island school

It’s the final few days before the ‘big kids’ get here , and the last few days of homeschool. Almost out of time to get ready for Christmas!

I brought the kids to the Senior’s home, ‘The Pines’, for a ‘Kids with Heart’ session. We decorated wooden picture frames with the residents to hold their pictures which the staff had taken previously. It went rather well. My kids are the only ‘not little’ kids, and were able to help out a bit. They have certain residents that they’ve come to know over the past two years, and I was pleased to see dialogue and real affection . Whenever an opportunity like this comes up I make efforts to participate. The kids expect to be doing things out of their ‘comfort’ zone with regularity, and they also realize that our family doesn’t measure inconvenience very highly against service. Hopefully, this will stick with them.

Anyone else having ‘clutter’ issues?

Robin at Heart of Wisdom has a great posting on organizing the house.  I’m definitely going to need this one!

Getting Rid Of Fridge Clutter

Is your definition of leftover something you put in the refrigerator until it turns green? Ewwww. The official title is UFO (unidentified fridge objects). Do you have to cram the milk back in or move 5 bottles and 3 containers to put in a new item? Have you ever found an expired item that had never been opened? Do you triple stack? Do you have to rush to shut the door before things fall out?….

Its always a struggle here to keep chaos at bay! When company is coming (even if its ‘just’ the boys!) its a good incentive for an extra push!

We try to save our celebrating for the actual ‘event’, so we don’t really decorate until the last week of Advent. The next week will be full of baking and crafting and practicing our carols. My DH does the major portion of Christmas ’shopping’ and wrapping. I help the kids with their ’secret Santa’ ventures (eight kids means they pull names!) and take care of all entertainment and food. It works for us! This year I’m hoping for a real tree (not that easy to maintain in theis weather!) and a new Nativity set.

Next Monday we are hosting a ‘cookies and crafts’ afternoon for some ‘kids we know’ – I think there’ll be about 20 kids (not counting mine) and some Moms. We keep it simple by baking the cookies ahead, and setting out a ‘decorating’ table. One of the little girls is allergic to dairy, so her Grandma is bringing her own cookies, and I’m trying to find a decent icing recipe without butter.

Monday evening is the ‘teen’ night.(16+) Since the three kids hosting it have some overlapping friends there should be about 30 . I’m not sure they’ve planned it well enough, but I’m leaving it up to them….except for house rules, which their friends are already familiar with. My experience tells me that if there is food and music, everyone will be happy!

Then….Christmas! My favourite part is Christmas eve/Christmas day services. We really try to make Christ the centre of our celebration, and we maintain a fair degree of ’self’ control and decorum on Christmas Day. I love it! I look around at my happy , wholesome family and I cannot be more grateful for God’s blessings, for Christ’s sacrifice, and Mary’s ‘Yes’.

I see Christian living in my living room!

We are preparing for Advent, which begins Sunday. We will make a wreathe with four purple candles to remind us that we are making ready our souls for the coming of the Saviour. Dad will lead family prayers and Lenten readings every evening with the candles lit. We will sing Advent hymns.

The house will be cleaned and re-organized to prepare for the great event, the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus. Special food and decorations will be made. We will endeavor to not ‘celebrate’ before time.

We will take all opportunities to share our gifts of money and talent. We will include our neighbours in our ‘cookies and carols’ evening, and reach out to those who are far from family.

These are the things we usually do, and they help us to keep focused on the EVENT, and God’s purpose in it.

This story from today, the day after Thanksgiving, is especially disturbing.
Two people were killed in a mad rush to BUY STUFF. Two people killed, and ignored while shoppers continued shopping.

ADVENT CONSPIRACY has an idea of how to overcome the corruption of the Christmas/Advent season that has become the ‘norm’ in our sad, sad, society.

This wouldn’t be the ordinary way to ‘memorize’ the periodic table, but it worked for Edward!

Another good version is done by Mike Stanfill.

Memorization can be a very useful tool for some kids, especially those who don’t have all the ordinary ‘connections’ used in reading and math. It gives them something to carry with them as a reference point. I think this way of learning something has been discounted as ‘fake’ , but it depends on the students.

The most amazing thing happened when I started homeschooling. I found out that all my kids learn in a unique way. Sometimes its hard to ‘find’ the way that a particular kid learns certain things, and memorization skills are worth developing in any student. I’m reading “Memorize the Faith And Most Everything Else” by Kevin Vost (Sophia Press), which gives some helpful strategies for parents and students.

Here ’s a great idea I found at Catholic Homeschooling.

Around The World Night….

…Presentations will be on a tri-fold decorated anyway you’d like.
The presentations will share a circular table with another country backed up to it. All of the table space in front of the presentation will be yours to put artifacts, small projects, reports, tasty foods to share, etc etc as you see fit. Some dress in their countries attire!!

As the evening goes on, some choose to stand at their project and answer questions; others roam and sample foods from far away places!

However you’d like, it is suppose to be a fun night to invite friends, dads, and anyone else to see what we have done. I started doing this many years ago b/c most homeschooled kids do not get to “show off” their talents as often as they should be able to!! In my humble opinion!! And, I LOVE to see the wonderful people and cultures of God’s great world!!! Hope you’ll mark your calendar either way; to join us in presenting your favorite country or to support those who are committed to sharing what they learn!!

We don’t really have a coherent ‘homeschooling community’ here, but as I have 7 students, I guess we could hold one ourselves! We have tons of travel books and table books with glorious pictures from Uncle Desmond’s library, as well as mementos from his numerous trips. We could also include our many countries with family history…Sweden, Canada, Jamaica, Cayman, France, Ireland!

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