Heat and Light & Cold and Dark, Temple Destruction, Passover vs Communion, and Writing About Self-Drawings

*Sunday, February 7:  Jade did Explode the Code.  I don't have recorded any of our conversations.

*Monday, February 8:  At breakfast, while stirring his hot oatmeal, Jaden said that he wished God didn't make steam.  So, I explained to him that he should actually be thankful for the steam for the same reason he thought he should be unthankful.  I told him that steam was evaporated water caused from heat rising from the surface of his oatmeal, that it was what allowed it to cool.  Over breakfast we talked about heat migration, which then led to my explaining that "cold" was a relative term and did not actually exist.  Only heat exists.  Cold is simply a loss of heat.  The more "cold" something is, the less heat it has.  I went on to say that light and dark carried the same truth.  Light exists.  Dark does not.  "Dark" is a relative term meaning a loss of light.   In the theory of absolute zero, there is no molecular movement.  No kinetic energy.  No heat, no energy.  Complete darkness would be the absence of light.  We also talked about wind, air currents, and thunder. 

He did two pages in Grade 1 Complete Curriculum for writing and wrote four sentences about snow and played outside in the snow.  He was supposed to write a paragraph and indent, but he did not.  I intend to make him redo it, but I have not yet.  Basically everything else was okay, though.

We talked about prophecy and the destruction of the temple after the bible story reading of the day.  I told him about the "Wailing Wall," the western wall of the second temple that still remains...until the prophecy is fulfilled and not one stone is left upon another.  I showed him pictures on Google images of the temple wall still standing.  He gets amazed about things like that, the wall still standing after nearly two millennia.

Also he brought up the true feasts of God and the false ones adopted from the fornicating whore church from heathen religions.  He said, "Those should be thrown in the trash can," referring to the latter ones, "and God's should not be in the trash, and that's how it will be when God's kingdom is on the earth, and right now Satan's kingdom is ruling."  "Yes!  You're right," I said.  I asked what would happen to Satan and his fellow rulers behind the scenes.  He rightly said, "Locked up!"

He also learned how to curl paper with his scissors.

*Tuesday, February 9:  Jade did two pages of Grade 1 C.C. writing.  He and Trusten watched ladybug videos on Youtube; two were about ladybugs being beneficial garden insects by eating aphids, one was how to draw a cartoon ladybug, and the fourth was a cute ladybug song.  I highly recommend the last video for young children.  I played it for them again and watched it myself. Afterward, Jade drew a cartoon ladybug.

After reading the bible story of the day, I explained what one of the side pictures and captions meant by communion or the Lord's Supper.  I explained briefly the Catholic mass and the Protestant traditions vs. the annual observation of the new testament Passover that is commanded for true Christians. 

Jade wanted to make some iced tea, so I instructed him, and he made some.  He was very pleased with himself.

At bedtime, during story time, I talked about hermit crabs, including how I'd had one as a child and was pinched and bled.  I also mentioned the time my sister and I brought some back from the Gulf of Mexico during our family trip to Florida one summer; I told him they died, I guess because they were used to saltwater or didn't have the right food.  Maybe we just forgot to take care of them until too late.  I really do not know why.  Maybe I should look into this. 

*Wednesday, February 10:  Jade did one writing page in G1CC, one reading lesson in Gr. 2 CC, and two math pages in Gr. 2 CC.  After Nathan built a fire, and Jade threw a wadded-up paper towel in the wood stove, I explained to Jaden about physical vs. chemical changes to matter.  I told him if he'd have torn the paper towel into small bits, it would still be the same chemical structure.  It would still be paper towel, just in little bits.  As we stared at the ashy form of the now-destroyed paper towel, I explained that its chemical composition had changed now because of the fire.  I told him some physically-broken things could be put back together, but once something is burned, there is no piecing it back together.

Jade decided to use some of his money to buy some green personalized pencils, so we found some online, and he counted out $12.98 for me.

We read the first chapter of "Skeletons in the Closet" by Gary Parker (a creation-based fossils book for children.

*Thursday, February 11:  While reading the daily proverb, I explained in detail how and why a brother offended is hard to be won over again (Prov. 8:19) while playing it out with wooden people from his wooden toy set.  We also discussed that to have friends you must be friendly and talked about laziness and wastefulness.  In the bible story of the day, we talked about how Jesus prayed for all believers to be "one." 

Jade did two writing pages, 1 reading lesson, and 2 math pages.  We took a nice walk up our hill and walked around a bit.  We read "Dinosaurs, Two of a Kind" (Trust's pick) and "Babar's Children" (Jade's pick) and discussed things with Trusten, because there was a quiz in the back of his book pick.

The boys played in the snow and the dry creek bed.  That night we watched one of our movies again, "One Night with the King," which is about the Jewish queen Esther of Persia.  I ordered some "Great Courses" from the Teaching Company.

*Friday, February 12:  Jade did Explode the Code.  We cleaned the house.  Jade is doing a wonderful job of volunteering to do things.  He helped make macaroni and cheese. 

*Sabbath, February 13:  The boys sabbath school lesson was about the sabbath being holy.  After the sabbath, I played a game of chess with Jaden William, and I had to stop and lecture him about his need of obedience and getting his priorities straight before we could begin playing. After we finished playing, Jade cut out some paper hearts, and I helped Trusten start cutting on some paper.  Trusten also practices snapping the clips on Liv's bouncer.

*Sunday, February 14:  In the morning I played them a books of the bible song on Youtube.  I played three different ones, but the one I have linked was my favorite, so I have a desktop bookmark for it so I can play it for the boys regularly.  It's a little "rockier" than I'd like it to be, but it's not too bad, in my opinion.  Jade really likes the rap one I played.  At some point in the day I remembered it was the day many in our society keep, St. Valentine's Day, one of entirely-too-many Catholic holidays, this one being in honor of a supposed "saint" (says the Roman church) by the name of Valentine.  After cleaning the house, we all went grocery shopping together.  Well, I went in by myself, and the children stayed in the truck with Nathan.  I picked up a pizza from the Ozark Natural Foods deli, and we ate that when we got back.  We then had company come over.  It was one of our friends Paul and his wife.  That was the first time I met Lisa.  We all had a nice visit.  After they left, we watched a documentary on the "Dark Ages."  Jade learned more about the bubonic plague, which is something on which I've briefly touched before, including explaining a song that children sing and dance to called "Ring Around the Rosies."

*Monday, February 15: Jade did a reading lesson, some writing, and some math.  I briefly explained loans and financing, because Nathan got me a new truck:  a 2010 Toyota Tundra Crew Max.  I really like it!  I do NOT like how it drinks gas.  I listed that as an important criterion (it was his idea to get a new vehicle, and he's been pressing me for months), but that went out the window.  However, I will say that it's been my favorite truck for as long as I can remember.  I figured I would not ever have one, especially during child-rearing years.  But, wow, the backseat of that thing is very spacious.

Jade talked about how he thought cold water is heavy and so falls (it was snowing), so we talked a little about how it all works.  He said something rather humorous.  He said the deep freezer, since it was cold, would drop from the sky.  I laughed, and then I explained that it would fall because of the law of gravity.  He said, "Yeah, but hot water goes up."  Well, he thinks of everything.

On this day, it was also through him that I got a satisfactory answer for something I'd been pondering to God.  I never brought up my pondering to Jade.  I never have to.  It's not the first time he has been used to answer my questions.  He came up to me, and in his wisdom, he said, "I know how there is an end of numbers, and there is no end."  My ears were perked, because what I had been meditating on was how God can say he's eternal and yet also the beginning and end.  I'd been seriously thinking about this over the past few days before Jade came to me with this comment.  He has talked about numbers and infinity before.  It seems to come up every few months.  So, anyway, I said, "Tell me."  He said, "It's like a circle.  With a circle, there is a beginning and and end, but it also doesn't end.  It ends where it begins."  Now, that may not be a direct quote, but that's basically what he said.  Aha!  I thanked him greatly, and he was so delighted and tickled.  Well, maybe this sort of thing is obvious to some, but I often overlook the obvious. 

Trust loves to play with water.  This is okay, but it becomes not okay when he wanders off to the bathroom, grabs a cup and pours water into the toilet, and in the process gets water all over the floor.  So, I cleaned up the mess, and I explained to him that whenever he wants to play with water to just tell me and ask nicely, and I'll get him set up with some stuff, as long as he does not make a mess all over the floor.  I got an unused cookie sheet that I keep for the kids' play (b/c it was nonstick Teflon, so I stopped using it years ago), a large yogurt container (those I save back and reuse, too), some of the plastic measuring cups that the boys use for play, and a big plastic spoon.  Oh, yes, I also let him play with one of my steel cake pans (that I do use).  He was pleased with that, and he kept his promise by not making a mess on the floor. 

Snow, House and Body, Good Wife, Natural Disasters, Diamonds, and Ladybugs

It's been over a month since I've updated.  We went on a trip week before last and so were gone for a few days.  Before that Jade worked on his writing lessons, and we went through some animal science lessons.  We read our daily proverbs, bible stories, and prayer book.  He still does Explode the Code on Sundays and Fridays.

Youtube videos watched during that period were:  acrobats w/ trapeze, a Powerpoint presentation on the six days of creation, lions, blue whale, "The Atom" animated, seal eating salmon, seal eating a fish, seals and penguins on coast of Argentina; and Crawford the Cat:  Lets Everyone Play, Practice Makes Perfect, "Try a Bite" Club, Crawford & Harriet Work Together

My friend Angela came over on Jan. 6 with her two girls.  She and I visited while the kids played.  Another day we visited another friend Amy and her two girls at Barnes & Noble.  I bought the boys a new Berenstain Bears book.  Apparently they now have a bible-based series.  We own over fifty BB books, and the boys love them.  The BBs are Jade's favorite, which equates to my being burned out on them.  Thankfully he's reading better by himself all the time (but he still likes stories read and sits while I read to both boys). 

We've also had a lot of snow, which Jade has absolutely loved.  He talked all last summer about wanting a lot of snow and that he prayed God would bring him snow.  WELL!  We've had plenty of it.  We've already seen more snow than we ever have since living here, and we're probably going to get more. 

It sleeted where we were while we were on our trip visiting family and my friend Lindsey.  My dad pulled Jaden on a sled behind his MTV.  Also the boys got to watch the movie Swiss Family Robinson, which is the book we started but have not yet finished.  My mother bought the movie for them.

The day we left I had fixed muffins that morning, which is what I most often fix.  Trusten wanted to watch and help.  He asked, "What is that?" I explained to him all the ingredients that had to go into the batter and explained that it then had to bake.  I said that all the ingredients had to be put together just right and in the right amount and had to be baked before we end up with muffins.

I said, "It's just like how we were made from water and dirt from the earth, but if you went outside and just mixed dirt and water together, you would get mud.  But, if you put together certain minerals and things from the dirt in specific amounts and arranged it correctly with the water, then you could get our bodies or the bodies of dogs or tigers or other animals, depending on which recipe or instructions" you use.   "Ooooh," he said.  "I see."  :-)  Then both the boys listened to me explain different measures, and how it took two half cups to equal the same as a cup.

Now since we got back:

*Wednesday, February 3:  I lectured Jade about how a house and the human body is similar.  He knows a little about building, so I quizzed him about the order a structure is built.  I then asked him to guess the which parts in our bodies to which those things corresponded.  He guessed some correctly; others he did not, but he did a good job guessing.  We talked about the foundation.  Then I explained that our skeleton is our framework, the muscles our reinforcement/strength, our network of nerves the electrical wiring, the plumbing our digestive system and partly our circulatory system, our fat our insulation, our skin and glands (and most specifically the hypothalamus) our climate control (HVAC), and so on. 

Jade asked about our bones, and I explained that they're mostly made of calcium, which is a white mineral.  He asked why bones aren't completely white, and I explained it's because they are not 100% calcium but also have phosphorus and a small amount of other things and are also surrounded by our other blood and tissues.  I told him calcium was a pretty hard mineral and that our teeth are also made of it.  I then told him it was not the hardest mineral, but rather that diamonds are.  I said, "Can you imagine if we had a framework made of diamond?!"

We also read some out of a book called Charlie Brown's Fifth Super Book of Questions and Answers.  We read about machines, especially levers and inclined planes.  This is a topic that we discussed not too long ago, but we didn't read there about it. 

When we read our daily proverb, I explained to the boys some differences between a virtuous woman (or excellent wife, as the note renders it) and a lazy harlot.   I explained that the former was good to her husband and did not lust after other men to commit adultery, she took good care of his children, kept a clean and neat house, and fed her family nutritious food.  I explained that the latter disrespected her husband with her words and actions, lusted after other men and may physically commit adultery with them, didn't safeguard her children or keep a clean house.  I told the boys that I'd read and seen people who had food and dirty dishes throughout their house and trash and dirty clothes on the floors and that such people often abused bad drugs.  I said that some houses would be tearing apart and that some people even left rotting carcasses in the kitchen that would spread bacterial infection and would attract flies.  Jade said that he knew those flies would hatch maggots on the rotting meat.  I then said that I've read of people who leave their babies in dirty diapers for up to days, and they would have clothes soaked with urine and unchanged bedding that had urine on it.  The boys were listening intently, and Trusten said, "Momma."  I looked at him.  He said, "People do that?"  :-(  I said, "Yes, some people do that.  Isn't that sad?"

I also talked about how people and trees can be likened to each other and that just as trees could be struck by lightning, blown down by strong winds, rot, or cut down by someone who was not impressed with its fruitlessness; people who were unfruitful and wicked would also be uprooted or cut down by God. 

We talked a bit about drugs: the good and the bad, the bad usage of the good, and the three categories/reasons of/for drugs (medicinal, religious, and recreational).  This conversation was sparked, because Jaden was playing like he was a cheetah, and he came up to me complaining that his leg was injured and that he needed it put in a cast.  I pretended to put a cast on it, and then I pretended to give him a painkilling medication by mouth.  He took it, and then he gave me a look of uncertainty and said, "Was that good?"  So, I briefly explained the good and the bad and the three reasons why we use drugs, which are made by God, and I also explained briefly about how synthetic manufactured drugs are mostly dangerous, both those made "legal" by the U.S. government and those "illegal" by the U.S. government that individuals manufacture (such as methamphetamine).  I discussed briefly what horrible things happen to a person who uses meth and what kind of horrible things go into making it.  Drugs can be good, and drugs can be bad.  Food can be good, and food can be bad.  God made them both for our proper use.

Jade did a reading lesson in the Grade 2 Complete Curriculum and a writing lesson from the Grade 1 CC. 

Thursday, February 4: Jade requested to do a reading lesson from the Grade 2 CC.  He's doing really well with it.   He also wanted to do math, so he did some math in the Grade 2 CC book.  The bible story of the day dealt with Christ letting those who helped others in need into his kingdom and rejecting those who did not help others (separating the sheep and the goats).  I reminded the boys that we should want to help those in need and that not everyone had the blessings which we enjoy.  One of our favorite organizations is Save the Children.  I reminded him of the earthquake in Haiti and how Save the Children uses the money from those who donate to help the people get clean water, food, and other needs, and how other people use their time to go help.  He then asked more about earthquakes, which then led to volcanoes, which led to diamonds (again). 

Youtube:  how volcanoes form, how earthquakes form, seismic waves inside the earth, how diamonds are formed, carbon and diamonds

Friday, February 5: Jade did his Explode the Code lesson.  He made a ladybug habitat from one of the big yogurt containers that I keep to reuse.  He is going to collect ladybugs from our house.  I suggested he study ladybugs in this way, because we've had ladybugs in our house all winter.  They have apparently hibernated in a wall somewhere and are coming in.  We see them mostly around the window to Liv's room. 

Youtube scheduled for today or tomorrow (Sun. or Mon.):  ladybugs, controlling aphids with beneficial bugs, how to draw a cartoon ladybug, Frank Leto's Ladybug, Ladybug song

Until next time....

A Break From Written Work, Snow for Jade!

I like how things have been going...reminds me of how it used to be before Trusten was born.  I've gone more slowly with the "going-in-order" books.  Jade has about a month's worth of his first grade writing lessons left, and then we'll start on Complete Curriculum for Grade 2.  In science, we just do whatever comes up on a certain day, and if nothing does, then I'll usually do a lesson in the animal science book, and then they watch related videos when it's Youtube time, and we may look at other books that share related material.  I really like it this way.  Same with history.  We've finished the Drive Thru History dvd series.  It won't be the only time they're watched.  We haven't done any book history work on a regular basis for may months.  We'll soon start Volume 1 of Mystery of History, which teaches world history in a way that the history recorded in the bible is taught chronologically alongside history in other parts of the world (like the Far East).

I just instituted a break from required written and almost all book work.  I will just read to the boys each day the following: a chapter from Proverbs daily, a bible story from Bible Stories, a book that is Trust's pick of the day, and some chapters from Swiss Family Robinson.  I would like to read at least five more chapters of the SFR to them over the next two weeks.  Then we'll continue Prepare and Pray.

Some things we've done since the last update:

*Bible Stories:  money changers, born again, Jesus sending out his disciples, the sower and the soils, Jesus teaching how to pray, John the Baptist's death, Jesus feeding the hungry crowd, and Jesus and Peter walking on the water

*Sabbath School lessons:  "God's House" (respect in church, appropriate things to do on the sabbath, inappropriate things to do on the sabbath) and "God Created Non-Living Things"

*Explode the Code:  Jade finished his fifth EtC book, Explode the Code 3.  He finished that book with a 90% average, which is the same average he made on the other book.  FANTASTIC!  It's too bad that he could have done even better, as there were a couple lessons on which he fooled around and hurried through it.  One of those he only scored a 71%.  In case anyone is wondering, this is the only thing I grade, except for tests (and he's only had those in his science books so far). The stuff in Complete Curriculum I work on with him pretty closely.  Everything he gets wrong on that stuff, I usually make him correct.  Other things I may correct with my red pen, but I don't give him grades.  The only grades I have ever given is on EtC and science tests.

*Bible Prayers for Bedtime:  We dont' do these at bedtime but rather at reading time, after we read the bible.  The lessons since the last update have been how to pray for safety/deliverance, how to pray when we need help with a problem, asking God what to do when someone argues with us, praying to know God, obeying God when God tells us to do something after prayer that may seem strange, and praying for a miracle.

*Ice experiment:  We froze cubes of water and cubes of freshly juiced orange juice.  I let the boys try to gently bite into the frozen water cubes and then the orange cubes to see which was harder.  I asked them why they thought fruit juice popsicles are softer than plain water ice.  Jade said because the juice had other things in it.  I told him he was right and explained more specifically that the water froze in large crystals, but when the other components of juice were mixed in, that water froze in smaller ice crystals, resulting in softer ice.  It's the right time of year for ice experiments.  We even have snow on the ground now!  :-)  Jade has had a lot of fun in it.  Trusten doesn't like to be out there for long.  We all three spent some time out there today while Liv sat in her bouncer chair positioned so that she could look outside.

*Writing:  verbs, adjectives, and pronouns

*Animals:  in God's Design for Science we finished studying amphibians and started on reptiles and then read more about lizards and snakes.  Jade even got on the floor to try moving in the four ways different snakes move across the ground.

*Youtube:  benefits of coconut, whole foods vs. processed foods, top 10 worst foods, historical accuracy of the bible, Keith Hunt's part 1 of Matthew 24, snakes eating eggs and animals, rattlesnake attacking person on live television, lizard walking on water, gila monster, komodo dragon.  Also I have found these "Crawford the Cat" 5-minute cartoons on Youtube.  I've been showing the boys 1 or 2 a day.  So far they have watched ones on:  putting away toys, please and thank you, hand washing, tooth brushing, good table manners, and putting on a coat

Well, Jade and I have had a LOT of interesting conversations, and I sure can't remember them all.  But, I've enjoyed the way we've been doing things for sure.  He's learning what he wants to know, and I've had fun teaching him.  Same goes for Trust, but Jade asks more things that require in-depth conversations.  I've also started telling the bedtime stories again about Randolph the grasshopper and all his friends.  He has had a wife for awhile now, Sasha. They just recently had children.  The stories of late have focused a lot on the children, especially Daniel.  R. and S. had 100 children.  One of them was a foolish child who was killed and eaten by a bird, because he disobeyed his father's instructions not to go out onto the rocky places outside of the grass where he could be seen more easily by predators.  Since that child had done that so many times before w/o being harmed, he didn't trust/believe his father.  Well, one day his "luck" ran out.  I explained that just because a person doesn't always get hurt from disobeying a parent's rules or may not even understand the reasoning for a rule, it doesn't mean the rule is invalid and that one day you may finally pay the consequences.  I always relate things back to God's Law and the love it shows.  We should always trust/belive and obey him.  Many say they believe Him, but in works (by disobeying His Law) they deny Him.  Whenever the boys disobey us, I ask them why they didn't believe us, why didn't they trust us enough to obey.

Daniel is discussed most often.  He is a wise son, and he's very studious.  He likes to visit the library and museums and explore nature.  He loves to ask questions and has a good relationship with his parents.  Daniel recently started studying reproduction among animals and how different animals reproduce in different ways. Daniel also recently visited with one of his friends, Adam a ladybug, and Adam tried selling him a pack of gum (all natural from the trees in the nearby forest) for cheap.  Daniel asked where Adam got the gum, since he knew that gum sold in the marketplace for more money.  He discovered that Adam stole the gum from an ant that Adam knew.  Daniel refused to buy the stolen treat and told Adam he had better return it.  Daniel told his parents what had happened, and they advised that Daniel should not be friends with Adam anymore, unless he repented of his misdeed.  I asked the boys what they would do if a friend tried selling them something they knew was stolen.  Jade said that was a hard question.  I said, "Because it would be very tempting, wouldn't it, because you know you would not have to spend as much of your allowance as you would at the market."  He said, "Yes, and because it would be a good treat."  I then reminded him of what I call the silver rule (most know this as the "golden rule": do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but the golden rule TRULY is to do unto God the way He wants us to do).  He said he would not want anyone to do that to him and so he would refuse the treat.  :-)

Okay...well, I've run out of time, so that's it for now.

Good Manners, Prepare and Pray, Be in Good Health

Jaden:

Language arts was finished up for this year, except as how it will be used in his writing lessons.   We worked on math money flash cards one day.  Today we started on his writing lessons out of the Complete Curriculum book; he did three pages on nouns.  And he did his two weekly Explode the Code lessons.  Just one more lesson to go out of that book, and he'll just have two ETC books to go.

Trusten:

I've only done alphabet flashcards with him once since the last blog update, but I read him a book of his choosing every day, sometimes more.

Both boys:

*Daily chapter of Proverbs

*Daily reading from Bible Stories.  Some of the things we've read over the past few days are about the "Sermon on the Mount," the healing of Jairus' daughter, the healing of the cenurion's servant, and more.  I've had this book for several years now; I think it was a gift to both Nathan and me from my parents. I like it more than most bible story books, because it has real pictures off to the sides of the pages with captions telling about specific things mentioned in the stories.  It gives facts about historical places, foods, and objects, for example.

*Annie's Manners:  2 pages of reading and coloring

*Social Studies:  I tied a couple of the boys' play silks around their head to demonstrate how some African Americans wear turbans like their African familial ancestors.

*Prepare and Pray:  We've read four chapters of Swiss Family Robinson now, and I've asked the discussion questions that P&P include for those.  We dehydrated apples, made a solar clock using a stick and rocks.  I really like the discussion questions.  It has touched on things that Jaden has recently learned elsewhere.  For example, he had to tell me about mammals.  I also like going over the character qualities that are listed.

Swiss Family Robinson, for the most part, is good so far.  My favorite things about it are the superb vocabulary (as most older books are....despite all the increased knowledge and technology of today, people overall sure are stupid now) and the morality.  However, the family sure seems to delight in eating some abominable creatures like a penguin, bone marrow (it was insinuated that bone marrow had been sucked out by them in the past), and a gigantic lobster.  Of course, if they were truly to the point of starving, I could see eating a penguin, but when there are coconuts and other things available, I don't see the necessity in eating such unhealthful (unclean) animals.  So, it's kind of odd to me to read such high morale concerning some things while reading such abhorrent things mixed in.  I really disliked reading about one of the big dogs (mastiff, if I remember correctly) chasing down a mother monkey and eating it and then being forced to give the baby monkey a ride on its back afterward!

*Bible Prayers for Bedtime:  This book was also a gift; it was given to Jaden by my friend Keith.  While we've read the similar book with bible stories, we'd not started this book about praying.  I decided I wanted to start reading this right after my morning prayer with the boys.  We started it today.  It starts at the very beginning, discussing how Adam and Eve could talk to God, but after they were banished, people eventually started praying after seeing how doing all the wrong things was causing disharmony among people, so they needed to call out to God for help.  It's going to go through and teach the different reasons for prayer and give examples throughout the bible. 

*Youtube: 
-how cat food is made, why most pet food is dangerous, how to make homemade cat food
-apple nutrition, breastfeeding benefits, antioxidants
-top 10 worst foods, whole foods vs. processed foods, digestive system problems and causes

*Gods Design for Life: The World of Animals:  We started reading about amphibians.

Prepare & Pray, Hygiene and Nutrition, and Let's Drive Thru History!

When I left off last time, Jaden was out doing a scavenger hunt.  I gave him a list of things to find and some other items to assist him:

One of the things I had him do was take his digital camera out to take three pictures of things he finds interesting and to give me an explanation of why he finds them so.  Well, he took a picture of a rock with a fossil, which also happened to be another thing on his list, and a picture of the woods.  The third picture was of that plant from which he'd taken that neat ice that he showed me.  You should remember the picture I posted on here before.   Well, the actual plant with the ice on it was even neater, but we need a cable to upload his pictures.

Jade learned how to write a book report (a short one), learned how to compare and contrast, and learned how to classify things.  He's done four Explode the Code lessons (he does one every 1st and 6th day of the week), and he's still doing well on those.

I bought a good used hardback copy of Swiss Family Robinson.  I found it for a penny on Amazon, and with shipping it was just $4.00, which is still a great deal.  I'm enjoying it so far, and I think Jaden is.  Trusten doesn't have much of an attention span, so he probably doesn't know much about the story.  I do read it to both of them.  We've so far read two chapters, and we're going through the Prepare & Pray curriculum along with it.  I like the Toddler Tales, which are extremely short stories aimed toward toddlers (like Trusten) which teach good lessons.  We also discuss character qualities of the characters in Swiss Family Robinson and go over discussion questions.  Now, there are a lot of things listed in the P&P curriculum to do, and I don't do them all.  I pick and choose which ones I want us to do.  The main reason I wanted to get the curriculum and the second half called Blessed Assurance is because I wanted a Christian-based family preparedness program of study.

There are a lot of things that Nathan and I both have wanted to learn so that we can be self-sustainable if the need arises.  People in our society have lost so much knowledge and ability to do things without our modern mechanical and electrical servants and our modern economic system.  We want our children to learn these things as well.  This curriculum will help me have an order of things so that we systematically get to everything we need to learn how to do.  Of course, like I said, there are things that I'm skipping.  There is a LOT of material.  It's actually compiled in such a way to be the main curriculum for a homeschooling family.  It's not going to function that way for us.  However, I've already discovered that their approach to learning things greatly compares to my own.  Anyway, from this point on when I update this blog, I'll just talk about what we did according to the P&P curriculum, but it's only the stuff I chose to do.

So far in P&P and Swiss Family Robinson:

*We learned about levers.  It was mentioned in the first chapter, where father of the shipwrecked family made use of a lever to help him lift his homemade boat made of casks out of the ship and into the water.  It was too heavy for him to move on his own.  I located the physical science book and introductory chapter on levers in our God's Design for Science curriculum and read that lesson.  I also demonstrated the use of a lever with objects in our home--ruler, rock, and cup--and we went over the terms:  lever, effort arm, fulcrum, resistance, effort

*We learned that sundown near the equator happens quickly, and upon Jaden asking about the equator, I showed it to him on the globe and talked about it briefly.  We also went over the term "hogshead," and I showed him pictures on Google Images.  Hogshead ended up being one of the vocabulary terms in P&P, but I'm not using the vocabulary lists in there as part of our learning experience...only those things asked about.

*And we sang "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us," a song which I've long loved.  I played the music for it online.

The first day of last week Nathan went out into the cold dreary day to dig holes in the cold, hard, and rocky ground so that he could plant my eleven baby flowering trees that I received from the Arbor Day Foundation.  I'm so thankful to him, as I'm not to the point where I need to be doing hard work like digging yet, but I'd wanted the trees.  I hope I do a good job of taking care of them, and I hope to have more beautiful trees in a few years.  The boys watched Nathan dig the holes and plant and water the trees.

*Math:  One day I worked with Jade on adding and subtracting using our cuisinart rods, and I worked with Trusten on counting.  Another day I had Jaden count to 100 using all pennies, then all nickels, then dimes, and finally quarters.  I asked him why he thought it was necessary to have different currencies and asked whether he would want to carry 100 pennies in his pocket to pay for something that cost a dollar.  I also had him count out to 25 of each coin set (except dimes, of course, and we went over why he couldn't do that with only dimes).  I taught Trusten the difference between pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

Jade and I played Bookworm (computer spelling game) one day while Trusten played with chalk on Jade's chalk board. 

I'm doing United Church of God's sabbath school lessons with the boys again.  I'd started to do that two years ago, but I stopped about as soon as I started.  I like their format, though, so I will continue with this.  I've done it two sabbaths in a row now.  Each lesson includes a song, too, so I really like that.  As far as bible-reading during the week, still a proverb daily.  Jade sure knows the Proverbs well now.  We've been reading them daily for around a year and a half now, I guess.  For a long time I've stopped every so often in the reading so that he can fill in blanks (anywhere from a word to a whole verse), and he does so well.  Trusten is now trying to fill in the blanks.  I don't know whether I mentioned it the last time I posted, but I'm reading daily from Bible Stories to replace the bible reading (except Proverbs).  That's working out quite well.  I started this time in the new testament.  We sometimes read from these other two new books Jade has at night before they go to bed.  I almost always sing with them at bedtime:  "This Little Light of Mine", "Jesus Loves the Little Children", and "Jesus Loves Me." 

I'd been letting the boys watch a short bible video or other educational video during my prayer time (in another room where it's quiet w/o worrying about them getting into trouble), but they've watched almost everything we have, many of them numerous times, and my prayer time has been high-jacked over the past three or four months where it's not been so peaceful.  Well, I decided I'd pick out something each day for them to watch on Youtube, and it may be something they've pondered about or if not, then something I choose.  I was absolutely delighted to discover that you can make a playlist on Youtube and then set them all to play one after another (I didn't realize this before!).  I love it!  Last week the boys watched videos on levers, the atmosphere, hygiene, and fruits and vegetables nutrition.  They learned, and I got peace!

I'd bought a couple dvds in the Drive Thru History series with Dave Stotts. They were on American History.  Well, I liked them (actually haven't watched all the episodes), so I decided to buy more.  I bought the four I know that he's done for world history:  Ancient Greece, Rome if You Want To, Turkey, and East Meets the West.  We've watched the entire video on Greece and two of the three episodes on Rome.  I REALLY like these!  Jade seems to think they're okay now...I'm hoping he'll like them more as he gets older.  I'd been telling Nathan about the other two and said I thought he'd like them, too, so one afternoon he got home early, and we watched the Greece together.  We watched most of the one on Rome yesterday.  The apostle Paul was mentioned quite a bit, and I appreciated how Dave made the point that Paul was one of the most influential persons in history.  Also, he made it clear that the bible should be the most trusted source of history.  These videos are great; I highly recommend them.

Jade has just about worn out the chess-playing.  He loves to play chess on the computer.  He also loves this art site where there are so many activities to do.  It's called The Art Zone.  Between those two things and Clever Island (which I think has almost come to and end of serving its purpose for him), he gets plenty of computer time (but I do limit it!).  It's time to get an Internet filter installed, we think.  He can navigate the Internet himself, and I'm afraid of him accidentally getting somewhere he ought not to be.

Oh!  I about forgot about all my flash cards.  I was upset that Trusten had apparently thrown our alphabet flashcards out of the Jeep one day ( I found them one day at the side of the path in the woods, and they'd been ruined by rain).  But, my mother in law had bought a whole set of different flash cards, and hey, there are some for the alphabet!  Trusten still doesn't know his alphabet, which is no big deal, but he's showing signs that he really needs to know it, as then he'd understand things better.  He learns most things later than Jade, but I think that's typical of the birth order.  I'm excited, though, because there are flash cards on money and time and measure.  Woo-hoo!  I'm going to open those two this week or next to give them a try.  I like flash cards.

That's it...for the kids, anyway.  I'm always learning, and if I posted everything I'm learning on this blog...well, you wouldn't have time to read it.  LOL!  I'm sure most think these entries are too long as it is.

Spices, Hopscotch, and Spaceships

Since the last post....

We read about cloves, which are one of the spices I use in making pumpkin pie.  Jaden wanted to know what the plant looked like.  The flowers are a pretty red; the flower buds are dried when completely ripe and then ground.  Cloves are very popular in food and drug use around the world.  Something even I learned was that clove cigarettes were just recently banned a couple months ago in the United States.  Our FDA is certainly ban-crazy...all except for the stuff that is really causing serious harm to people in the way of food and drugs.  What hypocrites.  What's most ironic is that the supposed reason for banning clove in cigarette usage, along with any other natural or artificial flavoring in tobacco cigarettes, is to reduce the number of young people getting hooked on tobacco.  I guess banning tobacco usage didn't cross their minds (or the bribes the lawmakers receive from the tobacco companies are just too nice to refuse).  Not that I think tobacco should be banned; I don't, although I'm not sure yet whether there is a real worthwhile use for it.  I do know that it is terribly abused, and it's a rather poisonous-smelling incense.

We read about chili peppers.  We went on a quick trip to town after last sabbath, which was my first trip to Rogers in six weeks or longer.  I think Jaden saw a chili pepper on a sign, and he asked about them.  Chili peppers refer to any peppers of the Capsicum genus in the Solanaceae family.  I showed Jade what a cayenne pepper looked like fresh and told him what we have in the cabinet is the ground product from the dried fruit.  Chilis are also used widely around the world for both food and drug usage.  I learned something, too.  I didn't realize paprika was any type of chili pepper ground.  I had mistakenly thought that paprika was a species of its own in the Capsicum genus, but that's not true.  Paprika is a general term for any sort of ground chili pepper, and so it naturally varies from mild to hot flavors.  Different parts of the world use different flavors of paprika. 

Jaden asked about hopscotch when I was reading one of his Berenstain Bear books to the boys.  Sooo, I taught him how to play hopscotch.  I wanted to teach it to Trusten, too, but he wondered off across the yard to his new tricycle.  When he came back, I'd already explained the rules, and he just started walking through it.  I constructed it out of tape in the rocky driveway, and we used a metal nut as a marker.  I'd like to have a cement slab poured in the near future for a basketball goal, anyway, which will also be good for things like hopscotch, where we can draw it with sidewalk chalk.  I didn't really make the squares big enough, but it was suitable enough to teach him how to play.  He didn't play correctly at first; he didn't understand that he was to place both feet in the double squares, so at first he hopped in them each with one foot.  He needs practice!  (And bigger squares...my foot touched the tape borders just stepping in it.)

Jaden had learned how to write a story the week before last in language arts.  Last week he learned to write:  a poem, a description, a friendly letter, and a how-to.  This week he will learn to write a book report; we just haven't done any language arts book work this week yet.

Jade asked me how fast a rocket goes when launched into space.  The first thing I found was how fast a space shuttle flies when in orbit around the earth, which is 17,500 miles an hour!  I finally found the answer that he really wanted, which is known as the earth's "escape velocity":  11.2 kilometers a second, which is about 7 miles a second!

Speaking of spaceships, last Thursday evening Nathan, the boys, and I went outside to watch the space shuttle (Alexandria, I think it's called) and the International Space Station drift across the sky.  It's not something you see every day, and the boys sure enjoyed it!

Jade also helped me make bread last week.  He watched, and then I let him do some kneading.  I pulled the recliner over to the kitchen counter, and Trusten and I sat there together watching Jaden, until I decided I should take over.

Trusten was flipping through the Curious George book that has several stories, and he asked me about a page, and I saw that it went through the entire alphabet in an interesting way.  I'd not known that was in there.  Several of the stories in that particular book are the same stories we have in individual CG books, so I have never been through the whole book.  It looks more enjoyable than any of the other alphabet books we have.  And it's certainly something new.  I haven't worked much with him in awhile with regards to learning the Roman alphabet, and I think if I get back to that now it will take no time for him to learn it.  We're about to read this while Jaden is outside.  I have just assigned Jaden to a scavenger hunt, which I will talk about in my next post.

Jaden LOVES winter fun of "busting ice" as well as playing in the snow when we get it.  He's actually prayed for an ice storm before!  (YIKES!)  WE don't like ice storms, but for him it means ice, ice, and more ice for him to bust!  Well, we haven't had an ice storm this year...yet, anyway.  But, he's already started his ice busting and outdoors winter exploration.  He asks me every morning that there's frost on the ground whether he can go out and bust ice, and he goes out to do that FIRST thing, before we even get to breakfast, because he wants to get out "before all the ice melts."  Last winter (or maybe two years ago) I let him have our old purple plastic pitcher (b/c we only like to store and drink out of glass).  He likes to put water in it and freeze it in our freezer so he can then take it out to "bust ice."  He's been doing a lot of that, since there's been limited ice to bust outside, and he simply cannot wait.

His newest ice-busting tool is a piece of wood that was part of a board.  Ooooh, no, Nathan was gathering logs last night to build a fire in the wood stove, and Jade happened to see him bringing in that piece of wood, too, that Nathan evidently picked up from the back deck.  Will shouted, "That's my ice buster!  That's my ice buster!"  I'm so glad he caught him, because I'd have never heard the end of that.  It would have been crying and wailing, "Daddy burned my ice buster!" 

He brought inside a lovely ice formation a few days ago.  It was made up of several thin layers of ice upon each other.  He said that it grew on a plant:

He also drew a nice goat.  His December issue of Your Big Backyard came in, and it sometimes has something to draw with those four-step instructions.  There was a mountain goat in there this time, and he decided to try to draw one.  I LOVE it!  I told him that I really liked it, and so he gave me his drawing.  I have it  hanging on the fridge for now.  Nathan told me privately that he really liked Jade's goat, too.

I have really enjoyed some of his recent artwork.  I love art; I just do not excel at it myself.  So, I love others' art; I just don't like to do art.  

Nathan got an old non-working Mac computer, and it's been sitting on the back deck for many weeks now.  Jade finally brought it in last Saturday evening, and they started disassembling it in the boys' room.  Trusten wanted to be a part of it, too (naturally).  Jade loves taking things apart.  The bad thing about it, though, is that he likes to just start tearing up things, so it ended before it was meant to.  Nathan said, "We're done.  You're trying to tear it up rather than learn about it."  Too bad.  Maybe it will be continued later.

As far as Jade's computer time goes, he's been playing a lot of chess lately.  He started playing that a few weeks ago, and he's obsessed, I think.  He plays Clever Island usually when he gets out of the shower while I go shower and get Trusten clean.  Chess has seemingly caused him to forget his other computer games.

I'll be updating the things we've been learning in science, the bible, and Prepare and Pray in the next post.  After all, I don't want to write a book here, now do I?  ;-)

Yet More to Post!

I have a few minutes to post a bit more. 

I actually got out the microscope this week so that we could look at some insects that we collected, namely a Diana fritillary butterfly (female), honeybee, and yellow jacket wasp.  I'm going to try to include them in the animal notebook in some way.  I think I'm going to try using laminating sheets to put them down on paper.  I'm not sure whether that will work or not.  If anyone has a clever idea, please do share. 

I also wanted to share some pictures of Trusten painting.  He gets really excited about it.  But, one of my programs apparently doesn't like the photos.  I'll upload two of them, though, without that stupid program.

AND, we're going to start Prepare and Pray with Nathan.  I'll talk more about that in my next post!