there on the web.  Sermons from thousands of pastors and inspirational speakers.   There's something that can happen when we listen without being present--without a relationship with the speaker.  Legalism.  When I say legalism, I mean the belief that whoever we are listening to has the "right" answer and that we need to live exactly as they say.  If we do, then we, too, will be living "rightly".   I found this explanation on www.carm.org by Matt Slick " In Christianity, legalism is the excessive and improper use of the law (10 commandments, holiness laws, etc).  This legalism can take different forms.  The first is where a person attempts to keep the Law in order to attain salvation.  The second is where a person keeps the law in order to maintain...

I just volunteered this week for our library's book sale.  It was hard to see the carts of books filled with Y and YA fiction.  None of it was stuff I want my kids to read.  So, what then?   I'm working on a post with our reading lists for fifth through eight grades with free lit units that can be found online.  But, in addition to that, I thought I'd list some reading lists with books that could also be used.   My approach to literature is to use both a reader and whole books.  Readers provide short passages and text specific questions.  They expose students to a wide variety of writing.  Whole books help students to see a story from beginning to end and see the big picture of how characters change and grow.  What are the themes of the book?  Author's purpose?  Specific characteristics of the book that make it fit a specific genre?  Summarize the book... So, here are some lists I found: 6th-8th:  http://www.co...

“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” ―  Charles Dickens ,  Nicholas Nickleby I heard this quote when I was watching Nicholas Nickleby this week.  We live in a society that tells us to expect happiness.  That happiness is the point.   Tonight my oldest daughter was disappointed with how her night turned out.  I know she's 9 1/2 years old, but still I understood.  I tried to explain to her that sometimes that's just how life is.  So instead of wanting things to be another way, we have to enjoy what we can and accept when things are different.  I find that a lot of life is that way.   Mother's Day was not what I expected.  Sunday is a busy morning for me.  There's always something else that needs to get done before we get out the door and on our way to church.  My son fell at church and bonked his head--hard.  So, I sat through church a little worr...

For Social Studies this year, my oldest daughter (who's in 4th grade), studied one quarter of geography, one quarter on the states and capitals, one quarter on the Regions of the United States, one quarter for a state report. For Geography, I used a Daily Geography book from Evan Moor that I bought at a garage sale for $2.  If I hadn't had this book, I would have looked for resources online.  I tried this today and found it difficult. So, here's what I'd make sure to cover: 1) Parts of a Map     Get a map that shows where you went on vacation last summer or on a day trip in the past year.  Trace the route you took and explain all the different parts of the map along the way.  Brainstorm other routes that you could have taken.  Make sure to point out the compass rose and map scale. There's a few map skills worksheets on this page:  http://www.tlsbooks.com/geographyworksheets.htm 2) Look at a map of the world and point out the globe lines. ...

I just realized that I never posted a link on this blog to the 9 lesson Photography Unit that I wrote.  Or at least I didn't tag it and make it searchable on this blog! This spring my kids and I did a 9 lesson photography unit that I wrote for them.  It went really well!  I am very excited about it.  I've posted it so that I could share it with other families. One note that I want to make about the unit is that I encountered one trick to making it doable and not overwhelming.  In the lessons, I wrote a specific number of pictures for children to take.  Stick to this number.  For the first two lessons, I didn't and ended up overwhelmed by the number of pictures we had to look through.  Once I made them stick to the number of pictures I specified, then all went much better.  My oldest daughter became much more conscientious about thinking about each picture she took. Here is a link to the unit:  http://lovetopaint.files.wordpress.com...

Last month, I realized that my children all really needed to learn the order of the books of the Bible.  It was time.  So, I looked for a free song on youtube and online that I liked (and didn't grate of my nerves).  Finally, I came back to the two songs that Awanas uses.  My kids were in Awanas a few years ago.  I really like the Old Testament and New Testament songs.  They stick in my head!   Old Testament Song:   http://amzn.com/B003UMOQHI New Testament Song:   http://amzn.com/B003UMLBG2 They're $.99 each.  I really tried to find some free songs, but I realized after several minutes of searching that I needed to simply purchase the songs, because I needed the time back that I was spending searching for free versions of these two songs!