tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172753382024-03-05T02:11:35.840-08:00Mother Wife and ArtistShalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.comBlogger494125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-8991822954213577192013-03-26T07:42:00.003-07:002013-03-26T07:42:57.613-07:00Changing Blog PlatformsI have decided to switch over to Word Press for my blog. So if you have been following me here, switch your reader to the new one, or start following the new one. I'll be working at getting more content and moving some of the posts from this site there. I will still leave this one up as I'm not going to transfer everything onto the new one. So from here on out this will be my new place to blog. Thanks for all your support!<br />
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<a href="http://motherwifeartist.wordpress.com/">http://motherwifeartist.wordpress.com/</a>Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-56223073711607910942013-03-13T16:17:00.002-07:002013-03-13T16:17:16.737-07:00Can you help me out?<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I have been looking into some options for ways we can help supplement our homeschool supplies and curriculum. One option requires that I have a certain number of followers on my blog. If you'd be interested in following it or helping me out that would be great! Just go to my blog and click on the follow me button on the right side. Thanks you guys!</span>Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-50346655254501603662013-03-13T13:59:00.003-07:002013-03-13T13:59:49.453-07:00A Huge Blessing - Our Homeschool Co-op<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It is always amazing to me how the Lord tends to know what I need, even better than I do myself. Around the middle of last year I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with homeschooling and needed some support. I had great friends who were supportive, but I really needed someone to talk to that understood the unique situations to homeschooling. I ended up pouring my heart out in prayer one night, asking the Lord to help me find someone that understood, and could be supportive. Two days later in church, out of the blue, I had a lady come up to me and said, "I hear that you're homeschooling? I homeschooled all of my children for years." </div>
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I had never had such a direct, fast answer to a prayer. I was so emotional. We talked for a bit, and she gave me some great resources and ideas to find some connections with other homeschoolers. I soon joined some online support networks, and it wasn't long till a mom posted that she was soon moving to Provo, starting her homeschool journey and was looking for some other moms to meet. She lived right in my neighborhood. We connected, and the Lord has opened up doors and opportunities since that has been unbelievable. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjEt7c5jEWvEXNLAp246_S1IYLcIyJ0tYJItG1oD1dGYCaSRlzo72nouGGu408utNcgkPyGWh1CjRJhhYS0IhCSK4z55u7q8CzqnhUOmA2Qo2pEO1b5fYqnHzjA-MLLMcsi6rWMw/s1600/P1070467.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjEt7c5jEWvEXNLAp246_S1IYLcIyJ0tYJItG1oD1dGYCaSRlzo72nouGGu408utNcgkPyGWh1CjRJhhYS0IhCSK4z55u7q8CzqnhUOmA2Qo2pEO1b5fYqnHzjA-MLLMcsi6rWMw/s640/P1070467.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I slowly started to get to know this mom better, who introduced me to some of her friends. By the end of the summer three of us had decided we needed to form our own co-op. We were led to two other amazing mothers and before we know it we had it all set up, planned and having been enjoying the ride ever since.<br />
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One day a week we get together. Here is a rough look at our schedule. Although we don't follow it exactly we still keep the same structure.<br />
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10:30: Meet and get started - Devotional together<br />
11:00 - 12:00: First Class<br />
12:00-12:30: Lunch<br />
12:30 - 1:30 Second Class or clubs<br />
1:30 - break up: Free time, play, go to the park if good weather, sit around chat with the other moms.<br />
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It eventually breaks up when we feel we can pull ourselves away from each other in time to make it home to throw dinner in. We started out with 5 families and right now are currently at 4. We take turns teaching and have the kids divided up into 2-3 groups depending on the subject. We have our littles class which is preschool - kindergarten ages, and then our other group is children 7-11. We have a nice variety of ages, a good mix of boys to girls.<br />
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Here the little class is trying sushi and chopsticks for the first time based on their lesson about Ping from the <a href="http://fiveinarow.com/">FIAR curriculum </a>which we decided to do for this semester. We've had history classes looking through cultural cases from the <a href="https://mpc.byu.edu/Pages/Education/Culture-Case.aspx">BYU Museum of People and Cultures.</a> It's a large trunk filled with artifacts, activities, and information from various cultures and civilizations. They are really awesome. Our only regret was not extending each culture out for a couple of weeks so we could do the activities, as well as go through all the great artifacts from the culture.<br />
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We've had science classes, creative writing class, history on famous Americans, and art classes. This photo was our day of shooting off our volcanoes we created for science. Right now we are trying to incorporate some more club type of classes that the children' can choose from or help teach. Things like cooking, legos, crochet, board games, outdoor games, dancing, balloon tying, cake decorating, etc.<br />
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This experience has been so amazing for me. Not only has my children benefited from knowing and being around other families that have chosen to homeschool. But they are making strong friendships with both the other mom's and children. They are learning, having lots of fun, and being built up by some amazing families. It has been great to see my kids do work and write for these other moms when it is a subject that they would fight me about.<br />
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I personally have gotten so much from the co-op. It has truly been what I have needed. Friends that I can talk to about the various aspects of homeschooling and life. I feel like my own education has grown as I've learned from the skills and talents that these ladies have. These moms are doing things for the right reasons, and are so focused on following the Lord's will for their kids, that it's inspiring. They have impacted me in ways that I won't be able to ever forget them, nor will I be the same person I was before I had known them. <br />
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I love it when Thursdays roll around. I get to leave all my cares, worries and other obligations behind, and I can just go relax for the day teaching these great kids, visiting and sharing with the other moms and coming home rejuvenated to go for another week.<br />
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If you live in the Utah Valley area, and are thinking of homeschooling or already are, there are a couple of great online forums where you can get information on events, play dates, field trips and lots of other great info. Here are some links to where you can sign up.<br />
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<a href="http://forums.whenonline.org/login/index.php">WHEN (Wasatch Home Educators Network)</a><br />
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homeschool-ING/">Homeschool-ING</a><br />
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-85534045950430187992013-02-05T20:58:00.000-08:002013-02-05T20:58:01.882-08:00Why the AbsenceI can't believe it. I'm actually writing a blog post.<br />
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I didn't mean to just jump ship and go almost 4 months without a single post. Especially since I really want to keep this blog as a personal and family history.<br />
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But life happens. It tends to accelerate sometimes and you're not sure how to slow it down. You can't figure out how to eliminate any more things from your life, or how you can add one more thing. Somehow it happens. Right after my last blog post I was called to be the Relief Society president for our ward. (For those of you that are not LDS, that just means that I am now the spiritual leader for the female organization in our church congregation and watching over the individual women in my ward.)<br />
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It has taken me a few months to get my bearings. It was NOT in my radar, nor my plan, but it is amazing how the Lord can prepare you slowly and get you to the point he needs you at very quickly. From some difficult weeks prior to this calling, I learned a lot. I grew a lot. I went from completely incapable and wanting a break from service to being ready and willing when the call came (literally huge changes within days). The Lord prepped me. When I hung up the phone, knowing I was going in for an interview with the Bishop, I knew I would be extended this calling. I had peace and knew that despite the last very difficult month, and being completely overwhelmed with life, I would be ok, he would support me and I would be able to do this. It has been amazing to see the enabling power of the atonement take an effect so quickly and so powerfully in my life than in these last 4 months. I have SOOO much to learn, and so many ways to grow. But I have learned in the last few months that he can enable me to do anything... and so I look forward to seeing the growth and learning opportunities I will experience, and how I will be able to fulfill all of my obligations with his help.<br />
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So my kids have been getting used to mom being gone more for Relief Society business. We are getting better at scheduling between both Beau and I's callings. We are learning how to fit and do school within the early part of the day so that I have time to meet my other obligations. We're learning how to have the kids serve with us. We're learning how to make the most of those nights, weekends or days when we don't have anything going on and spend quality time together as a family.<br />
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We enjoyed the wonderful holidays with extended family and our own family. We enjoyed dad having some time off from work. We've been excited to see Beau's company grow and get clients. We've enjoyed all the snow that has been dumping. We've also survived 2 solid weeks of major sickness, and are slowly recovering right now. I am so done with sickness. I did get a few new products created somewhere in my few moments of spare time, so here are a few layouts about what we've been up to with all this snow.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Rtg858xgVMKkou0s01fCayuVbQHwRSDStXiS1QXqpaYL8O2svy-HI_slHAQkI80BtE18Zq-YzsEO5HWqQIfikBuEcLTwlhoVfQE9A2fsdLQWUfYhmH-LTt5B2fstIp-JWWhlSQ/s1600/STI_PocketLife_Cards_Snowman_LO2_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Rtg858xgVMKkou0s01fCayuVbQHwRSDStXiS1QXqpaYL8O2svy-HI_slHAQkI80BtE18Zq-YzsEO5HWqQIfikBuEcLTwlhoVfQE9A2fsdLQWUfYhmH-LTt5B2fstIp-JWWhlSQ/s640/STI_PocketLife_Cards_Snowman_LO2_600.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
We made snowman pictures one day for some holiday decor in our house. We talked about the different angles or perspectives you can, and had them try drawing their snowman in 3 different perspectives. I always love how the artwork turns out. I've been lucky to be teaching art to the kids in our homeschool co-op. It has been fun to see everyone's individual style emerge and how much joy they get out of creating something.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcExhF7MBasT0fPowUUviBP4Q4PnrFGNrDFlSiA-cLDMScZWCJYI_Z3BjPaN43Q-SYpP2hpW-SrmhmFgNUkoPS4zdEEujH82zuie_rU14UTpqMwYHswgl1YBbbHNG5tv6M4xUENg/s1600/SnowmanArt+copy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcExhF7MBasT0fPowUUviBP4Q4PnrFGNrDFlSiA-cLDMScZWCJYI_Z3BjPaN43Q-SYpP2hpW-SrmhmFgNUkoPS4zdEEujH82zuie_rU14UTpqMwYHswgl1YBbbHNG5tv6M4xUENg/s640/SnowmanArt+copy.png" width="640" /></a>Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-4386783387348893552012-10-14T09:28:00.001-07:002012-10-14T09:28:58.653-07:00Our Tough Muddy Dad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This weekend Beau participated in the <a href="http://toughmudder.com/">Tough Mudder Competition</a> that was here in Utah. As they say "probably the toughest event on the planet." He was part of a team of friends and a couple of his brothers. After lots of rain the previous day and evening, he knew it looked like it was going to be a pretty chilly day. I ended up deciding that it would probably be best if I not go and take the kids. They wouldn't have lasted that long in the cold, and I don't know if I would have lasted long physically or emotionally myself if I was dealing with meltdowns all day while I still recover. We sent our love and support and told his parents to take lots of picture and videos so we could watch. </div>
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Here they are getting ready to begin, those happy smiles won't last too long.</div>
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This was the course of 12 miles and 21 obstacles. Most of the obstacles were out of view for those watching, and so most of the pictures we have are of only a few of the obstacles. <br />
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The first obstacle of the day - the kiss of mud. Lucky for them the live wires weren't quite working yet.<br />
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Mud pit after mud pit.<br />
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Lots and Lots of water. <br />
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Hurting, cold, tired, hungry and exhausted.</div>
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By this point near the end of the obstacles they had no grip left in their hands, and with the bars rolling it was impossible for any of them to stay on it.<br />
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Everest or the half pipe was one of the last obstacles. By this point they were so sore and exhausted. All of them but one was able to make it up.</div>
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The final event is here in video. Electroshock therapy. Next time Beau will just walk past it. There's one thing to prove and push yourself in a tough obstacle, and one that just hurts and gives pain. You'll see one of his team members in the video get hit wrong. It make him black out, fall and implant his open eye into the mud and straw. It came out caked, and took a while for the EMT's to clean it out, and they still missed peices. Hopefully it didn't damage it too bad.</div>
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Hours later, exhausted, hurting and cold they officially finished! </div>
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He said it was a lot of fun. He enjoyed seeing how he could push himself, he loved the camaraderie that you feel with everyone, as your helping strangers and other team members so that everyone can finish. He'd do it again except for the Electric Shock. So we'll see come next June when it's in Utah again if they're up for another round.<br />
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The kids were so excited to hear all about it. They had been watching all the videos online to know the obstacles and what he would be doing. Isaac wanted to keep his headband he earned by finishing. I told him he didn't earn it, he'd have to earn his own someday. The kids also made a poster for him when they he got home.<br />
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Here's Isaac's. His dad with the electric shocks and the half pipe he had to climb.<br />
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Savannah's showing how tough he is in protecting our family.<br />
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Mirians. I just love this one. They all have mustaches, because many grow them for it showing their manhood and toughness.<br />
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Here's Caitlyn's. Mud all over his face and the wires that he had to climb through. I love how they all have their own interpretation of it.<br />
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He can hardly walk now, exhausted and drinking lots of fluids, and need of a massage, but had a great time doing and we are proud of him! Way to go Dad!<br />
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-52405684792822647932012-10-13T19:31:00.000-07:002012-10-13T19:31:10.023-07:00Last Weekend As I mentioned in my earlier post I was excited about our opportunity to hear from our prophet and church leaders at our bi-annual general conference. I really do look forward to this time of year and we have tried to find ways to help our kids enjoy the 8 hours of conference. Last year we took a family home evening right before conference to talk about what General Conference was. I had some cards of the prophet, the quorum of the twelve and the first presidency. They had fun facts and information from their lives, and we had each of our little kid pick their apostle they wanted to learn about and pay special attention to at general conference. We had them learn about the apostle and then share something what they had learned with the rest of the family. We should have done it again this year, but due to recovery it didn't happen. It didn't matter of course because they still remember their apostles to this day, and ask us to reconfirm that when they suddenly see them speaking. "Is this my prophet?" "Is this Mirian's prophet." It's so fun to see them recognize them, know something fun about them, know their names and are more willing to listen to them because they feel like they have a personal connection. (Sorry for my blurry pictures. Not sure what is up.)<br />
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The best part is how excited they get to watch it. Beau and I awoke Saturday morning to "Isaac don't do that! You're ruining our desks for general conference." I hadn't felt well all week to make them conference packets of activities, bingo, and note taking pages. But that didn't seem to matter to them. They knew it was conference and they were taking matters into their own hands. They had pulled out the benches and had set up their "own" little cubicles for watching conference. Snack cups, pencil holders, paper, crayons, etc. They were ready to go. I am so glad they have a positive feeling and experience with conference. I hope they love to watch it their entire lives, slowly gaining more and more from it as they get older.</div>
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My dear friend Amy stopped by right before the first session unexpectedly with a conference basket for the kids full of crayons, activity books, treats, snacks and lunch for us. It was so sweet of her and totally made my kids whole day. </div>
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At the end of the two days I asked my kids to tell me some things that they had learned about conference. It's always amazing that they can each tell me at least two or three concepts or directions from talks, even though they aren't able to hold out for all 8 hours. Mostly 2 hours, and then the prophet's talk. But they were telling me things from talks that I wasn't even sure they were listening to. I love seeing them even leaving with one thing they remembered from the talks.</div>
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Mirian and Savannah did a page about their favorite talk in the morning session. It made me smile which one they picked.<br />
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Between sessions Beau and the kids worked more on the yard, by Saturday night they were filthy and the bathwater was basically mud. We are getting so much closer to getting the yard back to semi-normal.</div>
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We were also excited to hear about the change in ages for missionary service. I was excited, and although it didn't have an immediate impact on me (since Isaac is only 5), I did suddenly think, that it's very likely that my girls will now have the opportunity to serve missions. They could now be serving missions too, which I don't know that I ever really counted on. I'm feeling that if I really teach them right, and help them develop that desire to serve that it's very likely they will go, and that is exciting to me. </div>
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And what better way to end a post than with this cutie. </div>
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My baby, running around and loving her green smoothie popcicle. Seriously. Can you get any cuter than this? Here's to a great weekend in our home, I hope you were able to enjoy yours as well. </div>
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Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-67733257433712847002012-10-05T20:09:00.002-07:002012-10-05T20:09:38.353-07:00The Lord will do nothing...."The Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."<br />
Amos 3: 7<br />
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I love this time of year. It's the time of the year where the prophet of God will give the Lord's desires to all who will listen. I believe that God has called a prophet and apostles to give direction to us today, just as he did in the Bible. God still loves and cares for his children. He has always had a spokesman and prophet that he called and gave revelation to concerning all things. I know for myself they are men of God, and have been called into the special calling of Prophets and apostles. I have been in congregations with many of them, and have felt the spirit testify that he has called them to direct the world today. Why would he call Prophets through all dispensations of time and leave this dispensation alone, with no direction or guidance. He hasn't. I love the fact that I can hear that direction and guidance regularly through the internet and other resources, but especially twice a year during general conference. For two days they speak the will and mind of the Lord for us now. I have been inspired, uplifted and given direction every time I have taken the time to sit down and hear what they have to say. Every time I have come to general conference with a question in mind... I have always received guidance and direction as to what I should do. <br />
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I think it's also a great opportunity to find out what the Mormon's believe. What we preach. You can hear it straight from us. At this time there is such a huge light on Mitt Romney as a presidential candidate, and being a Mormon. Many wonder what it is that he believes, what his faith is about. Who are the Mormons. Here is your chance to sit and listen for yourself to the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. You can hear for yourselves what we preach and believe. We'd love to have you join us.<br />
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It's broadcast <a href="http://www.lds.org/general-conference/october-2012-landing-page?lang=eng">here</a> over the internet, 10:00 am MST and 2:00 pm MST, Saturday October 6 and Sunday October 7. If you choose to listen, you will hear over the two day period from Thomas S. Monson who has been called as a Prophet of God, his Counselors, and the 12 apostles who have been called as special witnesses of Jesus Christ. You will also have the chance to listen to other church leaders who serve in various capacities over the youth, women, men, children or humanitarian efforts. <br />
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If you can't listen to it then. It will be posted on the internet <a href="http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2012/10?lang=eng">here</a> where you can re-listen, watch or read it after it concludes. I always love to revisit their messages through the years and next six months until they speak to us again. I think if you sincerely watch and listen, you will have answers to your own questions answered, you will receive direction in your own life, no matter what denomination of faith you belong to. You will be uplifted and have a desire to be better, no matter your faith. I hope you'll join me, and feel free to share your thoughts and experience watching it. If you have any questions about it you can also feel free to email me or comment and I'd be happy to try and answer them for you.Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-52292053314528635932012-10-03T21:52:00.000-07:002012-10-03T21:52:00.761-07:00My New Chore Method<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I just want to thank all of you that have sent me well wishes, condolences and uplifting notes. They mean a lot. We are doing better. There's nothing like getting your hair cut to help you feel better too. (Thanks Marie for the home visit! ) We've had wonderful people taking our kids for part of the day so I can sleep, with visits and phone calls from many of you. We feel so loved and appreciated. <br />
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Right now my husband is doing my dishes, while watching a movie rigged to the window from his little tablet. According to him, they are almost tolerable (like running on a treadmill), if you have something to watch. (So your lucky Amanda, he'll spare you having to do the job.) Unfortunately it also takes him as long as the movie to get them done... so I'm still waiting to head to bed. So here's a lighter blog post for you.<br />
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Chores...<br />
Oh I love them. My kids adore them. We live for them. Yeah I wish. That has not been the attitude in our house. It has gotten a little bit better and I thought I would share my simple solution. I have had a thousand different methods to getting them done. Chore charts, allowances, zones they were responsible for. You name it. The problem I kept running into was the arguing. "His zone isn't messy, it's not fair that I have to clean up his mess in my zone." "I'm sick of doing the same chore over and over! It's the hardest one." I'm sure you've all heard them. It also wasn't really helping in getting jobs done that needed done. They'd be doing their assigned chores, but those weren't the messy areas or the jobs I needed help with. So I changed my plan. So far it's been working out great. So here it is:<br />
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I want my kids to get dressed and ready for the day as soon as possible. Make beds, pick up rooms, brush their teeth. I don't want them in their pajamas still at noon. Which happens more frequently than it should. I'd ask them to get ready and do their chores. I'd have to ask again, and again, and again... it was getting frustrating. <br />
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The next day I approached it differently. I declared that the first one ready for the day got to pick his chores first. The last person ready for the day had whatever chores were left. These kids were dressed and ready in less than five minutes. They've never moved so fast. That's our new method of getting ready now. It actually happens quickly. <br />
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As for the chores... I now look around my house at what jobs actually need done. I don't assign too many in the morning because I want to get started on school. But if I have laundry piles, that goes on the chore list. If the floor needs picked up, that goes on the list. Only jobs that actually need done are on the list. I put enough chores on the list for 2-3 chores per kid. They get to pick which chores they would like in the order that they were ready for the day. First one ready gets to choose all of his chores first from the list and write his name next to them. Then the next child ready gets to pick. And so on. The arguing has almost stopped. I now only hear complaints from the last person ready who didn't get what they wanted. It takes me explaining to him or her that they were up 2 hours ago. They could have gotten dressed and been ready before anyone else even woke and been the first one to choose. Instead they waited till last minute.<br />
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They now happily do their chores because they get to <i>choose</i> from the list. I usually have a couple of extras on there so that even the last person still feels like they have a choice. It's no longer so horrible to do the chore because they own it more. Plus now the work that needs to be done is finally getting done. If they get ready for the day, and do their morning chores then they can mark off their daily list to earn their extra money.<br />
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I've been doing it about a month, and so far it has beat all my other systems. Now I want to focus a bit more on training them to do a good job with their work and doing it correctly. How do you guys do chores. I'd love to hear any suggestions or tips.<br />
<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-53869138647845035372012-10-02T21:36:00.001-07:002012-10-02T21:40:57.785-07:00Why I Homeschool: Life LessonsI had different ideas for how I was originally going to write this post, and then life happened. It really happened. In the process I realized that I had a great opportunity to show you a real life example of what I would have been trying to explain in a post. Instead I can actually show you. <br />
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I feel pretty strongly that there are lessons that I want my children to learn that will not be learned best in the school system. Some can be practiced there, but to really learn them I believe you need time, unplanned moments, and you need real life examples that aren't part of a "planned curriculum." Lessons about character, service, hard work, and life in general. Lessons that are only learned when you are actually living life. There's nothing like learning about life and death than from the real experience of loosing someone or something. There's nothing like learning how to work, then spending all day doing hard, back breaking physical work. There's nothing like learning about service than doing it, or having it being done to you. There are certain life issues that you would learn at school as well, more than you might in a home environment. But to me the important thing was what teaching happens during these life lessons.<br />
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There were times when my kids were in school dealing with hard issues. I didn't feel like I had adequate time to help them learn from it. I couldn't give them time needed between the few hours they were home and before they went to bed. Between homework, any after school activities, dinner, chores, baths and getting ready for bed, there were few opportunities to deal with the real issues of life. I wanted those teaching moments, that were short and fleeting. I wanted the opportunity and time to really help them work through them. I also wanted them to experience those magical moments that just happen, such as <a href="http://shalaeastletippetts.blogspot.com/2012/04/among-night-people.html">this one</a>.</div>
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We had one of those life experiences this last weekend. It was a life experience that I've gone through before, but there always seems to be different lessons to learn. On Thursday I found out during an ultrasound at 16 weeks, that there was no heart beat. I had already felt that it was not going to be a good pregnancy, but that still never prepares you for the loss you feel, and the many emotions you'll go through. We hadn't told our kids yet that we were expecting, and so it was hard to explain "why I was crying" to them when I picked them up after the appointment. They had that instant excitement of mom being pregnant to the sad "oh" of realizing that the baby had died. They had an idea of what it meant since I had gone through 2 other ones, but they are still kids and not fully aware of what it entails. But what an opportunity for everyone to learn. </div>
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There's nothing like the moment later that evening, when I'm crying and Savannah puts her arm around me, hugs me and says. "Don't worry mom, Heavenly Father will make everything all right."</div>
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There's opportunities for priesthood blessings, to be comforted and blessed. To know that no matter what happens, we would be taken care of. Things went wrong with the miscarriage, I was hemorraging and after passing out a couple of times was taken to the ER via ambulance. Sitting and crying to my husband in the ER about how much I hate feeling like this. I hate being so weak and passing out. I hate the pain. I hate the fact that my body shuts down and they can't find an IV. I hate that an hour later, with sticks all over my arms they finally get one in so they can rush me into the operating room. I hate coming out of anesthesia, of just physcially feeling like crap, while emotionally being an absolute mess. I hate sitting there worrying about my children, because moms will just do that no matter how many times you tell them not worry about them. But despite all that I hate about the experience, there were many blessings that still came out of it. Many lessons learned. Moments where the Lord showed his tender mercies through people, his earthly angels. </div>
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I look back and started seeing his hand in it all. The phone call that was an answer to prayer, as we were desperately searching for someone to take the kids to a friends house. She called just in time, and got the kids just as Beau came back to the house and found me passed out. If he had taken them, and had been gone for too long, I could have been a lot worse. To also have had the knowledge from past miscarriages, that we could act quicker and get help faster. There was also the sister from our ward who happened to be one of my ER nurses. To just see a familiar face was such a welcome sight. </div>
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There were the people who immediately jumped at the chance to watch all of my kids, to come and spend the night with them while we stayed over night in the hospital. Dozens of people who called, emailed and stopped by, asking how things were going and offered to help. There have been so many meals brought, planned and unplanned from people showing they care. Family members who helped out, took kids, gave support from a distance and sent paper plates since they couldn't be here to help. </div>
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People who felt like they needed to just stop by and lighten my load, and brighten my spirit. People who were here just because I didn't want to be left alone. My visiting teacher and dear friend who showed up at the hospital just as my blood pressured dropped. I started passing out, was scared to death and didn't have Beau around. She held my hand and cried with me till I started pulling out of it. And just the love, dedication and service my husband alone has shown me. Who has willingly missed work, because I wasn't emotionally nor physically ready for him to leave me alone yet. Who is willing to come and be here just because I need him.</div>
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I have never felt so loved and so taken care of. Neither has my family. Last night Savannah told me before she went to bed. "Mom I feel like we are being treated like royalty. I feel funny, it doesn't seem right." She was experiencing for herself what it is like to let other people serve you, even when you may not feel like you deserve it. She was feeling it herself, after all the service and kindness she had been shown. She was learning what real service is about. It gave us the opportunity to talk about learning to let others serve us and making sure we do the same thing for others when they are in need of help.</div>
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They have also been learning for themselves what service means. We explained that physically my blood level is really low, and that I can't do very much at all. They are learning that they are going to have to help, chip in and serve mom so I can get better. They are realizing the need of being around family to help everyone heal during a time like this. They have spent a lot of time at other peoples houses and today expressed the desire to just want to be home with us. A need that I have too. To just have my children around, to see my many blessings, and help heal the loss I still feel. But realizing that sometimes we still need to do things we'd rather not do, to help to long term goal - getting mom better.</div>
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They are learning the real lessons. The vital lessons. The ones that are the whole purpose of this earth life. The lessons that help us become more like Christ. The lessons of how much God does love us, watches over us and helps us in times of need. The lessons of genuine service and love. That's not even counting the real science lessons they are learning too. What is a miscarriage? Why does it happen? How big was the baby? What did they do in surgery? Did it hurt? Why does it mean to go under? Why do you have bruises all over your arms? Why do they have these tubes hooked up to you? Why can't you do anything and how long will it take you to get better? Why do you need to take iron (supplements)? Why do you need to sleep so much? etc. </div>
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It's times like this that although difficult to manage, because I do homeschool, I would never trade for anything. The things they are learning right now are priceless.</div>
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<i>If you'd like to read some other great blog posts about this same topic I really love these two by Diane Hopkins.</i></div>
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<a href="http://www.homeschooling.net/blog/homeschooling/the-baby-is-the-lesson/"><i>The baby IS the lesson</i></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.homeschooling.net/blog/family-life/grandma-is-the-lesson/"><i>Grandma is the Lesson</i></a></div>
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Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-85330299207328107282012-10-02T21:28:00.000-07:002012-10-02T21:28:42.591-07:00Homeschooling While RecoveringLast night I had two dear homeschooling friends bring me dinner and stay to visit. I asked them "please tell me it's ok if I don't get any schooling in right now!" They both looked at me like I was nuts to even think about doing it and told me about their days so I could feel better. I physically can't do much, and don't last very long before I'm completely exhausted, burned out and needing a long long nap. I just can't do what I was doing. In fact, I'm lucky to be getting anything done that requires lots of physical energy. I know that is part of the reason we homeschool - the flexibility. But I also knew that if we did something for school the kids would not be making messes, getting into trouble, or making it harder on me.<br />
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So I've tried to change my thinking, knowing that we wouldn't get normal school in, but looking for opportunities to get any learning in, or recognizing those learning moments when they did happen. So here is how school looked the last couple of days at our house.<br />
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<b>Picking rocks outside with dad while mom slept</b> - practicing counting, earning a penny for every rock picked, practicing adding their money, using tally marks, paying tithing, and spending money on a treat later. Plus learning hard physical work.<br />
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<b>Reading books</b><br />
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<b>Practiced Piano </b>- Piano Lessons<br />
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<b>Played a vowel game</b> - identifying the vowel sounds in words. (Isaac's learning to read and everyone is helping)<br />
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<b>Watched some educational movie clips and filled out a graph on the various types of weather and natural disasters, so mom could get some sleep after having a physical and emotional break down. </b>Which lead to Isaac not wanting to sleep tonight because he was scared. "What if something bad happens like a flood, tornado or earthquake?" We tried to address why he didn't need to worry about each of these issues. "What about poisonous gasses?" Caitlyn asked. Obviously they all retained the information from the movies a little too well.<br />
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<b>Did Math</b> using one of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=%26%2334%3BI%20Love%20Math%26%2334%3B&linkCode=ur2&tag=motwifandart-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks" target="_blank">I Love Math</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=motwifandart-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> books from Time life books. (My kids LOVE these books and love doing the Math inside of them.) Mirian and I sat on the couch for a good hour while I rocked Belen to sleep and went through almost the whole book.<br />
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The skills we practiced: Counting by 10's, counting, adding, and subtracting money, acute, obtuse and right angles, time, mapping skills and spatial sense, logical thinking, multiplication and division readiness, grouping. She didn't want to stop. We might have done 1/2 of the book and practiced all of that. (At the bottom of each little section they tell you what skills your practicing, and give you additional activities you could do as well to expand it.) We first found them at my local library. I then picked them up really cheap through amazon for my kids to read and do anytime. They are ALWAYS taking these books to their rooms to read.<br />
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<b>Photography - </b>Mirian taking pictures for her online photography class assignment<br />
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<b>Legos and Programming </b>- building her Lego duck assignment and then programming it on the computer so it could move around. Savannah loves these sets. They're the Lego WeDo sets that are made for the elementary age kid. Simple robotics for really young kids. Isaac can even do it. You build it with the instructions then you plug it into the computer, use a simple programming program to make it do what you would like.<br />
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Learning really can happen, even if you are unable to teach.Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-36955431657561589382012-09-23T19:05:00.002-07:002012-09-23T19:19:44.698-07:00Why I Homeschool: To Be Able to Fully Serve<i><b>Disclaimer: </b> This series of posts is written to tell my story of why I decided to homeschool and what I have learned a long the way. These are my personal feelings and direction the Lord has given to me and my family. That does not mean they are your answers. I don't want you to feel guilty at all nor that I'm telling you this is the only way. I write it because people have asked for honest answers to why I chose to do this, and I want to be able to be completely open and honest back with them.</i><br />
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As I look back over the last year and a half at the different feelings and decisions we came to, I don't know that there was one singular event that determined the moment we decided to homeschool. It was a myriad of promptings, thoughts, research, feelings and inspiration that directed us to this decision. It reminds me of Elder Bednar's description in<a href="https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages?lang=eng#2012-01-010-patterns-of-light-the-light-of-christ"> these series of movies</a> "Patterns of Light" about how we receive revelation. Ours resembled the slow rising of the sun, that eventually made things brighter and more clearer. Some insight we didn't even gain until we took that leap of faith and actually started homeschooling. There were small answers, directions and things that eventually led to our final decision to pull our kids out of the public schools and take on the responsibility ourselves. <br />
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It had been something I had considered for over a year before Beau got his answer as well and we made our final decision. So what were some of those things that were catalysts? What are the things that prompted that decision. I hope to share them with you in these series of Why I Homeschool. The reasons are not in any specific order. They were all percolating at the same time. I will just be writing them in the order that they come out.<br />
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About 2-3 years ago, I went through a couple of miscarriages, that emotionally took quite a toll on me. I started to appreciate my family more, the children I had been blessed with, and I started seeing the stress, daily activities and demands that were taking a toll on my family as we were trying to do so much with church callings, school (both Beau's schooling and the children's), our work - both Beau's and mine, and just family life and demands. At the time I was emotional and physically spent from the miscarriages. I was at one point juggling the callings of Ward Young Women's secretary and the teacher for the weekly Strengthening Marriages course for the stake, my husband had been serving as the Stake Young Men's President during a very busy summer of youth activities and had just barely gotten called as the Ward High Priest Group Leader. Between our two callings it seemed that we were gone many nights of the week and I was on burn out.<br />
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While serving in Young Womens we did not have any leaders who were able to attend Girls camp and because I recently had my miscarriage, I was no longer pregnant and was now eligible to go. I did not want to. I still was emotionally and physcially recovering from my miscarriage, and all I wanted was time with family, of which there seemed to be very little. Beau had missed lots of work time, and had been unable to get much research done, I felt like he had sacrificed too much time for me to take another whole week off for girls camp while he watched the kids. I was torn. I knew I needed to serve, I knew I should say yes, and yet I couldn't. I knew it would be too much. I went to BYU Women's Week burned out and in need of answers. I felt guilty saying yes to my family and no to church service, and I wasn't sure what to do. The Lord gave me answers through Sister Beck, he gave me permission to focus on my family. I was finally at peace. At that point in our life, that is what we needed. Our family needed each other and time for each other, there are times to serve and there are times when we need to say yes to our family instead. I told them I couldn't go. I just couldn't do anymore. <br />
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Over the next few months I felt like I could focus on my family, I started healing physically and emotionally. Ironically the morning the girls left for camp, one of the leaders backed out and I had 20 minutes to get ready to head to camp, the Lord told me I needed to go. There was no one else, and there were no other options. I was emotionally able to just pick up and leave knowing Beau would take care of everything at home, and in turn the Lord blessed me with an amazing spiritual and emotional healing week. I had started becoming frustrated and sometimes almost bitter about the amount of service the church was putting on family, specifically those in leadership callings that were doubled up. Our family was suffering, and I was frustrated with the family being the most important structure in the church, and yet the church taking us away so much from our family that it had began to suffer and didn't seem to be that important to the many church demands. The Lord took me to camp where he softened my heart, showed me things I needed to see about some of the policies our local leaders had set up that seemed so unrealistic and demanding on families. He reminded me of what Beau and I have always wanted to do and covenanted to do and that was to serve the Lord with all our hearts in any way we were called. I was reminded of the hymn sitting quietly on top of a mountain that has personally resonated with me most of my life.<br />
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<b>I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go</b><br />
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It may not be on the mountain height<br />
Or over the stormy sea,<br />
It may not be at the battle's front<br />
My Lord will have need of me.<br />
But if, by a still, small voice he calls<br />
To paths that I do not know,<br />
I'll answer, dear Lord with my hand in thine,<br />
I'll go where you want me to go.<br />
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I have gone in directions during my life that were not my plan but the Lord's, directions he's needed me to take. My ultimate desire was to serve where ever he would have me go. In fact this last weekend a couple sang a beautiful rendition of this song at our Stake conference that once again tugged at my heart, reminded me of the sincere desire to serve where he needed me, and confirmed at that time that homeschooling was a road and a path that he needed me to go, even though it was not the norm.<br />
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The last day of girls camp as I was preparing to go back home to our busy, hectic life, the Bishop made a comment to me that I don't write here to brag about it, but because of what it reminded me of. The moment he said it, he reminded me of what Beau and I have always tried and attempted to do. He told me something along the lines, "I honestly wish there were more families like the Tippetts. Families that lived on a partial income, that aren't full time and busy in the world, that are willing and CAN serve any time they are called upon to do so. They can drop things at any moment to go and serve, and most people are unable to do that even if they wanted to. They have nothing holding or binding them down so they can do it. They can leave at a moments notice if asked, or called upon to do it." When he said that it hit strongly that this is the way we had just sort of set up our life. We both had created very flexible schedules in work and school so that we could drop or serve at last minute. We have wanted to be able to do that. Our goals for the future is to find employment opportunities and other ways and means to continue to make that possible. Hopefully, the business Beau is starting will provide for our needs in that way before too long, at the same time acknowledging that it takes time to build a profitable business, and we will have to work up to being able afford to go whenever we are needed.<br />
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A couple of months after returning home I was called to serve in the Stake Relief Society. I knew life was not going to get any less busy or hectic between both of our leadership callings. I could not realistically ask to not serve, and had come to grips that there will probably never be a down time between Beau or I when we will have small, quiet, simple callings. (Oh to someday be the primary pianist. That would be such a happy day.) In reality I knew we were still going to have much asked of us, gone most evenings, and we needed to come to terms with that. In the process, the kids started school. I started seeing how by the time my children got home from school, we did homework, ate dinner it was time for one of us or both of us to run off to church meetings and responsibilities. I started to see that we had no time for our children, and our children were starting to complain and cry for us not to go every time we told them we had to go.<br />
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I did not want my children to grow up hating church service because it took their parents away all the time. They are young. They needed us and our time. Especially in this uncertain world. They needed one on one time with us. They needed the stability of us being here, and yet they were getting very little of it. We would try to explain where we were going, why were serving, but that didn't always help.<br />
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As we started contemplating homeschooling, this was one of the huge benefits that I felt was there. It was an answer that would solve both problems. The lack of family time that our children needed, and the ability to serve in any capacity needed. I would be able to spend good quality and adequate time with my children all day that I didn't feel guilty leaving them to serve in my calling or other responsibilities we might have with work, civic or church. I knew that it would open up our schedule freeing us from being on someone else's schedule and demands. If we needed to leave town at a moments notice, we could. If there was a family emergency we could go. If we needed to help or serve someone or somewhere we could. (Now if only we could convince family and other's that we really aren't that busy and they can ask for help. :))<br />
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Ironically it would seem that with our busy and stressful life, that adding homeschool to it would make it even more busy and crazy. And there are days that are like that, trust me! But the majority of the time it has made our life much simpler. It works with family life. It ebbs and flows and we can schedule things in a way that works with our family instead of against it. It has made things more relaxed in our home. We aren't as stressed when we have a busy streak of callings and meetings. We can meet our family needs when they need to be addressed during the days, rather than just waiting for the craziness to let up so we can then meet our children's specific needs or a general family need. It has been freeing really. It has just been one more piece to our family's goal of being able to serve whenever and whereever we are needed, and has now made it possible to serve together as a family.<br />
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I am hoping that I can show and give my children more opportunities to serve those in our ward, community and extended family. I hope that others will not see the Tippetts as too busy to ask for help because I homeschool all day. (I'll give you a hint, we're usually done by 1-2 and have all afternoon to pursue other things. We also can do work in the car while we travel. We also can do school somewhere other than our home if needed. My kids can bring work along and do it while I help someone. We can make up the work on Saturday if we are needed on a day during the week. That is the beauty of homeschooling! It really can make us available to help.) I hope they feel like we are an option. There have been a few times already this year when there was a need to serve and help for meals after a funeral. I could take my children, we could stay as long as they needed us to and they were able to help serve too and be a part of the Lord's work. <br />
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Homeschooling has really helped a ton in the dilemma of church service and family. Of meeting both demands and needs. It has helped me not feel guilty about serving, because I already had the chance to serve my kids regularly every day. I am also hoping that in the future, it will keep our lives open so that we may be ready to serve whenever and wherever the Lord calls us.Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-54304888243703494482012-09-23T14:51:00.000-07:002012-09-23T19:11:06.967-07:00This Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lately I have felt the need to take more time to write here on my blog and in my journal. Somehow at the end of busy and crazy days, weeks and months it slipped by again and didn't happen. I have not made the time to sit down and write about the happenings in my personal and family life, and it has bothered me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For one I used to be an avid journal writer and have volumes of journals from my high school and college years. I have a few for when we were first married, and then they tend to slowly get less and less. 10 years later in our marriage, I wonder what I have written to show for it. Luckily I do have some blog posts, random books and journals that I've recorded a few things in, but I feel there needs to be more. A lot more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today I read some of these quotes that once again reminded me why I've felt the spirit to be pushing me to write more again.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> - Spencer W. Kimball</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="chunk hl-id-64488238" id="chunk40000" node="40000" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="0">"I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40001" node="40001" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="1">wrote </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40002" node="40002" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="2">down </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40003" node="40003" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="3">a </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40004" node="40004" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="4">few </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40005" node="40005" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="5">lines </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40006" node="40006" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="6">every </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40007" node="40007" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="7">day </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40008" node="40008" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="8">for </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40009" node="40009" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="9">years. </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40010" node="40010" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="10">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40011" node="40011" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="11">never </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40012" node="40012" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="12">missed </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40013" node="40013" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="13">a </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40014" node="40014" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="14">day </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40015" node="40015" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="15">no</span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40016" node="40016" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="16">matter </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40017" node="40017" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="17">how </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40018" node="40018" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="18">tired </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40019" node="40019" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="19">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40020" node="40020" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="20">was </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40021" node="40021" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="21">or </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40022" node="40022" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="22">how </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40023" node="40023" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="23">early </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40024" node="40024" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="24">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40025" node="40025" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="25">would </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40026" node="40026" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="26">have </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40027" node="40027" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="27">to </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40028" node="40028" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="28">start </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40029" node="40029" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="29">the </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40030" node="40030" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="30">next </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40031" node="40031" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="31">day. </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40032" node="40032" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="32">Before </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40033" node="40033" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="33">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40034" node="40034" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="34">would </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40035" node="40035" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="35">write, </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40036" node="40036" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="36">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40037" node="40037" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="37">would </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40038" node="40038" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="38">ponder </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40039" node="40039" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="39">this </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40040" node="40040" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="40">question: </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40041" node="40041" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="41">“Have </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40042" node="40042" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="42">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40043" node="40043" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="43">seen </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40044" node="40044" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="44">the </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40045" node="40045" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="45">hand </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40046" node="40046" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="46">of </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40047" node="40047" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="47">God </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40048" node="40048" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="48">reaching </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40049" node="40049" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="49">out </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40050" node="40050" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="50">to </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40051" node="40051" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="51">touch </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40052" node="40052" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="52">us </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40053" node="40053" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="53">or </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40054" node="40054" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="54">our </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40055" node="40055" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="55">children </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40056" node="40056" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="56">or </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40057" node="40057" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="57">our </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40058" node="40058" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="58">family </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40059" node="40059" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="59">today?” </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40060" node="40060" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="60">As </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40061" node="40061" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="61">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40062" node="40062" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="62">kept </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40063" node="40063" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="63">at </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40064" node="40064" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="64">it, </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40065" node="40065" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="65">something </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40066" node="40066" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="66">began </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40067" node="40067" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="67">to </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40068" node="40068" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="68">happen. </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40069" node="40069" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="69">As </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40070" node="40070" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="70">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40071" node="40071" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="71">would </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40072" node="40072" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="72">cast </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40073" node="40073" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="73">my </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40074" node="40074" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="74">mind </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40075" node="40075" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="75">over </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40076" node="40076" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="76">the </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40077" node="40077" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="77">day, </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40078" node="40078" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="78">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40079" node="40079" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="79">would </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40080" node="40080" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="80">see </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40081" node="40081" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="81">evidence </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40082" node="40082" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="82">of </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40083" node="40083" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="83">what </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40084" node="40084" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="84">God </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40085" node="40085" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="85">had </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40086" node="40086" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="86">done </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40087" node="40087" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="87">for </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40088" node="40088" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="88">one </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40089" node="40089" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="89">of </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40090" node="40090" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="90">us </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40091" node="40091" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="91">that </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40092" node="40092" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="92">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40093" node="40093" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="93">had </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40094" node="40094" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="94">not </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40095" node="40095" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="95">recognized </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40096" node="40096" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="96">in </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40097" node="40097" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="97">the </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40098" node="40098" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="98">busy </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40099" node="40099" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="99">moments </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40100" node="40100" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="100">of </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40101" node="40101" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="101">the </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40102" node="40102" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="102">day. </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40103" node="40103" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="103">As </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40104" node="40104" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="104">that </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40105" node="40105" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="105">happened, </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40106" node="40106" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="106">and </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40107" node="40107" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="107">it </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40108" node="40108" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="108">happened </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40109" node="40109" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="109">often, </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40110" node="40110" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="110">I </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40111" node="40111" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="111">realized </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40112" node="40112" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="112">that </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40113" node="40113" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="113">trying </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40114" node="40114" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="114">to </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40115" node="40115" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="115">remember </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40116" node="40116" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="116">had </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40117" node="40117" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="117">allowed </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40118" node="40118" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="118">God </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40119" node="40119" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="119">to </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40120" node="40120" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="120">show </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40121" node="40121" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="121">me </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40122" node="40122" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="122">what </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40123" node="40123" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="123">He </span><span class="chunk" id="chunk40124" node="40124" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="124">had </span><span class="chunk hl-id-64488238" id="chunk40125" node="40125" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="125">done." - Henry B. Eyring</span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="chunk hl-id-64488238" node="40125" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; color: #2f393a; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="125"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="chunk hl-id-64488238" node="40125" paranum="4" style="border: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" wrapper="125">Maybe these promptings</span></span> have to do with our History lessons this last week. Our look at what History really is. His Story. The story of God's dealing with his children, the fall and rise of nations and people as they either remembered him or forgot him. Maybe it has to do with the timeline we made that shows my family's place in the great eternal timeline of this earth's life. Our place in these latter days, in preparing ourselves, our families and our posterity for the Second Coming of the Savior Jesus Christ. Seeing our place in His Story, his timeline. Knowing we had a specific time and place to come and am I recording what we are experiencing now in this very unique, amazing and difficult time in the history of the world. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyP-YixnmpBQ4NnSJKqlExHAws45PrLk36GLKj8pJ2dqc3TouVX3TlEKS8WGHWu0WbtFHRsyfK6yjPbt_gdWdloh-7FN_VkppUE6c3tbhq3aOHaas6zkJN6XDSS2w2BLSxmLbodA/s1600/2012_Week38b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyP-YixnmpBQ4NnSJKqlExHAws45PrLk36GLKj8pJ2dqc3TouVX3TlEKS8WGHWu0WbtFHRsyfK6yjPbt_gdWdloh-7FN_VkppUE6c3tbhq3aOHaas6zkJN6XDSS2w2BLSxmLbodA/s640/2012_Week38b.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I tend to see the Lord more in my life when I do write. I see how he answers my prayers. I see how he has guided things in the long run over my life or long periods of time. I become more grateful. It also helps me formulate my thoughts when I have many on my mind. I also know that my children love reading about themselves, the happenings in our lives, and flipping through scrapbooks and photo albums remembering the times that we spent as a family. I love to look back and see how I've grown, how far I've come, and sometimes wonder why I'm still trying to learn the same lesson for the 5th or 20th time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDgUBPN35-6_5GrWfJfLaufltLL8MTnb8swjsfHJsPF-eoMyXZFX0WVlYLAowXN7P0nowy7X705kk9oSzsD_LGMjYDoxXRhliuHZsiA3os69vnJwZGROuXsbaXGdTvmUknr4-lDQ/s400/1000GIFTS.jpg" width="275" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0310321913/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0310321913&linkCode=as2&tag=motwifandart-20">One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=motwifandart-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0310321913" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has also reminded me of the book One Thousand Gifts. What a beautiful story Ann writes about how simply writing down her blessings every day completely changed her, and what it can do for us. I love this book. Taking the time to remember lessons we've learned, blessings we have, things we took joy in during the day, the struggles we go through can benefit us so much. But to actually take the time to write them down can change me, my posterity and possibly others. When it's written down, it's there to come back to. It's there in a time of need. It's there to refresh our memories, relive those tender mercies and have something to share and pass on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I want to do so much better at this. I'm not that great at it lately. I really don't know how I'm going to change the habit either, but I really want to try. I want to make it consistent again. These two pages of a week in our life, is my start for this week. Sometimes I want the visual. Plus I really want to finish the goal I have for myself, of having this last year documented and printed at the start of 2013. In order to do that I need to get caught up on a few weeks, and get back in the habit of recording the upcoming ones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our life these last few weeks have been mixed with blessings, stress, busyness, good friends, exhaustion, sickness, learning opportunities, and moments of peace and joy. I'm not promising that I'll suddenly do better at writing about all of it, but I sure hope so.</span></div>
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Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-35999238723388947192012-08-25T10:43:00.002-07:002012-08-25T10:43:51.081-07:00Letting It ShineThis last year has been quite a growing period for me in so many ways. One of those specifically being the choice that I made to homeschool my kids. It has made me grow, stretch and learn things that I don't think I would have ever learned had I not brought them home. It's been an incredible journey. Hard in some aspects and yet so rewarding in others.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/63019370@N06/6714178943/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Candle by armin_vogel, on Flickr"><img alt="Candle" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7162/6714178943_d80769a98a.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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There have been so many things that I've wanted to say. So many thoughts and feelings that I've wanted to share with you. Insights, difficulties, joys, and tender mercies that I've wanted to tell everyone about. But in the process I've been hesitant to do so. Here are some of the reasons why. <br />
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1) Some are very personal understandings and learning that are intended just for me. <br />
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2) Some are still more attacking that supportive. They are still letting us know how they think we should do it, that we're not doing enough, that our kid should be doing this or that, that we're not doing it right and we're going to mess them up. That they will either be smart or stupid. I have come to have some pretty strong opinions about things this year, and I don't feel like arguing about it with people. I would love to have a serious discussion with people, even those that don't agree. Especially if I feel like they are willing to listen and aren't going to be attacking me the whole time.<br />
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3) There are a lot of good mothers out there who sincerely want to do what is best for their child, and feel guilty or wonder if they are not a good mother if they don't homeschool. I never want to make someone feel guilty or bad. Everyone's circumstance is different. Each family is unique, each child is unique. We don't have to do it all the same way.<br />
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But lately I've been having a feeling that I should be saying more. I should be sharing the things I've learned and starting to understand because maybe there is one person out there that needs to hear it. Maybe there is one person who is struggling with something that could gain from it. Maybe there is someone that just needs the confidence to do it. I have had quite a few say that they've thought about homeschool, that they'd like to do it, they just don't know if they could. Maybe they need to see that it's possible and the Lord will help them along the way.<br />
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This morning as I was thinking about all the things that I'd like to share, the things I'm excited about, and whether or not to stick it ALL out there. I had part of this quote pop into my head:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">"</span><strong style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.866666793823242px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson</strong></i></span></div>
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You don't shine a light by hiding it under a bushel. <br />
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So over the next little bit I'm going to be sharing some of my journey to homeschool. Why I decided to do it, things that I have been learning in the process, tender mercies that the Lord has given us. Some of these might come across as being strongly opinionated. (If you don't already know that I have strong opinions about some things and feel pretty deeply about some stuff then you really don't know me well. :)) In sharing them with you I am not doing it make you feel bad, or guilty about what you are currently doing with your family. That's not my purpose. That is your stewardship and the Lord is letting you know what you need to do for them. I am sharing it in hopes that maybe it can help someone. Maybe it can make you think, ask questions and start searching for answers. Maybe it will give you the courage to let your light shine a little bit more.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnera/3984413077/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Candles by L.C.Nøttaasen, on Flickr"><img alt="Candles" height="333" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2639/3984413077_01abcda70a.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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But mostly it will be a written record for my own children of what their mom believed, chose to do while raising them, and the things I learned with them in the process. Really all of this is for them.<br />
Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-74136923981872243952012-08-24T12:27:00.002-07:002012-08-24T12:27:20.559-07:00Another Round of Art Classes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGAomaVE9_DqxzYlTvV5CTJMaMTnVVNLf6qhXP5UWplz-mKtU-3lU_GYuu118tgGd0JNP73Ibi9_bx8921ARAV42oMvF2sEpIClocL2zT5xGG1Hq1EECN3QtPaOO9ZOjavn-wN3w/s1600/P1050690.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGAomaVE9_DqxzYlTvV5CTJMaMTnVVNLf6qhXP5UWplz-mKtU-3lU_GYuu118tgGd0JNP73Ibi9_bx8921ARAV42oMvF2sEpIClocL2zT5xGG1Hq1EECN3QtPaOO9ZOjavn-wN3w/s400/P1050690.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I have decided to do another 10 weeks of children's art classes this upcoming fall. They will be held on Fridays at 2:00 pm and possibly 3:00 pm. If anyone is interested leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll get you the information for them. Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-41132767511627754792012-08-24T12:14:00.000-07:002012-08-24T12:46:53.523-07:00Treasure Maps!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You can't study pirates for a school unit and NOT do pirate maps. When I took this <a href="http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2012/05/27/teaching-art-101-e-course/">e-course</a> from Deep Space Sparkle this summer she had a lesson on making treasure maps. I could not pass this up on our unit. It was just too much fun. She had great handouts that talked about the different items you'd find on an old map, how to make scrolls, and we just had a blast with it. Shark infested waters, treasures, whales and serpents We also came across a really cool pirate game that works with checkers. Where you have the Spanish Fleet trying to get their ships of gold safely back to Spain without loosing it all to the pirate ship. The kids loved it.<br />
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Of course even sometimes mom wants to have fun drawing and painting too and making a map was just too hard to pass up. I usually give it the name of "demonstrating" the lesson, but really it's just me wanting to relax and play too.<br />
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-21368451798174852652012-08-24T12:05:00.001-07:002012-08-24T12:47:50.586-07:00Incas, Conquistadors and Pirates!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Recently we did a unit for homeschool on the conquistadors, Aztecs, Incas, Myans and pirates. We read this great book about the Lost City, learned about Pizarro and Cortez, made some Spanish doubloons and finished off with some gold Inca masks.</div>
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We used gold foil to create our Inca masks and our Spanish doubloons. We learned about symmetry while drawing our masks, and then texture as we pushed the foil in and out to create the textures of the facial features and designs.</div>
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We added a bit of color with some colored permanent markers and additional decorations such as feathers and beads.<br />
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And yes... that mess you see on the table is what you see at our house on a regular basis during school time. <br />
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I just love the unique way they turned out, especially the shininess of the gold foil! The kids loved this project and ended up playing with their masks quite a bit afterwards.<br />
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-17636119336743606482012-08-24T11:34:00.001-07:002012-08-24T11:34:30.151-07:00Down by the SeaThis was the last project we finished for our summer class. It seemed only fitting that it be a beach summer theme. This was a two day project for us. The first day we painted the background sky and sand. Then painted and textured our blue papers for our water. The second day was spent collaging boats and putting together our sea. This is a great lesson for talking about depth and space. How objects look smaller the farther they are away, and how the boat that is going to be the farthest in the distance is going to be tiny compared to the boat that's closest to you. Some of them got this concept easier than others or they made the different sized boats but forgot placement when they started gluing. It was also works wonderful for talking about overlapping with the waves and ocean to make the boats look in the water and to create a feeling of depth. Sorry about my slightly blurry photos. My camera hasn't been working all that great lately.<br />
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I found the idea for this project <a href="http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/2011/08/pacific-coast-regatta.html">here</a> at Fine Lines.Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-42225301860991365132012-08-24T11:15:00.001-07:002012-08-24T11:15:31.854-07:00Colorful Chameleons I've seen this lesson on <a href="http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2009/03/15/chalk-pastel-lizards-for-fifth-grade/">deep space sparkle</a> for a while and just fell in love with it. But I'm a sucker for anything bright and colorful. I decided to do it with one of my private students and some of my kids. I thought they did a great job. Unfortunately I only have two pictures of the finished ones and my sample. This lesson is great for talking about complimentary colors, brightness and contrast, how to draw animals, and pastel techniques. <br />
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-71527691817254905112012-08-24T11:00:00.001-07:002012-08-24T11:00:36.113-07:00Mid-evil CastlesI'm finally having a chance to get caught up on some of our art projects for this summer's class. One of our summer art classes was creating some mid-evil castles. I don't know of any child that doesn't love the magical, fairy tale dream land. They did a great job creating these, and it would have been nice to have a bit more time to put in backgrounds. I probably should have given one more class period to painting backgrounds. Live and learn I guess. Some of the things they learned about was: Architecture, pattern and texture. I still love how one lesson can vary so much from the Kindergartener up to the 5th grader.<br />
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I took the idea for this lesson from <a href="http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2012/01/05/fairy-tale-castles-art-project/">Deep Space Sparkle</a>.</div>
Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-37952681686777115082012-07-24T04:26:00.002-07:002012-07-24T04:26:25.007-07:00The House That Built Me<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/glINBhcw51k" width="640"></iframe><br />
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My sister put together this video for our family reunion. It's about my Grandma and Grandpa Fielding home. A place that is filled with memories of reunions, thanksgivings, family gatherings, three wheeler rides, the big tire swing, waves on the trampoline and other great memories. I always loved to visit her, it just always felt like home.Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-59308023713456841922012-06-27T22:36:00.000-07:002012-06-27T22:37:48.028-07:00Week 21 In Our Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I know that I haven't been the best at updating what has been happening in our life lately. Probably because too many good things have been going on. So I thought I would share one of our weeks with you. You'll have to read about it in the layouts. :) (You should be able to click on them to view them bigger.)</div>
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This year I really wanted to document our life. I am not completely caught up, but I am getting it done. After trying a thousand methods finding the one that I could actually do the Project Life Method has been the one that has clicked for me. Lately I haven't had much time to do anything scrapbook or designing related. When I have, all I've really wanted to do is record our story right now. That is a good thing I think. Isn't that what it's all about anyway. Telling our individual stories.</div>
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-27122972973883419042012-06-27T22:12:00.003-07:002012-06-27T22:13:23.759-07:00Starry Night and Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I loved the results of <a href="http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2008/05/01/coolwarm-modern-landscapes/">this lesson</a> from <a href="http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/">Deep Space Sparkle</a> when I first saw it. I decided to try it with my kids and another little boy that came to our house for art time. We talked about cool and warm colors, looked at the use of lines in Starry Night and then had them choose if they the sky or land to be warm colors or cool colors. This was their finished results. My girls really loved this project.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We had such a fun time that we decided to do it with my summer art class. Although we gave it a twist this time around. We talked about how to create depth in your art work by having a background, middle ground and foreground. I encouraged them to also try to use warm or cool colors. I </span><span style="background-color: white;">used Starry Night to help them identify where his background, middle ground and foreground were. </span><span style="background-color: white;">I also encouraged them to use lines in their sky to create movement similar to Van Gogh's Starry Night. Here were our finished results. I loved how they turned out and with such a great variety between the differences in skill and subject matter. (Sorry the colors are slightly off - trying to photograph these were tad more difficult.)</span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwt-SjiCS27kxNzhyphenhyphen1W2U2FgNj7Zzk0ZoaJoW0rqpDeAY0XbMWSoNd14KMOuBAvz9kncfZf6lrgHwI12LqHhTVI1g1xHswBrW6pYSXBAYn5noryNGYZ5Y3Zk8vLGBvT_ptDPIfA/s1600/StarryNightPopUps1_150dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwt-SjiCS27kxNzhyphenhyphen1W2U2FgNj7Zzk0ZoaJoW0rqpDeAY0XbMWSoNd14KMOuBAvz9kncfZf6lrgHwI12LqHhTVI1g1xHswBrW6pYSXBAYn5noryNGYZ5Y3Zk8vLGBvT_ptDPIfA/s1600/StarryNightPopUps1_150dpi.jpg" /></a><br />
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Here's how we made them.<br />
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1. Take a 12x18 piece of black construction paper and cut it so you have a 9x12, a 6x12 and a 3x12 piece.<br />
2. Have the students draw their sky on the large background paper first. Make sure the designs they want shown are in the upper third of the background.<br />
2. Have them draw the middle ground - hills, city, mountains, water, trees, animals etc on the medium sized paper. Cut out the top spaces so it has more dimension and negative shapes.<br />
3. Draw the foreground on the smallest paper. That could be waves, beach, a hill, grass, etc.<br />
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4. Fold the background in half so it'll stand up.<br />
5. Fold the edges back about 1/4 - 1/2 inch on the middle paper, to make a tab that will wrap around the back of the large paper to staple it. Fold it in half.<br />
6. Do the same thing you did in step 5 only fold the side tabs twice as large as the middle tabs so that it will pop out in front. Line the papers up and staple the tabs to the background. <br />
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We were able to get it down in within the hour art class, but we were pushing it with 11 kids. If you have a larger class, you might want to do it in stages so they have more time to do a really good drawing.
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-53524364100545051842012-06-27T21:37:00.002-07:002012-06-27T21:38:28.234-07:00When I Grow Up - Self Portraits<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Recently I started teaching some art classes out of my home to children in grades K-6th. Previously I was an art teacher for K-2 grades in Las Vegas. It was something that I had thought about doing right after I was married. We had visited Beau's relative and his daughters were showing us their artwork they had created in an art class they were signed up for. It sounded like such a great idea to do private lessons from your home. At the time I didn't know where to even begin setting up something like that. Life started happening and it got set to the side. (I ended up substituting for a boys lock down school instead... hmm how did that happen?) </div>
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Now 10 years later I've started homeschooling and have seen how much my kids love it when I say it's time for art. They have some of their mother's blood in them. :) I've enjoyed finding lesson ideas on the internet to try out with them and have found some inspiring sites from some awesome art teachers. </div>
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I decided it might be fun to teach a few art classes to other homeschoolers and friends. It would give my kids some more interaction with other kids and summer seemed to be the perfect time to try it out. So we gave our first class a go. <br />
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Our first lesson was imaginary self portraits. They were to decide what they wanted to be when they grew up and do it as a self portrait. I used a lesson from <a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1082799591"></span>Deep Space Sparkle. <span id="goog_1082799592"></span></a> I love her site. She has so many great ideas and lesson plans available. My summer art class has kids in it ranging from Kindergarten to Fifth grade. That can be challenging to find something that will fit the different skill levers but when you do it's fun to see the variation.<br />
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The little first grader above wanted to be an artist. I love her finished picture with lots and lots of windows because "artists need lots of light." After she finished her entire picture she had to add paint splotches to her painting on the face, hands and shirt, because "Artists get really messy and get paint all over them." It's been a lot of fun for me to get back into teaching something I love so much. I'm excited to show off the rest of our art through out the summer.Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-91840924251451990272012-05-16T13:30:00.003-07:002012-05-16T13:30:54.112-07:00On My BookshelfOne of the things that I love about homeschooling is the fact that it is making me step up and increase my learning as well. It's made me study everything I can about teaching, learning styles, homeschooling methods and how to create a learning environment. It's made me realize that my kids will never love to learn unless I'm showing them that I personally love learning. Which I do. I really do. So I've made the goal to read more. Read more to the kids as well as read more myself. So far I've been doing pretty good. I recently saved up and sold some stuff we didn't use any more to get a simple kindle for reading, and have fallen in love with having tons of books in one spot. I love using it for school, having audios to listen to as we drive in the car, and just how much I've read since having it. So I thought I'd share the books I've been reading to the kids, finished reading or are currently in the middle of them. Some of them have become all time favorites, which I hope to share more about later. (Sorry these aren't linkable. Hopefully they're big enough you could do a search on Amazon if you wanted to check it out.)<br />
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<br />Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17275338.post-9983727920784096322012-04-27T20:39:00.000-07:002012-04-27T20:39:28.247-07:00Among the Night People"Can we keep him?"<br />
"Where's his mommy? Maybe she'll come looking for him?"<br />
"What if he's hurt?"<br />
"Can we hold him?"
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"Why can't we keep him? We can make him some milk and feed him, till he gets a little bit bigger."<br />
"Why can't we hold him?"<br />
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Yes, our daily random homeschooling moment continues. Today's moment was brought to you by the knock on the door.<br />
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"Hi! I'm new next door. I found a baby raccoon on the sidewalk, and was wondering if it might be yours." <br />
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"Hmmm... let me check. Pets... Cat? Nope - severely allergic to them. Dog? Not while we live in this tiny place. Bum Lamb? We almost ended up with one of those... Chickens? I wish. Fish. Yes. Fish. The same reply I give the doctor every 2 months when we go in for a visit and he asks us if we still have our fish. They're the perfect pet in my opinion. Raccoon? Not in this lifetime... (but we'll go ahead and let the kids call dad in about 30 minutes and see if they can convince him to let them keep it.)<br />
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"Sorry. I can't say that I purposefully own a Raccoon."<br />
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That led to an immediate mass exodus of the house. So much for getting a lesson done or maybe we just need to change up the lesson. The guy next door called the animal control unit to come and figure out what to do with it. The kids oooooed and awwwed while waiting for the "crazy guys" as Mirian was calling them. (I have no idea where she got that from.)<br />
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I have to admit, he was cute... and I even started flashing back to being a kid and day dreaming how awesome it would be to have a wild animal for a pet... but the realistic, party-crashing mom jerked back to reality and said no way. A few other neighbors gathered round, picked it up and let the kids look at it up close. Soon animal control pulled up all serious, adorned their gloves, grabbed the claw, walked up and then did a double take and said. "That's all it is?" It wasn't too old. Barely getting around and making lots of little noises trying to locate his mother I'm sure. I went back inside to grab the burning waffles for lunch.<br />
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"Why did Sally ask them not to put it down? What does that mean?" <br />
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Here began the learning opportunities. We ate lunch and discussed what it means to put an animal down and why sometimes it's more humane than letting it suffer. "So they kill it?!" I could see Fern in the back of my mind "up at the crack of dawn, ridding the world of injustice" as she saved Wilber from an untimely death. I'm still not sure if they quite understood 'why' they would need to put it to sleep. <br />
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At that point their minds were not on fractions, or the Trojan wars. So I decided we might as well go with it. We pulled out the book "Among the Night People." One of the books in a series about the various animals and their habitats and behaviors. It's a classic and a great read for kids as it's told from the animal's point of view, but shows them the way of life, behaviors and environment various animals live in. I pulled up the chapter on Raccoons. We read about them having a party in the night and and their mom helping them learn to have good manners. After the story I asked the kid what we learned about Raccoons and their behaviors.<br />
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- The come out at night and sleep during the day.<br />
- They can't run fast<br />
- They can't dive in water although they like to play in it.<br />
- They walk on their toes<br />
- They use their paws like hands to pick up objects and to eat, and can stand on their back feet.<br />
- They like to eat bugs, worms, crayfish, etc. (Bats too, Isaac said, because he learned that on the Krats<br />
brothers.)<br />
- They like to get out and play with others and can be mischievousness<br />
- Live often in wooded areas<br />
- They tend to dip or wash their food in water before eating it<br />
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We pulled out their journals to have them write about their Raccoon adventures. We try to write daily in our journals, even if it's just a little bit. I want them to get in the habit, and I want them to have a record of their own life and stories.<br />
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Savannah actually wanted to write about hers in newspaper format. I've been trying to create a literacy center, with different options for them to use while writing. It might have blank books, letter forms, blank lists, Mad libs etc. I'm not completely finished but have great plans for it. While creating it I made this generic Newsletter form and keep several blank copies of it for them to use at their liking. I saw a similar one from Martha Stewart for Mother's Day. I wanted mine to be very flexible as well as usable for a history.<br />
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Who knew that this is what we would be studying for the day. That's alright though. They will remember more about Raccoons now, because of the personal hands-on living experience, than they ever would have remembered by reading about them in a science lesson.<br />
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I wanted to share my blank copy of the newsletter. It's a great way to just get a kid writing for fun. You can create realistic news stories or make up some wild tales. It's a fun way to get the kids writing just for the enjoyment and pleasure of telling a story. <br />
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Here is the <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/18706ptcrs0x8r2/Family%20Gazette%20Printout.pdf">link</a> where you can download it. It's in PDF format.<br />
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-Shalaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14539421495687712377noreply@blogger.com2