Heart of the Matter

I love writing. I’m sure that’s not that much of a surprise since I write articles, I have a blog, and I can’t seem to tell my fingers to just quit. Once I get on a topic, I have a tough time just letting it go. But my affliction does not seem to affect my children. In fact, writing even one sentence seems to be the worst form of torture that I can apply to my children. I’m not sure if that is because they were schooled partly in a public school or what, but they just really don’t seem to get my affection for writing.

So I came up with this wild scheme. It was so far fetched I just knew that it would work. Don’t all far fetched schemes work out perfectly? LOL, Ok so I had no clue what I was going to do, but I was determined to find a way to share my enjoyment of writing with my children.  I did research. That’s always my first step. By doing a quick search for “teach writing” I came up with a few ideas. The first was a journal or a writers notebook. This gave me a place to start.

Writing a journal was a great idea. I have a journal, I knew I wrote in my Diary as a kid and I still have it. (SHHH don’t tell my Mom or my brother!) I thought it was a logical place to start. Until my kids stared at me and said “what am I supposed to write?” Well writing to a prompt wasn’t what I had in mind for a journal. It makes it more artificial than a true “this is what happened in my life” type entry. So I went for further research. Hoping to find a way to teach them how to pick a topic.

And that’s when I came across the public school’s answer–the Writer’s workshop. Now I was overwhelmed with the possibilities. There was so much for me to take in that I truly had no clue where to start. And all the books I read and webpages I visited really left me with more questions than answers. It was just such a huge undertaking. And no cut and dried place to start or path to follow. And so I traversed one. I took it step by step as always! For this you will need 2 composition notebooks. Spiral is just fine, but I find those pages are a little easier to rip out and therefore–they also have a tendency to fall out easier. Today’s article is going to walk you through the beginning of a writer’s workshop. In future I’ll take you through the mini-lessons and the remaining steps of the writer’s workshop.

Where to begin
Looking back at my first attempt–those journals–I knew right where to start. I needed to teach my children how to pick a topic. This is always the hardest part. once you know what to write it about, it get’s a bit easier.

Using the first notebook, Label the first page: LISTS On this page you will teach your child to create a list on any topic. Such as their likes or dislikes. This is your first mini-lesson. Teaching them the first stage of picking a topic. After the list–have them choose one item from it. This is now their topic.

There are other ways to help them to choose a topic. Lists is just one. You can even use that first list to help them narrow down their topic. Such as if one of their “likes” is sports, you can have them narrow that list down to the various sports: Soccer, football, track, gymnastics, etc.

Other ways of picking a topic (Be sure to label the page with the correct label):

JOURNALING: Looking at previous writing entries and elaborating on it. This is a good follow up to the first option of LISTS. Once you have a few entries in your journal/writer’s notebook then you can take those topics and see where you can lead with them.

CLUSTERING: Taking a broad category and branching off the center “bubble’ to create more defined topics. Such as Sports–breaking it down to football, soccer, tennis, etc. Below is a picture that has a chart that breaks down forms of learning aids–this will demonstrate how to cluster.

SENTENCE COMPLETION: This is basically a writing prompt. It gives your child a place to start. The prompt could be something like: One day I . . . . OR I wonder how . . . . Etc.

CREATE A CHECKLIST: checklists can be of various things. Such as how to’s, life essentials, etc.

LIFE MAP: This utilizes the creative mind. The child will make a detailed drawing of their day or week, perhaps even a year. They will then look it over and circle the items they feel can–or should–be elaborated on. Things they have an interest.

Observe your surroundings. Life happens all around and that is what writing is all about–writing about life. Either history or personal experiences, etc. Have your child look around them–what do they see. Have them write it down.

NOW WHERE TO GO?

Once they have chosen your topic, you will need to have them write on it. For this you will turn to the LAST page of your first notebook, and have them do one of the following (Again be sure to label the page) These are NOT your actual rough drafts, this is just a way to begin your writing. To see where you mind is going.

Free write–This is just taking a specified amount of time and letting them ramble about the topic.

Scrap writing–this is having them focus on just one aspect of the topic–such as how it looks, sounds, tastes, what it does, what they think when they hear the word, etc. It takes the narrow topic, and defines it even more. This can be repeated for even more aspects. Very effective for teaching how to describe characters or locations. For adding details to their writing.

5 W’s & H–This is the classic. WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? HOW? These can just be answered simply and then elaborated on during the actual writing.

Clustering–Again this can be used to help brainstorm ideas. Help define details and more. Refer to the chart above.

So now you have a starting place. Work on various ways to define your topic and elaborate on it. Practice it so that they will be ready for the next portion of this lesson plan. Use the first notebook for this writing. Be sure to label each page accurately for future reference. The reason you put the second section at the back is to give yourself a little organization. Another option would be to add tabs to your notebook–Tabs can be Mini-lessons and Examples. However you need to make sure that you leave enough room for more mini-lessons (This will be covered in a future article). The second notebook will come in handy in another article as well. For that you will need 4 tabs.

Well this will get your Ready, pretty soon we’ll cover what you need to Get Set, and then you’ll be off and ready to WRITE!

Patty Thompson is a homeschooling mom to 4 kids and wife to her high school sweetheart. She has been homeschooling for 4 years and loving every minute of it. Future plans include Homeschooling through high school. Her kids range from Kindergarten through 8th grade. Her style is very eclectic and believes in going with what works! She is rarely seen without a book in her hand. She loves to plan lessons and unit studies. She has started working with a co-op group and has enjoyed teaching group classes. Her hobbies include Genealogy and card making. She has often been found lost in thought on her blog. Catch her there and take a moment to feed their school mascot, Shiver, at Shiver Academy.

It has been nine years since we’ve read the Little House series aloud. I can’t believe it’s been that long! My three oldest remember the books but the younger ones do not. I decided it was high time to read them again. It is the perfect way to fill our hot summer days.

Of course, to complete the experience it’s fun to do some of the same things Ma, Pa, Mary and Laura did. After reading about the butter Ma made in Little House in the Big Woods we decided to make our own. It was easy! The quotes come directly from the book.

“When the cream was ready, Ma scalded the long wooden churn-dash, put it in the churn, and dropped the wooden churn-cover over it. The churn-cover had a little round hole in the middle, and Ma moved the dash up and down, up and down, through the hole.”

Photo by Montserrat

If we were being truly authentic we would have driven to my sister-in-law’s and gotten milk from the cow and used an old butter churn. Buttons in jars would act as the dash and cream from the store was used instead. We filled each jar halfway with heavy whipping cream and proceeded to shake, shake, shake!

“At first the splashes of cream showed thick and smooth around the little hole. After a long time they began to look grainy.”

Photo by Montserrat

After about 7-10 minutes of shaking the cream is getting grainy! Still needs more shaking though.

“Then Ma churned more slowly, and on the dash there began to appear tiny grains of yellow butter.”

Photo by Montserrat

Getting thicker but not done yet! Keep on shaking.

“When Ma took off the churn-cover, there was the butter in a golden lump, drowning in the buttermilk.”

Photo by Montserrat

You know the butter is done when you have big globs of butter swimming in buttermilk.

Photo by Montserrat

Pour off the buttermilk into another bowl. Add water to cover the butter and shake for about 30 seconds. Pour off the water, add more clean water, and shake again. Do this a total of 3-5 times to clean the butter. Add a few dashes of salt to give the butter flavor.

“Then Ma took out the lump with a wooden paddle, into a wooden bowl, and washed it many times in cold water, turning it over and over and working it with the paddle until the water ran clear. After that she salted it.”

Photo by Montserrat

Creamy thick butter washed clean, salted, and ready to mold. The butter is now ready to eat. If you don’t have a mold just spread on bread and eat.

“Now came the best part of the churning. Ma molded the butter. On the loose bottom of the wooden butter-mold was carved the picture of a strawberry with two strawberry leaves.”

Photo by Montserrat

One of our handmade butter molds we purchased from Lehman’s.

“With the paddle Ma packed butter tightly into the mold until it was full. Then she turned it upside-down over a plate, and pushed on the handle of the loose bottom.”

Photo by Montserrat

Pack the butter into your mold. We had to set the molds in the freezer so the butter could harden before taking the butter pats out of the molds.

“The little, firm pat of golden butter came out, with the strawberry and its leaves molded on the top. Laura and Mary watched, breathless, one on each side of Ma, while the golden little butter pats, each with its strawberry on the top, dropped on to the plate as Ma put all the butter through the mold.”

Photo by Montserrat

Our little pats of butter with bears and birds. What a fun way to connect with history!

Montserrat Wadsworth is completely devoted to her wonderful husband, Joseph, and their eight children (seven girls and one boy!). They live on a 4,000 acre alfalfa farm nestled in a small Northern Nevada valley. They’ve been homeschooling for 11+ years. Montserrat enjoys, photography, cooking, crafting, chocolate, and sloppy goodnight kisses. She strives to live each day as God would have her do following Mary’s biblical supplication, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38) You can find her at her blog Chocolate On My Cranium.

My kids don’t know it yet, but they’re about to freeze to death in the Cascade Mountains, and I’m thrilled because this afternoon, they laughed at me for being so insane as to load half my wagon with mule feed. Their exact words were, “No wonder you starved to death in the mountains.”

This deadly experience falls into a category of education theory called Problem-Based Learning, in which students discover facts by working through real-life problems themselves, and this one comes in a book called Easy Simulations Pioneers, a series which boasts several titles in American history, including one on the Revolutionary War. The book is intended to simulate the experience of American pioneers traveling west on the Oregon Trail. Students are supposed to form small groups of four to six, but my husband and I each took two roles and stayed up late, “lesson planning.” We spent over four hours on the trail, and on our third pioneer-life, we finally made it, living happily ever after on a farm in the Oregon territory.

First, each player–*ahem*–student chooses a role, ranging from farmer to doctor to blacksmith. There are six characters with different strengths, skills, and bank accounts. Everyone pools his money, and the first challenge begins: buying and equipping the wagon. The most spirited debate between my husband and me and between the kids and their grandparents was regarding whether to buy mules or oxen. Mules travel twice as fast but require mule feed, which takes up precious cargo space. Oxen are nearly half the price of mules and can be eaten in emergencies, but at half the pace, our kitchen “pioneers” might never make it!

To add dimension to our project, our parents are participating by phone. Granny is a hunter, Grand Dad is the doctor, and Grandma is a farmer. The kids call for consultation, which is interesting, since Granny grew up on a farm, and Grand Dad has had years of experience running his own business. He liked the savings offered by the oxen, but Granny was the only one to say, “Wait a minute. What’s the weather going to be like on this trail?” For the sake of coming winter, she said the mules would be the better choice.

It’s priceless to see grandparents brought into the heart of learning like this, to share their very real knowledge and experiences in ways that connect on both sides, to the child’s immediate experiences in school and to the grandparents’ precious handed-down stories.

Grand Dad said to bring two rifles, because it’s going to take a lot of game to feed seven people. The little one was worried about the economics; the big one—who chose the role of banker because of the heftier bank account and first asked, “How much money do you make on the Oregon Trail?”—very quickly gave up the idea of holding onto any cash at all. When we got to spare wagon parts, he stopped asking why and with a sigh that reminded me of my own grandfather simply said, “How much?”

I printed directions for building a covered wagon.  Then I googled images of all the “wagon supplies,” printed them, laminated them, and used Monopoly money to let the kids buy and fill their wagon. Each item is labeled with its price and weight on the back, but with seven people in their wagon train, price has mattered little to the kids so far. They’ve even got real silverware loaded in because, in the words of my seven-year-old, “What else are we going to use?” She’s not after luxury; just civility!

I also printed a map of the Oregon trail from the state’s website. I blew it up to about 22” by 33”, printed, and pieced it together, so we can track our progress along the way. Besides the math skills (yay!), cooperation, logic, reasoning, geography, and history they’re learning from this simulation, the kids are getting a chance to display what they’ve already learned from the books we’ve been reading about the period. My seven-year-old pointed out that pioneers boiled and ate their leather boots to keep from starving. “Why didn’t you do that, Mama?” Because…that’s not part of the game. Now pay attention!

My nine-year-old wants to know why he can’t take horses instead of mules or oxen. Because…they didn’t do that…horses…need too much grass…I think. No, he says, they did do that. “I read it in Little House on the Prairie.”

Now I find myself thinking, Why did we die in the Cascade Mountains? Sure, we were out of mule feed, but…couldn’t they eat anything else? What happens when your mules go hungry? How long do they last? Could we have made it without the donkeys? I just assumed that was game over (and went back and chose to brave the Columbia River rapids in my next pioneer life).

I do know firsthand, though, why great-great-grandma Neanderthal’s dresser couldn’t make the journey. Between that, the heat, bugs, cholera, hunting, and exhaustion…I think I’ll sit the Oregon Trail out until they invent airplanes!

Aubrey Lively is a homeschooling mother of four, ages 9, 7, 3, and 2. She has a BA in Literature and an MEd in Teaching and is currently surviving seminary with her husband of ten years. Visit Aubrey online at http://aubreylively.blogspot.com.

• 11 cards are stacked face down, top one turned up. This becomes your Nertz pile. (Can go on right or left, which ever is comfortable)
• It is the most important pile of cards on the table and when it’s gone you yell “NERTZ!” The first one to do this is the winner of that round!
• The next thing is your River. Four cards face up. These cards are played just like in solitaire. Red, Black, Red, Black, of any suit, and vice versa…etc. The only difference is unlike solitaire you CAN place a higher card behind the top card, from either your Nertz pile or your Stream.

• The center of the table becomes the community Lake, where everyone plays.
• You start with Aces and have to yell “Ace Out” which lets everyone know a new Ace is available for play. Then anyone can play 2 through the King of the SAME suit on that pile. If it reaches King, it gets flipped over and is “done”.
• To begin play everyone draws 3 cards from your Stream (not looking, at them) and waits until someone says, “GO!”.
• Everyone lays the 3 down and begins playing. You play out of the Nertz pile first if you can, and then your Stream (solitaire rules apply here, with no shuffling and you can only use the card on top). When a space comes open in your River, you move the card from your Stream in it’s place, not only a King like in solitaire. The more cards you get out in the Lake, the better because those count for positive points. You can play cards in the Lake that come from your Nertz pile, your Stream or your River (as long as they are on the bottom).
• ~~~~ When someone yells, “NERTZ!” Play stops immediately! The person who yelled Nertz starts flipping all the cards in the Lake over onto their backs.
• The other players count the cards left in their Nertz piles. Each card counts for MINUS 2 points. So, if you end up with 4 cards left, that’s -8 points.
• Then the Lake cards are sorted by backs. Those are you positive points. 20 Cards of your color/pattern = 20 points.
• +20 minus 8= 12 total points for you this round.

There are official Nertz gaming cards out there {also Dutch Blitz is just like it too}, but we prefer to use regular decks. Let me know if you try it!

Tracy Jackson is first and foremost a Christian, a military wife and mother. She grew up as a military brat all over the USA and is married to her Air Force, pastor husband of 16 years. They have 2 beautiful teenage children that they home school. She is photographer, and owns Shots From the Heart Photography and loves to do what she calls “Capturing the Fingerprints of God!” in her images. Tracy also created a workshop called Mommytography, where she teaches Mom’s how to use their cameras and to take better pictures. You can visit her at her blog: Work of HeART and Soul.