Manners, George Washington's way

I have been trying to decide the best way to teach the boys some old- fashioned manners. This has been long in coming, but I really wasn't sure about how to go about it (besides nagging them which is very unfruitful to do to any male... young or old).

Last week I revisited George Washington's rules of civility (which we occasionally use for copy-work), and started teaching them. Today we actually practiced some of them which was very fun for the boys.

I really don't know when we will see the fruits of them, and I hope they will remember and practice them on their own.

What is the purpose of good manners? Respecting others! Is that Biblical? I'd say so...

Philippians 2:3-4 (King James Version)
3Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Pilgrim's Progress

Today the boys listened to "The Dangerous Journey" (a children's online audio-picture book about Pilgrim's Progress). They LOVED it!


Pilgrim's Progress was always one of my favorites, and it has had a huge impact on my life. Because of that, I feel that it is important for my children to hear and understand.

I will never forget the "narrow way" and "Mr. Wordly Wise".

Recently, I have had several opportunities to discuss apologetics with non-believers.
When someone tries to twist Scripture, tries to entice me into thinking it is ok to sin, or tempts me to question my beliefs even though I know their "wisdom" does not match up with Scripture.

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their own craftiness'; and again, 'The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.'" 1 Corinthians 3:19-20

I want my boys to be clad with the armour of God so that they can defend themselves against the wiles of the devil. In my opinion, the earlier... the better! Pilgrim's Progress is a good companion to the Bible I think!

Creation Science

I love studying Creation Science, so I was very pleased to find the Answers in Genesis website!
They have a lot of learning resources for children, including some great videos that the kids can watch. You could literally spend several hours just studying the information they have on their site. There are a lot of neat things about animals too!


One of the videos was called "One Big Adventure: Six Short Days" which discussed the six days of creation and gave a little bit of apologetics for discussion.

Two notable things mentioned were the following:

1. Everything does not "tend to" order, but to disorder. Evolution teaches the opposite (disorder evolves to order). The example of a house of cards was given and shown that even though you build it orderly, it always falls (being a housewife, I kept thinking about how this applies to my housework ha!).

2. We are to use God's Word to interpret evidence,and not use man's opinion to interpret.

Seventeen Year Cicadas

Today Justin and I read a story in his ABeka reader about seventeen year Cicadas, so we looked up this YouTube video. Pretty fascinating!

(By the way... We find the shells of Cicadas on trees all the time, so the boys know exactly what these are! Of course they are not ALL the seventeen year ones, because there are obviously different types.)

Back to Business

Today was our first school day of the New Year. I have so many plans, and I am very excited about some of the "new" things I want to do with the boys (more about those later!).

I found a cute calendar kit at Dollar Tree for the boys to color the pages and place stickers for the months, days, birthdays, etc.

Jonathan colored January, and Ryan colored February (Justin had other projects going on and wasn't as interested). While the boys were doing seatwork, Ryan and I spent time working on adding dates and stickers. It is a time-consuming project, but we had fun.

Ryan's page

Ryan adding stickers to February



Really proud of himself (and I enjoyed the cuddle more than anything!)

I finished writing in the dates and events, but we were only able to get up to March "stickered". Like I said, it's time-consuming!

Random pictures

I thought it would be fun to add random homeschooling pictures occasionally. These were from today.

Justin doing math and bundled up in front of the little space heater

Reading with Jonathan (Ryan likes to join us). We are cuddled up on my big bed, which is where we do most of our reading.

Artwork - deer picture

I think art lessons would be fun, but on the other hand I think the best way to encourage art in children is to just let them be creative. And believe me, there have been some doozy creations around the house!

Awhile back, I purchased some art curriculum from the thrift store that looked fun, and will eventually go through it with the boys. But my favorite thing is to just pick up books from the library with really pretty artwork and let the boys sketch. It is just natural.

The latest find is a book called The Big Snow by Verta and Elmer Hader (written in 1948). The pictures are sketched. Some are black and white but others are colored. They are very beautiful
The way I usually "get them" to draw is to just show them the book and suggest that if they want, there are pretty pictures in there to copy.

I read the book to them last night at bedtime, and first thing Justin was up wanting to draw the pictures from the book. He drew the following picture this morning. It is a buck, a doe, a fawn, and a squirrel all in the snow. I thought it was really cute!

Schoolhouse Rock

I remember watching SchoolHouse Rock on Saturday mornings when I was little. The other day I found a Schoolhouse Rock multiplication video at the library, so I thought I would check it out since Justin is learning the tables. Obviously there would be some of the videos I wouldn't like (one had a boy sticking his tongue out at another kids, tacky music, etc), but I really like some of them.

I like this one... it made me smile :-)




I have heard Jonathan singing this one several times:

Learning Through "Living Books"

According to Charlotte Mason, living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject “come alive.” They can be contrasted to dry writing, like what is found in most encyclopedias or textbooks, which basically lists informational facts in summary form.

I am not opposed at all to textbooks because facts are important. But, on the other hand I PREFER living books (don't we all?). They are much, MUCH more interesting. And you can learn so much from them! So, for our family, we will read both living books and textbooks.

We are currently reading Mary of Plymouth :A Story of the Pilgrim Settlement by James Otis (written in 1910!).Something sad that I think has happened over the course of time is the "dumbing down" of children's books. It is just assumed that a child will not understand a book unless it is written in the most simple of terms. That is not true! As I read this book, I ask the boys "what does that mean?". Most of the time they do, in fact, understand. I think the main reason they are able to discern vocabulary is because of the way it is used in the context of the sentence. I believe this is a great way to learn new vocabulary words (or old vocabulary words for that matter)!
If they do not understand, it is very easy to explain the meanings to them. However, it is not necessary most of the time.

Some of the vocabulary words from today:

quill
shallop
savage
oars

I think also that it goes the same way for reading the Bible. If I do not read to them straight from the Bible, how will they understand Biblical terminology as they grow and mature? I definitely do not want them to search out the newest versions available that have been watered down to entertain the reader. Of course I read Bible stories to them but I think reading straight from the Bible is necessary!

Pictures... FINALLY!

Here are a few pictures of the giant crawl through ear that we made...


This part was only paper, but it was supported by giant castle blocks and chairs.
We made a big tunnel out of blocks (not pictured), and then on the other side are the inside parts.....

Jonathan is holding the cochlea. Justin is holding the ear drum. Ryan is holding the hammer, anvil, and stirrup (hard to see). The ropes represent vestibular & auditory nerves. The large tunnel represented the auditory canal.