Finding Homeschool Inspiration

I'm searching the web for homeschool inspiration these days. Bumped into this page: http://www.underthegoldenappletree.com/

What sites do you follow?

Life....

no blogging lately. I'm currently busy building a baby! I'm 12 weeks and still nauseous as all get out but happy that God is at work in me. After 6 years of trying and 4 losses before little Froggy (might need a new nickname for him, huh) we were not sure what all God might have in store for our family. Happy to see that he wanted us to have more :) Due early February. God is good.

Gizmos and Gadgets

I purchased the book Gizmos and Gadgets: Creating Your Own Contraptions that Work a while back and was happy to see Monkeet take off on his own to create his own marble run :)  He ended up using K'Nex pieces to hold the tubes in place and to create the extras like spinners.

Google Reader

At one point I discovered Google Reader for reading blogs.  It was such a time saver for me - and still is.  But now I see the downside - by not clicking through to other's blogs, I am not commenting much - which is so much a part of blogging!  And I haven't written my own blog either!  But - given that I am homeschooling with a 10 month old baby on the move - my computer time is limited.  So, for the time being - efficient blog reading on Google Reader will still be my method of choice.  But life comes in seasons.....my blogging season will come around again I'm sure!

Think! Challenge - Catalog structure

The Think Challenge from here was: Put one catalog on the table and tell your students to make a structure that is as tall, wide and deep as possible. They may not use any other materials except the catalog. No scissors. No tape. Nothing!

Monkeet's structure:

He had a bit of trouble at first thinking of what to do... until I reminded him that he is very good at making paper airplanes and even knows how to make paper boxes so certainly he could use his paper folding skills in some way.  (That was probably too much info to give for a Think Challenge- but I didn't want him to give up either.)  At first he had the boxes set up just like bricks but then realized that he could get columns to stand up if he put them inside the boxes.  He was pleased with how tall he made it - and so was I :)

Educational Website

My new favorite educational website is www.IKnowThat.com.  They've got all subject areas with lots of fun games (we like Paintball Punctuation, playing with the maps, and the Math facts games) and especially good activities for critical thinking like programming 'botz' and creating contraptions or 'widgets' (which is what Monkeet would do non stop if I didn't limit his computer time!)  Haven't even discovered all the great things there yet since there is so much!  (and we just did the free membership - not the pay subscription)

... enjoy!

To the Glory of God

I was reading in my little "Our Daily Bread" devotional this morning and was struck by the appropriateness of the topic I read today (since I'm not actually keeping up with the actual dates they have listed.)  The writer, Bill Crowder, says,

In the Bible we see that God consistently used people who were far less than perfect.  That shouldn't surprise us.  God is glorified by showing Himself strong through our weaknesses.  It shows us that He desires to work through our lives not because we are perfect but because He is.  He uses those of us who are flawed and frail, so that He can show His strength and grace.  He wants those with a willing and available heart.

Given that my great weakness is that I can't seem to be good at more than one thing at a time (if I'm the good homeschooler, then my housework goes downhill - or if I'm being crafty and making cards then everything else suffers etc...)  I thought it was appropriate to find this message the morning after deciding that I was going to try much harder this week to figure out some sort of schedule or something to stay on track with housework and homeschooling together.  So, here I am, God, flawed for sure, but hoping that in all things I can give You glory!

Reminds me of that David Meece song - ok, going way, way back in the memory banks here - I think it was called "To The Glory of God"...... ah yes... here are the lyrics :)

For awhile it was fine
Hearing the roar of the crowd
For awhile it was mine
Flying up over the clouds

But then the sun melted my wings

Now I'm on my knees

To the glory of God

Next time I fly it will be

To the glory of God

I want me life just to be

To the glory of God

Once I used to ride off to war

There was glory to win

Thought I knew what it was for

But most of the battles were mine

Now so is the pain

To the glory of God

Next time I fight it will be

To the glory of God

I want me life just to be

To the glory of God

They say the man that finds

His life will lose it

Mine was slipping away

But oh the man that has the

Faith to lose it

Will find that his life is saved

To the glory of God

Next time I fly it will be

To the glory of God

I want me life just to be

To the glory of God.

So, with that in mind - 

Next time I clean it will be to the Glory of God!

Next time I teach it will be to the Glory of God!

And thanks to a friend for reminding me of The Create in Me a Clean Heart Devotional which I had forgotten about :)  Find it here and her other stuff here at www.ACleanHeart.com.

Think Challenge - Candy

This week's Think Challenge - make an animal with candy :)

Two Peas in a Pod

Monkeet - Oct 2001 - almost 9 months

Froggy - Oct 2008 - 7 months

Think! Challenge

I ran across a great blog which presents a challenge each week to get your kids thinking.  We participated this week in this challenge.  I know that Monkeet will get even better at this with a bit more exposure.  I'm quite proud of him.
We didn't have any eggs  on hand, so I grabbed an Easter egg and put a bouncy ball inside of it to add weight and so it would be a bit off-balanced like a raw egg too.  At first I provided him with blue painter's tape - but that wasn't really working - so I got out the scotch tape for him to finish with.  Mainly he just made "layers" of straws going different directions.  At first he put them together in flat little rafts.  Then he discovered that by cutting the tape lengthwise he could have pieces that acted more like string to tie the straws into little squares using 4 cut pieces.  Without this discovery he would have most certainly run out of tape.  I liked his idea of the bendy part of the straws being there to cradle the egg - he just made them a bit too far apart to actually do the job.  Regardless, he was finally able to get the egg balanced on top :) He wanted to do it again after having the experience and seeing other's solutions here but we didn't have 12 more extra straws laying around.  

I think these challenges will be great for him!  Many thanks to Think! for taking the time to publish them.