A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

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Connections and Gratitude, Edition Jan 25, 2017

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Connections

Counting Pinecones: Finish Line.    Just liked this post.  Bite sized goals are attainable, even in homeschooling.

When you Don’t have a math Plan.   This post stimulated my thinking with my boy for math.  Though we are starting a new math program soon…perhaps this will work for the lad well…

Amazing Grace.   Learning the difference between grace and goodwill. 

2 Tim 3:16-17. A reminder of what scripture is good for.

I homeschool so they can be bored.   Boredom is good for you, you know?

Gratitude

1. Subway restaurants… what can I say.   One night I was tired from not sleeping, headachy and not wanting to even think of putting food together, everything seemed far to hard to think about, had to drop a boy off at a youth event and Subway restaurants was right there … making sandwiches…people were fed.  It was a GOOD thing.  🙂

2. Washing machines capable of washing all my pants at one time (especially when one realizes that one has FORGOTTEN to do laundry in the busyness of other life).  SO YEAH!!!   All my pants clean.. I have something to wear tomorrow .. WOOT WOOT!  🙂

3. A boy child.  Seriously…this lad makes laugh.   I HAVE to show you this:   And it really wasn’t a sad sad thing… we had fun and laughed a lot

4.   Cuddle Blankets.
        When you have a fellow who isn’t sleeping well so can’t keep himself warm.. cuddle blankets are the very essence of blessing.

 5. Colour on dreary days
       Guess what bloomed!  My Amaryllis!!!!!

 
Helpful Posts


WorldWideClassroom: Homeschooling Help booklet.  An easy to fill out booklet to help refine homeschooling goals and needs. 

Learning about the Skeletal System.   This post came in helpful today, thought maybe it might be helpful to others as well.

Want to join in?

 

I would be delighted

If you wanted to join in.   Any post on gratitude or thankfulness for the things in your life are welcome.   Must be family friendly and the point must be on showing gratitude for things in your life.  Not for reviews (even if you are grateful for them).  🙂

Practical Math

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My son and I have … A struggle with math and I have to admit that I am not always sure what to do with it.   He’s been getting a bit weary with the struggle (as am I). 

We had picked up a math program last year that I thought would work well for him but it has proven, over time, to be far too easy for him, yet I know he has gaps in his learning (as evidenced today when, to my surprise, I learned that he doesn’t really get what fractions are)…yet he has done lots of fraction work and done it well!   So… I’m currently feeling a bit floored and flummoxed.

So anyways, the point of this post is about math.. practical math as you can see from my post title, and how needful taking a day away can be.  Susan from Homeschooling Hearts and Minds is hosting the Virtual Curriculum Fair this month and math is the focus this week.

Recently I had to bring a bunny to London, a person from Toronto was planning to come by to get the rabbit, but we live in South-western Ontario where we are prone to winter storms, so bunny needed to travel in something that would hold for a few days, if their person couldn’t make it.

ERGO enters a practical math problem.

Our issues:

  • Normal rabbit carrier is frozen solid from an unexpected leak
  • Bunny will be staying at gramma’s so tidyness is very important (measuring lower side height)
  • bunny needs sufficient room to move around for health and mental outlook (area)
  • Needs to hold food and water dishes for continuity of care (perimeter)
  • needs to open and close easily to avoid confusing gramma.

 I’d heard about rabbit carriers being made out of rubbermaid containers so thought that might be the route to go.

Canadian Tire had a sale on containers so off I set.

We came home with two containers (in case we made an oops).

 What we needed:

  • a drill with two different sized bits
  • jigsaw
  • wire for the side
  • wire cutters
  • zipties
  • rubbermaid container
  • very sharp knife
  • markers
  • straight edge

My son asked me “How is this practical math if we aren’t actually doing measuring mom?”

I said “Math is more than measuring, it’s doing estimation and lines, learning how to use a straight edge and stuff like that”.     So we used line of sight, hand measurements, estimation and approximation, and so forth.

He was happy.. he got to use a drill once I showed him how to do a quick up and down with the bit.  He learned how slippery plastic was to cut and so learned to slow down so he wouldn’t take mom’s fingers with it.

I have to admit, that even though my lad is very good with knives I didn’t allow him to do any cutting.   Cutting plastic can be temperamental and using a really sharp knife is a must.  As it was I got nicks taken out of my fingers.

First up.   Taking one piece of wire (taken from an old bird cage) and eye ball it to see what we have to cut back.  It was too wide and a touch too long.

We needed to consider having room to connect it, maintain the stability of the container, and not waste the wire we had.

Using the wire cutters with the wire was pretty easy though dad had to lend his strength to cut through the thick wires.

Cutting through the plastic had dad helping with drilling holes into the corners.  We learned quickly that regardless of what markers I used they didn’t hold well on the plastic making it difficult to see the lines, so after helping cut one line with the jigsaw and not being able to see the lines he left me to cut the rest with my sharp blade.

We needed to put two holes close together to hold the wire onto the sides.

We discussed if it was better to put the wire on the outside or inside and had differing opinions until Dad called from across the room.. put in on the inside…keep the rabbit from nibbling on the plastic.  That cemented the decision-making for us.  🙂

It proved to be a two person job to attach the wire.   Working from opposite corners we managed to get the job done.

The lad completed the job by trimming off the excess ziptie (to keep bunny from thinking…ooh.. free nibbles here!)   Yes, bunnies can be silly.

This took us about a half hour from start to finish, including installing bunny in her temporary home.

Does she look content?   Hay given, water and pellets when she gets to gramma’s.   She should do well eh?   Opens from the top as well as the sides for ease of access.  Turned out to be a good thing as gramma couldn’t figure out the side panels at all.

The bedding for those curious, is a mixed shaving and straw bedding.  Safe to use with small animals.

My math weary child was so delighted to use this project for his math work, it inspired him back to doing “regular” math… even though fractions proved more problematic than we thought they would.  🙂   go figure.   Sometimes taking a day to do practical math.. even without actual numbers .. is just what a lad needs.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair, it’s math week .. having fun with numbers.

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are talking about
Discovering Patterns: Math and the Mathematical Sciences this week:

Finding Our Math Equilibrium: Our Plan for 11th, 7th, 5th, and 2nd Grades + Free Printables! by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Math Resources and Programs for All Ages by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool
Math (doesn’t) Stink! by Jennifer King @A Peace of Mind
When Math is NOT Your Thing by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays
Math U See and All the Supplements by Laura H @ Four Little Penguins
Discovering Patterns in Our World: STEM Studies by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
Junior High Math by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life
Science & Math for Struggling Learners by Yvie @ Gypsy Road
Maths: a subject in progress by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
Taking Mathematics out of the Textbook by Dana Hanley @ Roscommon Acre
Maths for a Very Maths-y Boy by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home
Practical Math by Annette @ A Net in Time
One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling by Kim @ Good Sweet Love
Math, How I Loathe Thee by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed
Math and Logic in Early Elementary and Preschool {virtual curriculum fair 2017} by Meghan W @ Quiet In The Chaos
Low Stress High School Science and Math by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Are these toys or manipulatives? This is math? by HillaryM @ Walking Fruitfully
When You Don’t Have a Math Plan by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart
Clear Horizons by Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
A Few Thoughts on Teacher Math by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

An InLinkz Link-up

This post will also be linked up on January 25 with the Canadian Homeschooler. 

January 11th edition of Connections and Thankfulness

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Starting a new thing, not sure how often it will run, probably bi-weekly.   Showing some posts I liked during the past week or two, along with listing moments of gratitude.

Connections with Others

1. UsSchooling.  I love the tone and the thought in this blog post.   Instead of calling your style eclectic… call it US schooling.  

2. Friday Boxes. I used to, with my lad, write down one thing we were thankful for every day.  Became part of our routine but sometimes it was hard to come up with something.  I really like this idea of writing down one good thing (or more) of each week on a slip of paper, saving them and then reading them out at the end of the year.   I think we’ll start doing this.  Will be lovely to do I think.  🙂

3. Making a Change.  I liked this post of Lori’s…I love her flexibility in how each of her children operates best.   Made a lot of sense to me it did.  🙂

4. Is reading Hereditary.  I just thought this was an interesting question to ask.

5. Loving Languages Every Day.   I just liked this post.   Just keeping reading eh?

Moments of Gratitude
1. “Mom, can I help you with anything?”   I love hearing those words from my boy.  or even better “Mom, is it okay if I vaccuum?  Mom, can I sweep the floor”?   Why do I love that more?   It means I don’t have to think of some way to honour his words, he’s come up with the idea on his own.  🙂

2. Snow and Cold.   I know it’s odd.. but snow and cold mean health.  Means germs die.  Means no funerals or extra meals.  Means nothing is fretting people wise.

3. Clothing and it’s options.   The fun of watching my boy run around in the snow… with SHORTS on!!!   Makes me smile and shake my head and be glad that everyone has been created differently.  AND it creates conversation starters with other people… like the fellow at the foodbank asking “what’s with the shorts?” and the lad talking with him about how he loves shorts and loves the cold because it means he isn’t hot.

4. A talkative husband.  Oh my… it’s so interesting seeing the stress start to roll off his back and he talking it seems all the time.  I’m having a bit of time adjusting to that.  It’s just so very odd.  I like it, but it’s a bit of an adjustment.

Want to join in?   Go ahead and link up.   Be polite and link back to THIS post.   Visiting others and commenting is always a welcome thing. 

Language Arts: Our Style

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Welcome to the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2017 week two.  This week we talk all about language arts, how one plays around with words.   Our host is the lovely Susan.  You can learn more about the VFCF2017 right here.

I have to admit, it took a while to figure out a system to study Language Arts in our home.
Knowing that my boy (like his mother) tells stories as easily as breathing I thought, why not use that.

So I grabbed this freebie book from the library discard pile and off we set.

First he needs to draw a picture of the story he wants to write.  He spent days at this, getting all the details right and NO, I’m not allowed to show you.  🙂

 Then you develop your main character.  This was harder than the lad anticipated.  He thought he could just do yellow, pointed ears character.   Then I asked : so how tall is he?   Does he eat meat or vegetables?   What makes him laugh?   Does he ever cry?   Does he have friends or is he a loner?

Once he had the character nailed down a bit better he moved on to writing his story.  Bit by bit he adds to it.  And bit by bit he learns.  Every day a 1/2 hour of work is required.

Each time he gets a chapter done, we sit down and we edit it together.  We make the changes right in his story, discussing spelling errors, word usage, sentence structure and all that fun stuff.

And you know what?   He’s learning.  It’s not a battle.  It’s a sitting down and talking and learning together.  Sometimes I’ll read a sentence and not know what it wrong with it, so I’ll ask other folks and they’ll show me what’s wrong and then the lad and I both learn something new.

It’s good to do this.  🙂

I have to admit, I getting curious about what treasure his character is going to discover…

Anyways, this book has a variety of stories one can write out, from adventures to mysteries.
Draw it out, write it out chapter by chapter and just work your way through it.   We’ll be working our way through it for a good time to come yet.  🙂

I admit that we are taking our time with it, and we did get side-tracked when I was ill so are rather behind, but a new week is dawning and a lad will learn and grow, and I’ll be there with him.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.   I do hope that you’ll join us in reading through what some of us have put together.   Here’s the list of the gang.  🙂

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are writing about Playing with Words this week:

All posts will be live by Monday, January 9th at noon EST.

Delight Directed High School English by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Act Your Part Well- 2017 VCF by Lisa @ Golden Grasses

The Search For Language by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays

Our Top Picks for Language Arts by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool

Multiple Approaches to Language Arts in 2017 by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World

How We Cover the Language Arts in Our Homeschool by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Use Your Words by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

The Art of Perfecting Macarons by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Loving Languages Every Day by Jen K @ A Peace of Mind

Speech Therapy & Elementary Latin by Yvie @ Gypsy Road

The Readin’ and Writin’ Part of Homeschool by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed

Children Who Love Books by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home

Customizing High School Language Credits by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

A Poetry Feast by Sarah @ Delivering Grace

Teaching Language Arts without Curriculum by Brittney @ Mom’s Heart

I know your pain and it is worth it! by Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Language Arts: Our Style by Annette @ A Net in Time

Words! Words! Words! by Lisa M @McClanahan 7

10 Wonderful Word Games (+1) by Lori @ At Home: where life happens

What About Reading Comprehension? by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

Teaching Grammar and Writing Through Discussion by Chelli @ The Planted Trees

A time to be encouraged is coming.. the Virtual Curriculum Fair

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Pretty soon the Virtual Curriculum Fair will start for the year 2017.  🙂   Fun times eh?

Each week we will talk about different topics like Language Arts, Science, History and the like.   It will be fun and often times I learn so much.  There is SO MUCH knowledge out there it is astounding.  You will find yourself encouraged, surprised, educated, and filled with new material to help you in your life and your homeschool education journey.

But for this first week we are simply introducing ourselves and talking about how we do school and what not.

If you have followed by blog for anytime you will know that we do a little bit of this and that.  My son does a fair amount of school on the computer.   We are struggling with math because he comes at math from a different perspective than I do.   We are going to be adding more art and more geography and MORE Canada and what not.  But we are happy with our history and bible, our science and language arts.   I always see things I want to tweak…but those things need to be done carefully to avoid a rebellious child.

We read a lot and the lad is starting to write more…the joy of your very own story and art work… makes a lad smile.   I hope to share that with you.

I also plan to share some of our favourite art books.   I might talk about our math issues.  Talk about history and how much fun it is.   Who knows what the next four weeks hold?  Time will tell eh?

So a bunch of us are taking part in the Virtual Curriculum Fair.

Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts and Minds (our lovely hostess)
Laura H. @ Four Little Penguins
LauraOinAK @ Day by Day in Our World
Lisa N. @ Golden Grasses
Jacquelin C. @ A Stable Beginning
Jennifer King @ A Peace of Mind
Michele Pleasants @ Family, Faith and Fridays
Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool
Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Brittney @ Mom’s Heart
Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
Yvie Field @ Gypsy Road
Dana Lambert @ Luv’N Lambert Life
Debra B. @ Footprints in the Butter
Sarah J @ Delivering Grace
Annette @ A Net in Time
Lori H @ At Home: where life happens
Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine
Lizzy Peach @ Peaches @Home

Meghan W. @ Quiet In The Chaos
Amy L. @ Adorable Chaos
Kristen Hamilton @ Sunrise to Sunset
Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Lisa McClanahan @ The McClanahan 7
Hillary M  @ Walking Fruitfully
Shecki @ Greatly Blessed

We will be blogging once a week on the following topics 

Jan. 2—See How We Learn, the Nuts and Bolts of What Makes Our Homeschools Come Together

Jan. 9—Playing with Words, the Language Arts

Jan. 16—Discovering Patterns, Math and the Mathematical Sciences

Jan. 23—Exploring Our World, Social Studies and the Exploratory Sciences

Jan. 30—Seeking Beauty, the Fine Arts and Everything that Brings Beauty into our Homeschools

Weighing out the Sin

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I don’t know if you are familiar with Tim Challies... he is a Christian blogger who THINKS.  Like really, he thinks.  He writes book reviews, links to good reads, and posts some really fascinating stuff.

I do not agree with everything he talks about, but sometimes he writes a post that really gets me to thinking.    He recently did that with THIS post.   Sex on the Silver Screen – Outsourcing Depravity.

And it’s gotten me thinking.

GAH!!!   Like I need more to think on this week.   I suppose part of the reason it has gotten me thinking is that when I am feeling stressed two things happen.


okay three.

1. I eat chocolate.  🙂   I recently polished off a container of dark chocolate sea salt caramels…YUM!
2. I read quick easy reads that require NO thinking.
3. I slow down on the blogging and let inner stories take control.  I tend to hide more within.  I fight that actively as it helps nothing and just gets folks concerned about me.

So this post by Challies hit home this week.

You know what a quick easy read is for me??? 

One of Nora Roberts romances.    I”m sorry I LIKE THEM.   They require no brain power and are often one of two genres… A story around a maturity theme OR a mystery.   Both involve people and relationships and how they work them out.

They also tend to involve premarital relations which (TRUTHFULLY) I have learned take about 3-4 double pages that I just skip.  NO.. not holier than thou, just dislike it.   I don’t need to read how glorious first time “you are the one” connections can be in the physical realm.  I just don’t like reading it.. always seems so very unrealistic.   Those sections, at least for me, do not add ANYTHING to the storyline and watching characters develop and become more of whom they aught to be.  That’s what draws me in you know…

In my most recent read… Cameron has been a play boy, keep yourself busy being a risk taker-gambler type of man and then his dad died leaving a boy behind in need of care.  No more running around … there’s a boy in need and he has to help manage it all.  And it is HARD for him.  But by the end of the book you can really see him “manning” up.  THAT is why I like to read Ms. Roberts book… they make you happy to be human and seeing others humans doing their thing and learning to do it better.

I liked this book enough I want to read the rest of the series.  I want to see what happens in this family of men and how they develop into better people.  I want to see Seth (the boy) grow up.

But then Challies comes along and says “HEY>>> should you be condoning this style of writing?  This writing that showcases the wrong in the world (in this case the sin of premarital sex)?   And I’m left saying…hmm… I don’t know… it’s so pervasive…I don’t know if I can avoid it… in any of the literature that I like to read.   Even the good solid mysteries.. there’s always sin at hand being shown and used and what not.

And I’m sorry.. reading non-fiction doesn’t cut it for me.   Non-fiction isn’t an escape it’s more work as I think hmm… I could blog about this…    When I want to escape I just want something easy and quick and non-thinking…something that keeps me out of my own head.

Do I need to think all the time???

As I ponder this I wonder… if we let the portrayal of sin stop us from reading or watching entertainment is there much left we can watch?   Think about it for a moment.   The bible is full of it… along with the consequences.   We often don’t see the consequences on the screen but last night the sins of people were found out and broadcast for the world to see…. if there was no hidden sin it wouldn’t have been an issue…   so how far does one take it?   One sees and reads about so many different sins.. acted out by characters where does one draw the line? 

Smoking?  Drinking?   Premarital relations?  Theft?  Lying?  Worshipping false gods?  One could find reasons not to watch or read anything.   Should we?   Where do we draw the line?

It is a good call to think about though isn’t it?   To evaluate and to find talking points. 

I don’t really  have the answers, but it made me think and that I suppose is the point.   To stop and think about what you are seeing and doing and taking in.   Weighing it the light of who God is and how he wants us to spend our time.

What does it make you ponder?  Weigh in with your thoughts eh?

What does it mean to Create, a #fmfparty post

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The word prompt for five minute Friday this past week was create.

Simple Definition of create

  • : to make or produce (something) : to cause (something new) to exist
  • : to cause (a particular situation) to exist
  • : to produce (something new, such as a work of art) by using your talents and imagination 

Think about that for a moment, to create is to cause something new to be made.   One can create a poem, a piece of art, a new start in life in someone struggling, a business, a lesson plan, a play, and more. 

Have you ever paused to consider where that act of creation comes from?

The Bible tells us that in the VERY VERY BEGINNING God.. God created the heavens and the earth and everything that dwells within it.  (Genesis 1 and 2).  In the process of creation, God created us as the pinnacle of his creation.

When he made us, he made us in his likeness.  Think about what that means for a minute.

Take my boy for instance.  EVERYONE who sees him says “you look like your father”  (and he does).  BUT he has my sensitivity and love of animals, and he likes to garden (GO FIGURE).   So as much as my boy looks like he is made in the image of his father, he’s also made in the image of his mother…  Two different aspects, one external image.

When God made us in his image, he didn’t just go for looks, he also went for WHO HE IS.

Our God is a supremely creative (just look at the world around us), and he is WAY more than we are.  He is. he’s God, not man.

We get our creativity from him. 

So as you go out and create, remember what spawned that creativity, that ability you have to create a child, a piece of art, a business… remember where it really comes from.   The one that created you in the first place.  

Go well.. create!   🙂