LisaV | Heart of the Matter

August 26, 2010 By LisaV 38 Comments

You know you’re addicted to blogging when:

You take pictures for the sole purpose of uploading them to your blog.

You give up email in favor of blogging.

You give up scrapbooking in favor of blogging.

When you first start blogging, you fear that anyone and everyone can read your blog.

After a while, you’re concerned that no one is reading your blog.

You comment on stranger’s blogs.

Strangers comment on your blog.

Pretty soon, these strangers become like family in your blog community.

You ignore the kids (momentarily) to blog about them.

Your kids wonder why you laugh out loud while seated at the computer.

Your family has your blog bookmarked as their home page.

You lay awake at night thinking about your next blog topic.

You need to express your 30,000 words a day, and the best way is by blogging!

I used to be addicted to blogging, until I was invited to join Facebook. When that happened, this is what I found:

You give up blogging in favor of Facebook, which is essentially fast blogging.

You upload pictures to Facebook right away, and then select a few to post to your neglected blog(s).

You hope your friends don’t hate you for posting and tagging their photos on Facebook.

When you first start to Facebook, you’re careful who you add as a friend.

After a while, you add everyone to your friend list.

Your blogging friends become your Facebook friends. They leave the best comments!

You ignore your kids (momentarily) to Facebook about them.

You lay awake at night thinking about your next status update.

You consider joining Twitter, but realize that with email, blogging, and Facebook, you would spend 24/7 on the computer for the rest of your life!

Can you think of more? Want to share your Facebook and/or Blog to make some new friends and show off your family?

To share your Facebook go here: http://heartofthematteronline.com/facebook-hop
To share your Blog go here: http://heartofthematteronline.com/blog-hop

Lisa Van Dong has been teaching her two sons since 2004 and attempts to incorporate study, work, service, and play into their homeschooling days. She takes an eclectic approach to homeschooling and enjoys reading, writing, editing, and essential oils. Lisa blogs publicly at Pockets of Time and privately at Scooter and B.

July 19, 2010 By LisaV 6 Comments

After six years of homeschooling, we attempted summer school this year for the first time. It lasted about two weeks. We were in “summer mode” and simply could not get much accomplished. When our 13-year-old son finished his grammar book, I declared summer school officially over. If he could do math after breakfast while our 9-year-old son completed a grammar page, that’s all I expect on our busy summer schedule. The kids have baseball, swimming lessons, and basketball camps in June and July. Add in some art in the park with our homeschool group, church activities, all of our birthdays and anniversary in June and July, and time with friends and family, and our summer is nearly booked.

I’ve learned from past years that we need that summer break, a time to refocus, relax, and rejuvenate for the school year ahead. Even if the kids didn’t need the break (and they do), this momma reaches the end of her rope by the time June rolls around.

What I’ve found is that the kids need time to process what they’ve learned the past year and apply it in their own ways. At times I’ll catch them talking about something that I didn’t teach them, and it reassures me that they’ve been learning all along. Even at baseball practice, our 9-year-old will converse with his teammates about exponents in math. Or the kids will tell me they want to learn more about sports science or how the body works, even though we studied that in Life Science. Apparently they want to learn more than was covered and summer is the time to do that.

We’ve signed up for our library reading program for several years and the kids enjoy reading books of their choosing from our public library, which is conveniently located down the street from swimming lessons. Today I caught them reading Clubhouse magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Formal lessons were not needed.

We gave our older son a spiral-bound notebook so he can journal throughout the summer his thoughts and feelings, what he learns, and what he accomplishes. The journal is his and his alone, not something to be graded. How blessed I was to see him writing in his journal into the night, actually enjoying the process of writing which he had only endured before.

I know some families are able to school year-round, but we are not one of them. Learning takes place all the time, but formal lessons are kept to a minimum during our short summer months.

How do your kids learn during the summer months?

June 30, 2010 By LisaV 2 Comments

28,416.45
…
What’s the significance of this number? The average life expectancy in the United States is 77.8 years, or 28,416.45 days. At my age, over half my days have already been spent.

My husband taught a Sunday School lesson on numbering our days with Psalm 90:9-12 as the key text:

For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The verses are insightful, as every person has a history, or a tale, to tell. To number our days, we need to recognize the brevity of life. Unless Christ returns first, we will die. This thought confronted me suddenly last month, when my uncle passed away unexpectedly. We ought to take careful inventory of our lives and live with eternity’s values in the forefront of our minds.

To apply our heart unto wisdom, we need to obtain godly wisdom, know the purpose of our life, glorify God, have an intimate relationship with Christ, do God’s will, focus on eternal values, and be solidly firm in our faith, extremely devoted to God, and extraordinarily excellent in the Lord’s work.

Inspired by Linda Ellis’ The Dash Poem, which has been set to music (see this link: http://www.thedashmovie.com/linda/), my husband penned his own poem on this topic.

The Dash of Your Life

In between the date of your birth and the date of your death, there’s a dash.
At the end of your days and memories of your life rehashed,
If your dash was spent full of eternity’s values while on this sod,
Then your life would have brought glory to God.
If your dash was spent on vanities,
Then your life was filled with lost heavenly opportunities.

You see, it matters not how big the stash of your cash,
It is all about the impact of how you lived your dash.
Man may be impressed with titles and possessions,
But many will enter heaven’s gates because of your godly impressions.

How will you live your dash?

May 26, 2010 By LisaV 6 Comments

After a ten-year hiatus from serious couponing, I’m back cutting and clipping to save money at the register. While meeting at our local bakery for a Lego/Chess Club, a few homeschool moms started discussing how they do coupons. I learned that Copps Food Store offers double daze where they double five manufacturer’s coupons up to $1 each on Wednesdays. After perusing the Copps sales flyer each week and making my list, I scour the Sunday paper and my coupon box for the dollar-off deals. I also recently discovered coupons.com, where you can click and print the coupons you’ll use.

I kept a coupon drawer for years and only recently looked through the whole drawer with our 9-year-old son. We discovered coupons for diapers (we’ve been diaper-free for several years now), coupons from 2006, and many other outdated coupons. We recycled 90% of the coupons and organized the remaining ones into our coupon box with labels such as canned goods, frozen foods, and meat.

When I receive coupon flyers in the mail, I often pass them along to other moms, especially ones with babies who need those $3 off Huggies coupons.

I’ve only scratched the surface at couponing, subscribing to Money Saving Mom and a myriad of coupon pages on Facebook. Some ladies keep binders with sports card pages. Instead of trading baseball cards, they put a coupon in each plastic slot. Others work wonders on the web and at Walgreens, accumulating those points or rewards to their advantage. Some moms can feed their family of four for $30 a week.

I haven’t reached coupon queen status yet and don’t know if I ever will. However, I try to do my part, saving $20-$50 on weekly groceries and blessing other frugal moms with coupons when I can.

How do you save with coupons?

April 21, 2010 By LisaV 2 Comments

There are those milestones in your child’s life you will always remember, like teaching him to ride a two-wheel bicycle for the first time. The milestones change as your children get older and often appear in subtle ways. One of those moments happened this past Saturday, as my husband lay flat on the couch with the flu.

We had committed to attend a college student’s piano recital that evening and I still wanted to go, so I asked our 9-year-old to go with me. I decided to leave our 12-year-old at home with his dad, and off we went on our 40-minute drive.

Afterwards, my husband told me our 12-year-old had made him a sandwich, gotten him water, and put a blanket on him. I had always known our firstborn was kind and gentle, but this was the first time he was able to show these characteristics to his sick dad.

Our near-teen has grown up a lot the past couple years, hitting a growth spurt that doesn’t seem to end. He’s passed up both his father and me in height and is maturing both on and off the court. He loves babies and young children, who seem drawn to him. At a homeschool field trip last week, he walked hand in hand with his 5-year-old friend around the conservatory. One evening, after dropping our 9-year-old off at basketball practice, I came home to find our 12-year-old sweeping out the garage simply because he wanted to do it.

This morning our 9-year-old awoke first and cooked himself a sunny-side up egg. Later, his older brother made himself two scrambled eggs. Their inspiration comes from Chef Ramsey and his show, Kitchen Nightmares. The boys wrapped the majority of our 100 eggrolls yesterday, and I realized they may be budding chefs after all.

Homeschooling allows us to spend this time together, in the kitchen and with each other, taking care of one another.

One last example is the “automatic door,” a concept developed by our 9-year-old. When he hears the garage door open as Dad comes home from work, our son will listen for his father’s footsteps walking up to the house. Just as he reaches the door, our son will open and hide behind the door. He does this for me as well when I return from an outing.

These are the moments we’ll cherish and remember.

Please share your memorable milestones in the comments below.

Lisa (aka Morning Rose) has been teaching her two elementary-aged sons for four years and incorporating study, work, service, and play into their homeschooling days. She enjoys reading, writing, and photography and blogs publicly at Pockets of Time and privately at Scooter and B.

March 18, 2010 By LisaV 4 Comments

Our two boys started the school year just rearing to go. They devoured books after school hours and made frequent trips to the library. Their enthusiasm for reading has tapered a bit, as our school year progresses through the long winter. However, they still read daily for school and usually afterwards as well.

Inspired by the HomeScholar, Lee Binz, we kept a reading list this year for each child and for me. The kids type in their books when they are completed and it is fun to see the lists grow.

Below is our nine-year-old’s list so far this school year:

1. A Father’s Promise by Donna Lynn Hess

2. A Is For Adam by Ken and Mally Ham

3. Abe’s Fish by Jen Bryant

4. Aesop’s Fables retold by Carol Watson (Usborne)

5. Airplane Book by Cheryl Walsh Bellville

6. Airplanes by Jason Cooper

7. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Anna and Russel Crouse

8. Alexander the Great by Jane Bingham (Usborne)

9. Amazing Aircraft by Seymour Simon

10. Ancient Greeks by Stephanie Turnbull (Usborne)

11. Animal Homes by Debbie Martin (Usborne)

12. Anne Frank by Susanna Davidson (Usborne)

13. Antarctica by Lucy Bowman (Usborne)

14. Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

15. Astronaut by Kate Hayden (DK)

16. Awana Memory Packet

17. Aztecs by Catriona Clarke (Usborne)

18. Ballpark by Lynn Curlee

19. China by Leonie Pratt (Usborne)

20. Christopher Columbus by Minna Lacey (Usborne)

21. Crusaders by Rob Lloyd Jones (Usborne)

22. D Is For Dinosaur by Ken and Mally Ham

23. D-Day by Henry Brook (Usborne)

24. Dr. Seuss by Ann Graham Gaines

25. EA-GB Prowlers by Carlos Alvarez

26. George Bush by Ann Graham Gaines

27. George Bush by Sandra Francis

28. Guess Who Took The Battered-Up Bike? by Raymond & Dorothy Moore

29. Heroes of the Day by Nancy Louis

30. How Big is a Million? by Anna Milbourne (Usborne)

31. How Deep is the Sea? by Anna Milbourne (Usborne)

32. How High is the Sky? by Anna Milbourne (Usborne)

33. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Usborne Classics Retold)

34. I Wish that I Had Duck Feet by Theo Lesieg

35. Instruments of Death by Stewart Ross and Inklink (DK)

36. Julius Caesar by Rachel Firth (Usborne)

37. Knights by Stephanie Turnbull (Usborne)

38. Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven

39. Look to the Stars by Buzz Aldrin

40. Lou Gehrig by David A. Adler

41. Martin Luther King Jr. by Rob Lloyd Jones (Usborne)

42. MH-53J Pave Lows by Carlos Alvarez

43. Mi09A6 Paladins by Carlos Alvarez

44. Napoleon by Lucy Lethbridge (Usborne)

45. Nelson by Minna Lacey (Usborne)

46. Oh, No! Miss Dent is Coming to Dinner by Raymond & Dorothy Moore

47. Operation Noble Eagle by John Hamilton

48. Our Abe Lincoln adapted by Jim Aylesworth

49. Pilgrim’s Progress Simplified edited by Laurel Hicks and John DeKonty (A Beka)

50. Planes of the Past by Mark Beyer

51. Quit? Not Me! by Raymond & Dorothy Moore

52. Romans by Katie Daynes (Usborne)

53. Ronald Reagan by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed

54. Samurai by Louie Stowell (Usborne)

55. September 11, 2001: The Day That Changed America by Jill C. Wheeler

56. Slam Dunk Trivia – Basketball by Bruce Adelson

57. That Pesky Toaster by Ben Hillman

58. The Boy on Fairfield Street by Kathleen Krull

59. The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss

60. The Children’s Book of Heroes by William J. Bennett

61. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

62. The Price of Victory by Stewart Ross and Inklink (DK)

63. The Railway Children by Mary Sebag-Montefiore (Usborne)

64. The Shocking Story of Electricity by Anna Claybourne (Usborne)

65. The Story Of The Olympics by Minna Lacey (Usborne)

66. The Usborne Official Knights Handbook by Sam Taplun

67. The Wright Brothers by Quentin Reynolds

68. Thomas Jefferson, Our Third President by Elizabeth Sirimarco

69. Titanic by Anna Claybourne and Katie Daynes (Usborne)

70. Toilets, Telephones & Other Useful Inventions by Katie Daynes (Usborne)

71. Trash and Recycling by Stephanie Turnbull (Usborne)

72. Treasure Island by Angela Wilkes (Usborne)

73. United We Stand by Nancy Louis

74. Vietnam War by Scott Marquette (Usborne)

75. Vikings by Stephanie Turnbull (Usborne)

76. War in the Pacific by Sean Sheehan

77. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

78. Will Northway & The Gathering Storm by Susan Olasky

79. Will Northway & The Price of Loyalty by Susan Olasky

80. Will Northway & The Quest for Liberty by Susan Olasky

81. Winston Churchill by Katie Daynes (Usborne)

82. Young Thomas Edison by Michael Dooling

Our fourth grader enjoys mysteries, adventure stories, and history books as well as sports and various Usborne titles. We hope to add a few more titles by year-end, including completing the Old Testament as he reads his Bible daily.

What are your children reading this year?

February 4, 2010 By LisaV 4 Comments

Sometimes people ask how I instilled the love of reading in our pre-teen boys. I usually reply that I read to them when they were young.

However, another mom remarked that she read to her kids too, but none of them like to read, which made me ponder this question further.

What causes one child to love reading while another considers it a chore? Does the parent instill the love of reading, or is this something a child develops on his or her own?

Photo Credit: Marsha, Other Such Happenings

I believe there are steps a parent can take to encourage a love of reading in a child, but ultimately it is up to the child to devour the books, newspapers, and magazines that we provide for them.

Techniques we’ve used to encourage reading in our home include:

Read aloud to your kids when they are little and continue when they can read on their own. Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook is an excellent resource on this topic. Children can understand a higher level of reading than what they can read for themselves.

Have the kids read aloud to you, especially in the elementary years. This develops their speech as well as their reading skills.

Have the children read silently while you read too. After breakfast each morning, our two boys and I silently read a chapter from the Bible according to our own Bible reading schedules. Sometime we’ll write down a verse that we read that day and share it with a family member via email.

Have lots of books, magazines, and newspapers on hand. We visit the library weekly and stock up on books the kids are interested in. These include science and social studies topics such as the planets, presidents, and Landmark history books. Our kids have subscriptions to Clubhouse Magazine, National Geographic, and Lego Magazine. We also subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and our local paper.

Invest in quality, educational books. A few years ago, my friends started consulting for Usborne Books. By hosting parties, I’ve obtained boxes of Usborne titles for free or half-price. These truly are the books kids love to read.

Since we’ve been married, we have never had cable TV. Thus, we only have access to a handful of channels. We keep the TV in the basement, so we’re not tempted to watch it excessively. Our boys generally don’t watch TV on the weekdays, though we enjoy watching football as a family on the weekends.

Limit the children’s screen time, whether that be TV, computer, or video games. Our boys’ doctor recommended no more than one hour of screen time a day. It seems many children are plugged in 24/7, which can diminish the joy of reading a good book.

Our boys both started reading at the age of 6. Last year when they were 8 and 11, I tested their reading level and discovered they both read at a high school level.

The above ideas have worked for us. Please share your thoughts for encouraging a love of reading in your home.

December 22, 2009 By LisaV 4 Comments

I finished reading the amazing true story of a modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together.

Same Kind of Different as Me is a heartwarming tale of two men, one rich and another poor, and how their lives intertwine because of a woman called by God to serve in a homeless mission. The story is well-written, humorous, touching, and inspiring. The two men alternate telling their tales, a chapter or two at a time.

We meet a dirt-poor sharecropper named Denver who worked the land by picking cotton for ‘the Man’ but earned no money. In his 20s, Denver hopped a train which led him to Fort Worth, Texas, where he lived on the streets, a step up from where he began.

We also meet Ron, an international art dealer with humble beginnings, married to Deborah, a woman who would lead him to a homeless shelter and encourage him to befriend a homeless man she saw in her dream.

Through its language and imagery, Same Kind of Different as Me has the flavor of To Kill a Mockingbird. This book explores the themes of true friendship, being different, suffering, and homelessness. In fishing terms, some people practice “catch and release.” This term can be applied to friendship as well. While some friendships are “catch and release,” others are forever. This book is a story of faith, courage, fear, and forgiveness.

Deborah was an incredible woman of faith, from the way she handled her husband’s infidelity to her treatment of the homeless. What was Deborah afraid of? Not the homeless, but that she’d miss her calling in life. Are you afraid of missing your calling, of wasting your life? How can we combat this fear, which can keep us from fulfilling our purpose in life? Are we willing to take that risk to reach out to others, to make a difference in their lives, to show them the way of eternal life?

This book had me in tears, as the two men finally meet and as Deborah faced the biggest challenge of her life—cancer. The cancer was not only a physical battle, but a spiritual journey for Deborah and those who prayed for her day and night.

Deborah’s legacy lives on in the lives of those she touched—her family, friends, and the homeless she befriended and served so faithfully. Can we care about people the way Deborah did?

I read more of Ron and Denver’s story in their follow-up book, What Difference Do It Make? The sequel expands on Ron’s relationship with his father, Denver’s time in prison, and the impact that Deborah’s story has made on ordinary people to make an extraordinary difference in our world today. Let’s join them in making that difference.

Lisa (aka Morning Rose) has been teaching her two elementary-aged sons for four years and incorporating study, work, service, and play into their homeschooling days. She enjoys reading, writing, and photography and blogs publicly at Pockets of Time and privately at Scooter and B.

November 3, 2009 By LisaV 4 Comments

Before our school year began in August, we searched for a science curriculum at our local homeschool supply store. I asked for advice from the teacher at a private school connected with the store, and she recommended R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life (level one), Life Science Curriculum for grades 1-4. Though the book is geared toward grades 1-4, she is using it with her grades 5-7 students. I asked if it would work with both my 4th and 7th grade boys, and she said that it would. We could supplement with Usborne/library books if we wanted.

After using it with both our boys for a couple months, I find that we really like it. Everything is contained in one book and the experiments are easy, fun, and educational, even for Mom!

In completing a circulatory system lab, we made our own blood model. We used Karo syrup for plasma, Red Hots for red blood cells, lima beans for white blood cells, and lentils for platelets. The boys and I enjoyed a few Red Hots while the kids colored in their models.

Other labs included putting together a simple skeleton model, learning the parts of a chicken egg, pairing fictitious animals together, making sea jellies from Styrofoam cups and yarn, and testing our senses by using vinegar, garlic, and paper clips. I like how the labs incorporate arts and crafts, since this had been lacking in our homeschool for some time.

If you’re looking for a fun, easy way to teach science, I highly recommend the R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life book!

September 17, 2009 By LisaV 9 Comments

Something that has helped since our beginning days of homeschooling six years ago was developing a homeschool schedule.

We found tips in setting up a homeschool schedule in the Moore Formula Manual, which was a huge aid during our first year of homeschooling. The schedule includes certain anchor points such as wake up time, meal times, and bed time, and other slots for study subjects, work, and service. The anchor points are fairly fixed and should remain consistent from day to day. For example, our meal times are set at 8:00 for breakfast, 12:00 for lunch and 6:00 for dinner.

Our subject areas, in the order that we complete them, are Bible/Music, Language Arts, Mathematics/Art, Reading, Typing/Email, Science, Social Studies, and Health. We complete 3-5 subjects before lunch and the remainder after lunch. We generally rotate the Science/Social Studies/Health subjects so that we focus on one at a time, though the kids enjoy reading Social Studies books on their own after our formal school work is done. The subject areas are flexible, as some projects take longer on some days than others. We generally start our study time around 9:00 and end at 1:30.

A simplified version of our homeschool schedule, including resources and curriculum we are using this year with our 12- and 9-year-old boys, is as follows:

8:00 AM Breakfast and cleanup

9:00 AM Bible/Music

Silent Scripture reading on a schedule
Prayer journals (writing, Spiritual)

Scripture memory – AWANA books and Kids 4 Truth

Thursdays: The Usborne Piano Course Book Two

10:00 AM Language Arts

Alternate handwriting, spelling, creative writing, and grammar

A Reason for Handwriting – Levels C and F

Spelling: Spelling Plus Word List

Writing: Jump In

Grammar: Easy Grammar ¾ and Winston Grammar

Rosetta Stone Homeschool Spanish

11:00 AM Mathematics/Art

Math-U-See Epsilon

Art: Drawing and making cards using Usborne art books

12:00 PM Lunch and cleanup

1:00 PM Reading (incorporate Bible, Science and Social Studies)

Monday: Sunday school papers (Bible)

McGuffey Readers: Pilgrim’s Progress and Liberty Tree

Typing and Email (technology, writing)

Mavis-Beacon software

Email Dad Monday to Thursday and grandparents on Friday

Science: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life (level one)
Social Studies: Various Usborne and library books

1:30 PM Health (incorporate work/service)

A Healthier You, A Beka Book Health Series, grade 7

2:00 PM Speech on Fridays with Dad