Don’t Miss My Guest Blogging Debut!

I’m so excited that I was invited to be a guest blogger for Kelli’s blog http://momof3boys3702.blogspot.com/. I’ve written a four week series on making the most of Colors in Education.  The “colors” refer to basic personality traits and how to make the most of them when teaching your children (or anyone else for that matter!)

If you want to learn a few tricks to make your homeschooling  little bit easier this year, be sure to tune in each week this month at http://momof3boys3702.blogspot.com/.

Thanks again Kelli for this opportunity!

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FYI: Cool Career Book Series (for children) Released This Month

Hi,

I just got an email about a brand new book series called “When I Grow Up I Want To Be …” that I thought might be of interest. I have to wait until my husband gets paid (”Thanks Dad!”), but I’m definitely going to get this one. The thing I like about it is that it discusses a variety of jobs (i.e., Firefighter, Veterinarian, Chef, Military, Doctor, Police Officer, Missionary, Artist, Pilot, and Farmer to name a few) from a practical standpoint. They discuss how much money you can make at these professions, the skills you need, the actual day-to-day tasks, etc.

My daughter, Jade, wants to be a Firefighter (well when she doesn’t want to be a ninja) and I think this will be an excellent introduction for her. After we read it I’m going to take her to a firehouse so that she can do a little fact finding of her own! And as we read the other books, she may find discover a new outlet in another profession.

Anyway, the special pricing only lasts until the end of June, so you should check it out soon.
http://bit.ly/16IWXw

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Putting the “Fun” Back Into “Fundraising”

I am the first to admit that fundraising has always been something of a mystery to me. My first experience with raising money was last year when my daughter became interested in Alex’s Lemonade Stand. It is a charity that raises money for pediatric cancer research. We held our Lemonade Stand event at a community street fair and did okay. But I’ve been wondering ever since how we could have done better. The book Easy Fundraisers for Your Homeschool Organizations has opened my eyes to the many different avenues to reaching our next fundraising goal.

Carol Topp’s book focuses on five easy (and effective) methods to raise money for your homeschooling groups, co-ops, etc. They are:

• Coupon and Reward Programs: General Mills has a program that works well with homeschooling groups and Carol tells you how to make this one of the easiest fundraisers you’ve ever seen! I wasn’t aware that some grocery and retail stores will actually make donations to nonprofit organizations as a reward for shopping with them. Were you?

• Shopping Reward Programs: These programs return a portion of a shopper’s purchases (typically 2-4%) to a nonprofit organization of their choice. The author’s group received $500 during one year’s participation.

• Food as a Fundraiser: I never would have thought of this as an option! Her real-life examples are

• Donation Drives: A great way to raise money. And if you’re group qualifies, your donors can write off the donations. Carol explains how this works in the book

• Income from Your Website: By joining affiliate programs you can set up an ongoing donation process for your co-op. Carol tips you off on the best program for this type of fundraising.

And did you know that under specific circumstances individual homeschooling families can do personal fundraisers for themselves? Carol also gives the low-down on reporting fundraiser income as well as additional fundraising ideas to bounce around with your co-op group. And as with all of the Wee Books sold at The Old Schoolhouse, there are additional website links to expand on the topic of fundraising. This book has put the “fun” back into fundraising for me.

P.S.  And if you’d like to make a donation to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, please click here. Thank you!

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"One helping one to uplift all."

“One helping one to uplift all.” is The Buxton Settlement Creed and is the theme of the book Elijah Of Buxton is a delightful (and instructional) narrative about the first freeborn child in the Buxton Settlement in western Ontario. When I decided to pick this book up I was anticipating a humorous story of a young boy growing up in Canada. Instead I wound up with a book on par with Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn — a touch of humor, adventure, history and perspective.

As much time as Americans discussing the slavery issue, this is my first exposure to the Promised Land of Canada. Many freed (and escaped) slaves crossed the border in search of a home and freedom from the fear that permeated their lives in the United States. The best of these settlements was in western Ontario.

According to information found in the Journal of Negro History 3 (October 1918): 360-67 :

“The Buxton, or Elgin Association Settlement, in Kent county, western Ontario, was in many respects the most important attempt made before the Civil war to found a Negro refugee colony in Canada. In population, material wealth and general organization it was outstanding, and the firm foundation upon which it was established is shown by the fact that today, more than half a century after emancipation, it is still a prosperous and distinctly Negro settlement.”

The story chronicles the life of 11 year old Elijah who bears the special distinction of being the first free child born to the settlement. He is also considered “fragile” by many of the adults in the settlement because of his excitable nature. But when you keep in mind the travails that these original settlers had undergone while in slavery, you can understand the adult’s position.
Elijah is finally able to understand many of the adult’s peculiar ways by the end of the story as he is introduced (by way of a good deed) to a few of the horrors that slaves were subjected to on a daily basis.

One of the things that I really liked about this book is that it is so very human. This is not just a story about freed or escaped slaves making a life for themselves in Canada. It is also a story about humans in general. There are good and hardworking people. But there are also the grifters and swindlers out to take what they are not willing to work for honestly. There are great acts of bravery and spirit. And there is sorrow and pain caused by man’s unfortunate penchant to hurt each other for money’s sake. But most of all there is hope and joy.

Instead of “Cowboys and Indians” the children in Buxton play “Slavers and Slaves”. There are the usual rivalries between children, the inexplicable behavior of adults and the slow realization that every person’s time of innocence is so short. And once reality starts to set in, there is no way to return to that pristine and innocent state.

This is a great book to read aloud to the whole family. My daughters enjoyed it, and even though my oldest girl is an advanced reader, she preferred me to read it to her as well. We were able to discuss many things (i.e., how to tell if people have your best interests at heart, why we need to develop empathy for others to just name a few) that I hope will stick with them into adulthood.

For those of you who are interested in using Elijah of Buxton as a history lesson, I found a great resource at http://suzyred.com/2008elijah.html. It includes more historical background and activities for children.

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Belated New Year’s Resolution

Well, it’s the end of January, but I’m finally getting around to my revealing my New Year’s Resolution. Well, I guess better late than never.

Following the principles of The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life I have a chart that I’m using to keep myself on track this year. Each month I list my goals and then I track how I’m doing. And I’m proud to say that I’m doing pretty well (for a change!)

So, what have I accomplished. This year I’ve vowed to have more fun with my kids. I enrolled them in a cyber-charter school that is doing an awesome job with them. They are having fun and best of all we’re offline much more than we’re online. But I sometimes make myself crazy by trying to meet artificial deadlines. So, for 2009 we will do our work systematically but I will leave more time to play with my kids.

Perhaps you too have fallen into the trap of trying to get everything done and when you look around the kids have grown another 3 inches but you didn’t even notice. That happened to me a lot last year and so I’m slowing down and getting it right. I decided to homeschool to spend time with my family and to enjoy them, not be the General of Schoolwork or be Uber WAHM.

So one of my goals each day is to spend 30 minutes with each of them (or an hour and a half with them collectively) just goofing around, playing videogames, trying to do some sort of needlework or craft or just listening to Alaya’s never-ending stories. And I have to admit it’s working well.

Another one of my goals is to share my bible knowledge with my children. I have struggled with ways to be consistent with this in the past. Then my friend told me about the www.OneYearBibleBlog.com that covers the daily bible reading and has links to an Audio Bible (which you’ll see on my sidebar). So every morning we have been listening to the bible after breakfast. The children draw what seems to be most important for them while the reading is going on. (I think it is really cute to see my two year old grabbing his drawing paper and crayons making his bible drawings along with the rest of us.) Then we spend time discussing each picture, answering questions and getting ready for our school day.

Since I’ve started this our days have been going much smoother. I don’t lose my temper nearly as much as I did in the past and the girls don’t spend so much time complaining and dragging their feet to get their assignments done. It’s a win-win and I look forward to this continued trend.

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Live Frog Anyone?

Educating children is a time consuming venture, especially when you get stuck in a tug-of-war over an assignment that they don’t want to complete for some reason. I’m sure you’ve also experienced the whining, complaining and the waste of time that procrastination creates.

This video may help your children (and maybe even you!) to visualize the importance of tackling our biggest challenges first and not putting it off to later.

My friend, Pat Crosby, sent me this really cool video. Thanks Pat!

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What My Daughter Taught Me Today

My life is an upside down mess. For the first time in our marriage we have bought furniture for our home. That sounds strange when you take into account that we’ve been together for a decade, but there were circumstances. The small apartment I escaped to when I left my first husband didn’t require anything more than a bed – the landlady provided a kitchen table and that’s about all that could fit in there. Then we moved to our new home and lost our jobs. So, that kind of put a damper on any home shopping sprees. We bought what we needed for the children and made due with hand-me-downs and furniture left by the previous owners. But now we’ve bought a houseful of furniture.

I am ecstatic because for the first time, before having furniture that conforms to some kind of theme, I will have the storage that I desperately need for my sanity. Homeschooling, working from home and having 3 children with 3 sets of toys can be challenging, especially when you don’t really have a lot of shelves or storage units. The first pieces of furniture have trickled in and I have been ranting and raving to my children that once I get their area set up anything that I find on the floor belongs to the garbage. I am just so tired of repeating myself and telling the girls to be neater that I’ve gotten to the “raving maniac, maybe I need a tranquilizer” stage of motherhood.

With the help of my good friend Franchesca, the storage drawers are ready to be filled and organized. I took the big things and placed them in drawers (that I’ve labeled and my 1 year old has torn off). I set up the bookcases to hold the overflow of books that we own. I’ve put the Pokémon and other small figurines into their respective homes and I was feeling mighty pleased with myself. I had my daughters help me with the sweeping and disposition of items. My eldest daughter, Jade, starts weeping for no apparent reason and starts going through the garbage bag that I brought upstairs. I asked her what was wrong and she just gets more hysterical and starts pulling out pieces of paper that have lain on the floor for 200 years or more. She claims that these are her “favorite” sheets of paper, broken toy, etc. Now, my daughter is basically waving the red flag in front of a bull. So, I go off and start fussing about “important things” aren’t left on the floor to be stepped on and ruined. “Important things” are not left to grow mold, dust or whatever that was on some of the things that I’ve put into the garbage.

Of course, she sobs more, I tell myself to shut up and just clean and let her work it out for herself. She cries for at least a half hour after that while her sister and I are finishing the cleaning process. Suddenly, Jade throws herself into my arms and starts a fresh wave of tears. So, I just hold her for a while and start humming to the music on the radio. Finally she stops crying and tells me that she’s feeling sick. I tell her to go to lie down in her bed for a few minutes. She tells me that she’s not that kind of sick. Then I ask her what she means and she tells that she’s sick because she doesn’t treat her things well. Then she asks me if I can teach her to how to treat her things better. I was shocked! Here I was ranting and raving and the poor girl really doesn’t understand what she’s supposed to do with her things! Talk about feeling 2 inches high!

Today’s little drama with my daughter brought home to me just how much there is for me to teach and for her to learn. It also has made me realize that I haven’t been a very good example for her over the past year or so. With the birth of my son, increased work responsibilities and the cyber charter schoolwork, I have not been demonstrating organizational skills on anything higher than the basic, car keys are in the dish and my head is on my neck. The cyber charter school, while great for some families, really put a crimp in our fun activities since we were trying to keep up with their artificial 9 month schedule rather than the year-long homeschooling that we had practiced in the past.

The reorganization of our lives by returning to traditional homeschooling, buying furniture and planning where things go rather than putting them wherever we have space is really going to be an adjustment for everyone, including me. Being a blue personality, continuity and consistency is not always a strong suit, so I’ll have to make a conscious effort to be more organized than ever before. The great thing about my household makeup is that my husband is a green (hyper-organized when given the chance) and he can make up my consistency deficiencies and help our children to be more aware of their surroundings. One of the good things about being a couple for so long is that we can pick up where the other left off without too much difficulty. And it helps that I’m not always the bad guy in the family. J

And, it also means that I have to be more patient with myself, as well as the children when it comes to our “New World Order” of things in the house. With bookcases, shelving, drawer space and new bedroom furniture, etc. everyone will have to get out of the habit of finding the cleanest available spot for their things and really think about what they are doing. I am sure that with everyone pulling together to make this transition, I’ll be able to actually relax in my own home, for the first time in about four years, knowing that this orderliness is the beginning of greater time freedom for me to enjoy my little people.

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