Piney Woods Homeschool

With Christmas right around the corner, I’m pondering the purpose of gift giving and how to teach that to my children.  It seems to me that as much as the gifts we give are intended to please the recipient, they are more importantly intended to convey our love and affection.  Surely that’s the primary purpose?  Without thinking it through, that’s how I’ve always approached the issue of having the kids give gifts to family members, and so the gifts have always been something the child has made or purchased with her own money.  Always the gift has been the child’s choice, although I provide suggestions.  Sometimes they’ve been ugly because the taste of small children differs greatly from mine; mostly they’ve been useful because I encourage that.  This year my two oldest (7 and 5) took it upon themselves to start Christmas shopping early in the fall, when I was thinking of Christmas shopping, and so with their own money they bought gifts for gra...

I have previously posted our plan or schedule for observing Advent and then Christmas.  This year, since our kids are older, we’re adding in a true Jesse Tree observance.  We use the devotions in The Advent Jesse Tree during breakfast each day, then sometime later in the day the kids use assorted craft supplies to make a symbol related to that day’s story to hang on their "tree".  (The trees are construction paper creations taped to the shutters in the kitchen.)  I don’t provide a lot of input into how the symbols should be constructed, although for my 3yo I do sometimes cut out a shape for him if he asks me to.  I also sometimes provide general suggestions for ways a symbol might be constructed, but mostly the project is theirs.  I’ll try to post a picture later in the season, since the "trees’ are turning out to be quite interesting. UPDATE:

[This post at the moment is something of a rough draft.  I welcome your comments as I revise it.] "A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six" is described as a reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890′s; it was printed in the Summer 1993 Parents Review published by Karen Andreola.  Here is the list : "To recite, beautifully, six easy poems and hymns. To recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm. To add and subtract numbers up to ten, with dominoes or counters. To read-what, and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child; children vary much in their power of reading. To copy in print-hand from a book. To know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows. To describe the boundaries of their own home. To describe any lake, river, pond, island within easy reach. To tell quite accurately (however shortly) Three stories from ...

If you are new to homeschooling, you have a lot of decisions to make.  That *can* seem overwhelming.  But remember you can always change your mind later.  Of course, it’s also true that if you put in a little time up-front to think about what you are trying to accomplish and how you would like to accomplish it, you may save yourself wasted time and money!  You’ll find that homeschoolers use lots of different approaches and materials–there is no "one right way" to do things.  One option to learn more about getting started (if you live near an area where these are offered) is to attend Smoothing the Way classes.  Don’t rush to get started!  First, you’ve got some thinking to do about what your goals and priorities are.  Your choices are almost endless and very different, and you’ll need to have a good idea what you’re looking for or you’ll be completely lost. This site might be a bit helpful: Home School Curriculum Advisor (...

When we started Ambleside’s Year 1 last June (2007), I had to figure out how to take the weekly assignment list and turn it into a usable schedule.  I had seen other schedules, but none seemed to fit our way of doing things.  DD needs to feel some ownership in this process, some control over parts of it, in order not to be rebellious, so a micro-schedule with each reading assigned to a specific day would not work well for us.  Also, we had a new baby coming and two other little ones with their own needs and activities, plus the usual interruptions that life brings along.  A very specific schedule would be hard for us to stick to. I knew we would school in the afternoon during naptime when we could be relatively interruption-free and could count on being at home regularly.  That gave us approximately 2 hours each day, although once we got in the swing of things we didn’t need anywhere near that much time. In the end, I took the Ambleside wee...

This recipe is from Pillsbury.  Because of the lentils, this is another good cholesterol lowering recipe and a great way to sneak dried beans into your diet. 3 Cup Cooked Ham, Diced 2 Cup Celery, Chopped 2 Cup Carrot, Chopped 2 Cup Lentils 1 Large Onion, Chopped 2 Can Chicken Broth 4 Cup Water In 3-1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker, combine all ingredients; mix well. Cover; cook on low setting for 7 to 9 hours.

Here’s another great cholesterol-lowering recipe.  Salmon is good for cholesterol levels, and I modify this recipe to use oat bran instead of flour.  The recipe as written uses red wine, which would also be good for cholesterol, but I sub more chicken broth for the wine since we don’t like the taste.  This recipe comes from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman . 2 Tablespoon Butter 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil 4 Ea Salmon Fillets (about 6 Ounces Each), Skinned, With Pin Bones Removed Flour (For Dredging) Salt Black Pepper, Fresh Ground 1 Medium Onion, Diced 1 Teaspoon Garlic, Minced 1 Medium Carrot, Peeled And Roughly Chopped 1/2 Cup Fresh Parsley, Minced 1/4 Cup Broth (Fish, Chicken, Or Vegetable) 1 Cup Red Wine (Dry, Full-Bodied), Optional Heat a large skillet, preferably non-stick, over medium-high heat for 2 or 3 minutes.  Add the butter and oil, turn the heat to high, and wait for the butter foam to subside.  Dredge each of the fillets in...