Getting Kids Writing

My kids have been writing in journals since they could form a coherent sentence. While I've had to veto words like 'Poop' and 'Butt,' I've loved watching their minds open to imagination. I feel like imagination is what lets us humans breathe. It's in those moments of creative abandon that I feel we are truly human. It allows us to breathe in our souls and breathe out things created by a force other than reason and logic.  In this post I'll focus on some helpful websites. Once I locate my motivation I'll post about some original ideas. But man that motivation can be an elusive creature to find sometimes.



Here are three of my favorite writing prompt sites for middle/high school students. I loved these because they are based on pictures or .gif files to get their brains cranking out creative energy.




Writing Prompts

Photo Prompts

Wilson College has a list of some fantastic prompts that will get high schoolers writing a more lengthy passage. If you have an advanced Jr. High student I think they can handle most of these also. 

A sample entry:

 Describe the room of one of the following: a high school student about to drop out; a cashier who has just won the lottery; a faded movie star who still thinks she's famous; a paranoid person, etc (see full list of suggestions in What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers). Be as detailed as possible.

 

A few favorites for elementary age:

Scholastic Story Starters. 

Age K-6. You can choose the age-appropriate level on the first screen. 

49 Story Starters

These are fun ones to get them writing more short story types of entries. They are geared towards maybe 3-5 graders. These have spurred on many that I can take and branch off of to create my own prompts for them. 

Here are a few:

1. Imagine if cows gave green juice instead of milk!  What would the world look like?
2. Imagine that all the streets are rivers? How do you get around?
3. What would happen if it really did rain cats and dogs?

If you're a Pinterester, here's a board with tons of links to great writing helps for elementary-aged students.

All ages:

This site (Daily Teaching Tools) has 180 journal prompts, one for every school day. These are fairly age neutral, maybe tweeking a few so as to make them fit the specific age-level. There are so many here that even if you only journal once a week you'll have plenty to pick from. 

Here are two examples:

 *Write a thank you note to a friend who gave you onion and garlic-flavored chewing gum.
journal writing prompts
 *Draw an imaginary constellation. Write a story such as ancient people might have told about it.

Freeology

This site has some thoughtful questions to get them thinking about worldview and current events. This is maybe for slightly older kids, but some of them could be modified for a younger writer. I have found that my younger kids can be asked some pretty deep questions and they actually have insightful ideas on how to answer them. For younger kids, you could even use some of these but have them answer them orally while you write their answers down. 

Here are a few they gave:

1. What do you like and dislike about elderly people?
2. Do you believe in ghosts or spirits? Why or why not?
3. Write about a time you had high hopes for something and got let down.
4. Is war ever justified?

And remember, journaling is all about creativity. I try not to correct spelling or grammar in these. I just want them writing and expressing their thoughts. I do veto certain words because well, not every story has to end up with pooping horses.

I hope this helps. If you've got other sites that have been helpful, leave them in the comments so that others can steal them too. 

Homeschool Woes Part 2-This is the Redemption Part

Homeschooling has revealed so many weaknesses in me (which I vomited in this post) that sometimes I feel too fragile to teach my own children. But I'm beginning to understand that this type of fragility is what God wants to use to landscape my soul into something not just useful, but holy. God doesn't just want to use me as a vessel, but he wants to make my colors undescribable with human words. He wants my patience and joy and kindness to be so refined that the reflection from them seems to bounce like a chiseled prism held to the sun.These types of things don't happen by things being easy.

The kids and I were reading Isaiah 41 this week and my mind has fixated on verse 10 and 13:

"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

And,

"For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, 'Fear not, I am the one who helps you."

I don't have to carry this load myself. It seems so simple when I type those words, but actually burying my face in surrender and not just giving up is quite another feat. Several times I have envisioned the Lord sitting by my bed while I'm angry, frustrated, tired, or pouting and he brushes back my hair to look at my face. In his mercy, he bends. He speaks directly into my eyes, his words slowing my rapidly beating heart. He whispers promises to a weary mom's soul:

"I am here.

You don't have to fear. I'm ultimately in charge of the well-being and education of your children.

I will be the one to breathe strength into your days, stop trying so hard to do this by yourself.

I got this.

This is going to be hard. You are on the struggling, incomplete side of eternity. Remember that and find comfort in the fact that one day, I'm going to make all things new. That's hope. 


Take my hand, stand up, dust yourself off, get out there, and saturate yourself in this gift I'm giving you. This homeschooling deal...it's a gift I'm giving you. Don't forget that.

You don't have to be a perfect teacher, you just have to be a mom who's vulnerable and forgiven. Being that for your kids will be more than teaching them why Rome fell. 

Stop looking at what other people are doing and look at me to remember why you are doing this. It's not for them, it's for me."

In both of those Isaiah verses, the Lord refers to using his right hand. This was the hand used to make contracts and promises. It's a promise of faithfulness and strength. As adults, we forget that we are also his children. We try to keep it together when sometimes we just need to curl up in God's words and listen to him tell us that things are going to be OK.

I'm holding on to these things this week. You see, God never promises this to be easy, he simply promises to be faithful. In these hard things, our eyes regain their focus on Jesus and off of ourselves.

That is a grace and I'm choosing to hold onto that today. 

Homeschooling Woes, I Need More Coffee

I slammed my knee into an exhausted, impenetrable homeschooling hurdle today.  The race always starts off with my spandex wedged into the appropriate places and glittering stars of academic bliss awaiting me at the finish line. I start running and clear the first few hurdles with relative ease. I clip my heals on a few; I straight up avoid some by running around them rather than jumping over them. But all in all, the race has gone as planned.

photo credit

And then we round the corner to summer.

As I'm running, I look up and this stretch of track seems to bleed into the horizon, never ending. It's the War and Peace section of the homeschooling year. You know you have to push through and finish, but man this is going to get painful.

I find myself muttering:

  "If you want to do the craft yourself it's on page 336. I'm tired."

 "If you aren't going to learn, I'm not going to teach." 

And, 

"If I hear you cry one more time, I'm gonna stick Jell-O in my eye." 

You see, we homeschool year round. With different people coming to visit, visa runs, and various things we have to leave town for, year round schooling just works better. But, it's about this time in the summer that I haven't just run out of steam, I've surrenedered to hitchhiking my way to the finish line. I don't even care if it's a drunk Pink Floyd groupie, I just need a ride to the end. The funny thing is that we don't have an end. I'm not organized enough to keep us on a good formal schedule, so we simply finish 2nd grade math on Monday and start 3rd grade on Tuesday. No bells, whistles, or graduations. I give them 5 kuai and tell them to get an ice cream-by themselves. It's all very grand and I'm sure they feel so deeply nurtured by this.

There is it.

All those lessons I've learned about training up my children in godliness and the benefits of tailoring my children's educations seem to be lost under the screaming dark angel saying, "Put them all in school and you'll get to actually finish a cup of coffee and a sentence involving a comma."

--I should spend more time praying over this. I try. Really I do. But I quickly find myself praying that I'd get mono so that I can take a nap.

--I should take a day off. If I do, it's fabulous and I feel so refreshed...until I wake up the next day. You see, resting has an eventual end which makes rest feel like a bad guaze-wrapped solution and when I have to get back to our routine, there are bits of bleeding flesh that have been ripped off after said rest.

--I try to remind myself of why I'm homeschooling and for that brief moment, I'm swept away in a Bette Midler song of homeschool nirvana. After those three melodious minutes are up, I shake the sentiment from my hair and remind myself that those platitudes have to be executed by me and me alone.

This is where I'm at today. I can sense the Lord tapping me on the shoulder. He's telling me to stop yelling my complaints so loudly, I'm disturbing all the other lovely families smiling their way through homeschool. There's redemption in this, I know it. I'm processing all of this with Jesus. He's teaching me things. But for today, this is all I've got.

Am I alone in this sentiment?

Ethiopian Day for History

 

We are studying Africa in our History curriculum and Ethiopia was featured recently! A few extra hours were spent this week reading, map searching, and documentary watching. When I told Makaria it was Ethiopia night, she squealed in excitement. When I told Makaria that Mommy was making all the food, she solemnly replied, "Oh, that's not good." Thank you for that.

 

The girls performed a traditional dance while watching youtube videos. It was like karoake, but with dance moves. I think we should have youtube teleprompt what we should say in difficult situations. Like how to confront a friend. That would be an awesome invention. 

 

Charis' friend was spending the night. At one point, I heard her whisper to herself, "Well, I wasn't expecting this." Welcome to our home.

 

I made several Ethiopian dishes and served them on injera. My husband was excited that I found a non-fermented version of injera, which probably makes it non-injera. But for hubs, this made it edible. 

 

There were menus, welcome signs, burning incense, drumming, and traditional Ethiopian music. Before we ate, we thanked Jesus for the food and spent a few minutes praying for the Ethiopian church.  I love hearing our kids search the depths of God on behalf of these brothers and sisters there. 

The girls were the hostesses and ushered the guests to their seats while serving drinks.

  

The older 3 made replicas of the famous Lalibella church.

Each one gave a brief presentation of the building process and the festivals surrounding this historic place of worship.  These churches are dug into the ground into one solid piece of rock.

 

 

M-girl colored Africa and explained where Ethiopia was located. 

 

Despite looking like he just lost a bar fight, K-man also explained his map and spent 1 minute or so waving the Ethiopian flag and marching. 

 

My second oldest explained the demographics and economics of the country. Several times he pointed out Ethiopia's proximity to Djibouti. Emphasizing the pronunciation, "DID GYA BOOTY!"

 

My #3 danced and shared some more music with us. 

 

For desert, sugar cookies made by this dude. He arranged them in the colors of the flag. 

 

We had such a blast and I will say that the food was fantastic. My kids all requested we have Ethiopian food once a week. They all did such a spectacular job presenting their parts and learning about this fabulous country.

Why Our Kids go to Chinese School

I get this question a lot. Right now 4 of our kids go to National Chinese school everyday for half a day. My oldest daughter is now doing 6th grade work in homeschool and we just need more time, so this is her first semester not in National school.

For our family, letting our children go to National school has been the hardest, best decision we've made while living here. I just registered Charis two weeks ago and it's required multiple trips to photocopy something, get a form stamped, or jump through some hoop. Last year, the principal asked me for 10,000 kuai and a new laptop computer. (To which I kindly told her 'no'.)

If you didn't buy a house in a certain apartment complex or your id (hukou) is from a different city, you can't go to school for free. If that is your situation, after everyone is registered you have to show up on the "bribe the school day," and give the school a little donation so that your child can attend school. The system is really complicated, but that's it in a nutshell. We live close by and we work really hard to convince them to let us attend.

I unpackage this much more in my book, but Chinese education can be summarized by these points:

1. Motivate through fear and intimidation.

2. Memorize as much as possible.

3. Comparison will make you a better student.

4. Your teacher acts as your parent, and is therefore responsible for all moral upbringing.

5. Perfection in your handwriting is a perfection in your character.

6. Your entire schooling career culminates in a test your senior year (the gaokao). Nothing else really matters.


Take these for what they are worth. There are some strong points in their education, memorization being a big one.

Here are the reasons we send them to National school:

1. It gives them a place of influence and to serve.

2. They meet friends. After the age of 5, Chinese kids pretty much study, play piano, take extra classes, and study some more. They do very little playing. If you've read Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom, you already know that. I wrote a little about that here.

3. They can learn language naturally. This is huge to help them feel at home.

4. It gives us a chance to rub shoulders with other families.

5. It helps us not feel so foreign and gives us different insights into the culture.


Sending them to National school is not easy. We have to do a lot of communicating about what they are learning and process the things that we don't agree with in that type of education system. But it's given them a heart to understand the Chinese way of thinking. It's given them space in their hearts to sympathize and understand their neighbors. If they did not have good language skills, their lives would feel very isolated. Their community would be small and they would struggle to feel at home.

National school has been a blessing in many ways for our family. I am grateful that my kids were able to start young and attend Chinese school for many years, therefore making it very normal for them.

I know that not everyone can send their kids to Chinese school, but for our family it has been a test of faith and a lesson in joy. And the bottom line is that we have to be less concerned with their comfort and more concerned with their good.

Homeschool Helps and when all else fails...Michael Jackson

*Simple Homeschool has a great post titled, "What about me: On taking care of yourself as a homeschooling mom."

And no...sitting on the toilet for 5 minutes playing Words with Friends is not considered taking care of yourself. (Now add coffee and some junior mints to that equation and you might have an argument.) 

She writes:

I was ready to quit.

I originally chose to homeschool because I thought it was absolutely the best decision for my kids. I wanted them to have the excellent education, individualized curriculum, and flexible schedule that homeschooling could provide.

*At my Carrie Anne Hudson page, some brilliant women posted dozens of ideas on keeping the littles occupied while you try and teach your older ones. Head over there and breathe in the lifeline. I'm going to start posting more community questions over there. It takes a village, we've got a village, we need a village, we are lost and sometimes are searching high and low for a village that knows what the heck is going on.

*This was a really funny list about big families. 

*Last night, we spent an embarrassing amount of time rockin' out  showing the kids You Tube videos of Michael Jackson. Can I tell you the amount of money my poor mother spent on me buying Michael Jackson books, stickers, posters, and fan books from those Troll book orders in 4th grade? A majority of my free time as a kid could be summarized in doing cartwheels, listening to Michael Jackson, and eating sourdough bread dipped in A1 sauce. 

And now you know. 

Have a great week!

Favorite Apps for Elementary School Age and Younger

I'm pretty smitten with the whole app thing. I am generally pretty wary of technology and children. I have nightmares of my sons being buried under piles of dirty underwear, hunched over like Mr. Hyde, consumed in dungeons and dragons, and eating Captain Crunch for dinner. But I think the time has come to redeem technology and introduce our kids to fun, educational games that can make you smarter, not hermitier. No, there's no app for words I choose to make up.


Today over at my Carrie Anne Hudson Facebook page, we're collecting and sharing our favorite apps for elementary school age and younger. Have a favorite? See what others are saying.


I did a post awhile back and a few of our family favorites are here.

How to Not Freak out as a Homeschooling Mom Links

This is my favorite app for August. If they had a "do crafts with the kids while I take a nap" app, that would have been my favorite. Apple just hasn't gotten there yet. So for now it's the Reading Rainbow app. It is a bit pricey, but worth it when you don't have access to an English library. You can choose from tons of books. They can be read to yourself or read to you. We love this app.


Weird unsocialized homeschoolers has a great post on questions to ask before switching homeschool curriculums. Homeschool curriculum can act like Satan and Jesus in the desert. Each curriculum offering me more and more until I finally break.



Here are few savoring the end of summer things to do at SimpleMom. These things are much more fun than listening to Dora swipe Swiper one more time.


Simple Mom also had a post about cooking from scratch. It's all about starting simple while maintaing sanity.



Raising Olives has started some good dialogue and has lots of links on how to teach your children the difference between tattling and telling their mothers useful information.  She homeschools 11 kids so if she tells me to wear a rainbow colored wig while teaching math, I'm doin' it.


Simple Homeschool challenges us homeschoolers to take a look at what is and isn't working. Questions to ask yourself about the last year as you look ahead to next year.



Chris Brogan talks about checklists. He's got some helpful ideas on how to make them work. What he doesn't tell me is how to not loose my checklist.



I am so thankful to the Lord for the internet as I homeschool. I'm just not sure I could do it without these other people who are smarter and more patient than I am giving me tips on their blogs.

Physical Exercise and How the Heck can I Find Time?

I love to exercise. I really do. I was one of those crazy teenagers who would wake up and workout most days of the smarthy Houston summers. Smarthy is Latin for "it's so hot and humid you think your skin is going to evaporate." I would throw on sweat pants and 5 pound ankle weights and go running at noon. I had mental issues and maybe a few body images ones as well.

Now that I am a homeschooling mother of 5, I have found that exercise is just really hard to make happen. I also hate when people make excuses. I remember being younger and watching these young mothers walk around Barnes and Noble with their double strollers and complain about not having time to exercise. I would switch to inner monologue mode and decide that they were just being lazy. That if they had time to condemn themselves in the Martha Stewart magazine isle, they certainly had time to exercise. So very not-helpful is that inner monologue of mine.

I now find myself a mom that gets maybe 4 days of exercise a month. Yes, I walk a decent distance to drop my kids off at Chinese school. Yes, I walk to the market, up the stairs, and to most places that I need to go because of living in China. But I still don't have the elevated heart rate type of exercise that my body needs. Honestly, I just don't know how to fit it in. Unless I wake up at 2 in the morning and use my mad ninja skills on the bad guys at that hour, exercise just doesn't happen much. I exercised this morning and my only motivation was that I got to have a few minutes to myself. I had to do it before breakfast and that meant that I also skipped any semblance of devotional time this morning. So if I am to run AND spend time with Jesus before the kids get up, I'm literally needing to set my clock for 3 am.

There is no possible way to be a good mom with that type of wake up routine.

I'll be 36 this year and I realize that this has got to change, I just have no idea how to make that happen. All of our kids must be up by 6 am so that Chinese school can happen. I homeschool one in the morning and the other 4 in the afternoons. I sometimes go with my oldest daughter in the morning, but I'm not a great partner exerciser. As a matter of fact, I literally hit my husband (who was merely my boyfriend at the time) when we went running together because he was egging me on. It was not pretty.

This entire rant is to lead you to this post by John Piper about Exercise.

Physical Exercise and Why I Do It (his reasons are much more Christ centered than my "I just don't want to have arms that slap people upside the head when I raise my hands" type of reasons.)


Part 1

Part 2

A little ADHD lifeline

Even when I write about ADHD, a lump forms in my throat from inadequacies and fears. Our struggle with it is real. It is daily. It is our life. 

I wrote about our grasping for air with ADHD and have been searching for practical tools ever since. I stumbled upon this site that has some very helpful tools in coping with ADHD.

For example:


In schooling, take a word, such as "color" or "rapid" or "cargo," and write it in several different colors on a piece of paper. Ask your child to look at it until she can shut her eyes and see the letters in her head.






Sometimes, I feel like the advice for ADHD parents is more descriptive than prescriptive. In other words, the books spend more time describing my child than helping me educate and help them. I already know the issues. Trust me. In my brief perusal of Living Well with Attention Defecit, I have found several really helpful things. 


I also threw out a blog line for help with my wonderful daughter who burns 3,000 calories from movement in homeschool. People actually exhibiting patience were able to give some wonderful suggestions. The one I have found the most helpful so far has been for DHA. This tiny capsule that has helped my two ADHD children clear their minds quicker and block out back ground noise easier.  




That brings me to a few things we have figured out on our own:


1. Limit Noise. I have to remove all pencil tapping, music playing, foot sliding, and chopstick drumming. Any type of rhythmic noise makes them nervous and prone to freaking out. 


2. Calm the Aesthetics. I light a candle to help keep things calm. For both the children and for me. I also make sure the kids keep their desks clean. I put up a few things on the wall in our little homeschool room, but it does not look like a page from "Southern Living."


3. Early Meds. Take meds first thing in the morning. Our meds take about 30 minutes to kick in, so if you want a little modern day science help at the breakfast table, you have to give the meds accordingly. 


4. Give one set of instructions at a time. "Go put your shoes on." You cannot say "Go get your shoes on, throw out this paper cup, and then brush your teeth." I see panic in my son's eyes every time I try to instruct him this way. In my mind it's efficient, but to him it's overwhelming. 


5. Clear instructions. I cannot say, "Don't you think it would be a good idea to get your shoes on?" Because in his head, he is now thinking of the 15 reasons why it's not a good idea. Then he rabbit trails on one of those ideas and he ends up wrestling monsters in Idaho in his mind by the end of it all. Still having no shoes on. I just need to say to him, "Go get your black shoes on."


6. Physical Contact. When I give instructions, it has to be with my hand on their shoulder and our eyes making contact. 


7. Equip for Success. Finding something they really enjoy and equip them for success. My little dude loves putting things together using the instructions. So, now I try not to throw them away because I am the exact opposite and find instructions a rather gratuitous piece of paper. For C, I find that if I let her know that once she finishes a few problems, she can jump rope. This external motivator gets her excited to focus for a bit. 


8. Speak Slowly and Calmly when Disciplining. While I want to fly off the handle and scream back at them as they are losing control, I have to try and remain calm. I do not in fact succeed at this all the time. But when I do, I am able to diffuse a situation much faster. I find that if I can control the first 3-4 words by saying them slowly and calmly, then the rest fall into place much easier. If I start off in an elevated and rapid tone, it's pretty ugly thereafter. 


9. Encourage Often. I am not good at this. It is far easier to find ways they are disobedient or not on task. But when all I do is correct them or harp on them, there is a snowball effect and these two kids in particular have a hard time pulling themselves out from under the heap of discouragement. I am trying to get in a better habit of encouraging our whole family with the small things in a day. This becomes crucial for both C and M. 


10. Proper Expectations. We try and warn them what is going to be happening next. If we are heading out to dinner with friends, we might say, "This restaurant is going to be noisy and smokey. If it becomes too much, I want you to come to me and I will let you step outside for a bit."




I still feel like I've got a long way to go in effectively parenting my children that struggle with ADHD. I have cried, prayed, thrown pillows at the wall, lashed out, and sought counsel. I still feel like I'm on JV in figuring this all out. I would love to have others chime in on this one. Leave tips in the comments section. ADHD is a team sport and there are days that I am straight up in the wrong uniform. 

Don't use Duct Tape, Instead use These

 A week ago I put up a post about having kids that don't sit still, even in their sleep. I feel like I go in and out of seasons in dealing with this in a godly manner. The rest of the time, I lose it and smoke comes barreling out of my ears. I've employed many others who are smarter, wiser, cuter, and more creative than me to help out. I'm hoping that some of these tips will bring some sanity to your day too.

The thing with most of the tricks I've used in the past is that they just aren't sustainable. If I were only homeschooling one or two kids at a time, I could manage to put together a mystery box with all these multi-sensory activities everyday. When you are homeschooling 5 at one time, the multi sensory is created when your 4-year-old smears apple cores on your computer screen and your 8-year-old sticks an eraser up his nose. Very multi sensory if you ask me. But I felt like some really good suggestions were given. If you've got something else that works, that doesn't require duct tape, then put them in the comments so that others can gain from your experience.


1. Let them bounce around on those mini trampolines. I had one of these growing up. Wait a minute, Mom, was this what you were dealing with in me? I bounced on that thing and pretended that Kevin Bacon was whisking me away to dance on site at Footloose. Hours I tell you. Hours.

2. Illustrate what they are learning or while they are reading.

3. Take vitamin supplements. One mom recommended Nordic Naturals DHA. Some kids that struggle with ADHD can have lower levels of DHA.

4. If you have a kinesthetic learner, this site has some great stuff. I don't think my 6-year old is this type of learner, she is just wiggly. But there are things on here that I can incorporate so that she can have a change of pace.

5. We tried an exercise ball. Fail. Aimee recommended an exercise disc to place on a chair to give your child a little movement. She's got some great ideas on the post I just linked to.

6. Do lots of treasure hunts to find vowels or nouns or whatever you're learning.

7. We have found ipad apps are helpful. It changes the medium a little bit and gives them a change to use their hands. Here are a few of our favorites. Grasping for Objectivity also had some good ones for younger kids.

8. Cut out carbs. Please note, that this is for the child only. I will not in fact be cutting carbs from my diet.

9. Keep it short. 15 minute lessons at a time. I'm going to set a timer and give it a try this week. My super competitive child will love trying to beat the buzzer.

10. I had several males chime in. Some of their recommendations were scotch and jumper cables. Scotch I'm assuming would be for the parent.

11. Let them chew gum or eat small snacky things. My kids love dried fruit and it's super cheap here. You just need something that takes a long time to eat and they can keep in their mouths.

12. I have found that telling my daughter that when she finishes her math, she can go outside and jump rope for a bit helps here knock out her work with more motivation.

I'm gonna leave this list at 12 points because it's awkward and reveals where exactly my daughter inherited this focus problem.

Just Sit Still for 5 Seconds!

I love this girl. What I don't exactly enjoy is her flailing out of her chair, reading with her legs sprawled up on the wall and her hair in her mouth for a better part of home school. This girl line dances in her sleep. Because sternly saying "sit down," has become like the announcements at church-nobody's listening. 

So, I've decided to tackle this head on. I've got a straw and a drink to prevent hairballs from forming in her small intestines; an exercise ball to keep her from falling back 85 times before 2 pm; and a bean bag iguana to keep her left hand busy while she works with her right. 

It's only been a day, but it worked pretty well today. As long as I can keep this thing from being used as a total elimination dodge ball, I think we'll be good to go. 

If you've got any other magic cures, I am all ears. 

**As a side note, I went to title this post and originally I wrote "Beating Energetic Kids." I meant winning, but clearly this would have caused some issues between me and CPS.



Ok, so I wrote the above blog about a week ago. One day I decided to document how this ball thing was working. Here's what I captured in the span of 2 hours:

Reading. Note the toy placed between her knee caps. She told me it was to help keep her legs straight.

Reading comprehension questions. I could barely understand her answers to "What happened when the shepherd found the sheep?" Her head was actually under her desk at this point.

Working on her worksheet. Notice the blurry legs. Blurry legs=massive amounts of motion.

We had just finished math. 

Seriously. I am out of good ideas. If you have a child who is in perpetual motion, how in the world do you get them to sit for 5 seconds? We do tons of physical activity during her homeschool, but at some point she does have to sit down for a few minutes. I'm up for any and all suggestions. I'll try and post them so that others can learn from your wisdom. 

Burning Sacrifices in our Hallway

We are studying Ancient China now. I've posted before how much I love my history curriculum. It pretty much makes me want to do spirit sprinkles everyday when we crack it open. 

We had a friend over who helped the kids build their Great Wall. We've been to the Great Wall many times, so it was fun to learn even more about the emperors who made that thing happen. Perseverance is the defined in building the Wall.

We flipped the ancient coins that told our fortunes and then made some up for other people. It did not go well for some. 

M followed us around and stuck things on her face. And down her dress. And then did handstands.

No joke, we had just studied all the ancient gods when we stepped out our apartment door and saw this woman burning paper money to her ancestors. Overlooking the massive safety hazard in burning paper in slippers in a staircase, we were reminded of serious some people take to offering things to their ancestors. The kids and I got to pray over her together as we walked downstairs to our silk worm farm at a store nearby. 

I totally just said, "walked to our silk worm farm." 

Where are we?

How did we get here?

Never mind, let's focus on the fact that I felt like a Homeschool rockstar because we got to do so many field trips. This feeling has already passed, so no worries for my soul.

We strolled by the Taoist temple that doubles as a car wash. 

We rallied some friends to climb up Gu Shan. Not the most leisurely stroll with blue jays whistling through our wind blown hair, but it was still fun. 

We took this picture simply because we get our picture taken everyday. Not gonna lie, it felt vindicating to take a picture of a total stranger without asking. 

I should probably repent. 

Here's our crew mustering up a smile. There were about 2,000 stairs. We bribed the kids with ice cream to make it to the top. I have no shame. 

These things have nothing to do with ancient China, but everything to do with being uber talented with melted sugar. Made my pipe cleaner lion feel like a loser craft. 

We prayed as we watched others offer things to their ancestors. We went during "Sweeping of the Tombs," festival. People are expected to clean the tombs and burn things to give to their ancestors in the afterlife. 

We rode these cable cars down the mountain. I just might have peed my pants a little. Something about riding man made things down a mountain caused my throat to seize and made me mutter hail mary's. I'm not even Catholic. It was that scary. 

Of course when I told my two male passengers, they rocked the car. I should have known that was an inner monologue thing. 

The mountain was beautiful and we had a blast. 

They kids made their own ink and wrote John 14:6 in calligraphy. Then we burned the sheets to make them look old. 

Our friend told us that the wife and sometimes orphan kids would sit next to the nobles side and make the ink. She acted as the dutiful wife, made ink and fanned herself. 

Creative Journaling

I wanted to share a way that I get through the mundane walls of journaling. In my mind, all the writing prompts will spur my children onto Maya Angelou level of prose. For now, I'm just trying to get my son to delete the word "poop" and every other unmentionable body part from his writing. Baby steps. Very small baby steps. I had exhausted all the writing prompts my pion brain could muster up. I had also borrowed every prompt I could find appropriate from the world wide web. 

When we were in the States last year, I picked up these from Dover Books:

These babies have revolutionized our journaling time. I want my kids to write everyday. This writing will not be corrected for grammar or handwriting. I only remind them that every form of the word "rear end" or "passing gas" may not be included. Besides that, the world's their oyster. Each day they will either draw a picture or write a short story to go along with the picture. I have some other journaling activities that we do, but this is by far my children's favorite. Each book has a theme. The one my kid's are doing now is called "Things that Go." Each page with have a prompt. The one my daughter did on the right starts like this:

"Mrs. Morgan is about to enter her house. People say it is haunted. Draw what you think it looks like."

They have lots of different theme like creepy creatures, animals, fantasy, etc. 

I would love to hear from others on how they make daily journaling interesting. And if you want to include your favorite synonym for "passing gas," I will promise to pass them along to my boys. You will forever be their favorite person in the entire world. 

A Few of our Favorite Apps

The app world is just flat out overwhelming. This list I wrote could easily be ten times as long, but I wanted to share some of the apps we have enjoyed of late. We only do educational games in our house. I told my kids that they were born into the wrong family if they wanted to play shoot 'em up games. Sorry kids.

These first three are websites that give a more extensive list of apps for kids.

smartappsforkids

funeducationalapp

ipadsforeducation




Here are some of our favorites:






Solar Walk 


This app is a scale model of the Solar System where you get to manipulate space-time, learn details about 39 celestial objects, and watch 7 different videos. This was great to have while we studied Astronomy last year. The kids can line all the planets and compare rotation, size, surface, color, and texture. 


Story Chimes


Several choices  of fairy tales that you can read or have read to you. The narration is fun and upbeat. Some of them have memory games or short activities for the kids to do at the end. These are great for the little ones to listen to while I'm working on a more one-on-one intense subject with and older one. 


Math Bingo/Sight Word Bingo


I hate flash cards. They make me want to poke my eye with a Q-tip. So, the kids do these bingo games to work on math facts. All 4 operations can be used. The sight word one works the same way, but with words. At the end, they calculate your time and you get bingo bugs according to how fast you completed the bingo board. Once you've earned enough bingo bugs, you can play a game where you slingshot them around the screen to earn coins. My kids enjoy this one a lot.


Toontastic 


Toonstastic gives your kids a chance to both narrate and animate a story. The app will walk kids through the process of storytelling (setup, conflict, challenge, climax and resolution), pick their own theme music for each scene, and watch their story come to life. Sometimes I'll take one of the stories the kids has written and ask them to go animate it. Or, instead of writing the journal entry down, go animate it instead. Keeps things fresh. 


Ultimate Dinopedia


This one is great is your kids are into dinosaurs. There are fact cards, pictures, and 3D videos that bring these creatures to life. It's put out by National Geographic and the visuals are exceptional. There are tons of dinosaurs to pick from and I feel like it gives a good overview of how they lived.


Word Magic


This is a phonics and spelling app for early readers. On one level, they will have a picture and a word, but one letter is missing. The child is supposed to touch the letter that is missing in each word. As a parent, you can set the word length, level, capital or small letters, and several phonetic options. 


Monkey Preschool Lunchbox


This is geared  more towards preschoolers. There are matching games, memory games, shapes, colors, groupings, and lots of other beginning level skills. This is also a great starter to get the younger ones comfortable with a computer. I know it seems crazy, but just think about 18 years from now. Computers are going to dominate every sphere of life. We've got to surrender to that and get our kids prepared.


McPea Preschool 


This is fairly similar to Monkey Preschool. There are numbers included in this one though.


iWrite Words


Your kids will write their letters (both capital and lowercase), numbers, and short words with their fingers. They are learning the stroke order and basic hand eye coordination. There is also a small music portion where the kids can tap on a piano and it plays the alphabet song.


ABC Phonics is similar to iWrite Words


Cute Math


This has several levels of basic math operations. I would say preschool to kindergarten age. There are a few counting levels where they count balloons or penguins. There are also a few where you work on addition and subtraction of birds. 


 As our kids get older, there are some fantastic ones for anatomy that I can't wait to dive into. If you homeschool and can afford an ipad, I would highly recommend one. We have used it even more than I anticipated. The apps available for schooling are incredible.


Hope these help you navigate the ocean of apps available now.