Piney Woods Homeschool

This is our plan for the Christmas season, for Christmas day and following up through Epiphany: Christmas Music:            Messiah Part I, No. 13-17 Joy to the World Art:                   The Adoration of the Shepherds, Rembrandt The Nativity, Durer Symbol:          Nativity Crafts:              Make garlands for birds Make Light of the World mural Write thank you notes December 25 Scripture:         Luke 2:1-7 Crafts:              Cut out shapes such as stars or candles from construction paper, two copies for each shape, and cut various holes in both copies.   Glue tissue paper over the holes on one shape, then fit the other shape on top and glue both to...

Here are some ideas for Christmas gifts for kids, from things I'm giving or thinking of giving this year. For a primary school or older girl, a set: Just the Right Words , a book of sentiments to write in cards Blank notecards Perhaps some fancy pens Or alternatively, these books by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume Two: On Life As a Pioneer Woman Writings to Young Women on Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume Three: As Told By Her Family, Friends, and Neighbors For an older preschool or elementary child, another set: The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air   (I cannot vouch for this particular edition because mine is an old, old copy, but looking at it on Amazon it appears that this should be a decent reproduction.  Old copies can be found on Alibris , but make sure you get the first book in the series an...

Updated :  Recently (this is in November 2011) our small group at church has been studying Gospel in Life by Timothy Keller .  One session focused on worldviews, and one of the worldviews listed was the "religious" worldview, as opposed to the Christian worldview.  I realized that many of my attitudes truly reflected more of a religious worldview than a grace-centered Christian one, and the activities in this post reflect that.  We may still use some variant of this during Advent this year, but I will frame it as our practicing kindness just like God showed kindness to us, showing our gratitude to Him by emulating Him in our own small way, practicing during this season so we can develop habits to last all year.  Since our family focuses on Jesus as the Light of the World during Advent, we can think of these activities as encouragement to let the light of Christ shine through us.  We should *not* in any way think of good deeds as preparing ourselves for anyt...

Our family Advent plan hasn't been significantly revised in several years at least, so this year we're revising it.  My first order of business has been the "ceremony" surrounding the Advent wreath.  Each evening during Advent we light the candle(s) for the week and read a scripture, talk about the theme for the week, and usually sing a carol related to that theme.  Each week we hang an ornament on a small Christmas tree, to reflect the theme for that week.  This year I think I want to have a theme song or chorus for all of Advent, if I can find something suitable.  I have changed the scriptures we're using and the theme for each week, and I may even ditch the pink and purple candles in favor of natural ones--I'm not sure about that yet.  I am still not sure about the symbol we'll use for each week, partly because I don't have my ornaments accessible right now and I'm not sure I have suitable ornaments for the symbols I've tentatively chosen. ...

Certain relations proper to a child--how much that phrase encompasses!  Volume 3, Chapter 8 almost sums up Charlotte Mason's academic goals entirely.   <<We are more exacting than the Jesuits. They are content to have a child till he is seven; but we want him till he is twelve or fourteen, if we may not have him longer. You may do what you like with him afterwards. Given this period for the establishing of relations, we may undertake to prepare for the world a man, vital and vigorous, full of living interests, available and serviceable.>>   Here is our mission: to train up the child so that by age 12 or 14 he is fitted to meet the world head-on.  We do this by establishing "certain relations proper to a child".  What are these?   * Science * Dynamic relations * Power over material * Intimacy with animals * The great human relationships * Almighty God   Science <<Geology, mineralogy, physical geography, botany, natural histor...

I've been reading Charlotte Mason's Volume 3 on an email list, and we recently read Chapter 4 , which has a great passage I can never find when I'm looking for. The applicable passage is on page 42: <<We have only room to mention one more point in which all of us, who have the care of young people, would do well to practise a wise 'letting alone.' There are burning questions in the air, seething opinions in men's minds: as to religion, politics, science, literature, art, as regards every kind of social effort, we are all disposed to hold strenuous opinions. The person who has not kept himself in touch with the movement of the thought of the world in all these matters has little cause to pride himself. It is our duty to form opinions carefully, and to hold them tenaciously in so far as the original grounds of our conclusions remain unshaken. But what we have no right to do, is to pass these opinions on to our children. We all know that nothi...

I am in the process of moving all the posts from my old blog link to this one.  Eventually all the posts should be accessible from here.  Comments will not be saved in the transition, but currently they are inaccessible at the old blog anyway.

For my second go-round with reading instruction, I decided to use the McGuffey Primer along with some CM-style activities. (I do not pretend that I was rigorously implementing an exactly-CM reading program!) For each McGuffey lesson, I typed up word cards so that I had about three cards for each word introduced in that lesson. We would study each word, then dd would find the matching word cards that were mixed in with the other word cards. She would also try to write the word on a white board without looking at it. Sometimes I had her spell the word in the air with her arm–I should have done that more often, actually. Sometimes I would put the cards around on the floor, call out a word, and have her hop onto that word card. We would play with word families. If we learned the word “cat”, I would write “at” on the white board and then add different initial letters and have her tell me what the new word was. When we were looking at a new word in our lesson, if it c...

Back in the first century, devout Jews worked hard to learn and follow God’s commands. God provided detailed instructions in the law, but not detailed enough to satisfy the people. To resolve questions, religious authorities compiled lengthy lists of rules extending and clarifying the original laws. Many of those devout people trying so hard to obey God’s commands ended up committing egregious offenses against God by adhering to rules meant to assist them in understanding God’s will. As humans, we find rules reassuring. In every context of our lives, we tend to add rules. As Christians, we often find it intimidating to rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit rather than on a list of specific rules, much as the Israelites preferred to have a human king rather than waiting on God to direct them. As parents, we are too quick to accept a list of rules for parenting that have the imprimatur of some respected Christian teacher or that are backed up by scriptural argument...

This pattern is majorly estimated, so don’t try this if you need specific, exact instructions! I just jotted some notes for the last few hats I made; this is the result. I probably almost always size my hats too small, so unless you crochet very loosely you may want to make yours bigger than specified. This pattern uses: * Worsted weight yarn * Size I crochet hook (The same principles will work for other yarn weights. For baby weight yarn, use a smaller hook and keep increasing for more rounds. For a heavier yarn, of course, use a larger hook and make fewer increasing rounds.) Chain 2. In second chain from hook, make 6 single crochets. (If you crochet over the tail, you can pull it tight at the end of the round to close up the hole.) Use a stitch marker to mark the last stitch of the round so you don’t lose your place. Move the stitch marker to the end of each round as you complete it. Make 2 single crochets in each stitch around. (12 sc) *Make 1 single crochet i...