Critical Thinking Company - Review

We got another fun little book to review from The Critical Thinking Company.



We got to try The Basics of Critical Thinking, recommended for grades 4 through 9.



I asked for this book with A-man in mind.  I think he is super smart, super creative and a super hard worker.  However, sometimes he is not the most logical person on the earth.  He doesn't always look at a situation or a problem and use common sense.  But, how do you teach that to somebody?

Well, you can start with The Basics of Critical Thinking.

Off the top of your head, can you describe what critical thinking even is?  Honestly, it was one of those things that I understood inside my head, but explaining to anyone who doesn't actually reside in my head was the difficult part.

Critical thinking is a way to use what you know and what you can learn to help you decide what to believe and what to do.

There first example, in the book, of why being a critical thinker...and of having a lot of knowledge at your fingertips..... is important, was the statement:  The best critical thinker in the world would be a terrible medical doctor if they didn't know a lot about the human body.


Ohhhhh.....I get it, now.

The book uses a series of pictures, stories and life scenarios and asks you to work your way through the critical thinking to make your best informed decision about what is going on, who the bad guy is, etc.

Honesty time, when I originally told A-man that I had asked for this book for him, it was a total eye roll fest.  The whole throwing his head back and moaning...."Why?  Why me?"  Hahahahahaha!  But, I actually got him hooked with the Critical Thinking Pretest that has you try to determine which one of these guys stole a woman's dog.  (A-man really liked the ones where he had to figure out who the bad guy was!)

The book walked him through the process of decisions and conclusions.

Then, it walked him through beliefs (things you think are true) and claims (things you say are true).

As a parent, I really, really liked the page towards the beginning of the book where they talked about the importance of understanding claims.  It talked about the fact that people will try to convince you that their claim is true.  That if you don't understand their claim, you can look for evidence to decide if it is true or not.  So, don't accept it as true until you really understand it.  We used real life examples of things his buddies had told him to discuss this one.

Then, the book moves you through finding evidence....and used a fun story about which kid ate the jam and peanut butter.....Eddie or  Sarah.  You have to use the evidence to determine who you think did it.

After the finding evidence section, it moves onto evaluating evidence.  I had to laugh at the book's example in this one.  Based on evidence, you are asked to decide which person is Bob Baker.

Not sure if you can read the evidence from the acquaintances underneath the pictures, but the last sentence talks about the fact that he got a crazy tattoo in the middle of his forehead.  The activity walks you through statements on each of the 4 guys possibly being Bob.  The person that has the most evidence to be Bob is Mr. B, however....based on the best evidence....Mr. A, is actually Bob because there is only one person who has a tattoo in the middle of their forehead.

The book then moves through inferring and inference ("After answering the first six questions correctly, S-girl inferred she would do well on the test."  The evidence was that she answered the first six correctly....so the inference is that she will do well on the test.)  I appreciated that this section had a little vocabulary work so he would learn to use the words, infer, inferred, and inference correctly.

From there the book moved on to facts and opinions.  A-man and I had some good discussions on this subject.  Because so many times, children take opinions as truth.  You know, the whole...dad said it, so it must be true...mentality.  (Honestly, I still have that mentality a bit, when it comes to my parents.)

They started this section out with this picture of dogs.  Then listed a few facts:  There are two dogs.  The gray and white dog is bigger than the other dog.  Then it moved onto opinions:  The small dog is the best dog in the world.  Someday these dogs will be friends.

See?  Just a subtle way of looking and evaluating a situation makes a difference.

I am just really loving the way this book walks A-man through some of these scenarios in an effort to get him to be a critical thinker.  The last half of the book talks about things like advertising, errors in reasons, arguments, and fallacies. (And, honestly, the few that I worked through with him, were fun for me too!)

This is just giving A-man a good place to start in becoming a critical thinker as he heads into middle school.   I like to see him thinking and figuring out these things out for himself.

Have I seen a night and day difference in A-man and his use of logical common sense to solve life situations?  Well, no.  But, I have seen him getting faster and faster at figuring out how to solve the problems in the book...so, his head is definitely moving into the right place.  Don't you think?

You can get a copy of The Basics of Critical Thinking for $22.99.

Go take a look and see what the TOS Reviewers thought of the books they tried from The Critical Thinking Company.


 

Little Boy - Review

We got the chance to watch a movie from FishFlix.com called Little Boy.




 Have you heard of that movie?  I had heard of it, but had never seen it.




I am going to be painfully honest with you here.  I got this movie and was even kind of excited about watching it.

My lovely children,  however, all moaned and groaned when I said it was a review movie and I wanted to watch it together as a family.  All of them.

I was annoyed with them....and had decided that I would just watch it without them then!  (That would show them, right?  Hahahahaha!)  Then, when A-girl was packing up movies for the road trip, I noticed her include Little Boy, but I didn't say anything.

On our trip home from Florida, I asked one of the big kids to switch spots with me, because my feet were swollen from all the walking we did and I needed to sit somewhere that I could put them up.  D-man volunteered.  A-girl was in the seat of power right next to the DVD player in the van.  She flashed the Little Boy box at me and said, "Do you want to watch this one?"  Well, yes, I do.

So, she put it in, and she and L-girl promptly announced that they were kind of sleepy, so they would probably take a nap while we watched it.  A-man groaned and said, "Oh....not this one!"

Insert an evil maniacal laugh here.  Oh, how they would all get sucked into to Little Boy.  In order to hear movies in the van, we have to plug in these external speakers that we haul around with us.  But, they were acting up and sort of petering out on us.  So, the volume wouldn't turn up very high. As to movie went on, I noticed that everyone was sort of leaning in, straining to hear what was being said in the movie.

Because, it was that good.

Even setting aside the actual message of the movie.....it was a fantastic movie.

The acting was spectacular, from the little boy who played "Little Boy" up to all the supporting roles.

The story was great.

The message was great.

The costumes from the 40s time period were awesome.

Of course, I did the whole "I told you so" that all good moms do.  Wait.  What?  You guys don't do that?  Oh.  

I asked them why they had been so whiny about watching this movie.  Each one of them referenced an old documentary I had made them watch once about George Washington Carver.  I will admit I thought that one was far more interesting than they did.  They had gotten in their head that if it was for a review, then it was going to be...gasp.....educational or something horrific like that!  Ha!

It was a really, really good movie.

The cast of Little Boy is nothing to insult either.

David Henrie (the kids recognized him from Wizards of Waverly Place), Kevin James (we recognized as Paul Blart - one of our all time favorite movies),  Emily Watson (who I recognized as somebody that I knew had been in a lot of critically acclaimed movies that I couldn't name), Michael Rapaport who I hadn't seen in awhile, and Tom Wilkinson (who I was pretty sure had won an Oscar recently...come to think of it, I think Emily Watson did too).    There was also Abraham Benrubi (from ER) and Ali Landry (from the Doritos commercial and her brief marriage to Mario Lopez).  Lots and lots of interesting actors.

I really don't want to tell you too much about the plot, other than it takes place during World War 2.  We laughed.  We cried. (Like, honestly, one time, I so wanted to do the ugly cry out loud kind that I wanted to do the first time I saw The Notebook - that kind of cry.  The kids kept sneaking peaks at me too - because they always find it amusing when mom cries.  LOL) We held our breath.  We cheered when things went well.  We booed when they didn't.  Seriously, it was the kind of movie that I imagined people watching in the theater and doing all of those things....clapping...shouting at the screen....cheering.  You know?

We LOVED this movie.  We highly recommend this movie.  The kids have already asked if we can watch it again now that we are home so we can have normal sound and really hear some of the stuff we missed by watching in the van with the funky speakers!

Here is what the kids had to say:

A-girl: "It was a good movie.  A terrible movie.  Then, a good movie again.  Then, it was a bad movie.  Not exactly sure how I feel about the end." (Ringing endorsement right?)

L-girl:  "It was really entertaining.  At first, I didn't think it was going to be, but it really was!  Overall it was a really good movie."

A-man:  "It was in the top 3 of the best movies I have seen in 2015....well, I guess last year too."

S-girl:  "It as a bad movie and then a good movie."

V-girl:  "It was good at first, but then, in the middle, I still thought it was good, and then when the mom cried and I thought it was bad."

I just love that there is a company like FishFlix.com that makes these kinds of movies available and you know that they are good, solid, family movies.  (So you won't have the situation we did the one year after D-man turned 13, so we gave him a PG-13 movie.  A little movie called Vacation.  We remembered it being really funny.  Then we sat down to watch it with him and Rainman and I kept giving each other uncomfortable looks over his head.  We didn't remember half of the bad stuff that was in there.  We actually ended up turning it off and apologizing to him. )

You will not have that problem with FishFlix movies.  We have been lucky enough to review FishFlix.com before and I still love them and their offerings.  You can get a copy of this movie for $18.99 and many others are over there too.

I wholeheartedly recommend this movie.  LOVED IT.  But, there are lots and lots of other great titles available on their site too.  So, make sure to look around a bit.

Want to know what the other TOS Reviewers thought of their different FishFlix.com choices?  Here you go!  

Progeny Press - Review

We had a chance to try out another downloadable study guide from Progeny Press.



This time, we tried one intended for middle schoolers, based on the book, Carry On Mr. Bowditch.



Progeny Press has study guides available all the way from lower elementary grades - starting at Kindergarten -  all the way up to high school.  We have used Progeny Press before  (2012 and 2013). We used the lower elementary grade ones in the past, a few times.....before TOS reviews.  I can remember Mr. Popper's Penguins.  Which we did way before the Jim Carrey movie!  But, I didn't love them for the younger grades.  However, I have definitely become a fan of the study guides for older ages.

I thought about trying the study guide for Sarah, Plain and Tall, since I had just recently forced my girls to sit and watch it with me on t.v. and they ended up loving it. (Glenn Close is really an awesome actress.), but decided that we should have fresh material, so Carry on Mr. Bowditch won out!




Anyway, L-girl was my student in this age range for this book....middle school.   Carry On Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham is categorized as a children's biography of Nathaniel Bowditch.  The actual book is available through Progeny Press or other retailers, like Amazon.

I was interested in this study guide because I have seen this book on list after list after list of recommended reading for homeschoolers.  Seriously.  It is everywhere.  It was written in, 1955, I think. ...and received the Newberry Medal in 1956.  So, yeah, sort of old.   A classic.  So, I knew that it might be written in a slightly less easy to understand manner, but, in my mind,  that was actually a good thing.

I think contemporary books/literature are, for the most part, written well under kids reading levels.  I want my kids to struggle a bit and even have to look up words or ask their meaning.  I am pretty sure about 80% of my personal vocabulary words were gleaned from reading books and figuring them out and not from actual vocabulary lists in school.

Anyway....back to the review.

I understand why Carry On Mr. Bowditch is included in a lot of homeschool reading lists.  Because Nathaniel Bowditch wasn't able to attend school in a traditional manner because of his life circumstances, but ended up educating himself.  One of the most interesting facts about him is that the book he wrote is still used by sailors today .  It is called American Practical Navigator and nicknamed Bowditch.

Here is how the study guide actually works.  Students will need whatever book the study guide is based on (obviously), a dictionary, a thesaurus and a Bible - since these are written from a Christian perspective.  Which means there can be discussions about choices characters make and how that relates to teachings from the Bible.....that sort of thing.  They also recommend a topical Bible or concordance (but we didn't use one with this book).

For the middle school and high school study guides, Progeny Press recommends working on one section of the guide per week, which means you will usually finish the guide in 8 to 10 weeks.  We are not done with ours yet because we were out of town for part of our time.  You are supposed to read the entire book first and then start working through the study guide.  (L-girl was taking too long to finish reading, so, since I had the review coming up, we jumped into the first part of the study guide before she finished.)

The study guides start out by giving you background on Nathaniel Bowditch (and the author and illustrator too), it even gives a summary of the book before moving on to the "pre-reading activities"

In this book, some of those activities were things like:

• Research what an indentured servant was and write a paragraph explaining what their life would have looked like in colonial America
• Give the dictionary definition of the word, diligent.  Now, read Bible passages to see what is said about being diligent. (Proverbs 10:4, 21:5, 22:29)  As you read, pay attention to how Nat (Nathaniel Bowditch) was diligent, even when it was hard.

See the beauty of this kind of guide?  You are giving your students background information that will be crucial in how they attack the book and how they understand the book.....again, looking at it from a Christian/Biblical perspective that hopefully, they can relate to their own lives.

Then the study guide goes on to cover the different chapters.  Each section has activities for vocabulary words, characterization (I liked the first paragraph in this section that recommended sort of keeping a cheat sheet of the different characters that were introduced and a few traits for each of them - to help you keep track of them as you read.  I actually might have to start doing this myself.  I waste a lot of time flipping back and forth trying to remember who certain people are and how they are related to the story/character these days....so, I just might have to do it too)

The Characterization section would have questions like:

• How did Nat's father react when he was asked to join the privateer crew?  What does that tell you about him, as a person?

Then there are the standard, informational type questions about the setting of the book and that kind of stuff.  But, from here, they move into thinking more deeply about what you are reading:

• What did a privateer do to help the war?  Granny called it piracy...do you agree or disagree?  Why or why not?

It was at this point that L-girl said, "Well, shoot....I am going to have to slow down and think and not just read."  Okay, she didn't actually say that, but her eye roll did.  Hahahahahaha!

This study guide is considered interactive, so we could have filed in answers in the guide itself, but I am sure you have heard me say that I am a paper girl still....so.....we chose that option.

Some of the sections have a Dig Deeper section where it would delve into, well, deeper things.  Some of them are Biblical perspective on things the characters said or what Bible verse it was based on and others were just deeper vocabulary digging for what certain phrases meant.  Or, even deeper yet, the "what would you do in that situation" questions....that we all hated in school, but now, as a grown up, I am constantly running scenarios in my head and trying to figure out what I would have done.  (Go figure....school stuff  that would have been actually helpful for me.)

This guide actually threw in a little geography here and there too, which is a nice little bonus, since we love geography around here.  (On a side note:  There are a LOT of islands I have never heard of.) The good news for me is that this study guide came with an answer key, so I could just use that to correct most of the answers.  Obviously for the questions asking for L-girls opinion or what she would do, I had to do some actual thinking.

I liked the Progeny Press study guides for this older age much better than I liked the ones we have used for the younger elementary ages.  L-girl, in her own mind, would have been just fine only reading the book, but, I can see how making her slow down and think through some of these things is going to be a very good thing for her.  She will see it too.....some day.

See what other TOS Reviewers thought of their Progeny Press study guides.

You can get the Carry On Mr. Bowditch study guide for $18.99.  I don't think I mentioned it before, but you can get the study guides, as a CD, a physical copy, or a downloadable e-guide.

Follow Progeny Press on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/progenypress?fref=tsts

Youtube: http://youtube.com/progenypress
Twitter: http://twitter.com/progenypress

Reading Kingdom - Review

This is our second chance at using Reading Kingdom and their on-line reading program for the kids.



I got access for 2 students, so S-girl and V-girl were the lucky ladies this time around!

The last time we tried this was back in 2013 and V-girl  didn't get to be a part of that one.  This time, though, she is in 1st grade, so she could do it.  S-girl is in 3rd grade and was looking forward to trying it again, now that she is older...and smarter.

Reading Kingdom focuses on 6 areas of reading - not just the typical phonics - sequencing, writing, meaning, grammar, comprehension, and, yes, phonics.  Their primary focus is for an age range of preschool through 3rd grade.  They recommend 3 or 4 days a week working on the lessons.  My girls pretty much did a lesson every day - with a few...oops, we forgot times thrown in.

The first thing your students do is take a placement test, so, in theory, it can start the program at the right level for your child.   We actually had a little trouble with this part, because quite a few times, they put in the correct answers and the computer would say they were wrong.  Now, if I had been sitting there with them (like I was supposed to) I still think they might have had problems.  Because, as I have sat through a few of their lessons - you get things marked as incorrect if you do something as simple as capitalize when you aren't supposed to (like if CAPS LOCK is accidentally on).  I suspect that this was part of their problem when taking the placement test too.

Both of the girls were placed in the same level, at the same spot.  I will tell you that while V-girl is pretty smart, S-girl is too and they are not on the same level with the reading/writing skills.  The things that S-girl was doing was way too basic for her and she ended up bored.  V-girl got bored sometimes too, but I am confident that she is pretty close to where she should be based on her placement test.

But, I didn't want to go through the rigamarole of redoing the placement tests, and contacting Customer Support, so we just pushed through.

The lessons themselves go really quickly - some of them can be done in like, 5 minutes.  When they complete one, they have the option of leaving, reviewing stuff they have already done, or going onto the next lesson.  My girls usually picked doing more than one lesson, because they were over so quickly.

One nice thing for me is that after they complete their lesson, I get an automatic e-mail telling me they did their lesson and what they completed.  It was nice because I consider this one of those safe/harmless computer things that they can do without me constantly needing to monitor things over their shoulder.

Overall, this is a pretty neat program with a few quirks to it.  One of those quirks that is sometimes they explain to the student really clearly what they need to do on a page - like click here - type this answer and then click here when you are done.   But, sometimes, the screen would just sit there and the girls would guess what they were supposed to do next.  Or, sometimes thing would be highlighted - for you to type in the missing letters - but it never actually told you to do that.  I guess that, in itself is a way to teach by common sense in evaluating the situation and figuring out what needed to be done.

One of the biggest problems my girls had was accidentally clickimg CAPS LOCK, instead of shift.  The problem is, that would be considered spelling a word wrong because they used capital letters instead of lower case.  Again, yes, I sort of see the logic behind being accurate, but if I ask my 6 year old spell the word "more" and she spells it "More",  I would give her credit for that.  That is just an example of how my girls would get things wrong that, in my world, are just misunderstandings.

When you get things wrong, it makes a sort of buzz sound that is actually kind of startling, but it gets the point across.  The problem was that you could get that sound if you started typing too soon.

There seems to be a lot of repetition in this program.  I understand the concept and reasoning behind it, but I will tell you that my girls found it very annoying that they had to repeat things, like read the "stories" twice.  Since they are both currently in Level 1, the stories are very, very basic.  S-girl said something like, "I don't know why they call this a story.  It doesn't really tell me anything."  I know what she means.  Its goal is just to teach basic words - birds - boys - more - some, etc.  But, it is not very "story-like" in our definition.

I realize that I am sounding sort of negative about Reading Kingdom, but, that is not my intent.    It is a very visually appealing way for your younger kids to learn. It was a much better fit for V-girl who is in 1st grade, than it was for S-girl, who is in 3rd grade.   I really don't mind them having computer time with a program like this.  There are just a few pesky details that weren't the most appealing for us.  But, overall, the way I vote on whether these types of programs are a "yay" or a "nay" is whether they complain when they have to do it.  Neither V-girl nor S-girl complained when I reminded them to do their Reading Kingdom work, so, overall, that is a win!




You can sign up for a free 30 day trial to see if this is something that would be a good fit for your family.  

Check out the different prices for the different parts of Reading Kingdom.  There might be one that is just perfect for you.

Take a look at what the other TOS Reviewers thought of their experience with Reading Kingdom.

Social Media stuff/links:

https://www.facebook.com/readingkingdom 
https://twitter.com/readingkingdom
https://www.pinterest.com/readingkingdom/

Cuteness That is Funny and Slightly Depressing

V-girl had a assignment in school to write about things she loves.  Here is her paper (don't worry, I will translate below)

It says, "I love Abel and mom beecose he is cute and mom is skwooshi and I love you God and I love Jesus."

I was happy to discover that the pictures below her paragraph are in the following order.

Abel (who is the little boy we take care of a few days a week)
Jesus
God
Me

Yes....God is the one who looks huge and skwooshi in her drawing and I am literally stick skinny!  Makes actually being skwooshi a little less depressing. A little.....

Bite Sized Morsels

I helped lead my Sunday School class this last week.  When I do that, I get to choose what we talk about.  So, I usually try to pick something that really speaks to me.

Normally, I go poke around the Proverbs 31 Ministries site and pick one, but this time, someone had posted one on Facebook that I really connected with.

It was called An Uncluttered Woman, by Gwen Smith.

To really paraphrase here, it talked about simplifying life.  It talked about facing the 10 bazillion things we need to do each day and being left dizzy and sick.  She referenced Matthew 6:33 about seeking God and the devotion closed with this prayer:

Dear God, Thanks for reminding me that I can always come to You and trade in my exhaustion for Your rejuvenation. Please bring order to my day and establish my priorities according to Your will. Teach me what it means to live a Spirit-led life and show me how to become an uncluttered woman.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

Trading my exhaustion for rejuvenation sounds fantastic!!!

However, I still have a tendency to twirl around every which way and see all the needs to be done.  I get overwhelmed, both mentally and physically. 

So, what do I do?  Nothing.  

I sit and watch NCIS reruns and think to myself, I will just tackle it all....later.  When later does come everything is worse than it was before.  I get overwhelmed and depressed and give up again.

It is a vicious cycle.

The "uncluttered" part of the devotion reminded me of the decluttering that we had to do before we sold our houses.  Boy, oh boy, was that a pain in the butt.  We packed up at least half of what we owned and put stuff away or threw it away.  The counters were clear.  The toys and books were put away out of site.  Dishes and pots and pans were not allowed to stack up in the kitchen, because you never knew when that call for a last minute showing would come.  We always had to be prepared, or at the very least "almost" prepared.  

The kids came to dread the words "show ready".  But, you know what?  It was also sort of wonderful. The house looked great.  It felt great.  Cleaning hardly took anytime, because it never got really out of control and super messy.

We learned to do silly things like:

Make our bed as soon as we got out of them.

Load the dishwasher right away.

Fill the sink with soapy water and just wash those pots/pans, even if there were only 2 - instead of 20.  
Not let the kids have free reign when playing with any and all of their toys.

Wipe those spatters on the bathroom mirrors.

Don't let the toothpaste get hard and crusty in the sink.


We were able to tackle the little things before they became big things.....and it made things easier.

We talked about the beauty of decluttering and simplifying in my Sunday School class and the fact that even though we all know how great it can be, it just still seems so overwhelming.  One of the ladies spoke up and reminded us of the story of how to eat an elephant.  One bite at a time.

I can handle that, I think.

But, then I start looking around my house (that has gotten completely out of control since my thyroid surgery.)  I mean MY room is an actual mess.  That hasn't happened in this house since we moved in.  But, once again, it has become the place to put the stuff that nobody knows where it goes.

I felt like I was standing in the middle of my life whirling and twirling and seeing all the stuff that needed to be done.  Dirty windows.  Lesson planning.  Mopping the floor (but first scraping the sticky goo off).  Curriculum choices.  Dirty light switches.  Organizing school cupboards.  The blue tape that has been on my wall, marking studs so I can hang some of my family heirlooms.  It has been stuck there since....hmmmm......probably February. (I am sort of funny about not wanting to make too many holes in my walls when hanging pictures - so I try to be really sure before I commit to hanging things!) Then, I started thinking about not reading my Bible everyday anymore.  I thought about not eating right and gaining all my weight that I lost last year back.

Once I started looking around, I saw thing after thing after thing that I should be doing and decided that one bite at a time might be too much.So, I have decided that instead of taking on my world one bite at a time, I am going to do something else.

You know when you take your kids out to DQ for ice cream and they get a cone.  Pretty soon, there ice cream is just dripping and melting down the sides, so you swoop in and grab the cone and take the quick lick and swipe around the edges and hand it back to them to finish quickly?

I am going to do that.  Take things one lick at a time.  Swooping in, taking care of the immediate melting mess and move on.  LOL

So, I decided that I was going to start Monday.

And, I did.

I decided to start by cleaning off the chair in my bedroom....and the pile of clothes that had magically appeared there.

You see, when we got back from our road trip at the middle of July, I never unpacked my suitcase.  I just plopped it on my chair and when necessary, I dug stuff out of it.  Then, when I washed clothes and didn't feel like putting my stuff away right away, they were just added to the suitcase on my chair.  Sometimes when I took my clothes off, I would toss them there too and not into the dirty clothes - so then I wasn't sure what was dirty and what was clean.  Then, I went to visit a friend and she gave me some hand me down clothes - for me.  Yay!  Onto the chair/pile they went and what didn't fit there went onto the floor nearby - so the shadow from the pile on the chair didn't scare me in the middle of the night.

At one time, I had had thoughts of decluttering my closet and going through my wardrobe before I put those things away....which is why everything just sat there.

So, I decided to take it in bite sized morsels....or, my new way....a quick lick around the sides....and just put everything away.  I got out a stack of hangers and put them all away.  As I did this, I kept getting sidetracked by competing thoughts:

I should just go through my closet now.

Look at all these shoes.  I should go through those too.

Hmmm....what are in these bins?

Why do I still have so many sweatshirts here in Georgia?

Wow!  I need to vacuum.

I should rearrange my furniture and put the chair on the other side of the window.

I think you get the general idea, but I kept reminding myself not to get overwhelmed and really and truly just do one small portion of the work I had waiting for me.  So, I hung up all those clothes and put away the suitcase....and walked away.

It felt great.  Yes, I will still need to do all the things that I mentioned above - get rid of clothes and shoes.  But, it is okay that I didn't do it first.  I did manage to easily find 2 shirts that I wanted to give away to charity.  Yay me!  The other ones that will require more thought, or me actually trying stuff on to see if it fits/looks good are going to have to wait for another day.

That was my first attempt at really just giving myself permission to just do a little bit.  It is a foreign concept for me.  I am used to jumping in and getting stuff done and if you are around me when I am in the zone.....look out.  But, I haven't been in the zone for a long time.

But, really, I have had great success so far this week, reminding myself just to take a lick or bite (if I have time/energy) of whatever job is waiting for me.

Just washing pots and pans - and not having to wipe down every surface and clear off the island.  Or, just clearing off the island and wiping it down, but not loading/unloading the dishwasher.  Or, just tackling the pile of books and papers next to my chair....only next to my chair....not every single stray book or pile of papers that exists around here.

Yes, there are still a LOT of things around here that I need to get done, and even though I have 6 kids and there will just always be some sort of chaos surrounding me, things are getting done.  And, really, I will never have a spotless house, nor do I want one.

But, things are getting done.  Little by little.  It just makes me feel better.  Makes me feel like less of a loser.   Bite by bite.  Lick my lick.

Even if it is something stupid like putting my own clothes away.

Yay me, right?

The Conversation - Review

I was recently given the chance to read the book from Classical Conversations, called,  The Conversation - Challenging Your Student with a Classical Education, by Leigh A. Bortins



I will admit that I have had a long distance fascination with the classical education approach for years now.  Part of my problem is that I could never quite explain what an actual "classical" education was to people, or, quite frankly, to myself.

So, I would sort of dance around our educational goals and plans with a little bit of classical "stuff", but revert back into my comfort zone of how we "normally" did things.  I still happen to think my kids are getting a fantastic education, but, it could be better.  I could help them think and understand things more deeply by using the classical approach.

There were even some statistics quoted in the book that really hit home for me.  It was centered about SAT and ACT scores with different educational backgrounds.

Public schools - students scored  73 points below average
Religious schools - students scored 44 points above average
Homeschoolers - students scored 72 points above average
Independent schoolers - students scored 117 points above average
Classical schoolers - students scored 274 points above average

Okay, even though I am not a person who focuses on standardized tests, nor do I feel they actually accurately show the actual "smartness" of the people who take them...I also don't feel that you can ignore them completely either.

And, I am sorry, but those results cannot and shouldn't be ignored.  274 points above average!!!

The first two chapters in this book finally, at long last, helped define what a "classical" education is for me.  I found them equal parts scary and exciting when I thought about this approach with my own kids.  Then, I really took a step back and acknowledged what a complete foreign concept it has become to educate in this fashion.

The author sprinkled numerous examples in the book about life with her sons (even where she wishes she had done things differently).  But, where I found it the most helpful and inspirational was where she shared the real life examples of how this educational style/approach has worked for her boys.  Early in the book, she was sharing how one of her sons filled his days from his studies of history, philosophy, and physics, holding a part time job,  also playing rugby, attending church, and doing volunteer work.  One sentence in particular jumped out at me at the conclusion of all the "stuff" he has done.  He does these things because he loves life, not in order to earn a degree.

Especially as my oldest finishes high school, I realize how badly I want him to be able to go out and create an exceptional life for himself.  Not just do well on tests.  Not just get straight A's.  Not just get accepted into a college.  I want him to look around and taste and see that life is good and his life shouldn't look like anyone else's.  It should be unique to him and who God created him to be.

I knew I was going to like the author, Leigh Bortins, in the first chapter when she started talking about the idea of adolescents in today's cultural mindset versus the last generation, or before.  In generations before, teenagers would be expected to take on adult responsibilities (her example was to run the family farm for a week while the parents were out of town), but, in our generation, teenagers (and beyond) are coddled and our limited expectations have created the stereotypical, irresponsible, disrespectful, difficult...teenager.

One other point the author makes in the first chapter hit home with me. She was talking about real life opportunities and the fact that school (sitting in a classroom with a bunch of other people their
exact age) doesn't show them much of anything about how real life is going to work.  So very true, isn't it?

I liked what she had to say about being a confident parent and that we end up reverting to cultural conformity when our confidence is shaken.  Oh, so true.  When we are feeling unsure and vulnerable, it is much easier to just go along and do what others are doing.  It does take courage and confidence to walk a different path.  I have tackled the first step in deciding to homeschool my kids.  Now I just have to get the courage up to move towards a classical education.

In this book, I found little bits of information that I knew from my own experiences to be true.   Bits like this one..."When I was in public high school, I didn't have time to build decks, travel, work and contemplate ideologies with my classmates.  I completed my assignments and went to a selective college and promptly discovered that I had never learned how to learn.  I had never been expected to do more than regurgitate information found in textbooks.  I had been trained to find answers rather than understand problems.  I want our sons to be able to do both."

The author also talked about the notion that getting into college is most parents goals for their children.  I have long thought that college isn't for everyone....but that is another blog post for another day.    She talked about finally being able to switch her focus for her boys from getting them into college, to having the larger to goal of raising virtuous men.  I totally understand what she means, and I do want more for my children than for them to be great regurgitators. You know?

Classical education attempts to understand things through vocabulary, dialectic (clear reasoning) and rhetoric (wise choices).  The main portion of this book explained how the rhetoric portion of the classical education actually works.  All about conversations and expressing truth.  About recognizing and tackling faulty arguments.  To  be able to defend and carry the truth onto others and to separate truth from the lies and manipulations.  As I read this section, I just kept thinking about the rhetoric that the media and society is spewing about Cecil the lion and the Planned Parenthood videos....but that too, is another blog post for another day.

Ms. Bortins, in the biggest part of the book, breaks down in each chapter how to tackle different subjects in a classical manner.  Using examples from literature that we are probably familiar with (classically educated or not).  Like the Scarlet Letter of Dickens A Christmas Carol.

I liked her chapter on Speech and Debate with a classical education.  She talked about how we all need to practice these skills, because they are necessary and they scare us.  She recommended having your kids start practicing speaking formally in front of people/their peers by age 4 or 5.  I can just see the deer in the headlights looks I will get from a few of my kids about that one.....although some of them will eat up the opportunity to speak to the masses!

The goals and reasons that she spoke of for the importance of speech and debate reminded me of my pageant days and all the prep that went into knowing about current events and being able to discuss and form opinions as well as support my arguments...and be able to state them out loud.  As fluffy and unimportant as some parts of pageants were, that was a nice side effect.  I guess I was sort of a classical educated beauty queen!  

I will just touch on a few more points that stood out to me from this book.  In the chapter on a classical education through math, even though her point had nothing to do with math.  She said that she had noticed that looking at homeschoolers, especially those who homeschooled through adulthood, is that they all like talking with their children.  Just a simple point.  Has nothing to do with math.  But, it is so true.  I do like talking to my children. I like having real conversations with them, even about the hard stuff.  Now that D-man and A-girl are away from home a few days a week attending classes outside of our home.  I am not able to talk to them as much as I would like.  I miss that.

We have dabbled in Latin studies at our homeschool and Ms. Bortins has inspired me to do more than just dabble with it.  I am actually, as we speak, digging out what I already have and researching other options for L-girl to tackle this year in 8th grade, and finding ways I can fold Latin studies into class for the younger set.

She sort of wrapped up her book with a discussion on the goal of graduation and beyond.  I am paraphrasing here, but it went back to her earlier thoughts on her goals changing from college admission to raising virtuous men.  She stressed the fact that it isn't "too late" to get started with a classical approach.  I loved her family saying "Work hard, play hard, and sleep hard."  Good goal for all of us.  College isn't the be all, end all.  It is a small piece of our life and time.

She ended the book by giving some hands on games and application tools you can use to get "The Conversation" started with your kids.

I liked this book.  Yes, at times, I will admit I was a little bored.  Yes, at times I was inspired and encouraged.  There were even a few times when I was scared and wanted to run away and not think about making changes to how we do things.  But, in the end, The Conversation  inspired me to make some changes.  Yes, I will start small and build from there.  It is a start.  I will carpe diem.

You can get a copy of The Conversation, on sale right now, for $12.00

Take a look and see what other TOS Reviewers thought about The Conversation.

Funtastic Unit Studies - Review

Ooh, this was a good one.  This time, we got to try out a book called Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers, by Funtastic Unit Studies.

I know.  A mouthful, right?




This is always a hard time of year to really get kid buy-in on these review thingies that I do.  This was one that I was more excited about than the kids.  Then, I got the book and things flip flopped.  I wasn't ready to tackle things and the kids wanted to.

Eventually, we all got on the same page and I am happy to report, I HIGHLY recommend this for homeschoolers.  (Honestly, you non-homeschoolers would love it too, as long as you let yourself enjoy it and not let it make you feel like you had to do more school at home).

I will also admit right up front here that I didn't use this as intended this summer.  But, I am planning to use it as it was intended for this school year.

So, what that means is that instead of doing things from the book, in order, as presented.....I jumped around and picked the stuff that appealed to the kids and I at that moment.   The units are intended to be used in order because they build on each other as you go along.  All good stuff.  Good intentions.  All that jazz.  But, as the author noted in her Note to the Reader section of the book, "homeschooling parents are inclined to go their own way..."  and, I did.  Ha!

Okay, so what is this book all about?

The book is written by Sue Kilbride, a homeschool mother who also just happens to have a degree in biology.  It has 20 Chapters of different units.  The first 10 chapters are intended for the younger students (ages 4 to 7) and the next 10 are for the slightly older students (ages 8 to 13), from the simple - Our Senses, to Insects and Their Kin, to Chemistry Fun and Force and Motion.  Really from simple to complex.

I will say that when I first cracked open the book, I got scared, because I saw this:

Yikes!!!!  I understand the reason that it is all written there in one place so you know what you need.  But, it sort of back fired on me because it made me put off starting because I didn't want to tackle the seemingly endless materials needed list.

But, then I actually took the time to read the list and found things like: three bowls, lemon juice, small cups, glue, crayons, empty prescription bottles, a blindfold.   Whew!  Okay...normal things.  Not hard to find chemical compounds that would require hazmat suits!

So, I breathed a little easier and turned the next page, which is where I was completely sold on this book before we even did a single experiment or hands on activity.

It is so well organized...thorough....and simple.

Honestly, before the kids even did anything, I just sat and read through the units.  I was at some practice or rehearsal or something and thought I would just get a head start on what I had coming.  I just kept on reading.  I just kept on thinking...."genius idea!"  Or, things like, "I can totally put that together.", "They are totally going to have fun learning this."

Really...and that was just reading through the lessons.

Each lesson has a basic concept/theme.  For simplicity's sake, let's take the unit on Senses.  Obviously, the goal is to go through teaching your students about all 5 of their different senses.  Easy peasy.  Duh.  Right?

Sort of.

This one started out fun with making our own actual, real potato, "potato head" person.  (somehow I don't have pictures of them) Then, I read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and they had to pay attention and see how often and which senses were mentioned.  Then there is a part of the lesson on taste (suffice it to say salt and sugar...look alike, but don't taste alike!)

Then we moved onto the sense of touch.  This, like many to come, had an interesting hands on activity.  This one involved little pins in cardboard and how your body perceives touch on their hand versus on their upper arm.  (I am not going to give too much away - but this one was really interesting).  A few more different hands on activities involving touch followed along with the old story of the Blind Men and the Elephant....to prove that sometimes you need more information than what is right in front of you.

From touch we moved onto sight and the different parts of the eye.  Hands on activities for this portion where things like a game of "I spy".  Finally, we moved onto Sound and did a cool activity where we used the same size/type of glasses and filled them with different levels of water and made note of the different sounds they made.  They even suggested taking a "sound walk", where you really paid attention to all the sound and noises around you that you tend to tune out and ignore.

Our last sense covered was smell.  This one had an interactive story where you created little smelling jars and as you read and got to certain points of the story, you took a whiff.  Sort of like "smell-o-vision"....except this was more like radio theater.  Cool concept though.

That pretty much wrapped up the Sense unit.  I left out some of the activities, but wanted to give you a general sense of how to work through each chapter.

(Our water - sound experiment....no, he is NOT supposed to have his hand inside of the glass!)

In looking ahead to the Animal Ecology chapter, it teaches about habitats/biomes and one of the activities is for me, while the kids are sleeping, to hide one of their stuffed animals.  In the morning, I will tell them their their animal has gone on a trip to visit various biomes around the world and will be writing to tell us about their travels.  Don't worry.  The letters have already been written.  You can choose to actually mail them to yourself or just put them somewhere in your pretend mailbox. Seriously, how fun is that?

I am TOTALLY in love with this one.  Even the chapters for the younger kids weren't completely made fun of by my older kids.

Like I said, this summer, I did not follow this unit study the intended way, but, school is starting up and this has made the cut for a full-time part of our curriculum.  I plan to go through chapter by chapter as intended.  Even though I didn't get to the higher chapters (that are intended for the slightly older students), I actually think it will work well for even my youngers.

For example, looking ahead at the chapter about Insects.  No, V-girl probably won't be able to name the groups that insects are classified in (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species), but she will at least hear the words and you never know, the mnemonic device just may stick to help her remember that.  The activities range from the simple "insect hunt" to creating a plastic egg exoskeleton, to one that involves the purchase of meal worms (gotta be honest - that may not happen at my house).  But, you get the idea about how the lessons are definitely adaptable for the different ages.

Again, totally loving this one.  Even though the initial materials list scared me, it is so simple and complete...and real, that I have to whole heartedly recommend this one for you.

You can get your copy of Funtastics Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers for $16.95

Take a look at what the other TOS Reviewers thought of Funtastic Unit Studies.

 

Homeschool Planet - Review

My latest entry into the on-line planner world came courtesy of Homeschool Buyers Co-Op.

It was called Homeschool Planet.



It is a full service life planner that is on-line and can be used for your homeschool planning/lessons AND your regular life....stuff.

Now that I have turned into this older lady that is (occasionally) bewitched, bothered and bewildered by technology, I have not been a big fan of on-line planners.  I prefer paper planners.  I know, I know....old lady alert.

I am sure my affinity for paper planners comes from the fact that I do not have a smart phone that can hook everything in my life together and be carried with me all the time.

But, it is what it is.  I am not planning to get a smart phone anytime soon.  My little slider keyboard phone works just fine for me.

So, with all that said.   I still prefer paper planners, but Homeschool Planet did tempt me a bit with its breadth and simplicity...if that makes sense.

It has the capability to be a very thorough and all inclusive of the stuff going on in all 8 of our lives.  The stuff that gets a little jumbled up sometimes in my paper family calendar.  When we have written something in pen and then it gets changed, or someone's work schedule gets changed, so then we end up with arrows and scribbles crossing things out.

I loved the capability for each person to have their own color-coded stuff in the calendar.  I could even create the event/appointment and then click "All" if it was a family activity or just click individuals or even two of them for "Rainman" and "A-girl" when they had a golf lesson.



I liked that I was able to personalize my home/landing page with quotes, Bible verses, local weather information.  My favorite item on my side bar will not surprise any of you that know me...it was the To Do list.

I LOVE a good To Do List, don't I?  I could type in all the phone calls I needed to make, the appointments that needed to be scheduled, and the chore changes that I had been thinking about.  The good news is that they were all in one place that wouldn't get lost in the shuffle amidst the clutter on my side table (where my papers normally go).

Since this was summer, I didn't get to use the homeschool planning part of this product, but I did take a look around and can see where it would come in pretty handy for quite a few aspects of our record keeping.

You can actually schedule lessons right in this planner, so their "stuff" is all in one place too.  And, as is prone to happen in homeschooling, things can get adjusted and changed to new days with just a few clicks of a button. (Again, the beauty of not crossing things out and drawing arrows to new due dates, etc.)

You can make things recurring with just a simple choice when you create it.  You can keep track of attendance.  You can keep track of grades.  Again...all in the same spot as you keep track of family doctor's appointment, your grocery list, and when the out of town company is coming.

You can also generate various reports from your Homeschool Planet planner.  Things like:  assignment lists, class notes, grades, class hours.

You can enable grading within the planner and then there is a Grading Helper available within the program that will help you keep track of what is waiting for grading (because yes, we homeschoolers do give grades, but we do sometimes forget).

You can even preschedule reminder message to be sent out that are connected to events or lesson assignments.  If you were a higher tech person than me, can you see how that would be a tempting option?!?

Where this planner tempted me the most was with its capability to print daily or weekly summaries so you can have a physical copy of what you have coming up.  I absolutely LOVE the fact that they give you the option of "economy" or "color" before you send it to your printer.  While I do love the color coding options for each individual person, colored ink is expensive, you know?

Here is a little video that gives you an overview of how you can customize this planner and make it work for you.....with the unique quirks and needs of your family.

Here is the good news for you higher tech people than me, you can try the planner for a 30 day free trial.  So, you can dig around inside the depths of this planner yourself and see how easy it is to connect all the aspects of your lives.  If you do decide to move forward with Homeschool Planet, you get a yearly subscription for $6.95/month.

Did I love Homeschool Planet?  Sort of.  As much as low tech/paper me can like an on-line planner.  So, I definitely recommend this one because I know I am weird and strange with my paper desires.

Want to know what the more tech savvy TOS Reviewers thought of Homeschool Planet?  Me too.    So, go ahead and take a look and see what they thought!

Dynamic Literacy - Review

Here is a fun one we got to try from Dynamic Literacy called WordBuildOnLine.




WordBuildOnLine is a vocabulary program that spends time working on individual parts of the words and what they mean.  (Like root words, suffixes and prefixes).  The program we used was designed for 2nd through 5th grade, so S-girl and A-man were my lucky students for this one.




WordBuildOnLine has you doing the same group of five activities for each unit.  So, each day, you log on and hit the start button.

First you will see a short little video   After the video, you will do your activities.  It is designed to take less than 15 minutes total to finish.  There is even a timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen that counts down your time spent.  In addition, the activities keep track of how long you are taking to complete them individually too.

Now, they even specifically say in ALL CAPS that the timer isn't supposed to be used as A RACE TO SEE HOW FAST YOU CAN DO THIS.  But, they have obviously NOT met me OR my children.   It is one of those personal points of pride to try to beat your score and do things just a little bit faster than you did last time.

This program is also designed to just truly work for 15 minutes a day, so you don't spend too much time on them. But, again, the Dynamic Literacy folks haven't met my children.  When my kids were having fun....or, yes, beating the clock (even though it was very carefully explained to them that it wasn't a race), they would just keep clicking on Continue and Let's Go....and, just...keep on going until they were bored or sick of it.  I honestly think that they did a whole week of lessons in one day once.  Because they did it this way, I wasn't a stickler about them spending time EVERY day working on WordBuildOnline.  But, that is the intended way for it to be used....a little at a time....a little every day.

My kids are just weird.



I was able to just remind them to get their WordBuild stuff in before they had their regular computer free time.  I never got any complaining from them.  I took that as a good sign that the program was well done and not something that the kids would dread having to get over with, like a chore....or bath time.  Ha!!!

Things were also explained well enough that it was okay if I wasn't around when it was time to do their WordBuild stuff. Plus, the system sent me an e-mail telling me when they finished an activity and told me what they had finished.  However, it would be worded like this: "S-girl has finished F1 03 ED MS N".  So, yeah, in order for me to really know what they had studied I had to ask them or go dig around my parent page for their lessons.  

There was one activity where it seemed like I got a lot more questions about than others.  Below is a screenshot of the one that was, for them, a little on the tough side.  Words and definitions part of, in this case, the prefix "in".  They were totally fine creating the words, but had a little more trouble putting into words definitions for their new word.  Definitely good practice, but a little tricky.  I got a lot of questions like, "Mom!  What is a definition of outfield?"  or, "Mom!  What do I put for infill?"

Overall, we all liked WordBuildOnLine.  The kids liked it because it was fun and moved fast.  They also liked it because it wasn't too brightly colored or, in their words.... "baby-ish"..  This Magic Square game was listed by both A-man and S-girl as one of their favorite "games" in WordBuild.



I liked WordBuild because it was teaching really solid vocabulary and word building principles.  It actually reminds me of the approach we take with our older kids with Greek and Latin morphemes.  I like that we are starting that approach and way of thinking with the younger kids. I also like some of their encouraging little cheerleading phrases when the kids would get something right.

"Correctamundo!"

"Nurse, bring me an ice pack!  This one is on fire!"


The only two bummer kinds of things I can think of is the e-mails that took a special decoder ring to figure out what they had studied that day, and that it took a little bit for them to figure out how to actually click and answer the questions. It isn't a typical double click or even a click and drag thing. You click on the answer and then click in the space for the answer.  It was only frustrating to them for the first few lessons, but, then we ALL figured out what needed to happen.

But, that is pretty much the extent of the stuff we didn't like with this program.  This was a fun one.  A helpful one. A quick one.  A really good strong early elementary vocabulary program.

If I have intrigued you to check out Dynamic Literacy and WordBuildOnline for yourself, I have a special reader treat for you!  Just enter the coupon Code fridge at checkout and you will get 25% off any of the books at http://www.dynamichomeschool.com/ or 10% off of http://www.wordbuildonline.com/.

Check out what other TOS Reviewers thought about the Dynamic Literacy products they got a chance to try....some where actual physical workbooks (thus the coupon code for a percentage off of books!)

Transparency - What is Real?

I am working on an article about social media and its effect on teenagers, specifically teenage girls.  I was talking to one of my daughter's friends and a few of the things she said about her journey trying to let go of social media and some of the pitfalls, got me to thinking about my life and my blog.

She talked about feeling almost constantly judged.  People making mean comments or being snarky if they didn't like what she was wearing, or if they disagreed with her opinion on something.  She talked about seeing these pictures of other people's lives and knowing that they were having a lot more fun than her.

I tell my big kids all the time not to believe what they see on the internet.  And I am not just talking about about news stories.  I don't want them  to think that everyone else is having fun, fantastic times and going out all the time.  It sure can look like that though, since everybody posts every little thing about their lives.  But, a lot of it isn't real.

Which got me to thinking.....

Do I actually show you my real life?

Should I show you the real in my life?

I am in the middle of my rock and hard place.  I want to keep some privacy for the family, but I also want our stories out there.  I want my family and friends that no longer live near us to feel like they are getting a glimpse of the people my kids are turning into.  But, I don't want creeps looking at my site or my pictures and being able to find us because I have been so open.

I want to be real and relatable.  I do.  I want to be able to be an encouragement to other moms...homeschooling moms....moms with big families.....moms that don't live near family members.

But, I have to be honest, I carefully select the reality that I share with you all.

I carefully select and retake pictures of myself to post, so I look good.  So, I don't look too fat.  When the fact is....I am actually fat. I am not just a little overweight.  I don't just have a few of those stubborn baby pounds to lose.  Truth is......I have about 100 pounds to lose.  I legitimately could be a contestant on the Biggest Loser (A-man even told me that last year when he saw one of the contestants and thought she looked about the same as me. "Mom!  You should go on this show!"  )

So, yes, I have been transparent.......sort of.

I have shown you how messy my house gets here and here, but,  have I told you that it looks like that more often than not?

I have told you I do actually yell at my kids, but I haven't told you that, once in awhile, my throat is sore from how hard I have yelled at them.  It doesn't happen often.  People still tell me that they don't think I yell at the kids.  I do.  No, not all the time.  I don't need to.  But, just like my dad used to be....when I have had enough, I have had enough....so look out.  Learn the signs.  LOL 

I love Rainman.  I really do.  He is an awesome human being.  But, I haven't really told you that he is annoying and gross sometimes.  I have told you that in general terms.  I have shared that nobody ever told me that there would be times that I wouldn't actually "like" the man I married.  We do not have a perfect marriage.  It is not idyllic and romantic.  It is a constant dance of our own selifsh desires and actions, versus what will make the other person happy.   As I am typing this, I am thinking....oh man....now they will know what a jerk I am....how selfish I can be.  That sometimes, I sit in my chair and hope against all hope that Rainman will take us out to dinner, so I don't have to get up and cook.  Because, I just don't feel like it.  No good reason.  I just don't want to do it.

So, yeah, what you see on my blog is my life....sort of.

It is the carefully selected pictures and stories that I will allow you to see.

I guess that happens in real life too though.  We all have a "mom" voice that we use at the grocery store that is different than the voice that is used when rapping on the kitchen window when you see them doing something dumb in the backyard.  It is just that by having a blog I am inviting more actual strangers in to take a look.

I love my kids....more than I can truly describe to you.  But, ugg.....they do some...as Rainman would call them....boneheaded things.  Then they get yelled at.  Then they cry.  I usually don't tell you those stories on here.  Like the story of them playing catch with an open box of Cheerios in the kitchen.  Yes, no surprise here.....It ended badly.  That time though, Rainman did the yelling.  S-girl did the crying.  A-man did the flustered explanation of what they were thinking (Spoiler Alert:  They weren't).  And, the two of them did the cleaning up, while the other children passed judgment on them with snide remarks.  Which then escalated to both Rainman and I yelling at the rest of the kids to knock it off because they weren't helping and did they want us to remind them of the last boneheaded thing they did and got in trouble for?!?

It is NEVER dull here, that is for sure.

We ended up with 5 extra kids at our house a few days ago....all aged 6 and under.  So, we had 11 kids here and 2 parents.  It was actually a really good day.  Everyone had fun.  Only a few tears and boo-boos.  All in all, it was a good day.  I was exhausted when it ended and happy to see the extra kids go back home with their parents.

The next day, S-girl said to me, "Wouldn't it be great if we had 11 kids everyday mom?  Then we could have our own t.v. show and everything!"

Yikes!  I told her that I would love to have 11 kids, but that I didn't think I would want a t.v. show about our lives.  I don't want our "reality" out there in the world like that.  I like our relaxed, simple vibe around here.  I don't want to be judged by the outsiders about what we should or shouldn't be doing with our family.  I don't want to be judged for the mistakes we are making.  And, honestly...I don't want the masses to.....not like me.  That is what it boils down too.....just like a teenage girl....

Fear that I won't be liked.

On a side note:  There is "sort of" a version of us on T.V. already. We have started watching The Willis Family on TLC and take away the musical and dancing careers (LOL), that is pretty much how our family looks and runs behind the scenes.  Really.  But, again, comparison rears its ugly head and I think, "Why haven't our kids taken more advantage of the fact that we homeschool?  Why haven't they taken up song writing?  Why haven't they won dance competitions?  Why are my kids so.....normal....and average?"

We can't help but compare ourselves to others.  It is normal.  It is human.  It is dangerous.  I tell my kids that ALL THE TIME.  But, we grown ups need the reminder too. I need that reminder.  We all need to remember that what you are comparing yourself to is often a carefully constructed version of the truth.  Not a lie.  But, not quite the full truth either.  Like my blog.

I have an article coming up next month for Home & School Mosaics about rejecting being "Pinterest Shamed" for my summer with the kids.  I think I can take that to a whole other level with refusing to be "Life Shamed" by other people's lives.  To go ahead and take glimpses of their lives and enjoy seeing them.  To take ideas from what they are doing and trying with their family, but not think we are total losers if we don't operate the way they do.

I follow some awesome blogs.

There are life ones like Come Home To Roost.  She has awesome, beautiful children and takes amazing pictures.  But, if I am not careful, I end up comparing myself and thinking things like...."She is so skinny.  She has 7 kids and looks like that?!?  What is wrong with me?!?!?"

There are organizing/home ones like Sunny Side Up.  She is also another slim mom that takes great pictures, and she also has a brand new house that is becoming wonderfully organized.  If I am not careful, I could look around her world and compare myself.  I wouldn't come out on top.

There are crafting and creating blogs that I follow, like Whatever.  Another slim mom that takes beautiful pictures that decorates with colorful, fun stuff.

I think you are already getting to know my style of comparison, right?  My weak spots.

Having a blog is being part of a strange dance I am choosing to participate in.  I have a blog for a few reasons.  One of them is truly to keep my family and friends who now live thousands of miles away involved in what we are doing.  I also blog so I can get some homeschool curriculum for free by being a reviewer.

But, honestly, my other reasons are more selfish.  I want to have readership.  I want followers.  I want to be a writer.  There, I said it.  I want to turn writing into a job and make a little money on my blog.  So, I have to put things out there, that maybe I wouldn't normally tell a stranger.

What you are seeing here is reality. But, it is a small slice of our life.  A small percentage of the picture.  Not to say that what you see isn't real.  It is.  There is a LOT more to us than what you see here.  Some good.  Some bad.  Just like with the blogs I follow and have to fight the urge to compare myself too.  I am just seeing a small little slice of their lives too.  It is not as idyllic as it seems.

We all have to remember that just like movies and t.v. shows are....edited/more perfect/comical... versions of reality....so, is my blog.

So is Instagram.

So is Facebook.

This is my Goldberg's version of our life.   All based on truth, but prettied up a bit for your viewing pleasure.  Ha!

So, if you ever find yourself comparing yourselves to me, my family, my marriage, my way of homeschooling and feel like you don't measure up and you aren't....enough.

Just stop.

Don't do it.  You are enough.  You are your perfect version of....you.....and so am I.