Mommy Brain

I’ve had this meme on draft for weeks now and just haven’t found the time to get back to it. But Blest tagged me, so I’m answering the call!

1) One homeschooling book you have enjoyed:

Homeschooling For Excellence by David and Micki Colfax and Things We Wish We’d Known by Bill and Diana Waring. I just wish I’d read them before our first year of homeschooling, when I purchased an entire kindergarten school in a box – and ended up disliking most of it!

2. One resource you wouldn’t be without:

Our public library! We’re on a first name basis with all of the librarians and library assistants and they joke about how we clear out the hold shelf every time we come in. We use lots of living books for our science and history, so the library is indispensable.

3. One resource you wish you had never bought:

The entire Abeka kindergarten package. I ended up loving their phonics program – still using it- but not liking anything else.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year:

Microsoft Encarta. I love it! And my kids have spent hours poking around on the kids’ program that is included.

5. One resource you’ll be using next year:

The Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Times. I’m excited to start this, but I have to tell you that the activity book is extremely intimidating. No way we’ll do close to half the suggested activities. I’ve been going through with a highlighter picking and choosing and not feeling guilty one bit!

6. One resource you would like to buy:

A laptop. And a housekeeper. That cooks. Weight Watchers approved recipes that my kids would all love, too.

7. One resource you wish existed:

A Bible study book that I could do with my kids that would keep them enthralled no matter their learning style and would grow in them a deep desire for the Word. We’ve tried something new every year in this area and I’ve never been satisfied. Any suggestions would be welcome.

8. One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading:

Actually, I prefer to do my shopping on the web. And I’ve found all of my resources I’m currently using from recommendations on homeschooling blogs! (Except the Abeka phonics which I will be continuing with my 1st grader.)

9. One homeschool website you use regularly:

The forum at Atypical Homeschool. It hasn’t been as active lately as it has been in the past, but there are some great folks over there. Plus, I love Carolyn’s articles at Guilt-Free Homeschooling. I’m always encouraged when I spend time there.

I’m supposed to tag five people, but I think most everyone has already done this one. If you haven’t and you want to, then you’re it!

1. One book that changed your life?

Heaven by Randy Alcorn. This book gave me a joy in my faith in every area – not just in the anticipation of Heaven. You can read my thoughts on this book here, here, and here.

2. One book you have read more than once?

Just one? As a child I read Baby Island, Little Women, the whole Anne of Green Gables series, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and The Witch of Blackbird Pond over and over and over again.

As an adult, I’ve also read the Anne stories a couple of times. I’ve also chosen to re-read Trinity, The Mitford series, and The Mark of the Lion trilogy.

3. One book you would want on a desert island?

My Bible. If I could add one to that, I’d add a volume of the complete works of C. S. Lewis.

4. One book that made you laugh?

The Mitford books always make me laugh.

5. One book that made you cry?

Little Women, no matter how many times I read it. And more recently, I cried over the ending of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

6. One book you wish had been written?

The Secret of How to Eat Whatever You Want and Still Wear a Size 6

7. One book you wish had never been written?

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This piece of propaganda written about a (phony) conspiracy of Jews plotting to take over the world has fed much racism, hatred, and murder.

8. One book you are currently reading?

Check my sidebar!

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

10. Book you remember as a real page-turner?

I’ll say Pride and Prejudice. I just finished it for the first time, and I couldn’t put it down. Also, all of the Harry Potter books have been page-turners.

11. Non-fiction books that you’ve really enjoyed?

Recently: Credo: Believing in Something to Die For by Ray Pritchard, Jack’s Life: A Memory of C. S. Lewis by Douglas H. Gresham, The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs, and Fresh Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson

12. Children’s books your family has loved?

Owl Babies, The Napping House, Sweet Dream Pie, My Father’s Dragon, and The Doll People – to name a few!

I think most everyone’s already done this one, but if you haven’t yet and you want to, consider yourself tagged.

I know, it’s not technically Friday yet, but I had some time tonight and who knows if I will tomorrow, so here goes:

~Homeschool eStore is offering a complete unit study on horses in e-book form – free. (I do get a small referral fee if you click on the link and buy anything, but I only link to resources I have checked out, and this looks like a good one. Especially if you have a tween girl who loves horses, like I do.)

~Janie at Seasonal Soundings is putting together an Autumn Reading Challenge. I know, summer isn’t quite over yet, but she’s planning ahead.

~WOWIO is offering free e-books. Yep – completely free. They do have advertising in them, but you can skip the ads. Not a huge selection yet, but more going up every day. Hat tip: KeyWords at Infuze Magazine. You may need to register to read content at Infuze, but I believe it’s worth it. You get the latest news and reviews on entertainment and the arts from a Christian perspective. And they are not anti-everything mainstream.

~Just a reminder: entries for the flash fiction contest at Charis Connection are due tomorrow, the 19th.

~Great post by J. Mark Bertrand on discernment. Here’s a snippet, but go read the whole thing, it’s worth it:

“There are not two categories of influence, good and bad, that can be discreetly separated. You can’t draw a line between the Christian and the non-Christian, between the evangelical and the non-evangelical, between us and them, and declare everything on one side safe and everything on the other suspect, and then expect the task of discernment to consist of moving people and things like so many checker pieces to one side or another of that line. For one thing, every person and thing is tainted by the fall, which means there are no pure influences under the sun. For another, God’s grace and truth are active throughout creation, which means that not only do we get lies from truthtellers, but we also get the truth from liars.

To be discerning, you have to be critically engaged with a particular influence, sifting it, taking from it what is profitable. So you can’t be discerning about something and ignorant of it at the same time. Probably the biggest complaint the watchbloggers get from the people they adjudicate against is, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” And you know what? When I see someone who claims to have knowledge on a wide variety of topics — enough to be discerning on behalf of the rest of us — but who is constantly told by those who do have such knowledge that they don’t — well, I start beleiving it. How many times has someone with a minimal knowledge of the subject come along, pontificated long enough to establish “the Christian position on X” and then moved on? Ideas have consequences, but so do seat-of-the-pants accusations.”

~Another time-wasting and addictive game. Thanks to Angie at A Life in Pages. I believe she was also the one who got me hooked on the Guess-the-Google game.

We’re celebrating Mom’s birthday Friday night (it’s actually Saturday) so Happy Birthday, Mom! She reads occasionally, so she might see this, might not.

On Saturday we’re heading to the lake with some friends. Gotta squeeze every gorgeous, hot Saturday out of the summer, ya know!

Have a great weekend!

Saw this at Donna‘s and thought it looked fun:

Go here, to the random quotes generator, and look through random quotes until you find five that you think:

a) reflect who you are

OR

b) what you believe.

Here are my five:

“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou thinkst, thou dost overthrow,
die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
~John Donne

“It is quite possible for people who have never met us and who have spent only twenty minutes thinking about us to come to a better understanding of who we are than people who have known us for years.” Exactly how I feel about blogging!
~Malcolm Gladwell

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.”
~Kurt Vonnegut

“You can cover a great deal of country in books.”
“~Andrew Lang

“Learning makes a man fit company for himself.”
~Thomas Fuller

I’ve been busy the last few days – spring cleaning. I know it’s not spring, but I didn’t do it in the spring, and now I’m faced with “We’re starting school in a week and a half and I’ll barely have time to keep the house tolerably clean, let alone get any deep cleaning done, so if I’m going to do it, I better do it now!” thoughts.

So two days ago found me with my stove pulled away from the wall, up to elbows in grease and grime, scrubbing away. Stove, cupboards, countertops, dishwasher, microwave all spotless. Just need to do the inside of the fridge. I told Kevin yesterday I never want to use my kitchen again – let’s just keep it this way and eat out, ‘kay?

Still lots to go, but I took today off to catch up on my Bloglines – and surf to my heart’s content. Plus I finished my current audiobook and I can’t clean without something to listen to. I picked up The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler on CD at the library this morning, so I’m all set to jump back in tomorrow – I just need to load it on my MP3.

The other thing I’ve been doing in the past few days? Reading Pride and Prejudice. I finished last night. And loved it. Most of you are probably saying, “Well, duh.”

I tried reading it a couple years ago, right after reading The Well Educated Mind. I tried reading a lot of things then. And it felt just like high school lit class: I have to read this book, therefore I cannot possibly enjoy this book. I abandoned my list of “required reading”, though I have been expanding my literary horizons this year. But no one told me to. Big difference.

So I put P & P on The List for this year. I ordered a Penguins Classics copy and put it on my “To Be Read” shelf. And there it sat. And then a few days ago I was watching Emma with Nan and was overwhelmed with an urge to read it. So I did. And now I’m trying to decide which Austen I should read next. I’m open to suggestions.

And last, but certainly not least, Happy Birthday to Andrea – the only one of my sisters who reads my blog!

My prayer in the shower this morning: “God, please give me patience today even though I didn’t get enough sleep. Please help me to let go of my anger at Noah for waking me up in the middle of the night and then promptly falling back to sleep while I lay awake composing a blog post in my head. Please help me to be kind to the kids. Please just let me get through the day with patience and grace.”

What happened the minute I stepped out of the shower? The toilet overflowed all over the bathroom floor.

Don’t tell me God wasn’t having a laugh-fest over that one!

The kids and I headed to the park today: moms visit, kids play – everyone’s happy. The conversation today was all about how defective and wasteful the public school system is. Not initiated by me, mind you. How it is no wonder that the levy failed when kids are getting a poor education but the administrators are all getting raises. How it is ludicrous that the system wants to go to all-day kindergarten – for five year olds.

But the weirdest thing of all? In three weeks, both of these moms will put their kids on a big yellow school bus and send them off to public school. Why am I the only one to see the irony?

Don Marsh Presents
America’s Choice Kids, Volume 1
Publisher: Cool Springs Records
Franklin, TN

America’s Choice Kids Top 15 Worship Songs, Volume 1 passed the “long-van-ride” test with our family. Driving back from the lake on Saturday, I popped this CD in and within minutes we were all singing along at the top of our lungs. The songs are familiar to us, and unlike many children’s CDs, the production quality is fantastic. A large orchestra backs a choir of children’s voices, and there is something so incredibly touching about a large group of kids singing praises to God without reservation.

The tracks include:

If you’re looking for a worship CD that you and your kids can enjoy together, this is the one. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5. You can purchase the CD at Cool Springs Records.

Carrie Kitzmiller, Homeschooling Mother of 4, Colville, Washington

If you’re in need of an hour or so of interrupted blogging time, here’s a tip I learned today:

Give your kids an old computer mouse and an old keyboard that aren’t working, along with some safe tools like butter knives and spoons – and let them go to town. My kids have been happily taking them apart for the last 1/2 hour with no end in sight!

Our homeschool year starts in two weeks, which explains the abundance of memes here lately – and the lack of many posts that require thought on my part.

Last weekend with our nephews went extremely well, with the exception of leaving Andrew’s shoes at the lake and Peter leaving his cold with me when he went back home with Mommy and Daddy.

I’ve spent the last week sitting on the couch, floor, or porch surrounded by curriculum materials and with a box of Kleenex and bottle of Tylenol nearby. We received our first Rainbow Resources order, which prompted Natalie to pull out her math and grammar books and get started already. We have one more order on its way sometime this week. I have my lists ready (I don’t schedule, I make lists – see this article.) and the kids are excited to start. So here is my annual “what we’re doing this year” post. For those of you who love to read what other homeschooling families are doing, this post is your cup of tea. If you’re bored by this sort of thing, feel free to come back tomorrow (or maybe the next day) for something more up your alley. For Ron and Andrea and Gem and all the other unschoolers out there, don’t hate me for choosing a more structured approach. Just can’t get my head wrapped around unschooling for our family yet – not to mention my husband’s head. Without further ado, here are our plans for the year:

For Natalie, my 4th grader:
Italic Handwriting Book E
Easy Grammar 3/4
Word Roots Level A
finish up Writing Strands 3, which she is loving
Saxon Math 5/4
Map Skills 4
Spelling Plus

For Noah, my 2nd grader:
Italic Handwriting Book C
Easy Grammar 2/3
Writing Strands 2
Saxon Math 2
Map Skills 2
Spelling Plus

For Jonathan, my 1st grader:
Italic Handwriting Book B
Abeka Letters and Sounds 1
Abeka Language 1
Saxon Math 1
Spelling Plus

For everyone together:
Living Learning Books Life Science
Power-Glide Spanish Jr.
Story of the World, Volume 1 – Ancient History
Artistic Pursuits, K-3 Book 1
Stories of the Great Composers

I also purchased these books to accompany our science and history:
Usborne Complete First Book of Nature
Usborne Encyclopedia of the Natural World
What Happens to Your Food?
How Do Your Senses Work?
What Makes You Ill?
Science and Your Body
Science With Plants
Usborne Book of World History

We will spend our mornings with math and language arts and Spanish. Monday and Wednesday afternoons will be History; Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Science. Friday afternoons will be dedicated to art and music. No scheduling to the minute for us, just get up and go with our day and what doesn’t get done will happen another day.