Go READ your vegetables!

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Inspire, don't require?" So have I. In fact, I have have used it and I even believe in it. Inspiring your kids to great activities and great reading is imperative to their success in their home education if you want them to continue to love learning all their lives.

However, sometimes, just sometimes, they need a little kick start. Occasionally they get in a rut (as we all do) and waiting for inspiration seems like a long winded ordeal. At these times I tend to lean a little heavier on require than inspire in order to get things moving again. It is a balance of both with sparing use of "require" from time to time.

We all know that some foods have an acquired taste and so it is with reading. Shakespeare may not appeal at first taste. Neither can some historical novels or great biographies. However the importance of them can not be understated. The vibrant energy that we get from truly inspirational lives put in print is worth every effort to get them to taste and see.

Furthermore, learning to love harder material is a stepping stone that we do want our children to eventually embrace. I refer to a step up in reading challenge or a gentle reading requirement as READING your vegetables. It takes work to digest vegetables and they are an acquired taste for many but the health benefits are far reaching. Vibrant education, articulate vocabulary and a solid Christian worldview are a few of the many benefits of healthy vegetable reading.

Conversely, a diet of junk food reading - comic books and some serial novels can dumb down and allow the reading palate to become dull. True, a little may not hurt you in the long run but a steady diet can make your heart sick and the desire for some time meatier tastes unpalatable.

So it is a wise mom who keeps a watchful eye over the reading choices of her children, and requires them to read a full balanced diet of science, history, biography and great literature. For a list of great meat and potatoes reading watch for future posts on the best of the best solid fiber and nutritional reading.

Real Life Learning-I wouldn't have it any other way!

One of the many benefits of having your children at home with you every day, is that they get to experience with you the daily events that make life real. If they were in a classroom all day their experiences would be contrived and scheduled and then graded. Many come out of 12 years of this assembly line eduction with just that, prestamped sameness, cookie cutter predictability and standardized test results.

Real life happens at our house. Sometimes it is the anticipation and preparation of the arrival of a special grandparent. Sometimes it is pulling over to the side of the road to fix a flat tire or handle another car problem. And sometimes our busy days stop completely in order to deal with a very painful event.

We buried our sweet little dog in the back yard yesterday. She had many problems and she was getting old. At 15 she had daily "accidents" and her little heart was so weak the blood was not getting to her lungs so she coughed a lot, gasping for breath. She had several tumors and sometimes bled from the rear area. The decision had to be made but it was just so hard to make it.

Yesterday had to be the day and I announced it to my teenage boys, "Go dig a hole." They knew what I meant. The tears flowed (mostly me) and I couldn't stop for a couple of hours. It was a painful day, getting those few preparations done. We ran a few errands on the way hoping to suspend the decision, I think. Last on the list was the Vet's office. We pulled in. I gathered myself together and approached the desk.

"Can I help you?"
"Yes," I squeaked. "We are here to have our dog euthanized."

What a cold word.

I did not make it past much more than that, searching the form I was to fill out through the tears pouring on the paper and smudging the ink. My boys were beside me with their arms around my shoulder, comforting ME! We must have been a sight! The lady in the back finally came to gently take her away and we said our brief goodbye's. They were kind and compassionate and I appreciated that. We were instructed to wait around the side door and we stood in the cold in muted silence fighting tears and wondering when it would be over. They finally came out with a box and her favorite down blanket covering her. She always liked to be covered up. The tears flowed again and we drove home and buried her beside the shed.

We were together the whole day through the pain, tears and the sadness and I would not have had it any other way. My two son's gentleness and tenderness was not only a support for me but they handled their grief in a manly dignified manner, important for them as well. It had to be done; they knew that, and we went through it together. We will have a few days of quiet I know, because grief must have it's time.

All of these real life events make up who our children are and will be in their future. Let's not ever separate our children from real life, in whatever form it may take-for the benefit of all of us.

Beanie, (Beanie Baby) January 26th, 1994 - January 8th, 2008
We miss you, Beanie

Another Day, Another Dollar....SAVED!

With even more purchases of energy savings light bulbs and another day on the ladder and we expect to wrack up additional savings on our power bill thanks to a great sale on compact fluorescent light bulbs.

We have a big house, probably too big for just the four of us at home now and so the power it takes to run this baby is steep. When my husband came home with his arms loaded with .....lightbulbs I thought he'd blown a fuse! But as he mentally calculated the difference it could make in our power bill, sparks ignited more potential savings in my imagination. This is how we worked it out.

We took out 5000 watts of potential power usage (66 light bulbs!) and replaced them with approximately 1000 wattage of potential use. That gave us a 4000 watt "savings," an 80% difference on the light bill! He estimated approximately 4 hours per day useage on every bulb in the house (which might be rather high)times 8 cents per KW charged with our power company = 1.28 per day X 365 days equals a savings of $467.00 per year. Minus the $50.00 invested in the bulbs yields an approximate savings of over $400.00 per year providing the bulbs last as long as a year. (They are advertized to last 7 years) That's over 1.00 per day, hence another day and other dollar - saved.....and we all know that a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Any which way you look at it, I'm having a blast. Just call me the Merry Misery Mom. I'm in my glee.

I'm so excited!

I love saving money! I get chills up my spine, shaky knees and yet feel empowered all at once. My husband came home from Costco today with a big box of ....light bulbs!
"Guess how much they were?"
I shuttered. I just happened to pay a whoppin' $7.00 for ONE of these very looking bulbs at Winco (my cheap store) and do so every time one of our 13 spotlights blow out.
"Well..guess", he insisted.
"Umm , $5.00 each?" I hoped.
"Nope, $4.00 for a package of 6!"
"No way," I exclaimed.
"Yup, they are not your normal bulbs, they are compact fluorescent bulbs using 75% less energy." Working out the wattage and voltage usage my electrician husband estimated a savings of $300-400 per year!"

He quickly installed them all. They do not come on instantly though and in fact when we first tried them we were a little surprised at the slowness to become fully bright. Once they warmed up, (5-15 sec? or so) they seemed as bright as what we have had before,...no brighter! Yeah, I can compromise....open my eyes a little wider for that kind of savings. As long as the expected life span is as good as it says on the box we'll be set.

I am going to be checking our power bill and maybe charting it compared to last year this time to see if it makes a difference. I hope to shed some light on other ways we have learned to save money as well over the next few weeks. I'll keep you "posted!"

I Love January!

For a compulsive organizer, taking down the tree, packing up decorations, and vacuuming up the last of the Holiday cheer spurs a flurry of uncontrollable Spring cleaning. I know it isn't Spring yet but January is an excellent time to purge and replenish.

Have you ever noticed "white" sales are always in January? Furniture stores usually boast large sales numbers in January as well. I think it is more common that I thought. The urge to clean up and clean out comes naturally in the dark inside days of January. Furthermore, this is still our school break and I so rarely have start and "finish the job" time to spare so I am on a rampage, every closet, every drawer, everything in sight must have an excuse for being there. I become merciless in tossing, donating and reorganizing. And I'm in my glee. You see for compulsive organizers such as myself, this is the most delightful time of the year. I rethink systems, work on economizing products that we use, and restore order and fresh air in closets, etc. Some of the most inspiring books on cleaning and dejunking I have read are two books by Don Aslett:

Is There Life After Housework?
Clutter's Last Stand

Even though I read them years ago I still use many of the systems that I put in place almost 10 years ago. I still have spray bottles with dilutable cleaning solutions in every room for specific tasks. Bathroom cleaning takes only 3 and a half minutes when done daily. I can wash all the windows of my house, sparkling clean, inside and out in about two hours. (This is the only exception, I do NOT clean windows-in Seattle-in January. I let the rain do that.)

By the time Spring really does come I can be outside planting and preparing for a great summer show of blooms and tomatoes.

Being proactive throughout the year really does mean you can be on top of events and unexpected happenings as they come up instead of drowning in mess and dysfunction.

So, let's see, Kitchen drawers-done, laundry room-done, office and downstairs bathroom-done. Now, onto the school room. Hmm, I wonder if library late fees are tax deductible?

Purposeful Persimmons

I came across a winter salad recipe calling for persimmons. Quite honestly, I stumbled a little and thought, "What's a persimmon?" I had heard of them but had never bought or tasted one. I do not even know if I would recognise them at the grocery store, so to save face I did the only thing any honest homemaker would do. I sent my husband! With a cool and collected look on my face just as he was walking out the door I asked him to pick up a couple of persimmons at the grocery store. His reaction was worse than mine! "Persmidons? What's that?" I rolled my eyes and spelled them for him and told him to ask someone in the store or read the signs, "I want two, please," silently chuckling as I closed the door. I was astonished at the price of 2.00 for two tiny plum sized orangeish fruit but simply followed the directions and peeled them and chopped them for our evening meal.

Wow, I am sold! Persimmons are mine, to love and to hoard. They made a delightful color splash in our green salad and since then have tried them to my delight in a smoothie. Yum. AND, they are grown in the USA making them on my OK to buy list (No US banned pesticides.)
They are somewhat high in carbs and natural sugars but topping a salad makes for a moist sweet flavor boost amongst flat lettuce leaves. They are high in natural iron and vitamin c making them a great winter addition to our diets.

Persimmons are delicious whether eaten fresh, dried, or cooked. As a fresh fruit, they are unbelievable, perhaps the cross between a crunchy peach, and an sweet apple. However you might describe them, the taste of a fully ripened persimmon is superb-incomparable to any other fruit. (Persimmons are featured in the soon to be released book, "101 Foods that could Save your Life,")

Today, I found them at my local Winco grocery store chain (standing for Washington, Idaho, Nebrasca and Colorado,) for only 28 cents each! I filled my plastic bag with visions of what else I can try?
Hmmm,....How about homemade persimmon ice cream? I'll let you know how that turns out.

My friend and mentor Kerry Beck has written an article about her leadership training philosophy. I've included the whole article here. It is very good!

Raising Leaders in your homeschool.
How can teachers use their curriculum to train leaders for the future? How can parents encourage their children to lead when they grow up?

The first place to start in raising your students into leadership is to change your own education paradigm. “What in the world do I mean by education paradigm?” Most of us grew up in a public or private school, which can be likened to a factory. All the students come to the factory or the school. They start in kindergarten and move on to first grade, down the conveyor belt. At each stage of the conveyor belt (or grade level), the student learns the exact same information as everyone else. The students are told what to think.

Even though the school may be using tools like classics, the school’s approach to education only teaches students “what to think”. Too often, teachers lecture and “force-feed” information to their students. Please know I do not believe lectures are bad; they have a place. But too often, teachers lecture, telling their students what to think about the readings. Later on, tests are
given to determine if the student knows what the teacher thinks about the readings, not what the students discover about the readings. John Gatto says it well.

"After you fall into the habit of accepting what other people tell you to think, you lose the power to think for yourself." John Taylor Gatto, A Different Teacher, 2002

When you have a steady diet of lecture, you lose the power to think for yourself. To develop leaders of tomorrow, you need to change the methods used to educate the children of today. How do you look at education? Do you believe educators needs textbooks for everything? If so, you are training your children to follow. The underlying assumption of textbooks is that the teacher and student do not know enough to evaluate resources so the textbook author will do it for you. All the student has to do is learn the conclusions of the textbook to become successful in “school”. This model of education makes great followers who learn what to think. Ponder for a moment. Textbooks give students questions to answer. If the student can answer the chosen questions on a test, he can move on to the next piece of information. Textbooks do not encourage students to think outside of the answers in the teacher’s manual. This model has provided our society with highly trained, but poorly educated graduates. Leadership education takes a different approach to curriculum.

One of the essential elements of leadership is teaching how to think. I don't think your children should complete their education and not know how to think on their own. Shifting your educational model from from "what" to think to "how to think"can be a major change in your life. Below are some practical ways to set a foundation for this type of foundation by starting with yourself. As you teach your children how to think, you might see a lifestyle change for your entire family. Leadership education ultimately involves the family as a whole. Initially, it takes much effort from a parent because you must be involved in learning and growing yourself. You cannot hand over some workbooks and say, "go for it." Workbooks merely teach your children what to think, not how to think.

To begin your own education as a teacher or parent, start by reading one classic. Choose a classic that interests you. If you’re not sure what classic to read, consult a young adult classics list. After you finish your first classic book, read another one. Repeat this until you have read four or five classics. You are off to the start of a fine education for yourself. As your children see their parents studying and learning, they begin to have a different idea of what education is all about. You will be excited about what you are learning and want to share it with your own children. After you finish five classics, read another one and add a writing activity. As you read this classic, keep a reading journal. In your reading journal, write down your thoughts about the story. Share your thoughts with someone else.

Now, it is time to start with your own students. Choose a classic to read aloud together. The first classic you read together should be purely for enjoyment. If your students have never enjoyed classics, you may need to read a few more before moving to journaling and discussing. Once you think your children are ready, ask them to journal about the story after you finish reading each day. Then, discuss what the students wrote in their journal.

Francis Bacon said, “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."

Reading, writing and discussing is foundational to developing students who think for themselves. If you want your children to be leaders, they must think on their own and classics are the best place to start.

Kerry Beck is the author of Raising Leaders, Not Followers, which encourages parents to raise their children to be leaders who make wise decisions and call their own shots.