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Arches National Park

12 Mar

We have been to Arches before, but it was years ago, so our younger kids were too little to remember or not even born yet.

We decided to stop on our way up to Salt Lake City. Moab is about half-way, so it’s a good place to have lunch and a break. The kiddie pies liked it, but they also complained a lot. Which I have hypothesized was mostly because they knew we still had 3.5 ish hours of driving after we left the park, and they just wanted to get it over with.

However, even mostly reluctant kids can not fully ignore the awesomeness of the arches, which is why I have all these enthusiastic photos from a stop that was mostly whining from start to end. The moral of the story is, that family trips like this are worth it, even though it feels like so much hard work at the time, and the whining sucks away all the parents’ energy. Ten years from now, they won’t remember the long car ride, but they will look at these pictures and remember the fun.

I’ve blogged about this same idea before: the worst family vacation ever is still a good thing.

Hiking to the Sandstone Arch
Zeke
Sandstone Arch
Apple Pie
Delicate Arch
GlowWorm and the Resident Captain
22 Jul

I shared this because I just have a personal grudge against bad administration with bloated salaries running off good teachers by micromanaging them and by throwing them under the bus when parents complain.

Everyone agrees that what should happen is teachers should get paid more and supported more, and that they should have the classroom supplies they need.

Instead of hiring more teachers to make classes smaller, school districts hire “curriculum specialists” etc and pay huge amounts of money to consulting companies to tell them how to improve student performance. They buy curriculum without consulting the teachers who are going to be using it.

Over and over, teachers are treated like mindless workers and even, evil enemies, instead of well-educated professionals who know how to do their jobs, and could do them if the administration and politicians would get out of their way.

No one goes into teaching expecting to get rich. But by the government’s own measures of poverty, most teachers live below the poverty line. On top of this they are continually vilified by the media and politicians.

….
Uh
Rant over, I guess.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk…

Election Night 2020 Thoughts

4 Nov

Apple Pie learned about apple stars this week. Her delight brought joy to my heart.

It is in our homes that we can create the peace we yearn for. From our homes it can flow to heal the world.

Today I am thankful for children’s hearts, for apple stars, and books that bring truth to us:

From A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L’engle:

“Her father said, “You know, my dears, the world has been abnormal for so long that we’ve forgotten what it’s like to live in a peaceful and reasonable climate. If there is to be any peace or reason, we have to create it in our own hearts and homes.”

“Even at a time like this?” Meg asked….

“Especially at a time like this,” her mother said gently. “We don’t know what the next twenty-four hours are going to bring, and if it should be what we fear, then the peace and quiet within us will come to our aid.””

Housecleaning thoughts

21 Jul

I told my friends at book club tonight that I have gotten better at house cleaning after reading my thousandth book on house cleaning this summer. But just now I realized: my youngest child(ren) will turn 5 in two weeks.

My youngest child hasn’t been that old in….ever since I began having children 20ish years ago. So maybe I’m not better at house cleaning, maybe I’m just not up against as much raw chaos.

In other news, tacos with fresh salsa made from our garden tomatoes are finally happening

Quarantine Sewing

18 Jul

I got out my sewing machine a little reluctantly this morning to make some masks in case one of us needs to venture out for groceries.

I really dislike this feeling of invisible contagion, that someone I meet may be ill and spread disease to me, or that I may unknowingly be ill and spread disease to them.

Last time I got out my machine, it was to mend my boy’s pants, and before that, it was to make a wedding dress for my lovely niece. That was a happier time.

But I realized suddenly that every time I use my sewing machine, it is because I’m making something for someone I love. This time it is for unknown someones—to protect them in case I am ill and don’t know it. So that’s alright.

Also, this superhero flannel scrap has been waiting and waiting, and today is his day. I found the perfect project for superheros. #quarantinelife 😷

Life is a Fairy Tale

14 Jul

I’ve always thought it was funny that the girls in fairy tales could bribe fairies to do nearly impossible tasks by giving them bracelets or rings or necklaces. Those capricious little creatures will spin straw to gold and all kinds of other things for a sparkly trinket.

Today in church as I tried to bribe my own capricious, willful, little creatures to do the nearly impossible (sit still and quiet for an hour) by giving one my ring and one my necklace and one all the pennies from my purse, I realized my life is just like a fairy-tale 😂

My First Suzuki Workshop Mo

6 Jul

 

Yesterday, I spent the day in the first class required for Suzuki teacher training, “Every Child Can.”

First of all, it was an incredibly rejuvenating and inspiring and igniting experience to be in a room with other caring teachers and learn and discuss Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy and method for teaching children.  I learned so much. Additionally, often when a class member made a comment, the teacher would ask, “do you mean ‘…’ by that?” and rephrase their answer.  Sometimes, the connections made were so unlike my own, that I got 3 new ideas from each comment: the idea of the class mate, the idea of the teacher, and the connecting idea that related the two.

I loved the ideals that Suzuki put forth.  I loved the camaraderie of the class.  I look forward to attending more in the future.

Things I learned:

Shinichi Suzuki was born in 1898 and died in 1998, nearly 100 years old.  He trained musically in Germany in 1926 and married a German woman as well as becoming friends with Einstien.  He and his family suffered much during World War 2.

This puts a context to his work with children.  He was not just teaching music to children, he was trying to change the world.

“Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.” 
― Shinichi Suzuki

 

“Perhaps it is music that will save the world.” 
― Shinichi Suzuki, Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education

 

I also learned that Suzuki never stopped learning, himself.  He called his teaching “research” and was continually trying new things and seeking more knowledge.

“To make a resolution and act accordingly is to live with hope. There may be difficulties and hardships, but not disappointment or despair if you follow the path steadily. Do not hurry. This is a fundamental rule. If you hurry and collapse or tumble down, nothing is achieved. DO not rest in your efforts; this is another fundamental rule. Without stopping, without haste, carefully taking a step at a time forward will surely get you there.” 
― Shinichi Suzuki, Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education

Until we die, we should spare no time or effort in changing our weaknesses to merits. To do so can be pleasant and interesting. We can become like the horse that starts last and yet outruns the field, reaching the wire first; it is the same fun.” 
― Shinichi Suzuki, Nurtured by Love: The Classic Approach to Talent Education

 

As I listened and learned yesterday, I made many connections with what I learned reading Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism by Barry Prizant, PhD.  I feel that both of these men see children as human beings worthy of respect, and this is what makes their work effective and inspiring.  Charlotte Mason (whose educational philosophy I have written about before) also saw this when she stated as her first principle: “Children are born persons.”  It seems like such an obvious statement, rather like Shinichi Suzuki’s statement “All Japanese children learn Japanese.”  Yet it is recognizing a simple truth (which the majority of people have taken for granted) that changes the world.

 

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Algebra and Life (and the secret to successful home school math)

19 Feb

Beginner Home school Math Mistakes
           I began homeschooling in August 2016 using Saxon math.  Cherry Pie in Algebra 2, Pumpkin Pie in 8/7, and Peach Pie in 6/5.
I had been given the textbooks my children needed (for free!), and I figured I should use what I had rather than spend money on dreamy manipulative heavy curriculum (MathUSee.)  The benefit to using Saxon was (aside from being able to start for free) that it is a respected curriculum.  So when friends and family members raised their eyebrows and worried that I was going to be one of those home school moms whose children just played and wasted time, I could say, “I’m using Saxon math,” and they all relaxed and got off my case.  However, I second guessed myself more than anyone realized.  I worried that I should buy a different program that might be better for my children.   I worried that the daily work was too repetitive and boring and took too much time.  I worried that Saxon was not helping my kids to see the real beauty that is in math.
            By October 2016, I could tell Cherry Pie was definitely struggling.  I thought a different program would be the solution for her.  I also realized she needed to review Algebra 1, which she had supposedly learned in 8th grade.  So I picked up a textbook called EZ Algebra at my favorite used curriculum store.  Each chapter was written in story form.  This would be fun and interesting, I hoped.  A textbook written in story form seemed to fit with what I understood “living books” were (Charlotte Mason method).  Reading how the characters solved their math problems might help her understand the “why” behind the math.  But many of the homework problems in the new book were tricky and made leaps beyond the instruction that were not intuitive for her or me.  If neither Cherry Pie nor I could figure out how to get the answer, we were sunk because the book didn’t have a solutions guide.  Also each chapter covered 4-5 concepts at once, which was too much new information all at once! I intended to work with her on every lesson, but I was new to home school and schooling 4 children in 4 different math levels plus keeping the 4-year-old, 2-year-old, and 1-year-old twins happy and out of mischief was a struggle. Most days, Cherry Pie was on her own for math.
I Learn the Secret to Successful Math Learning:
         After about 6 more weeks of still seeing her struggle, I pulled out the Saxon Math book again, Algebra 1 this time.  I went through a lesson with Cherry Pie. I get so excited about math when I’m teaching the lesson! It’s fun! I realized I have to teach her every day, or math is just not going to work for her or me.  I have to teach daily for me because I don’t know what’s going with her if I’m not directly teaching, and I need the review because I haven’t done much Algebra for 20 years.  Cherry Pie needs the direct instruction every day because she got none in 7th or 8th grade in public school.  She was given an assignment on a computer and told to ask her neighbor if she didn’t understand something.  She was left to flounder on her own for far too long.  I didn’t know this until later, but now that I know, I understand why she was so lost, and why math was so painful for her.
           As I was researching home school, I heard from many moms that they use math as the subject their children are expected to work independently on.  Many of the curriculum choices advertise that students can work through their programs independently.  But now that I’ve been home schooling for almost 2 years, I can say that my children struggled progress in math on their own.  When I began, I thought my 12-year-old and 11-year-old were moving through their Saxon math books by themselves okay, but that was because the concepts were almost all review for them. They weren’t learning anything new, and at the end of each month when I would finally remember to check up on their homework, I would discover that they had completed about 4 lessons for the entire month. (They should have been completing 3-4 lessons per week!)
           When I made the decision that I would work with each child each day for math no matter what, something magic happened. No one was bored with math any more, and everyone began to finish their math assignments in a reasonable amount of time.
Here is the big secret to schooling math: More important than which curriculum you choose is YOU, the teacher, working  one-on-one with your students each day. 
I would even venture to say, that the curriculum you choose does not matter at all as long as you work with your children each day.  Choose one that is fun and interesting to you, or at least find one that does some of the thinking for you, because you won’t have time to write lesson plans for every day.  But do not think that the shiny curriculum you really want, but can’t afford, is the key and pine for it.  Because it really is not the answer.  You are the answer.  Even if you have your child work through Khan Academy online (which is free except for the cost of good internet speeds), the key to your child moving at a good pace through the math program is you being their with them for 20 minutes of their math time each day.
I discover that Saxon math is pretty cool, after all.     
           I discovered that in the Saxon book, each of the homework problems has a small number beside it that tells which lesson that concept was taught in.  So if neither Cherry Pie nor I can figure it out, I know where to go to review that concept.  Not only that, I can use those numbers to notice patterns in which problems Cherry Pie misses, and we can go back and review skills that she consistently makes mistakes on.
      Best of all, there is a letter from John Saxon to the students in the beginning of the book.  He says algebra isn’t difficult, it’s just different.  We have to learn to think differently in algebra.  He talked about not being discouraged about making mistakes–that everyone makes lots of mistakes. Mistakes don’t mean that we are bad at math and should give up. We practice each day to develop strategies that will help us avoid making mistakes in the future.
           That was a concept I needed, because once I understood that we were developing strategies, my mindset changed.   As we went through the lesson together, I was specifically paying attention to how the book showed to solve the equations–looking for strategies to help Cherry Pie.  I also payed attention to how I solved the equations.  What are my strategies that I developed all those years ago that are now so instinctive I hardly notice what I am doing?  I asked Cherry Pie to pay attention to how we solved the problems so she could find her own strategies.
        I should never have doubted Saxon.  I realized that he totally gets the beauty of algebra.  He just knows that algebra takes lots of practice.
      Maybe that’s a bit of an allegory for life.  We are here on the earth, trying to learn how to think and be like our Heavenly Father.  His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.  We make tons of mistakes.  However, we aren’t supposed to be discouraged by our mistakes or quit or just decide that we are no good at life.  With the help of the master teacher, we continue to practice.  We develop strategies to avoid making those mistakes again. It’s going to take a lifetime of practice, and it can indeed be beautiful.
❤️ Glowworm

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Christmas Eve

24 Dec


I like the part of Christmas Eve where “not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse”. 

( not quite there yet this year.) 

 Then I lie still and remember the magic I felt when I was young and anticipate the kids’ excitement in the morning. Sometimes I sneak to a window and open it a crack and smell the frosty cold air and check the starry sky (just in case Santa is flying over.) 

Then I close the window and look at the stars a little longer and think about the new star that shone down on a little stable in Bethlehem. For me, Christmas is about feeling awe and wonder at the Love of God, that He sent His Son to us, for us. I wish for you my friends to feel that wonder in your hearts tonight with me. 

🎄🎄🎄Joyous Christmas and Much Love to you all.

❤️

Glow Worm

Constructive Problem Solving

3 May

A not working can opener can really expose the limit of my “dealing with problems constructively” skills.

Violence has not motivated its performance.

I may have to resort “motivational speaking”

…

Maligning it on Facebook did the trick.

The can opener meekly opened the last 2 cans without any skipped spots.

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