Homeschooling

Decisions To Make in Homeschooling

June 7, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Homeschooling has become a very popular option lately. Some people make the decision spontaneously and others research and plan before taking the plunge. REGARDLESS of which method dropped you into schooling your children at home there are ALWAYS decisions to make in homeschooling your youngsters.

What decisions you ask? Well there tons of things to consider as you consider the decisions to make in homeschooling.

Questions to ask

I won’t go into exhaustive detail here, I just want to prod you into some of questions you might wish to ask. This list should get you started and possibly generate more for you.

What style will you use and what curriculum will fit your style?
How do your children learn and how will that influence your day and teaching methods?
Are there books you should read to further your knowledge base?
What around homeschool groups… do you join one or keep visiting homeshool groups on facebook?
Where will you find your curriculla?
Will you go for purchased or free options?
Textbook or living book style?
Hands-on, get dirty and right into it? Or videos, textbooks, online teaching?
Will you make a vision or mission statement?
Self-taught, parent-taught, or teacher taught, or some combination thereof?
Will you combine grades and subjects?
Will you partake of any public school offerings? (dependent on your school board of course)
Faith-based, secular, or a meld?
Ebooks, physical books, online.
Will you embrace a methodology of teaching such as Charlotte Mason, Child-led, Eclectic, Classical etc.
What type of scheduling will you lay out?
Will you school year round? Take regular breaks? Do modified summer school?
Many homeschools are mom-led, but sometimes grandparents teach, or even dad. How will it look for you?
How about co-ops? Is there one close by or do you need to start your own?
What about where you will do your schooling? Designated room or use of your entire house?
How will you manage younger and older siblings? Keeping toddlers busy whilst helping older students grasp difficult concepts.

June 2021 Social Media Challenge Graphic

We Want A Dog

June 5, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary ARC product (We Want a Dog) through Raincoast Books.

Want a dog? So do the reading of We Want a Dog. And boy oh boy… do they want a dog with oodles of different talents… or perhaps they want options! (you decide!) Come on for a cute book about all the things that dogs can bring into your life.

Affiliate links will be used in this review, no cost to you, but helps me with my blog. (a good thing yes?)

We Want a Dog… starts with a question.

All about We Want a Dog

This fun picture book is written by Lo Cole and is published by Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky. You will be taken on a fun, and somewhat unexpected journey through 26 amusing varieties of our canine friends. Using humour Lo Cole helps us to see the fun and …sometimes questionable nature… of all things canine.

I am reviewing an advanced readers copy from Raincoast Books for my review.

You’ll find rhyming text throughout, some of the rhymes are perfect, others are near-rhymes. This would be so fun to read with a group of children.

Red, black and white is the colour palette with each page varying the amount of colour. You’ll find the text is a lovely size for reading as you discover all the different dogs possible. Some are serious, others are funny, and yet more are downright alarming. It’s perfect for children ages 3-8! Mind, it might turn some children off of dogs if they take this book a bit too seriously.

Just a heads up… the ending was totally unexpected! Made me laugh! I can see 6-8 year olds laughing too! 🙂

Should you get We Want A Dog

Okay, We Want a Dog is just a fun book. Lo Cole takes the fun and the bad of what makes a dog a dog. He puts 26 of those characteristics into a fun colourful picture book. My hesitation is that I am adult, I can see the fun in pulling out some of the animal in the dogs around us. But three-five-year-olds are not adults. They sometimes take things seriously that are meant to be read in fun. So getting this book depends on the children involved.

NOW…. if you are doing a unit study about dogs…this book would be a HOOT to go along with that. It would be. Make the kids laugh, give you the opportunity to talk about how you’d train a dog who did some of the things the dogs in this book do. It would also give the opportunity to see dogs in a broader spectrum than most dog unit studies might include. By the by, you might find this unit study on dogs extremely helpful to use with this book! 🙂

Review: John Riley’s Pursued to Eternity

June 2, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

John Riley has put together a short book focusing on seeing God throughout history and answering questions about creation vs evolution. Part story, part scholastic treaty, John Riley’s goal is to help us see God more clearly throughout history and see him as the God of Truth. Pursued to Eternity shows us God’s pursuit of his people.

Who is John Riley?

John Riley has a master of science degree and used it in his work as an engineer. During his retirement he, along with his wife Nancy, took to educating students in physics, robotics and SAT prep. They wrote a creation vs evolution class which you can find on SchoolhouseTeachers.com entitled: Apologetics: Creation vs. Evolution. This course is 14 lessons long and helps students ask better questions about evolution.

About the Product Pursued to Eternity

You’ll find Pursued to Eternity at Covenant Books. A 154 page with 17 chapters. The chapters are not long and are a mix between theological treatise and stories. The stories read as if they really happened and I admittedly am not sure if they did or did not. I found that aspect a bit confusing to be honest.

What you’ll find

John Riley walks his readers through the story of the bible. He does this in two ways. He takes scripture and combines it with history to give us a specifically broad understanding of God and his action throughout history. His focus is often on archaeological finds and answering questions raised.

As you open the book you’ll see this

“Note: this is a short novel with fictional events, such as hunting for dinosaurs …. Also blended into the book are nonfictional challenges to evolution and an extensive survey of apologetics (evidence that supports the Bible).

Later in the introduction, we find Connor saying these words “this book was written to chronicle the amazing six-month odyssey I experienced with my brother“.

I got confused

As I look back as to what caused my confusion and therefore set me up to having a problem sifting through fact and fiction was in the Introduction we are introduced to the narrator, Connor Bridges and his brother Alan. This I’m given the impression that Connor is a real person and that these events truly happened, but by the end of the book I was wondering if I was fooled. If this truly was a chronology or just a story. Did the events that happened during those six months truly occur or were they just a made-up part of the story? Though I have to admit there were parts that piqued my interest since I had a hard time discerning the “story” from “fact” it left me feeling skeptical.

BUT on to what you’ll find in Pursued to Eternity.

You will find apologetics mixed with fiction to help bring those apologetics to life and show God in action. They are mostly text with scripture verses all in a row. More at the beginning of John Riley’s book than at the end. Made for me, a slower start to the read. The stories get more compelling as you get deeper into the work.

The artwork! I know, I know, artwork does not make or break a book for me. But I liked it. The variety used when introducing each chapter and how it fit the theme. Well done!

You will find 17 chapters that lead us throughout history from creation through to looking forward to eternity. Much time was spent on the Exodus period. Interjected between God moving through history you’ll find stories about hunting dinosaurs, slavery and refugees with life in Egypt, anecdotes about people in history (such as John Newton), and the lives of Connor and Alan. You will also discover a list of 68 questions to consider in the evolution-creation debate that is on-going today.

How I used it

I read Pursued to Eternity. Front to back, over a period of about two weeks. I could have read it faster as at 151 pages it is by no means a long book. Some books though require a slower and more careful reading. This is one of them.

It is a softcover which meant having to take more care as it’s SO easy to roll the covers of trade paperbacks! 🙂 Now sometimes it doesn’t matter right? It just shows if a book is well-loved or not, but other times it does. I am hoping to have my lad read it at some point as it might help him think a bit more? That would be a good thing I think. So the fact that it’s a shorter book with a thin cover means it will be easy for him to tuck it in with his other books.

I really liked that list of 68 questions to ask. They have allowed me to questions of my lad for him to ponder. Like… who cared for the first human child? What created the energy needed for the big bang to occur? How much guesswork is there in determining evolution? How do you explain some of the statements Darwin made? Can you explain how evolution does or does not promote racism and exclusion?

Should you get Pursued to Eternity?

A bit of a mixed opinion. Honestly, It was interesting, I think my hesitation is the confusion I felt at the end of it. The apologetic sections I found rather dry. I would have loved to have seen that section worded differently rather than appearing as a list. I understand why he did that way as it helps the biblical text to stand alone. It also makes it very apparent and not confused with the interjected stories.

The stories were fictional, and as I read I wondered what was the basis for them, and discovered that as I read through the story of Connor and Alan. It did make for interesting reading and gave me a back story I had considered before with some of the biblical accounts.

The addition of the creation-evolution debate

I found the evolution aspect unexpected in regards to the title. I expected a book more about how God’s been active through history, this is how we see him in the bible, and this is how we see him acting in the lives of people. The evolution/creation discussion provided talking points with my son. He hasn’t made up his mind yet about evolution and its truth or lack thereof so this gives him additional points to consider.

So my review is mixed. There is much to recommend as we are shown God in history. And that is a valuable thing to have laid out before a person. The evolution/creation aspect provides good talking points, and things to consider when entering debates, or seeking to offer questions for teens to consider. I found the execution didn’t feel comfortable for me and so I personally struggled with reading it.

Read the Reviews

25 members of the crew engaged in this review. I urge to you to check out their reviews by clicking the image below.

Insects at the beach

May 31, 2021 By Annette1 11 Comments

Affiliate links will be used in this post.

Two challenges face me this week… insects (crew challenge) and the beach (online book challenge)! The question is, how do I combine these challenges? As I considered the word beach I remembered a book I read last fall called Beach Music. In that hardcover read I was introduced to the plight of sea turtles, and how they slapped mosquitos at the beach. Ergo a good combination would insects at the beach… don’t you think?

Now the insects that one finds at the beach kinda depend on where your beach is. I find more insects readily available on the beach near small lakes. Insects are somewhat less prevalent I find at the beaches from the great lakes, but if you look for them, you’ll find them. It could also be that I’m not paying as much attention as I’m usually at Lake Huron to swim and socialize, not relax and notice nature! 🙂

Insects at the beach that annoy

I know when I go to the beach at Lake Huron the sandflies irritate me! Annoying little pests that go after my ankles. A small fly, they pack a nasty bite. They seem to be worse when the weather is humid, so going to the beach when it’s just slightly chill, or there’s a wind blowing is ideal for avoiding them.

The same goes for mosquitos! A slight wind, and they stay away. And the bonus is, on somewhat windy days, the beach is way less crowded too!

Of course one can use a variety of repellants as well to hold them off. I don’t really like using repellants, particularly at the beach since it just washes off in the water and I’d rather not poison the water critters.

Insects that Delight

Water striders. I will always be fascinated by these crazy insects. They are just too cool floating on the top of the water. You won’t find them on busy beach days at Lake Huron or where the waves are coming in rough at all, but those calm glassy days…the striders will be out! But by smaller lakes and ponds you’ll find them, and in streams going along nature trails you’ll find them in abundance.

I’ve also seen water beetles at our local beach. I freely admit that I don’t know the names to all these beetles, some are water bugs, others are boatmen, some bite easily, others avoid contact at all costs it seems, but they are really neat to observe as they dart around in the water. Again, calm, quiet days are best to observe them. Sometimes I wonder where they go when the waves are rushing in.

Moths and butterflies flit about, as do dragonflies chasing after the mosquitos and sand flies. I thoroughly enjoy watching the dragonflies, they are so quick and precise in their movements. You’ll find all sizes of them, but note, not all that look like dragonflies are, some are actually damselflies. Canadian wildlife will help you tell the difference.

Over the years we have caught several as my lad was quite fascinated with them for quite some time. They don’t keep well in captivity due to their need for food, but to catch and observe and then release, works really well.

OH! I shouldn’t forget the ants. I always find ants at the beach regardless if at Lake Huron or out camping. There are so many different types of ants it’s actually quite amazing. We also find tons of small spiders as well, but they technically aren’t insects what with lacking wings and having too many legs. 🙂

Things to help in your observations

Something you might want to do is make a Pooter… it’s a device you use for catching small insects and spiders. Very simple to make. You just need a jar with a lid and some flexible tubing. Some lung power to suck the insect up and voila! A chance to closely observe insects with the equal ability to let them go free afterwards.

For larger insects like dragonflies and butterflies you’ll need a good bug net and patience. Word to the wise, avoid the kids bug nets… they fall apart so easily and really aren’t worth the money. Get a good quality one and it will last you until your children are no longer interested in insects. 🙂

In fact, if you are going to the beach to just look for insects you’ll want to bring along all your nature study tools, and even a bug collecting tent. We got a lot of use out of this collapsible one and eventually learned to make our own out of old tenting mesh and wire clothes hangers.

If you have a fascination for ants (or your children do) make a formicarium or glass ant farm to keep them in. Keep them well-fed with mealworms and honey and make sure they have water. Catching a queen means it will last far longer as ants need a leader and a job to do in order to live well.

This post is part of the blogging through the alphabet challenge as well as the online Book club.

Fellow Participants for the Online Book Club are

By the Sea of Crystal

May 30, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

You know what? It has been a VERY long time since I’ve sung By the Sea of Crystal. When I found it in my hymnal I starting humming it immediately. Hubster, whose sitting within humming distance, quirked an eyebrow and named it! So it’s good to know that he’s familiar with it enough to hear it through my humming! 🙂

Lyrics to By the Sea of Crystal

By the sea of crystal, saints in glory stand,
Myriads in number, drawn from every land,
Robed in white apparel, washed in Jesus’ blood,
They now reign in heaven with the Lamb of God.

Out of tribulation, death and Satan’s hand,
They have been translated at the Lord’s command.
In their hands they’re holding palms of victory;
Hark! the jubilant chorus shouts triumphantly:

“Unto God Almighty, sitting on the throne,
And the Lamb, victorious, be the praise alone,
God has wrought salvation, He did wondrous things,
Who shall not extol Thee, holy King of Kings?”

This is the version I am familiar with

Author and History

New Yorker William Kuipers penned the words to By the Sea of Crystal sometime in the early 1900’s. He served as a pastor within the Christian Reformed Church. Rev. Kuipers served in three churches in Michigan as well as one in New Jersey. He was the author of several poems, hymns, and psalm versifications.

I don’t know this version

Final Thoughts

This song is based on Revelation 4-5. In Revelation 4:5-6 we read “From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.”

Brings it home you know? All those saints, from all over the world, gathered before the throne of God. Can you hear the reverberation bouncing off the cyrstal?

What Ollie Saw

May 29, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

What Ollie Saw struck me as such a quirky book. Joukje Akveld brings us a young character (in the form of a pig) who has such an amazing perspective on the world around him. A perspective that… I can totally understand his teacher not appreciating…but as an homeschooler looking in… definitely can! 🙂

Affiliate links will be used in this review. They help to support my blog and don’t add anything to your bill. 🙂

What Ollie Saw, the basic details

Published by Levine Querido, What Ollie Saw is a 59 page hardcover book suitable for children 5-9 years old. Ollie is a youngster who sees the world in a creative light, not always in logical others around him do. He’s part of a standard family unit with mom, dad and older sister. Ollie’s teacher is frustrated as he answers the question according to how he sees the world rather than giving a simple direct answer. Author Joukje Akveld tells the story as if he were narrating Ollie’s thought patterns. Illustrator Sieb Posthuma does an excellent job of showing us Ollie’s perspective on the world around him. I am reviewing on behalf of Raincoast Books.

I need to tell you this… Ollie’s sister is a pessimist. And she comes across as an entitled pain in the rear. She does! She’s not a nice character. But as the narrator tells us…. this book is NOT about his sister. It’s about Ollie! Her attitude is a counter-note to Ollie’s.

This of course makes Ollie’s unique perspective stand out, shining like the sun. He’s a fun character with so much possibility.

Despite the nay-sayers in Ollie’s life, he continues to see the world from a fresh perspective. Seeing the possibilities rather than the logic of the here and now. Sieb Posthuma shows Ollie’s imagination with simple line drawings filled with colour.

Should you get it?

You know how some children are differently-abled and some children stand up well under their uniqueness? Ollie is one of those children. I can see reading this book with your differently-abled children might give them a boost of confidence.

One also gains an appreciation for the positives of a unique personality, to see the wonder and hope that such a perspective holds. And, as an adult, it helps me to reconsider what might approach with such children might be.

I can TOTALLY understand the teacher’s frustration. Ollie is so locked into how he sees the world that he fails to actually answer the question the way the teacher would like him too.

It’s one of those things I would have liked to see added to this book, the teacher starteing to understand Ollie’s perspective, or even Ollie starting to understand how to answer his teacher in a way that worked for her. But in not answering that question leaves it as a talking point between parent and child, or teachers and students. How can we help the teacher (and Ollie’s parents) se parktake in the wonder of Ollie’s imagination? How can we help Ollie learn to answer the question in a more logical manner?

Definitely a book I would buy if I were a teacher, and one that I would happily borrow from the library as a homeschool parent. What Ollie Saw … a young lad’s confident acceptance of who he is…. and it is good.

Ontario Wildlife in our Backyard

May 24, 2021 By Annette1 6 Comments

Oh… Ontario Wildlife… we have so many options eh? One can travel up north to see moose and bear, or down south to watch the birds mitigating in from the states at Point Pelee. I can drive down to Grand Bend in the spring to watch the snow geese come in, or head down to the local park to watch the local Canada Geese and mallards. But one of the things I love about where I live is my humungous backyard. I have the joy of watching Ontario wildlife in our backyard. I have the double joy of sharing this with my teenage son. He’s not always so delighted when he gets to see some of this nature up close and personal as he helps me transport it elsewhere….

The Unexpected

The other day my son and I were out gardening when suddenly I yelled “wow, that’s the biggest wolf spider I have ever seen!”. The lad came running over as fast as he could. He was delighted. My lad loves spiders and has kept a number of them over the years. The largest wold spider we’ve seen in the past was perhaps an inch all around, this one was big and fat and had to be almost two inches around. FAST! We wanted to save it since why kill something that is helpful outside? Ergo, the lad captured it and moved it to our woodpile. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but a fast-moving spider and a camera in my pocket isn’t a good combination.

Critters can be found everywhere if you look for them. Gardening, mowing the lawn, trimming bushes, feeding the rabbits, hanging the laundry, or just sitting under a tree. A spider can suddenly appear right in front of you… sending you skittering far away! 🙂 Or a vole can be found nibbling a discovered snack.

All you need to do is keep your eyes open, and your ears listening. Who knows what you might discover? This spring I’ve been serenaded by toads, been surprised by skittering feet on the rabbitry roof, and been delighted by the warning buzz of a bumblebee.

Now mind you, there are critters I like to see… voles, insects, toads…. LOVE having toads, frogs, water bugs, spiders… in places I am not! But there are also varmints! I don’t much care for varmints, and I’d rather not be overladen with flying pests like yellow jackets, flies, and mosquitos. It is so much fun when I clean out the rabbitry and discover insects I’ve never seen before: whiptails, and yellow centipedes that are so tiny, and jumping spiders of all sorts. I don’t want them ON me, but it’s fun to observe creation don’t you think? Even with the varmints…to see their colour, observe their movement, note curiousities about them. It’s good to really see the world around us.

Critters I’d rather not have….

This guy was very unfortunate in his life. We observed many injuries on him that were healing.

This spring we have had a number of unwanted Ontario Wildlife in our backyard. Unwanted for a variety of reasons. I really dislike some of these varmints in the rabbitry.

Rats… cause they foul EVERYTHING, such filthy beasts, and they’ll damage the rabbits.
Skunks…cause they can be stink buckets! Though last year we had a polite skunk who I didn’t mind having around. I’d announce my arrival, it would disappear under the rabbit cages until I was gone, and then come out again. This year’s batch were less-than-polite so out they went!
Opossums… scary bad damage to rabbits they can do. They usually just pass through, but if I can encourage them on their way, I am more than happy to do so.
Raccoons… HORRIBLE critters when it comes to rabbits. The damage they can do makes me so very angry. I so heartedly have learned to dislike them around rabbits because of how they damage them.
Stray cats…. stinky messy animals. Why do stray tom cats like our backyard? I DUNNO. But I don’t need them peeing on my fence posts, messing up my hay, or leaving poop in my yard. YUCK. Not real fond of half-eaten corpses laying around either. The positive thing is they do help reduce the rat population.

My son has learned how to transport most of these critters away from here. He’s had to learn what time of day is best to move them, how far away to take them, and how to get them out of the trap without negative consequences. Being able to observe them up close and note their different features has been instructional. Skunks by the by, you cover them with a tarp and keep it between you and them the WHOLE time. They don’t see you, they don’t spray you. Important life skills for a lad to learn.

This guy was the youngest of five we’ve caught this spring. The other four were older and somewhat aggressive.

Science at home

My teen was also able to help in an experiment. What will catch more rats… a live trap or a snap trap? We were curious what will draw them in quicker… Nutella, peanut butter or seeds? This led to a hypothesis, observations, and a conclusion. Biology science in real life. Nutella came out the winner! Thank you to Shawn Woods and Mousetraps Mondays! This is a trap I’d love to own someday. It will have to wait though until I can get to the States sometime.

Critters I don’t mind

The other day I was out on the porch and spotted this swarm of ants. My son, when I told him, asked me a bunch of questions about them. Was it two colonies of ants fighting? Was it a mating swarm? Where they gathered around eating something? I said I don’t know, how would I know? He proceeded to educate me on ants and all the signs of ant colonies fighting and what a mating flight would look like. We determined that they were just out for some unknown reason. The lad knows a lot about ants as he raises them and has built his own formicariums for some of them. The goal… to raise big enough colonies to sell them. 🙂

Insects too!

Every year we have a bumble bee grace our yard. She often nests in old tree stumps or well-rotten wood. This year it took me a while to spot her nest. In a place I totally didn’t expect!

I thought she was nesting in the straw bale and didn’t want to move it until I knew where she was going. Certainly, I didn’t expect her to be in an old nesting box holding extra rabbit fur. Now I won’t dump it until the fall… after I carefully go through it. I’ve never seen a bumblebee nest before. In case you are curious as I am….

More than bumblebees

We are just starting to see a variety of insects. When I was moving the compost the other day it was swarmed by hordes of yellow flies. I told my guys to stay clear as on the farm growing up I learned these things bite! They like damp smelly places and if you bug them, they’ll bite. What the name of them is? I grew up calling them stable flies but when I look up stable flies they don’t look the same. They look a lot like these flies. I did have the lad give them a good look so he learns to avoid them.

I’ve also been seeing centipedes and millipedes, and have already been catching them for our goldfish. The rollypolys are out and about as well. The other day as I was cleaning cages a small black spider spun down in front of me. Aphids are coming out. We’ve been feeding various earthworms to our garter snake.

Our Pond Brings in Critters

I’ve needed to warn the lad when he mows the lawn to mind the toads we have hopping around. We have at least six different ones and I’d hate for them to go through the mower. They catch SO many flies.

Every year we get a frog or two.

Dragonflies will start gracing our yard killing tons of flies and mosquitos, and water striders, water beetles and more. They have to be quick to avoid our ravenous goldfish.

How about you?

So you gotta tell me….. what kind of critters do you find in your backyard? When you holler WOW, what would bring your youngsters running to see? What delights you in the animals you see around your place? Or even what you’d rather not spend time thinking on! 🙂

Want to know more about supporting teens through homeschooling? Sparks Academy has put together an ebook on Homeschooling Highschool. You could also visit SchoolhouseTeachers. (affiliate link) They have a variety of unit studies, biology lessons, nature studies, chemistry and physics lessons to help our highschoolers under the world around better. Use the code outside to get a discount.