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School today teaches a feel-good, politically correct teachings which have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up
for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world
will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about
yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.
You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a
boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your
Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called
it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t
whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as
they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning
your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought
you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of
your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but
life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades
and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right
answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in
real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers
off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND
YOURSELF. Do that on your own time..
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually
have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
If you can read this – Thank a teacher! If thats your Mom or dad, give them a hug!
Okay, it has been a very long time since I have updated things. I thought I would share what we have been doing in school and in home.
Here is what is going on with the family
Halloween was the last time I updated. Halloween! Gosh, tons of stuff has happened since then. We went to Colonial Allensworthxc for Thanksgiving which was a real treat. The family spent some really nice time together playing games, taking walks and eating fantastic food cooked by Mom.
Christmas was the usual rush. We survived that just fine. Russ built a room for me so I could have enough room for everyone. We spent New Years at Moms again. Nothing special to report except for Beth made midnight.
January was fun with Nick turning 9. He celebrated at Disneyland and then we went to Lego Land Aquarium. He had a great time!
Now it is February and we have a lot of ground to cover. I’ll keep you posted.
Here is what we have going on in school:
In November we hosted a Fun on the Farm craft day. We made all kinds of really cute crafts. December schooling only lasted a short while for us as we were busy making decorations and stuff. We typically school for the first week of December and take off the rest for winter break.
January was great fun with the fire safety class that we had. Many kids joined us in learning about fire safety. The Children really loved when the firemen came with their fire truck.
We have also begun an art class with the kids. We have a couple of other families joining us with that. I will be posting what we do so you can see how to teach art appreciation to your students.
Well, that is it in a nutshell. I am hoping to keep a bit more regular postings as we finish out the rest of the year. Please bare with me as I do a lot of things in a month and before I know it, time is gone………………….
Halloween was an awesome time for our family. We did so many fun things. We decorated our house all spooky and watch movies with the fog machine on. We ate out of our pumpkin plates and drank out of our pumpkin cups and glasses. We made some awesome costumes for the kids to run and trollop in. We Celebrated Birthdays at Disneyland and got our fill of Disney rides. Then, as Halloween came nearer, the parties began. Oh what a fun time we all had during this festive month.
It all started with Nick and Beth joining their school friends for a Trick or Treat Party.
Click to view the fun pictures.
Later that night Russ and I went to a Cool, yes with a capital “C”, party.
On Halloween Day, we were invited back to a private party with the kids. Boy, was that a hoot.
The next day we spent at Gram and Gramps house. It was a pretty fun holiday.
Sweet potatoes are a common addition to most Thanksgiving meals. My favorite way to eat them is sweetened with pineapple. It gives a tangy, sweet and scrumptious addition to Thanksgiving. Here is how to make it.
Take 3 large cans of yams and drain
add one can of crushed pineapple with Juice
add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of brown sugar
mix or blend until there are no lumps.
spoon in 1/2 pack of mini marshmallow
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until all the marshmallow’s are melted.
Sprinkle the remaining marshmallow’s and bake for 10 more minutes.
Enjoy!
Tags: Sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving recipes
One thing for sure is; when it comes to schooling we get creative.
I am not one to sit and push paper after paper at my kids. I never knew a kid that enjoyed learning that way. Kids like things that are visual. They learn and retain the information better. That is why I believe every homeschool classroom needs to have some sort of visual element to it.
Have you decided to homeschool your kids and not provide them with some sort of regular learning environment? If you have not put aside someplace for your kids to learn you are going to make your school year challenging for not only you but your children. This is especially true if you have grade school children. Visualization helps to reinforce what it is that you are teaching and what they are learning.
When we decided to study entomology we started off with a small bulletin board. But then, as we began making our projects we found that we were going to quickly run out of room. I had always liked when we made a tree for our wall and added our fall leaves for decoration but this year I thought I would go a little further and make it 3D. This began as a great idea but quickly turned into a challenge when I decided to look on line for others who had built trees. I had figured that I could find lots of ideas on line but I was totally wrong. The web had very few ideas and the ones they had were very elaborate and expensive to build. So, I got my creative juices flowing and Tada, a free standing tree in the middle of my classroom.
Now that it is there we can continue our study of entomology and we now have the freedom to study biology, learn about birds, discover the differences of regions and so much more. Really, the sky is the limit.
Another great thing about having the tree is we can incorporate our art projects and add them to the tree to watch it grow. When we study birds we can make birds for art and attach it to the tree. Same goes for monkeys or snakes, anything that lives in a tree we can study and add to it.
We can study the seasons too and as they change we can change the leaves that are on the tree. With this project, we can leave it up all year and change with it. Then, periodically we can refer to it asking the kids questions about the things on the tree which will help them to remember what they have learned.
Now, I am not saying that you need to make a great big tree in the middle of your living room but I am pointing out that with homeschooling you can be as creative as you would like. I am saying get visual in your learn space. Don’t forget that school needs to be fun and educational for the children to have maximum growth.
Keep watching for more post about how you can make your school year not only victorious, but rewarding too.
L
Tags: bugs, bulliten boards, encouragement, entomology, family fun, homeschool, homeschool deals, homeschool science projects, insects, kids, resources, school help, school projects, school tips, Science, things to do with your kids, training, trees
Swimming in the pool every day, barbeques and parties are all the fine things that make summer so fun and relaxing. Well, those lazy summer days are just about finished. It is time to hang up your towels, put away your flip-flops and get out the schedules. The school year is about to start and there are a few things you can do to help make the beginning of your school year the start of something wonderful.
Start a schedule
You will find that having a schedule is the key to success. Schedule in when you will work, teach, clean house and take time for yourself. Most experienced home schooled moms will tell you that having a schedule not only keeps your life running smoothly, but it helps children know what to expect on a daily basis. Personally, I keep several calendars. It helps keep each thing that I have to do in order so I can jump from one thing to another easily.
Main calendar- This calendar sets aside the things that I am going to do in that month
For instance
7:00 to 8:00 will be my time for getting ready
9:00 to 2:00 is school. During this time, I pull out my school calendar.
2:00 to 4:00 is work. During this time, I pull out the work calendar.
4:00 to 9:00 is home and family. This is where I have scheduled any doctor’s appointments, kid’s activities, farm chores etc…
Then I have three more calendars, which tracks my daily work.
Work calendar- The work calendar list what work assignments and deadlines I have.
School calendar- The school calendar list what we are working on, our assignments, our deadlines of field trips
Home calendar- The home calendar helps me to keep household chores on time and in order. Now, I have a farm and farming tasks need to be done therefore, I have farm tasks and house tasks scheduled.
Now, you do not need to go crazy like me, I must be organized for my brain to think, but you must have some sort of plan for your school year. When are you going to school, what times, what days, and how many hours? You must decide and stick to it!
Have fun assignments!
I once knew a woman who complained that she could not get her kids to like school. She told me they only schooled for about 2 hours a day and the kids were unhappy and complained the whole time. She was worried that even though they seemed to do well, they were not reaching their full potential.
After spending time discussing what she did for curriculum I was lead to the conclusion; know wonder, your kids are bored. She would give them work sheets every day. Three for each subject and that was it. She tested on Friday to see their progress. Ugg! That is not school, that is torture.
School needs to be fun. Kids need interaction, hands on, gooey, messy and fun. Children need and want to be challenged. The libraries and bookstores are loaded with fun and interesting ideas for you. Get out of the box!
Take school outside.
No one said you had to do school in a classroom (or a kitchen table). Sometimes it is easy to take school outside. I am not just talking field trips here, which is a terrific idea but I mean school outside. After all, school just started and you will have warm weather for a couple of months. My kids have always loved when I packed a picnic and some schoolbooks and headed to the creek for some learning. After picking a spot and setting up our blanket and a picnic, we read aloud for a while and then have a discussion. Then we play in the creek pretending to be someone that we had studied. Perhaps we act out Lewis and Clark and pretend that we are in the wilderness. We will discuss what we are doing, perhaps draw a map, and pretend to make a campfire. After lunch we can discuss water current, trees, take water samples for science just about anything. The best part is the kids were learning as they were playing so it was really school in disguise.
Jammy school-
I am a believer in schedules and routines, but sometimes we are caught up in our days and lives and even though we should, we just do not want to get up out of bed. This is especially true when the weather turns cold and wet. That is why I love Jammy day. We read stories in bed and have great discussions about them. We cook a great lunch and call it cooking class. We play educational board games like Carmen San Diego for geography. Sometimes we watch a great movie that has an educational background like Really Wild Animals for the kids or Roots for the teens. Before we know it, the day is done and we had a full day of instruction. Sometimes you have to ditch the routine and just relax with school.
Arts and Crafts
Nothing breaks up a bunch of brainy days with some relaxing school. Arts and Crafts always provide a break from the dreary. Again, there are many resources for you to teach your children some simple arts and crafts, which not only will break up their day, but you can add it as part of the curriculum that you are studying.
Some people like to dive into the school schedule. Regrettably they find that 3 months into the school year they are burning out. Having a bit of creativity can increase not only your staying power but also your desire to teach. Break up your week with fun activities and your children will not dread going to school. School in places other than a classroom and your children will think they are the luckiest kids in the world, nope, on the planet!
Yep, school is just about to start for us. The classroom is ready and the books are bought. The kids are getting to bed a little earlier each night and I am getting to a morning schedule. Practice for the real show? You bet. School actually starts after Labor Day, so I am leaving my flip-flops out for a little longer.
Tags: family, first day of school, homeschool, kids, parents looking for help, resources, school help, school projects, school tips, starting school, teaching, things to do with your kids, training
