Exotic Music

This afternoon Monkey asked me, "What's a gong?" We ran across the word in phonics. I explained, but a gong must be heard to understand, so when we were done reading we visited YouTube. Turns out there's quite a bit of exotic music on there, and we had a good time.

Sunday Scripture

And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

Enos 1:4

It Strengthens My Resolve

... to stay home. Even were we to not homeschool, this council is crystal clear:

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One of the great tragedies of our day is the confusion in the minds of some which would cause mothers to go to work in the marketplace. Satan, that master of deceit, would have us believe that when we have problems with our children, the answer may be a nicer home in a finer neighborhood, that they might have their own bedroom, or better quality clothes, and maybe their own car. Satan would have us believe that money or the things money can buy are more important in the home than mother.


Now there are some mothers with school-age children who are the breadwinners of their family and they must work; they are the exception. Fathers and mothers, before you decide you need a second income and that mother must go to work out of the home, may I plead with you: first go to the Lord in prayer and receive his divine approbation. Be sure he says yes. Mothers with children and teenagers at home, before you go out of your homes to work, please count the cost as carefully as you count the profit. Earning a few dollars more for luxuries cloaked in the masquerade of necessity or a so-called opportunity for self-development of talents in the business world, a chance to get away from the mundane responsibilities of the home these are all satanic substitutes for clear thinking. They are counterfeit thoughts that subvert the responsibilities of motherhood. As you count the costs of mother working out of the home, please consider the following:


A mother gone when her children need her most or one who is too tired from a day spent in employment. Far better for a boy or girl to go to school in last year's shirts or hand-me-down dresses that are clean even though not in the height of fashion and come home to find mother there, than for a boy or girl to go to school in finer and newer clothes and come home to a new TV or a baby-sitter because Mother is away working.

-H. Burke Peterson, CR, Apr. 1974, p. 43

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Classical Homeschooling Carnival #19

Welcome to the latest edition of the Classical Homeschooling Carnival! We have a number of fun and inspiring posts this time around. Check them out:

LITERATURE

Delightful Children's Books has a rather extensive collection of books this time, in the wrap-up of her globally themed event, Read Around the World. Looks like they had a great time!


Nadene and her kids are having a blast Playing with Poetry - ideograms, to be precise - at Practical Pages.

Photo courtesy of Delightful Children's Books.

MATH and SCIENCE

Jay3fer reminds us not to put away the toys too soon in Cuisenaire Rods for Big(ger) Kids. She walks us through their use of the rods to figure out the area of a book cover, over at Adventures in Mama-Land.

Here on Baby Steps, I've been pondering what math really is, and concluding that It's Not What I Thought.

Mary tells about her adventures with Phony Poop in her son's digestive system lesson. I'm pretty sure that's one he'll remember for a loooong old time! She's blogging at Winecup Christian Academy.

Photo courtesy of Winecup Christian Academy.

HISTORY

At Blah, Blah, Blog, Pamela shares her memories of the morning of September 11th.


That's it! Thanks for stopping by! Past posts and future hosts for the Classical Homeschooling Carnival can be found on our index page. If you've got a post that would inspire the Classical Education community, please stop by our submission page and share it with us!

Carnival of Homeschooling

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up, and there are some fun posts in it this week. Here are a few that I enjoyed:

Sage Parnassus shares a nostalgic poem about the bees.

The Homeschool Lifestyle -- pointing out the blessing of "extra" time with our children.


Cookie's Domain has a nice post about bird study resources. Some we're familiar with, others I haven't seen before.

Math, Math, and More Math

I was feeling a little behind where I wanted to be - we had missed a few days and were out of sync with my schedule, particularly in Math. So we took 2 days and just focused on getting back to where my lesson plans said we ought to be in math. Happily, Math is one of Monkey's favorite things to do, so this was no chore at all.

Working on teen numbers as 10 + ____

We practiced finding the missing partners.

Here's a fun variant on Go Fish, called Go To the Dump, that I think we'll be doing in the next while to practice math facts. We did it once already with partners of 10, but I put too many combinations in, and Monkey is still really slow. I think that next time I'll put in only 2 or 3 pairs - 9/1, 8/2, and maybe 7/3. Then he'll get more intense repetition on the partners we're working with and can start to remember them out of his head a little better.




I've been thinking a lot about math lately, and we've got the first of the Miqon books on the way, we're going to add it to the Math Expressions that we're doing. The Cuisenaire Rods are already here, and so is the Lab Sheet Annotations book that's supposed to help me figure out what to do with the worksheets. But I don't actually have the worksheets, and I don't have the rest of the instructional materials for me to figure out this system. I've been looking at blog posts about other folks' experiences with it, though, and I like this idea for making it kid-directed. Very interesting. This looks like an entirely different take on math. Math with lots of toys. Jennifer, of Adventures in Mama-Land, says not to put away the toys too soon.

In fact, there's this whole thread at TWTM forums on how to drill math facts, but fun. I'm thinking that I'll be needing some of these games. Sure wish someone had made drilling facts fun for me when I was little! I just remember being so frustrated with those goofy timed tests. 100 problems in less than 5 minutes. Ugh.

What a Look!

My brother sat down and started talking to Raven at Nana and Grandpa's house the other day. For his efforts, he was rewarded with The Look.

Aquarium Trip

We went to see my sister and her husband, and they took us to their local Aquarium. What fun! And, it counts as school, since we're studying animals on science. Here are some of the pictures:

We saw the beluga whales - the baby was nursing while we were there!

There were all sorts of fun critters to see.