Deep Sea IMAX - Jelly Fish

This wasn't our favorite part, but its the only clip I found on youtube! I would have shown you the Great Pacific Octopus eating a crab...

IMAX Deep Sea Adventure

Day four of Octopus week was supposed to be an ocean outing - visiting an aquarium or a beach or something like that. But we don't have the means to go on a trip right now, so I went to the video store and got IMAX Deep Sea (which is 3D in the theater but not on the DVD) narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet and with music - and other sound effects - by Danny Elfman. We decided to make it a submarine voyage. SO, I made official crew name tags for us, telling what our job onboard the sub was to be. Huyler was the "engine runner" and he brought with him his wrench and a panel of buttons to push. Augie was our "diver" and he wore his goggles in preparation for leaving the sofa-like confines of our submarine to explore. Ardara was our "photo-scientist" so she had on her swimming suit and a camera to take pictures of all the underwater wonders. And I was the captain, because I've always wanted to look through a parascope. So, we made our lunch of hot dog octopi and PB&Js and we embarked. The video was really good. I'll add a clip off Youtube for you to check out! We learned a lot.

Involving Dads in Home Schooling

By Carolyn Morrison

Moms often ask how to include their husbands in the homeschooling process. Dad is doing his best to earn the living that makes homeschooling possible, but he also may feel like he is not directly involved with the children's education. There are many facets of education, and Dad can fit in during the free time he does have. Dad's time with the children may often be limited, but it is always worth waiting for.

Reading -- My husband did not read great quantities of books to our children, but he did read certain books over and over to them. Children know their favorite books by heart and instantly recognize anything added in or left out. His favorite trick was including a lizard that was never in the actual stories. He would be reading along and just say the word "lizard" while turning a page, change a character's name to Larry the Lizard, or add an entirely new sentence about how the lizard who lived next door came over to play. The children shrieked with delight at every lizard, and lovingly scolded Dad that there was not supposed to be a lizard in that book.

Dads add character voices and sound effects all their own, beyond the bounds of Mom's repertoire. It may be the deep resonance of Dad's voice that can be physically felt while snuggled against his chest, but there is something extra-special about sitting in Daddy's lap for a book.

Sports -- My non-sports-nut husband took our kids biking, hiking, sledding, swimming, skating (standard & inline), bowling, and fishing, usually after a long, tiring day at work. He drove them to soccer practice, attended every game, and even helped out as assistant coach for a season. He got down and dirty playing paintball with our teenaged son and other dads and lads. Meanwhile, Mom, whose idea of cutting-edge sports is doing the Sunday crossword puzzle in ink, was very glad to have Dad's enthusiastic partnership. No matter how hard I have tried, my athletic ability is moot. What I lack in talent and coordination I try to make up in enthusiasm. I would happily hold the family's accumulated belongings while my husband accompanied the children on every ride the amusement park offered, knowing there was not enough motion-sickness medicine on the planet to get me through the three minutes of torture from a single ride. Without my husband's participation, our children's lives would have been sadly idle.

Rough-housing -- Dads play horsey; Moms cuddle & kiss boo-boo's. Children know that Dad will wrestle and toss them into the air and swing them around and around. Dads make every event thrilling just by being Dad. Too many times to count, I have said, "No, you probably shouldn't do that -- it looks dangerous," only to have my husband grin and say, "Why not? Let's try it!" I gave in because my husband was there to supervise, participate, or control the situation from getting out of hand. Dad added an element of surprise, a thrill of adventure, and a safety net all at the same time.

Dads teach weekend home improvement and car maintenance, as much through letting Little Brother watch as through actually allowing Bigger Brother help. Our Christmas breaks were often a time for our son to be Dad's apprentice for painting, wiring the garage, removing wallpaper, or numerous small projects around the house. At age 18 my son readily stepped into the handyman roll at a friend's apartment, having practiced the basics with Dad and Grandpa from a very young age.

Some homeschooling families are able to share the teaching responsibilities -- we know a few Dads who like to teach their children upper level math and science. Other families have found that Dad's work schedule did not allow him to contribute very often to the actual teaching process, and Mom could adequately cover their academics. Whatever and whenever Dad can participate, his contribution will leave a lasting impact. Dads are exciting -- no matter what they do, it becomes an adventure, while Moms teach quietly unexciting homemaking skills. Dads use tools like drills and saws; Moms use rubber spatulas.

Include Dad in your homeschooling at every opportunity. It will be as much of an adventure for him as it is for Mom and the children. Remember, it does not have to involve books to be education.

This article was taken from
guiltfreehomeschooling.org

O is for Octopus

The last week of November we studied ocean life, and octopi in particular. We kicked off the week by learning online as much as we could about an octopus (including a video of an octopus playing with Mr. Potato Head, just like the one in the aquarium near Grammy Sally and Grampa Mark!). When we knew all we could retain, we made a report. We used 3x5 cards to write down everything we had learned. Then we arranged the cards in the order that made the most sense. Next, we listed the facts in order on a poster board and the kids drew relevant pictures of octopus life. We presented our project to Daddy and even developed a quiz for him to take afterwards, by turning each fact into a question.

We read in the Bible verses like Psalm 69:34 “Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas and all that move in them” and we discussed how amazing octopi and other sea creatures are, and that their amazing-ness actually is a praise to God. Our words to remember were “Even the octopus praises the Lord”.
Other fun activities we did were a sea mural, hot dog octopus treat, and watching the movie “Deep Sea 3-D” together. We talked a little about seahorses and how the daddies of lots of fish care for the eggs until they hatch. This lesson is a good lead-in for next week’s W is for water!

Here is a link to the directions for hotdog octopi (from Anika)

Here is the mural we made of ocean life. If you click it to enlarge you can look for 2 seahorses, a wolf eel, an octopus, a sea star eating scallops, 2 nudibronchs, sea urchins, sea anemones, a puffer fish, a moon jelly fish, a squid, a seal, a manta ray, a sting ray, a whale, a dolphin, a school of fish, a grouper, a sea turtle, coral, sea weed, real sand, a shark, a submarine and a very unlucky diver! Actual mural size is 17" x 44"

George and the Dragon

Here is an awesome stop motion video made by Catholic School kids for St. George's Day. We watched it after reading that dragon legends like this one may have originated from dinosaur encounters. What a concept!

Are Dinosaurs in the Bible?

Here is a funny little video that partly explains the Biblical belief that dinosaurs co-existed with man.

D is for Dinosaur

This is probably the lesson I was most excited about teaching so far. One of the main reasons I chose to home school was to be able to teach my children the truth of Biblical creation as a valid scientific approach. (Our words to remember were “Big and small, God made them all”.) In public schools, children are taught the theory of evolution as though it has been proven, and the concept of a million year old earth in spite of the very faulty dating processes used to come up with that idea. But the Bible’s teaching that the world is only about 6000 years old, combined with the account of Noah’s flood give a completely adequate explanation for dinosaurs, fossils, geological anomalies, etc. Obviously there isn’t room here, but check the CRI link at the end of this post if you are interested in more information.
We read a book from the Creation Research Institute called “What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs?” Then we checked out a book from the library called “Boy were we wrong about the dinosaurs!”, discussing how many of the theories once held about dinosaurs have been altered or completely thrown out as more clues surface. Then we looked at a picture book of dinosaurs and each child chose 2 dinosaurs to become “experts” on. They studied how big they were, what they ate, what their name meant and where their fossils have been found. We made models of dinosaurs from playdough as well as stuffed paper bag dinos. And Daddy surprised us by renting Jurassic Park for us to watch, just for fun!!! Even after that traumatic event, Ardara has decided she wants to be an archaeologist or an anthropologist when she grows up!

Click here for an article by Ken Ham of the Creation Research Institute. This article was turned into a really good kids book which we read for school. In it, he talks about a lot of evidence that dinosaurs lived at the same time as man. Legends of dragons are only the beginning. There were also glyphs found in Utah that look like dinosaurs. There were dinosaur bones found that are NOT fossilized. One account in the Amazon jungle is thought to be a dinosaur that is still living! Anyway, to that end, we also watched some funny little videos that will be posted after this.


Click here for a story about the petroglyph discovery - with photos like this one!

The Blend Ladder

The blend ladder is used to help the student read two and three-letter syllables. I begin by placing a textured letter on the ladder in front of a vowel we have learned. The child tells me the sound of that letter, then the sound of the vowel and then we blend the two sounds together. We climb the letter up and down the ladder to each vowel we have learned and see how the syllable changes. The next day, we add a letter after the vowel sound as well. And finally, we have a blend ladder worksheet to do. I tell the children a word and ask them to point to the vowel sound that is hiding in the middle of the word. For “sat” they will point to the /a/ at the top of the ladder. Then they have to figure out what letter is at the beginning and write it in and what letter is at the end and write it in. When the ladder is filled in, they practice writing the new words on lined writing paper.
The kids are using this new knowledge to read words all over the place—cereal boxes, seat belts and much more!

U is for Us

**** tactile learning with vanilla pudding****

This week we explored the human body. We focused mainly on the five senses, but we talked briefly about our anatomy and taking care of our bodies, too.
Since we do school five days a week, we spent one day on each of the senses. On Monday, we reached in a bag and tried to identify objects with our sense of touch. Then we tried the same thing with socks on our hands.
Tuesday, we made musical instruments with rubber bands, bean shakers and wax-paper and comb kazoos. Then we wore blindfolds and guessed different sounds like zippers, doors, crumpled paper etc. We also talked about how our ears help us balance. We spun around in circles and got our ear fluid churning and then tried to stay standing while our brains thought we were still spinning!

Wednesday we used our sense of smell and a blindfold to see if we could identify all kinds of odors—some good and some stinky—without looking. (If anything will inspire you to quit wetting the bed…)
Thursday we tried out several optical illusions we found in a book and then we played a game where we had to remember a set of objects after they are covered with a blanket. We also tried to identify which object had been taken away while our eyes were shut.
Friday it was time for the taste test. First we tasted all the different flavors: bitter, sweet, salty and sour. Then we used a blindfold and identified tastes with and without plugging our noses. Maraschino cherries are just as easy to identify with your nose plugged. I think texture played a part there.
So, in learning all about our bodies, we confirmed our words to remember, as taught in the Bible: God made us wonderful!
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well..”
- Psalm 139:14

Puppet Show - Tortoise and the Hare

T is for Turtle

November started off with my favorite animal—the turtle! We studied the anatomy of a turtle, and made our own out of paper plates. We drew ribs on the inside of the carapace and guts on the inside of the plastron. One gross thing we learned about turtles is that, since their ribs aren’t flexible enough to pump air through their lungs, they use their mouth AND their anus to breathe! We will never look at our little Earlya the same again.

The lesson we learned from the turtle was perseverance. Besides several Bible passages about perseverance, such as Phil. 3:13-14; Heb. 12:1; and Gal. 6:9, we also read the Little Engine that Could, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel and two different versions of the Tortoise and the Hare fable. We video taped Huyler and Ardara presenting the puppet show of the Tortoise and the Hare for everyone to see. See our theatrical presentation in the next post, entitled "Puppet Show"

Our tactile learning exercise this week was forming the letter T out of twigs.
Also new this week was the Blend Ladder! Read about it in a following post entitled Blend Ladder. The blend ladder enabled us to easily sound out words so at the end of the week, we each got a book written entirely with the 6 letters we had learned so far. It was an edge-of-the-seat thriller! “Sam. Sam’s a man. Tam. Tam’s mat. Tam sat. A mast. Mast slants!”

By the end of the week, we had made our motto “I don’t quit, I persevere!” Huyler even recognized the word later in a Veggie Tales movie he had watched a hundred times before — Sumo of the Opera!

Tactile Learning

Our tactile activities work together with phonetic lessons to help the children remember the shapes of the letters, and to connect, through multi-sensory experiences, the image of the letter with a sound. Before starting this technique, Huyler could sing the alphabet but could hardly identify any of the letters of the alphabet if they were out of sequence. Now he can identify all the letters and tell you what sound most of them make - and we have only actually learned 5 letters! But once he realized that each letter had its own sound, he quickly picked them all up! It really works - plus its fun!

Here we are slurping up our Jell-O Jigglers after making letter A with them!

What is A Teacher? by Karen Braun

A teacher is someone who can…

--Give a hug without getting arrested.

--Bandage a knee without calling the school nurse.

--Change a light bulb without calling the custodian.

--Make the children wash the bathrooms.

--Have a relationship with the principal without getting fired.

--Teach a child's mind while capturing their heart.

--Teach what they believe in and believe in what they teach.

--Meet the child's need and not worry about meeting the state guidelines.

--Commit to a lifetime of work without pay.

--Pray! in class, out loud, with the children and the ACLU can't say a word.

There is only one that can fill that job description…A teacher is a mom!

"Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching."
Proverbs 1:8

Taken from
spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com

The 100 Chart

I promised last month to explain our 100 chart. I’m really excited about it, because I can see it teaching the kids so much in a way I never would have thought of. We have a chart with 100 squares in 10 rows and 10 columns. Every day we start off with our Calendar—learning the days of the week, Months of the year, etc –and then our 100 chart. We write a number on the chart every day and for every number we write we put a neon straw in a special cup. When there are 10 straws in the cup (at the end of each row) we bundle them up with a rubber band and put them in a pencil box. So, every day we count, write the next number and then count our straws. But the bundled straws we count in 10’s instead of individually. So, the kids are learning addition, place value, counting and fractions all at the same time. When we get to 100 we are going to have a 100 party. Ardara remembers hearing about cousin Rachel’s 100 party at school and plans on getting 100 puppies by the end of the chart!

/N/ is for Nest

We took one week off in October to do some much-needed fall cleaning. So, the final week we studied the last part of the tree series. N is for Nest. During this week, we focused on nests and other animal homes. We talked about hives, webs, caves, barns, burrows and more. Seeing how all nature has a place to live really drove home our words to remember “God takes good care of me.” Using a flannel board, the kids took turns telling the story of a mommy bird who builds a nest, lays her eggs, hatches them, feeds the babies and then teaches them to fly away. The kids had to figure out for themselves what order the pictures belonged in. There were some variations on the story from one child to the next, but they remembered to include the seasons that were evident from the changing leaves and fruit in the bird’s tree. Anika sent us a really fun idea from a magazine that we decided to do. We gathered all kinds of materials for birds to build nests with and put it all in a mesh onion bag. We went out to our land again and hung it from a tree branch. Hopefully we will see some brightly colored nests in the next few weeks! We also got to make our own nest from twigs, grass and mud. And while we were at it, we drew the letter N in the mud with our fingers. A very fun tactile exercize.

A is for Apple

Our next lesson expanded on the tree theme for the month by moving on to fruit. We read about the purpose and process of fruit growth (which I saw was sort of an intro to the reproductive system). We wanted to visit an orchard, but had missed the hand picking season by a week. We got several different kinds of apples at the store and compared their texture, color, and flavor. We cut one in half across the middle, discussing fractions as we did so, and saw a star shape in the middle! Then we counted how many seeds it contained. Then we used all the cut up apples to make our own apple sauce! It was so yummy, we wished we had made more. We watched the Disney cartoon about Johnny Appleseed (in two parts)on YouTube. We traced our hand and fore-arm to make a tree shape and glued on leaves, red fingerprints for fruit, and some grass for a nest. For our tactile learning (where we learn to write the letters by feeling something textured, like salt or play dough) we used Jell-O Jigglers and tried to make the letter A in capital and lowercase. Then we got to slurp up the Jell-O through a straw. It was such a funny, noisy experience that we had to video tape it. Check out the "Tactile Learning" post for the video!

At the beginning of the week we read in John that if we abide in Jesus we will bear much fruit. We wondered what kind of fruit grows on people. Then we turned to Galatians 5 and read the fruit of the Spirit. We made a tree covered in these fruits to remind us of the work God is doing in us, and our words to remember all week were “If I stay in Jesus, I will have much fruit”.

L is for Leaf

For the second week of October, we moved on to a new topic, which will last several weeks—trees! It started off with L is for leaf, learning about how trees grow and the functions of a leaf. We examined the anatomy of a leaf and learned about chlorophyll and photosynthesis. Then we took a trip to the mountains and gathered as many different kinds of leaves as we could find. We brought them back home and drew them and tried to identify them. The ones we couldn’t identify, we just labeled the leaf shape (rhomboid, ovate, etc.) Then we used the leaves to make leaf rubbings, stencils, and other fun art projects. From Huyler’s Click magazine, we got a card matching game with different kinds of leaves that fit in just perfectly.
As an object lesson, we looked at a plant and saw one leaf that felt it wanted to be on its own and go see the world apart from the plant. He sat in the window all week, getting more yellow and shriveled. When we watered the plant, the separate leaf didn’t get any nourishment, and although he was in the sunlight, his photosynthesis didn’t work at all. We read several Bible passages about those who trust in the Lord being like a tree planted by the water, and then read that those who have Jesus have life, and our words to remember that week were “I will live and grow in Jesus”.
An extra activity we did that week was a classical music exercise. Although unrelated to the L is for Leaf category, it sort of followed up on the M is for Moon week. We listened to Ludwig von Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and pretended we were float-walking on the moon. We found a good web page for kids to learn about composers, so we read what it said about Beethoven. Anyone interested can click here and check it out!

M is for Moon

The first week of October found us studying the Moon. Besides making our own flashcards to learn the phases of the moon, and reading all about the moon’s surface, atmosphere, distance from the Earth and orbit around the Earth, we also learned about the first people who ever walked on the moon. We watched a video online of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exiting the Eagle and stepping into the unknown. It was so impacting! After that, we watched “The Astronaut Farmer”, which was a really good movie. It got us all revved up for the next part of our study—a trip to the moon! We took our tent out to our 9 acres of land and the kids decorated the inside with all kinds of spaceship controls. We made it as authentic as we could and with the help of “ground control”—also known as Daddy—we blasted off into outer space. We floated around in the shuttle, catching weightless cereal in our mouths and then landed on the Moon and went exploring. We gathered moon dust, moon rocks and even a moon cactus (?). The neighbors on the next hill must have been amused to see us clomping around in moon boots with aluminum foil on our heads! It was a lot of fun. For more pictures, visit our webpage.
The other important lesson the moon taught us was the reflection of light. Using a globe, a flashlight and a mirror, we demonstrated how the moon reflects the light of the Sun. Then, we discussed how Jesus told us that WE are the light of the world. Well, in our first lesson about the Sun it was Jesus who was the light of the world. So, we learned that we reflect the light of Jesus when we demonstrate his love to those around us.

For more cool sketches from our moon trip, click here!

Our Trip to the Moon

Wow! Today was the coolest. We are studying the moon this week. We are learning the phases of the moon and we've made models of the moon, earth and sun. So today we watched the Astronaut Farmer (a wonderful movie... I highly recommend it). and then we went out to our land and went on a moon trip. We put up the tent and the kids drew all kinds of controls and hung them up with Duct tape. We brought a smorgasbord of electronic devices and put foil on our heads and blasted off. When we got to space we floated around the space shuttle eating cereal and cheezits for a while before landing on the moon. Then we put up the American Flag, and collected moon dust and moon rocks and jumped as high as we could (then multiplied it by 6 to see how high we would have really jumped on the moon). We made footprints in the dust that will stay there for years and years just like Buzz Aldrin. It was so much fun. The kids were really into it. Click here for a slide show of inside the space shuttle Incredible-1. Please note the gauges on the walls and the planet Earth in the window behind Ardara. Enjoy!

VIDEO: This Is My Father's World

Here Ardara and Huyler are singing along with Fernando Ortega and signing with American Sign Language. Some of the signs may not be exactly right. I found the closest words I could on
ASLPro.com
They do pretty good for kindergarten I think!

Here are the lyrics:

This Is My Father's World
by Maltbie Babcock

This is my Father's world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.

Sun Activities

Here are some other Sun activities we tried:

A fill in the blanks story about a sunburn

A solar quiz puzzle

The music for "You are my Sunshine"

And a sunshine craft to make

A picture of sunburn to color

/S/ is for Sun

The last week of September was a bitter-sweet week for us. We had planned and hoped to be in Oregon with Grandma and Grandpa Cheney. It was hard for us to accept that we were unable to go this time. On the bright side, we were able to start right in to our week on the letter S and the Sun without interrupting the new routine we had just established during our introductory weeks.

We spent this week learning the sound made by the letter S and practicing writing the letter S. We even used math blocks to make an S and to make some things that begin with the /s/ sound. But the S word that had our main focus was s-s-Sun.

Some of the fun things we did to learn about the Sun were drying our own raisins, making a sundial that we used for a few days, keeping a weather chart, brewing our own sun tea and using a flashlight and globe to re-create the effect of day and night that is caused by the Earth’s rotation. We found online activities about the Sun which you can see in our next post.

We read Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem “My Shadow” and even had a new story written especially for US by Grammy Sally. “Sunshine in My Tummy” (posted 9/24/07)

Here is an activity we did that you can try:

Promise not to cheat. Then put a blindfold over your head. Have someone spin you around. Now, imagine you are on a planet that has no Sun. The planet is spinning and spinning and you can’t see anything. Try to make your way to something across the room without any guidance. How did you do? Did you get lost? Did you stumble or fall? Even Dane tried this one, and none of us did very well! Aren't you glad we have the Sun to help us see where we are going?

Verses we learned to go with this lesson are :

"I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life." John 8:12

and

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" Psalm 119:105

We are learning that God's word helps us find our way and keeps us from falling into sin.

Sunshine in My Tummy by Sally Cheney

This is a story about a little girl named Guinevere.

Let me begin by telling you a little about Guinevere.

Guinevere lives in a house very much like one you might live in one day. There is a big backyard for her to play in. Inside the house there are various rooms, and Guinevere has a room of her own. When Guinevere looks out the window of her room, she can see mountains. What makes her house very special for Guinevere, is this: her daddy built it! And Guinevere helped! It took a long time to build this house, but Guinevere has lots of memories of smelling freshly cut wood, digging in the dirt, eating picnics on the floor of the dining room before it WAS a real dining room, watching Daddy climb way up high, and rubbing Daddy’s tired shoulders at the end of the day. Sometimes Guinevere sits quietly and remembers what it was like to wait for the house to be finished. She remembers that it seemed as if the house would NEVER be finished! But finally, here it is! And when Guinevere remembers how hard her daddy worked building the house, she feels warm and happy inside.

Guinevere has a wonderful mommy who is very, very pretty, and who does so many fun things with her! She is teaching Guinevere to read, to bake bread, to plant vegetables, and to fix her hair many pretty ways. Did I tell you about Guinevere’s hair? No? Well, let me tell you, Guinevere has beautiful long red hair! She loves her long red hair. It makes her feel like a princess, especially when Mommy braids pretty ribbons into her hair, or puts flowers on her pony tail, or curls the ends of her hair and then piles it all up on top of her head! Then Daddy comes home and says “Where’s my princess? Oh, there she is, just as beautiful as I remember!” and then Guinevere puts her little feet on top of Daddy’s big shoes, and they dance around the room, just like Cinderella and the prince!

Guinevere has two younger brothers. Did I forget to tell you that? One brother is named Lance. Lance has nice brown hair, the same color as his daddy’s. Lance knows that his hair makes him handsome, because Mommy often says she thinks Daddy is very handsome, and she often says to Lance, “You look just like your daddy!” and then she smiles, kisses his hair, and hugs him close. Lance feels so happy when Mommy does that!

Arthur is Guinevere’s other little brother. Arthur has red hair like Guinevere’s. But Arthur DOES NOT feel like a princess! Oh no! Arthur likes to pretend his hair is FIRE! Whenever Arthur looks in the mirror and sees his red hair, he cries out “I have FIRE on my head! Watch out, everybody!” And then he runs, very, very fast through the house yelling, “Out of the way! I’m on fire! No one is as fast as me, because MY HEAD IS ON FIRE!”

Guinevere and Lance stand back and roll their eyes as Arthur races by. “Here he goes again” says one of them to the other. “Better find his hat.” Because, you see, the only way anyone can get Arthur to stop running around on fire, is to find an old hat that Grandma gave him, and clap it on his head. Arthur believes that puts the fire out, and he can slow down. Then everyone can continue with what they were doing.

What were they doing? I’ll tell you what each of them LIKES to do. Lance likes to make maps. His maps are not really maps like most maps, showing roads and towns and such. But he calls them maps because he follows them to “get somewhere.” “Where?” you may ask, “do Lance’s maps take him?” That’s a very good question, because Lance never knows until he is there! That’s the fun of it! This is how Lance’s maps work: Lance writes down directions on a piece of paper. The directions might sound like this: “Walk out the back door. Take 5 steps forward. Turn to the right. Take 25 steps. Turn to the left. Take 30 steps. Back up 3 steps. Make a quarter turn to the right. Take 60 steps. Take 15 side steps to the left. Walk forward 12 steps. Sit down.” Lance never knows where his maps will take him. Once he ended up on top of the picnic table. Once he found himself sitting under the rose bush. Once his map landed him in the wading pool! Lately, Lance has been making his maps even more exciting by adding somersaults, hops, and skips, and occasionally a running JUMP! Lance enjoys this very much!

When Arthur isn’t on fire, he likes to play with his toy cars and trucks in the backyard. His favorite truck is…you guessed it! His fire engine! Arthur likes to make roads in the dirt for his cars and trucks to drive on. He makes houses and stores out of rocks or mounds of dirt. He likes to make an entire town, with a school, a gas station, a church, stores, homes, and of course, a fire house. Things are always peaceful in his town for awhile, and Arthur hums quietly to himself as the cars and trucks drive to the gas station, the church, the store, or the school. But after awhile, a fire always breaks out somewhere! Arthur yells “FIIIIIRRRRE!” at the top of his lungs. The fire engine pulls out of the firehouse, and as it tears through the streets of the town it demolishes every single store, home, school, church, gas station…until the entire town is flattened! Then Arthur sits back, smiles, and sighs. Soon, he begins to build a new town. Arthur enjoys this very much!

Guinevere likes to do many things. She plays with her dolls, she reads her books, she paints pictures. But one thing Guinevere always finds time for, is sitting quietly, just looking and thinking. Just looking and thinking is one of Guinevere’s favorite things to do. And that’s what this story is really about! I just thought you might like to meet Guinevere’s family before I told you the rest of the story. Thank you for being patient. Now I can begin.

One sunny morning, Guinevere took her breakfast, which was granola and yogurt and fresh blackberries, all stirred up together in a little blue bowl, out to the deck to enjoy her meal in the morning sunshine. Guinevere decided this would be a good time to look and think.

It had rained the night before, and there were tiny drops, shining with sunlight, glistening like diamonds on every leaf of the trees and on every blade of grass. Guinevere imagined she was a princess, sitting on the balcony of her palace, looking at her garden of diamonds and other precious jewels. Through the fence she could see the neighbor’s big calico cat tiptoeing through the wet grass. Guinevere imagined the cat was a giant tiger, prowling in the jungle just outside her palace garden.

Guinevere tasted a ripe, sweet blackberry in her mouth. As she bit into it, she tasted the tart juice of the blackberry. She looked into her bowl, and saw another blackberry. She noticed the dark little balls that formed the berry. She poked one with her spoon and it burst, leaking its juice into the yogurt in her bowl. Guinevere thought about picking the blackberries yesterday with her mommy. It had been a hot day, and Mommy had explained to her how the sun makes the berries grow juicy, sweet, and plump. Mommy explained how the sun makes everything grow. “Without the sun,” explained Mommy,” it would be too cold for us to live on this planet! Without the sun, there could be no green trees or grass! Without the sun, there would be no fruits and vegetables for us to eat! Nothing can live without the sun. It is all part of God’s plan, because he loves us!”

As Guinevere munched her berries and yogurt, she looked at the vegetable garden she had helped Mommy plant. She thought about how Mommy had said that the bean vines must not shade the tomato plants, that the tomatoes needed lots of sun. Then Mommy explained how the big leaves on the squash plants shaded the squashes from the sun, so they wouldn’t get too much sun, just enough. Guinevere looked at the vegetables ripening on their vines. She looked at the berries in her bowl. She thought about the sun shining on the berries and the vegetables, and the berries and the vegetables soaking up the light and warmth of the sun as they grew into food for her to eat. Suddenly, she realized that the sun was in the very food she was eating! Just as the plants took in water to help them grow, just as the plants took in nutrients from the soil to help them grow, the plants also took in sunlight to help them grow! Guinevere jumped up, and ran into the house. “Mommy! Mommy!” she cried. “Guess what! There is sunshine in my tummy! When I eat my fruits and vegetables, I’m eating sunshine! There is sunshine in my tummy!”

Mommy gave Guinevere a hug. “That’s right!” she said. “And that sunshine comes right out of you again, every time you smile!”

Guinevere ran to the mirror and smiled at herself. Sure enough! Her smile looked bright and warm like the sunshine! Guinevere gave her tummy a little pat. “Sunshine in my tummy!” she whispered. “Sunshine in my tummy!”

So, that’s the story I wanted to tell you, and that’s exactly what I have done. Isn’t the sun a wonderful part of God’s plan? Is there sunshine in YOUR tummy? When you look at others, can you send some sunshine out to them through your smile?

Try it!

Of Utmost Concern by Mike Pearl

This article was written by Michael Pearl, homeschooler and bible teacher.
It can be viewed at www.nogreaterjoy.org
If you go to the web page you can also subscribe to a free newsletter that will bless your socks off!

Of Utmost Concern

by Mike Pearl

I think most of you feel as I do about many common issues. My most important personal concern is my children.

Even before I was married, my occupation, financial security, ministry, personal fulfillment, all took third place to concerns for my future children. “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Likewise, what does it profit a father if he gains the whole world and loses the souls of his children?

What can be called success if your children turn out to be part of the world’s problem rather than its cure? What satisfaction can there be in the comforts of material success if your children grow up needing counsel rather than being sought after to give counsel? If your children lie awake at night suffering from guilt and anxiety, being gnawed upon by the demons of intemperance and self-indulgence, how can you enjoy your food or your pillow?

The success of a tree and a man is measured by the fruit that is borne. The fruit of a man or woman is their children; everything else is falling leaves.

If the sun rises and sets and I never cast a bigger shadow, what of it, if my children are growing and flourishing in God’s family?

Let me die poor; let me die early; let me be ravaged by disease; just let my children rise up and call me blessed. Let me not measure my giving by the dollars I spend on them or the educational opportunities that my station in life affords them, but rather, by the hours I spend with them in fellowship.

May they graduate from my tutorship to become disciples of the Man from Nazareth. May they learn good and evil from the pinnacle of obedience rather than from the pit of despair. May they have the wisdom to choose the precious, and the courage to reject the trite and the vain things in life. May they always labor for the meat that endures.

May they be lovers of God, coworkers with the Holy Spirit, and a friend to the Lord Jesus. And when their trail ends, may it end at the throne of God, laying crowns at the Savior’s feet.

Pearl family in 1991

VIDEO: Pledge of Allegiance

This was our first day of school. They started learning the pledge in Awana's about a week before we started school. Pretty good for 3, 4 and 5 year olds!

Awana's Clubs

This was the first year for all three Chinnock kids to join a bona fide club. Awana’s is a Christian club whose goal is to reach boys and girls with the gospel of Christ and train them to serve him. Their main focus is scripture memory.
This year Augie joins other 3 through 5 year olds in “Cubbies”. They listen to a flannel board Bible story, sing their memory verses with a hand puppet of Cubby the bear cub and do games and crafts that reinforce the verse. Augie looks so handsome in his Cubbies vest. Now if only he would get over his shyness so that mommy can go to her ladies’ Bible study and not attend Cubbies with him!

Ardara and Huyler are in the kindergarten through 2nd grade group called Sparks. To earn their red vests they had to memorize several things:

1. the Pledge of Allegiance

2. The Awana’s Pledge

3. John 3:16

4. The Awana’s motto

5. The Spark’s song

Now that they have their vests, they have to show responsibility by wearing their vest and bringing their books and Bibles to the club each week. Then they can earn badges and pins for their vests by memorizing each new verse. The ability of young children to remember things amazes me. Most of you have already seen the video I made of the kids saying the pledge of allegiance (if you haven’t you can watch it on our web page!) but you may be interested to know that they can also tell you what each of the words means! Those smarties!

Off with a Bang! (But not the Big Bang)

Our school year started off with an introductory section that explored the seven days of creation. Each day the kids listened to another consecutive day of creation from Genesis. Then they colored a corresponding number with pictures of what was created that day. The number was cut out and glued on a poster in the right sequence. That number would be our “number of the day” that we looked for everywhere we went. Ardara is the champion number spotter. We could hardly get a word in edge-wise with her in the back seat of the van yelling “Six!!” and a minute later “Another Six!” It just so happens that Ardara was turning six very shortly after this lesson, and she was acutely aware of the beauty of that number—which was much bigger than five.

Our daily art project was centered on that day’s creation as well. After the first 7 days of school, we put the artwork in order and stapled it in a book cover to keep and review.

Days 8 through 10 were review days where each child got to use the poster or the book he or she had made to retell the story to everyone else. They were instructed to use the number of the day in their story telling to reinforce numbers and sequencing.

The final part of the day was music time and we learned the beautiful hymn “This is My Father’s World” by Maltbie Babcock. After the first week we even learned how to sing it in sign language. See the video that will be posted later this week!

The last day, we collected various indoor and outdoor items and glued them on a chart, separating them by “Created by God” and “Made by People”. It was a great way to kick off our Kindergarten curriculum “My Father’s World”.

Welcome

Welcome to the Chinnock Family Education Blog!
We will post on here videos of the things we can share that way. We will also post parts of our newsletter, the Barometer, for those of you who prefer to read it online. Anything else I think would interest our readers will be here, too!
Tasha