The Best

I first need to say that getting rid of our home computer and moving just to my laptop as done wonders for me getting off the computer. Not that I was on it a lot, but I found it too easy to get on before. Now I almost loath it! My laptop is slow and often crashes and it takes me a much longer time to check my emails. Making a comment on someone's blog takes up to 5 minutes. So that little experiment is working well. Maybe too well?

Back to the point. I've been reading Charlotte Mason's Original works. (Lazy can be really pushy that way sometimes). I've wanted to buy them for years, but have never gotten around to it. Remember they are on one of the recommended reading lists in the back of the TJEd book.

I have had "aha" after "aha" with these books. I wish I had read them BEFORE I had children. This was the owner's manual I was always wishing I had. I will make sure Olivia does a through study of them before she becomes a mom though. Lots of gems in those books. I could write for years on some of my thoughts from them and I've only read two of them.

Last night I was finishing up book two. I sure wish every adult would read book two. They sum up one of my husband's campaign points, "The Family is the First Sovereign Unit of Society." That's one of the "truth's that we hold self-evident" or at least we should, but everyone seems to be forgetting. All of a sudden parents aren't capable of making choices for their family.....I digress again....

A couple of months ago there was a heated topic in "The Great Debate/Conversation" about why we all wanted "the best" for our children. Wouldn't it be more realistic to be happy with good and better things and not be so fixated on the best? I maintain that having the best in our family should be our ideal. Sometimes that means letting go of some really good things. Sometimes that makes us look weird. Sometimes that even challenges our thought process. Sometimes we have to do hard things. We've all read Elder Oaks extensively in that discussion. He says our ideal should be the best.

Moving on to Charlotte though. I discovered some quotes from Charlotte Mason about the very same topic. Here are her two bits:

"Children must be Nurtured on the Best. ...They must grow up upon the best. There must never be a period in heir lives when they are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading-made-easy. There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told...and we shall train a race of readers who will demand literature-that is, the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life." Book 2, "Parents and Children" pg.263.

"Children must have the Best Books. One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough; and if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child's intellectual life." Book 2, "Parents and Children" pg. 279.

Thank you Charlotte. You bring up some excellent points.

Charlotte Mason loved daises. I've always loved daises myself. Now I know why crazy4boys has daises everywhere. I want a daisy background. I'm going to buy some daisy seeds while I'm in town. Maybe I'll name my next girl Daisy.

Silas Marner

Silas Marner by George Eliot


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a great read! I decided that I was going to read harder books to my 10 and 9 year old. I didn't know if we could do it but we did!

This beautiful book is about a man who was wronged in many ways and flees town. He settles into a new town vastly different than the one he was from. Since he is new he is viewed as different and questionable. He spends the first 15 or so years there in isolation as a weaver. As he spends every moment spinning his gold his money piles up. It becomes his obsession.

One dark day someone comes and steals his beloved gold. Silas, our weaver, is devastated. A short time later a little girl shows up that is unknown and orphaned. Silas takes in this young child and raises her. His heart melts and he changes himself. He becomes a part of the community.

But who is this girl and where did she come from? Will he ever find his gold again?

This book is a tough read. The first several chapters I had to explain a lot of things to my boys. Sometimes we wouldn't make it past a couple of sentences with out having to talk about it. We pushed through. They were riveted. The classic went through them.

Several times when we would be doing family work Jared, (my 10 year old), would ask me ask me questions. "Why did that man take Silas' money?" "Why did the town people think Silas was bad just because he was different?" "Why did Silas only care about his gold?" Jared asked many thought provoking questions.

The main principle played out in this book is that even if you repent a price still must be paid. It really gave the boys (and me) a lot to think about. Other values portrayed include love, forgiveness, work, friendship, family bonds and marital relationships.

This was a beautiful book with beautiful words.

We must not underestimate what are children can take in.

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02/06/09: Usborne

Today we had a fun day! This morning we read lots of books. Everyone was reading independently. This afternoon we had our home show for Usborne. That went well. The kids each presented a book(s) that they liked and why they liked them. They played with the friends who were coming and going all day. Olivia helped with the orders and helped people pick out books. Tonight we have a cousin spending the night. I worked on my college class amongst the comings and goings of the day. I visited an "afflicted" friend and gave her dinner. Alex went to a Republican District meeting. Good, fun day.

Story of the World

The'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/225951.The_Story_of_the_World_History_for_the_Classical_Child_Volume_1_Ancient_Times_From_the_Earliest_Nomads_to_the_Last_Roman_Emperor_Revised_Edition?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/49276.Susan_Wise_Bauer">Susan Wise Bauer

My'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/28323806?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
My children love these books. Well, they love listening to them over and over on CD. These books provide a solid historical outline of major historical events. Because my children listen to the Cd's over and over they practically have these books memorized. Once this solid outline is in place it is easy for me to pull a classic book off the self and read it to them and they can understand where in history this fits in. The CD's themselves (narrated by great voices) are on my top 5 homeschooling resources. Teaching World History could not be easier...

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Book by Aliki

Corn'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1107832.Corn_Is_Maize?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Corn Is Maize by My'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/42513415?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am finding that I really like the books by Aliki. I've been checking out all the books by her that I can from the library. Her books are old so the pictures are all in three or so basic colors and older drawings. However, we are still finding her books engaging and that we like the information.

In this book not only do you learn about corn from a science prospective but there is also a lot of history included.

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Beowulf

<> by Eric A. Kimmel

My review rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a nice book to expose my children to the epic poem "Beowulf." They liked the pictures and came away understanding one of Beowulf's adventures. We followed the book up with a 30 min video from the library entitled "Beowulf" by Schlessinger Media. The video recounts all three of Beowulf's adventures.

The'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1072531.The_Naked_Communist?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Naked Communist by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/138426.W_Cleon_Skousen">W. Cleon Skousen

My'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38478170?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I LOVED this book! I took my sweet time reading it and soaked up every word. This book reviews the history of communism from its rise with Marx until 1960. The only bad thing is that I would love to read "the rest of the story," meaning through to the present.

This book was extremely eye opening in regard to how communism was spread. It was frustrating reading about the lacsidasical attitude of government officials world wide who had blinders on and let the USSR run wild at the close of WWII. They never believed that the Russians were really "that bad." It was also interesting that while the world sat back and watched LDS church leaders like President Benson, J. Rueben Clark and David O. McKay were declaring from the pulpits for all to realize that communism was seeking to destroy our liberty. I wonder how many were listening? Is my family listening now?

Here are some quotes just so you know...

“The paths we are following, if we move forward thereon, will inevitably lead us to socialism or communism, and these two are as like as two peas in a pod in their ultimate effect upon our
liberties......We may first observe that communism and socialism—
which we shall hereafter group together and dub Satanism—cannot live with Christianity nor with any religion that postulates a creator.”
J. Rueben Clark Deseret News—September 25, 1949

"During the first half of the twentieth century we have traveled far into the soul-destroying land of socialism." Pres. McKay, Deseret News Oct. 18, 1952

“The aim and purpose...was then and is now world socialism, which communism seeks to achieve through revolution and which socialists seek to achieve through evolution.” Pres. Benson Oct. 1961-General Conference

Anyway...My edition was published in 1961. Here are a sampling of some of the communist goals at that time that I thought were still interesting nearly 50 years later... (see "Witness" by Whittaker Chambers also these lists are found from pages 259-262 in the book).

*Capture one or both of the political parties in the US.

*Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

*Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

*Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

*Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

*Break down cultural standards of morality be promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.

*Present homo-sexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

*Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

*Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture-education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics,etc

*Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

*Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

Okay, so that was only about 1/3 of them. I realize there may be some anti-communist propaganda involved with this book. However, with LDS church leaders crying out against communism I guess that's okay.

I believe that our nation is in jeopardy of being over ran with socialism. Socialism is just another face to communism. I believe that it is important to study these things so you can recognize fallacy in the political machines of our age.

The reason I read this book was because it was suggested by then President of the Church, David O. McKay, during General Conference of Oct. 1959. (I couldn't find this talk on line, but I did find numerous! on-line references to the talk Pres. McKay gave calling church members to read the book).

Here's a link to an article about Skousen writing the book. http://www.latterdayconservati...

It was interesting to learn that Pres. Monson was actually involved in the initial publishing of this book...

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Story of the World

Our family loves the Story of the World series! These books are written by Susan Wise Bauer. They are world history books written to be understood by 5-12 year olds. There are four volumes to this series.

The books are written in story form so they are fun to listen/read. The author highlights the major events in history. She also covers often forgotten places and times in history such as India and China. The world religions are also covered. Mrs. Bauer does not give her opinions, she only gives the history. The book would not serve as a review of Christianity, although Old Testament prophets are discussed. Your child will learn things like who settled Asia Minor, how Alexander the Great died, who made the pyramids, who brought Christianity to the Celts, how the Roman empire collapsed, who was Mohammed and much more. I love reading these books to them.

In addition to the books you are also able to buy study guides. These study guides are filled with activities that correspond with each chapter. For example there are maps to learn from and pictures to color. There are also study questions, narration helps (for you Charlotte Mason people) and references for additional books. We have found that our family doesn't use the activity books. They are certainly fun and I do recommend them-we just haven't used ours much. (That could be due to the fact that I'm a reader and not a doer. I don't believe it's any reflection on the activity books. They really are great workbooks!)

You are also able to purchase the audio CD's of the book. We have found that this is a must-have investment for our home. Our kids have listened to the CD's over and over. They listen to them in the car, at night or when they are playing legos. Because the books are so interesting they will keep listening to them. This has solidified their retention and comprehension of the history.

We find this a perfect overview for the elementary years of world history. From there you can branch off with the great literature she recommends in her activity books that give more insight into that time period. She has also starting writting the series in the same format at an adult level. I have not read those yet, but I will!

We highly recommend!

11/20/08: Scouts

Mom School
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Chapter 4: Pray with faith and True to the Faith: Prayer
Bible History: Writing on the wall (Daniel)
Friend Article
American History Literature: 3 chapters from Johnny Tremaine by Ester Forbes

American History: The Story of Valley Forge a Cornerstones of Freedom book by R. Conrad Stein
Literature: Read a simplified children's "Beowulf" out of The Story of the World 2 AND The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear and James Marshall
Character: 1 story from A Story to Tell by Desert Book
Read-a-loud: 2 chapters from The Hardy Boys #3
Memorization: First 35 presidents of the USA (I almost have them all done!!)
Family History: An autobiography of James Lick Hancock my maternal ggrandfather (We have several biographies of him so we'll be reading about him for a while).
Math Game: Played a fraction game by Discovery Toys
World History: Chapter 2 from Story of the World Vol. 2
Geography: Ancient Celtic, Norman and Saxon lands
Science: Looked up meteoroids on the Internet
PE: Lots of running around time in the gym
Reading: We take turns reading all of the above material everyday.
Science/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Olivia

Music: Practiced her voice lesson and she also practiced the recorder and the piano
Math: Lesson 56
Spelling: 1 spell drill

Language Arts: Proper Nouns and Common Nouns
Free Reading: Over 2 hours of Work and Glory #3
Life Skills: Swedish Pancakes and "Dirt" Cupcakes
Computers/Typing/Writing: Blogging and Good Reads Reviews

Jared
Music: Practiced the recorder
Science: Assembled a telescope and played with it for a while
Math: Lesson 54
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Phonics/Handwriting: 5 pages of Explode the Code
Computers/Typing: Good Reads and Library Requests
Reading: Read for 30 min
Pack Meeting for Scouts! He earned his wolf badge.

Luke and Caleb

Reading

Friend over

Family (in the evening):
Pack Meeting for Scouts

To Show Parent Scholar here are some things we modeled to the children today...
Deanna
Piano

Spell Drill

Good Reads Review

Read 1 hour which included part of my reading assignments for a constitutional class we are going to tomorrow.

Helped at the pack meeting as an assistant den mother

Alex

Went to work

Listened to Ender's Game
Partial readings for constitutional class

Creative Writing Ideas

You may think from all my huge entries everyday that I make my kids do stuff all day. That's not true. (I do make them do Math, Grammar and Spelling though-but most of the time they do that willingly and the rest of the time they just do because they know they need to. They understand the big picture). We spent half our day just reading books together. I especially don't "make" my kids write. I try to inspire them and I provide outlets for them though. Olivia is old enough now that she can read and write beyond fluently so we've allowed her to have a blog. It is a great way for to her to write/journal/create! Once your children get a certain level and if they would like it I recommend it highly. I've also found that reports on Good Reads (or other online bookshelves) is another great place they will naturally want to write. All of this comes with the added bonus of typing and computer skills! Both blogging and good reads allows for private accounts if you feel safer with that. It's also a good teaching oppourtunity about what information to share and not share on line.

Here's a recent blog post she made that I copied. She was "tagged" and had to tell 8 things about herself. She's experimenting with parenthesis, quotation marks, and humor. Another thing I find interesting is that she seems to always take the opportunity to bear her testimony. The rising generation truly is great. Anyhow.. here's a great activity that she CHOOSE to do... (Also I don't edit her posts. We talk about them some times.)

1. I love horses(bet ya didn't know that!) I love riding, I've ridden in snow and rain it doesn't keep me away!

2. I love computers and being on them. It's so fun. I enjoy every minute with them, unless of course I'm "mad" at them.

3. My dream vacation is a cruise on the Mediterranean, I want to go on a cruise sooooooo bad!

4. I'm at work today with my dad! I love the time here. Just to be on computers is a day of dreams to me (really it is)!

5. I love goodreads and to add books to my "to read" shelf. Most of them I don't know if I'll even read but it's fun to add them.

6. We went to T*** today and went shopping, I got some new "fake" nails (I'm running out of idea's).

7. I'm a total Conservative, I just can't stand Obama. To tell you the truth I almost puked when I found out he won! I just can't stand for him. As I would say to my parents, "my father has taught me well" just so all of you know my dad is the vice chair district 25 Republican party. I love it, stand for truth and right.

8. My favorite place to be is Southern Idaho, in small towns like D****** and R****** I just can't stand big cities, sometimes even Twin can be a little to big for me. I have seen quite a bit of the US compared to most people my age, and I choose here (of course I have been here the longest). I do like SLC (Salt Lake City) but just temple square. Always having to drive slow, it's just not fun! And most of all there isn't any horses! Well there are but not western style (western style riding) horses.

As you can see I can have big opinions and they matter to me. I stand for truth and right. I don't let evil get in my way. It's hard I can tell you, it's not like there aren't trials. Last but not least and once again, I stand for truth and right.

Curriculum Review

George Washingon: Young Leader by August Stevenson

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

So far I've been really impressed with this series. My children really seem to be connecting to the people and are really getting a feel for what it was like to live and grow up during that time period.

I was really impressed with how great George Washington was. It's inspired me to read an adult bio of him sooner than later.

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Book Review

Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Well, I finally got around to Walden...

First off I really liked some parts of the books. There were some great thoughts on personal leadership that I took to heart. I also enjoyed his musings on early mornings and reading classics. And while I enjoyed them I can't say there was anything really revelatory for me personally though.

I struggled with some of the book. It was just plain boring to me. The overall message of the book-simplify your life-was definitely a great one. However, I think there needs to be a more middle ground than the life he enjoyed at Walden. This of course he himself only enjoyed for two years.

Overall, good theme, good message, thoughts to mull over, but still lacking somewhat in reality for me.

I will probably read this again later to study it more.

As for the second book "Civil Disobedience" I enjoyed that one a whole lot more. I would give that one four stars. I agreed with most of his points about government. Some were slightly idealistic but I definitely felt that I benefited from his perspective.

The whole concept of civil disobedience is important to me and I have repeatedly talked to my children about it. I think the movie "National Treasure" is a perfect example of this. Ben felt that he needed to break the law. He felt that was the right choice. HOWEVER, he was willing to pay the price for breaking the law. He felt it was more important to break the law and fix the problem then to sit back and do nothing and thereby avoid prison. This example I have hammered in repeatedly to my children. "You must be willing to face the consequences." Of course another example of this is our revered Founding Fathers.


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Daily Schedule for 9/22/08

Today, among other things, we had a piano recital. Jared and I played a piano solo. Olivia was invited to sing since she's been having voice lessons. I played because my cardinal rule of mothering is I won't "make" my kids do anything I'm not willing to do myself. In TJEd terms that would be "Inspire Not Require." The kids did great!



Both
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel , Lesson 3: Faith in Jesus Christ
Bible History: Saul Becomes King
Biography/American History: 1 Chapter of The Young Tom Jefferson
Read-a-loud: 3 Chapters of The Horse and His Boy- We finished it!
Family History: The life sketch of Olive Ward, my grandmother and Olivia's namesake
Music: Piano Recital today!!!
Geography: Appalachian Mountains
Science: The fossil record, What your 4th Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, pgs 313-320
Math Game: Cashflow for kids by Rich Dad Poor DadScience/Pet Care: Jared and Olivia each have a hamster that they are responsible for. They also take turns caring for our dog, cat and sea monkeys.

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 20
Math Drill: Multiplication Wrap-ups 3's and 4's
Logic: 1 Suduku puzzle
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Handwriting/Phonics: 5 Pages from Explode the Code
Writing: Oral book report of A Horse and His Boy
Free Reading: 20 minutes of A Magic Tree House book
Reading: 45 minutes of his McGuffy Reader
Science/Scouts: He made a healthy habits chart for a requirement
PE: 1 hour of trampoline and outside running around crazy




Olivia
Music: Voice Lesson practice
Art: Working on a Power Point slide show
Math: Lesson 20
Spelling: 1 Spell Drill
Language Arts: Proper Nouns
Writing: Typed a book report onto Good Reads for A Horse and His Boy
Computers: Blogging/Power Point/Good Reads
Typing: All the computer work
Free Reading: 30 minutes of The Work and The Glory #2
Life Skills: Dusting
PE: Walked to the school and back

Daily Schedule for 9/03/08

BOTH
Pray/Pledge
Theology: Preach My Gospel, Lesson 2: Our Premortal life and early Protestant reformers
Bible History: Walls of Jericho
Biography/American History: Squanto's Journey by Joseph Bruchac and The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds (French and Indian War)
Read-a-loud: 1 Chapter of The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

Jared
Music: Practiced his piano lesson
Math: Lesson 10
Math Drill: Wrap-up's: Multiplication 10's, Subtraction 10's, Division 1's and 2's
Spelling: 1 Spell Drill
Handwriting/Phonics: Explode the Code, 5 pages
Creative Writing: Told me orally and I typed a book report onto Good Reads from his latest book Free Reading: 30 min
PE: 30 min of jumping on the trampoline

Olivia
Music: Voice Lesson Practice
Art: 1 hour of drawing
Math: Lesson 10
Spelling: 1 spell drill
Language Arts: Verbs
Free Reading: At least 2 hours
Life Skills: Helping to babysit a 2 and 4 year old all day
PE: 30 minutes of jumping on the trampoline
Government: Listen to Palin's speech on TV and discussed it with Alex

A great book for homeschool culture in the family...

So Much More by Anna Sofia Botkin and Elizabeth Botkin

My review:

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! This book is controversial! They directly assaulted Marxism, individualism and socialism in convincing fashion and come out, in my opinion the winner. Not only does it attack Marxism but it openly assaults the general Christian population and says they are way off also.

It sure challenged my beliefs in many things, and for the most part has actually changed how I view things. I find myself challenging things in society in my head now and asking questions. "Who said this is the way it is suppose to be?"

My husband and I have had a lot of conversations about this and we also watched the video that goes along with the book. This is a great book to study with your older children after you have read it. A great book for homeschooling families. I just can't get over it, so much to think about. So many things to ask questions about and challenge.

The only thing I didn't agree with was some of the theology in the book, especially relating to Adam and Eve. At the same time I actually agreed with a whole lot more in theology than I even thought that I would.

If you dare to read this book you'll either come out loving it or absolutely hating it. Many will rebel against the ideas presented, but it will sure make you think...

A life changer...

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