Author: Angela

I write so my family will always have letters from home.

A Summary and a Question about Timing

I hope you had a nice weekend. We did many things, but I won’t bore you with every detail.

We had a nice Veteran’s Day. I invited a WWII veteran to speak to our homeschool group #2. Since all public buildings were closed, I rented a hall for the event. The kids decorated handkerchiefs with patriotic messages to send to soldiers and we also collected goods for 4 care packages to send to Afghanistan. The guest speaker served in the South Pacific and was very good at speaking to children. I felt really good about the event.

The 3 boys sang a trio in the adult session of Stake Conference on Saturday night and I played the violin. Richard sang with the choir. Mark bumped his head on the podium as he was climbing up to sing, but managed to sing through teary eyes and some pain. It was a good experience for the boys and they enjoyed some Lego rewards when it was all over.

I was reading about discipline in an education magazine that I receive from BYU. One article said that the greatest measure of how well you are doing as a parent is how your family treats one another. Do you think I can measure my success during a time when the kids are all watching a movie together or playing around in the mountains? The results would be so much better then.

Math implements

This was Richard’s dad’s slide rule. We keep it on display because it’s magnificent, but we don’t know how to use it.

This is not to say we’re very modern here. This is the calculator that Paige uses. This was my calculator in high school and college. It is 18-20 years old:

The screen is pock-marked but it still works.

Yesterday we had to find the missing cover plate with the secret codes on it.

This is not all that Paige uses from the catacombs of our educational gadgets. She is still working through Richard’s supply of engineering paper and sets up his old bookstand every morning during Algebra.

I just thought this was all very interesting.

Ten ideas for home school survival

This list is not really about home schooling. Most of these things apply to any long-term goal. In other words, this post reminds me that diversity is important in ideas, but principles are the same for accomplishing goals.

10. Nurture a marathon mentality. Sprinters will not make it.

9. Create a nurturing environment rather than an adversarial one.

8. Encourage friendships inside and outside the home schooling community. (Moms and kids)

7. Read books aloud daily. Go nuts and buy a lot of books. Libraries like ours lack classic literature and history books for children.

6. Steel yourself to criticism, and avoid unfair self-criticism. Be warned that people will test your children in public places about math facts and ask if they have any friends.

5. Define your goals. Educate yourself. Find a curriculum that works and put your blinders on. There are hundreds of choices out there, but you don’t have time or energy to sample all of them.

4. Establish and maintain routines for start time, friend time, quiet study time, service, and jobs around the house.

3. Make family and personal scripture study part of your school day.

2.  Have a gloriously fun time.

1. Pray a lot.

One load, one dog

Well, looky here. I washed the blankets our dog rests upon and this is what came out in the lint collector.  Revolting, isn’t it?

And here’s another view to give you nightmares.

Today, aside from the above lint ball, was wonderful. I found a lot of joy this morning watching a friend’s children and reading books to the baby. I giggled as I watched this baby maul Mark with hugs and kisses for about 30 minutes. Baby kisses! Mark didn’t know what to think. He’s always been the kisser. He kept looking at me for help/reassurance/help but I was too busy cheering on the baby,” Tackle that big boy! Big hugs, now!”

After baby-sitting we went to a science club meeting and I taught 20 kids about crystals. Fun. We also harvested papyrus from the pond so we can learn how the Egyptians made papyrus. I know, you wish you were us. Only, you wish you were us with a unicorn.

We came home and I tried to read aloud to the kids but had to take a nap at chapter 5. I fell asleep on the couch listening to Daniel read to the family where I had left off. When I woke up, Timothy asked me if I’d like to hear him read the last chapter of his book. (Shouldn’t we all just cancel our cable and read aloud to each other from now on? I am sure it would solve most of our problems.)

And so it went, my last day of being 35, surrounded by my children plus twenty, growing crystals, harvesting papyrus (and dog lint)… and people, I loved it. I couldn’t wish for a better day.

To Do Today

Today I need to sew ribbons and elastic on these new pointe shoes. It’s a surprisingly difficult task. Shoes don’t fit well in a sewing machine and I usually sew the elastics 3 times because the shoes have to fit just right.

I love new ballet shoes. Aren’t they beautiful?

Paige’s costume for the Chinese dance just arrived and there is some altering for that, too.

Paige’s debut in the Nutcracker ballet is on December 11.