Dolls!

Look at these sweet little dolls that my girls and I whipped up this afternoon.


Don't they look like they're giggling? Each of the girls drew their own face on their own doll.

It's the project from Craft Hope that we've already missed the deadline of June 13 but will jump in on some of their future projects. This particular pattern is the Black Apple doll pattern. Craft Hope is a wonderful organization that sends handmade toys and clothes to various orphanages around the globe. They've collected 405 dolls for children in Nicaragua.
Their current project is blankets, booties and beanies for children in India. Perfect for you knitting gals.



And last but not least, we couldn't resist....look what's inside each of the dolls....that's right...a heart...

After all, don't forget...
It's all about the heart!

Bees - A Unit Study

Yesterday a fascinating thing happened. We were shocked and amazed at God's handiwork. And as home schoolers, it was a dream come true...you're definitely not going to get this in a traditional school.

Here's the story: While sitting on our back deck, my middle school daughter and her friend saw a swarm of bees fly by. No big deal...they didn't even flinch....like it happens everyday, right? My high school son saw them as well, as they came around to the side of the house. There, they swarmed for about an hour, around a bush outside my window.

It was like something out of Alfred Hitchcock. We watched and watched this chaos eventually become perfect order. Can you see a unit study in the making?


After a good long swarm, which we so bravely watched from inside the house, they collected themselves. You see....the queen attached herself to a branch and then everyone else hung on to her and each other. They were not using any other branch to hold onto, just her. All these little workers were dependent on that one bee...the queen.

After much discussion about who's property they were actually on...ours or the neighbors...the neighbor called the Atlanta Bee Society. They said they would send some one first thing in the morning to get them. Also, telling us there would be 200-300 "guard" bees that would remain near the site. Their job is to fly all night long guarding the hive from so far away that we don't see them at all. These bees will eventually die without a queen.

As it was getting cooler, around 6:00 in the evening....they settled in for the night and made their "nest", a nice tight shape and hunkered in. These little creatures are sooooooo valuable to our everyday life. There was never a thought of fuming them out. We've had such a shortage of honey bees in the past few years due to a virus that has killed up to 80% of the bees in some parts of the world.


This is the 6:00 a.m. photo. They're still all nestled in their beds.


But this little beauty....will be their new home.


But not before they have their morning "coffee" or should I say..."smoke".


This kindly bee keeper fellow suited up and


began smoking himself so they would not "smell" him. I wouldn't want to be mistaken for a human while facing thousands of bees protecting their "mama".


He bravely cut the branch and slid them into the box. It took them a few minutes to reorganize around the beloved queen....they're so loyal to her ! But they made a new home and made the best of the transition. We said good-bye to our short lived friendship and thought that was the end of a once in a lifetime opportunity. But.....

This is what appeared when the sun came up....are these the guard bees clinging to the last scent of the queen or.....is the queen still here....? It's all a mystery....
If you've ever questioned the presence of God...this would rest all your questions....who could think this up and then make it happen? and then make it happen for thousands of years? Who? That's a whole unit study in and of itself.

Side note: While these unit studies are a ton of fun for the student, it wears me out....I went from doing one a month to one a year.....and in the last 2 years...none. But..., I swear!!! I want to!!!! Don't I have good excuses ;) It does get me excited about the education process and not just go through the routine of shoving information in and having the child vomit it back out.
Lovely...Lindsey...thank you for that. Anyway, here goes:

BEE UNIT STUDY
Here's a few ideas for unit studies beginning with bees, notice it's not just about science; it's everything from poetry and art to political science and chemistry. All this from a little bee:

1-Build a bee and hive out of household items, build a "mini" book (see Dina Zeke's books for ideas on how wild and creative she gets with these).

2-Label and color a bee, then "teach" it to the family at the dinner table

3-Learning all the bee jobs, names, sizes etc. Seasons of bees etc., Pollination studies, what happens when there's not enough pollination?

4-Give an oral presentation to "hone in" (pun intended) on those public speaking skills, include comedy into your routing like: 'Put that in your pipe and "smoke" it!'

5-Write a poem or haiku about bees, use alliterations etc. or write a song!

6-Study migration patterns and climate affects, weather patterns etc., effects of pesticides on bees,

7-Research origins of bee keeping, economics of bee keeping, country of origin etc. Any kings or "Queens" interested in bee keeping?

8-Study the importance of order and authority involving large groups of anything. This could lead to study of the military (for older boys)....or ballet, or any team sport depending on what your child is interested in. What happens when the authority figure dies or is impaired or changes....This could lead to a political science discussion....what happens when we get a new president (a lot of chaos and disorganization at first???)

9-Obedience studies...the importance of everyone having a job and no matter how big or small a job is...it's still important to the whole "hive". What happens with anarchy? Research examples of anarchy in history on several continents and discuss the affects of it on society as a whole.

10- All of these ideas could be used to write essays of any length. Or have students make up word problems using bees or finding the "area" of a typical hive....

I could go on and on...unit studies are so much fun and they are great for getting students to use their brain creatively to solve problems. Think about that concept for a second...creative thinking...and solving problems creatively....it is every thing to an adult... It's everything from solving the problems at AIG to getting a toddler potty trained.

Digest that for a moment and ask yourself if you're investing "that" into your child....or are you just concerned they turn their homework in on time or what they got on the last test? Hey, I'm not throwing stones here ...I'm just as guilty...but it does make me think about the bigger picture of their lives. What am I doing here to shape their heart...their mind? What will He say to me on THAT day? "Well done, good and faithful servant"? Gosh....I hope so.

Enjoy and let your mind run free with this...in the meantime...I've got to... "buzz" off.

Paris with Kids

We're still reliving our adventure from last year when we went to Paris, France for Spring Break. It was rather cold but we pretended otherwise! Our apartment was quirky and wonderful and the same time. The owner lived in another apartment in the same building. The building had been in his family since the 17th century. I guess it's paid for, huh?

This is how cold it was...very windy at times. Baby Girl would snuggle up in her stroller (used just for the trip...she had long been out of one but it came in handy) with the wind shield on and be toasty while we froze to death!

The weather did not keep us from playing in the Tuilleries.....

Hide and go seek.....

And Ring A Round the Rosie:

Here's the origin of that playground game:
It is based on the Great Plague of London (1665), as witness the rash ("roses"), herbs and spices to sweeten the air ("posies"), sneezing, and implicit dying ("all fall down"). But the time-lapse between the plague and the appearance of the game, diminishes that theory. Satires are almost always written about then-current events. Also heard is the theory that children sang this during the catastrophic European Black Death (1347), the "ring" supposedly referring to the red spot that marked the onset of the disease, and the rest following the same allegations heard for the plague theory, which is the one most often repeated.

All of that is very interesting (as the tour guide was telling us) but we really just wanted the street vendor food. It's very good! Our favorite was the waffles! Mmmmm.


I ran out of camera battery on the day we went to Luxumborg Gardens, but I must tell you about the old fashioned carousel. The ponies hung from the ceiling and the operator gave every child a wooden stick about 10" long. Near the operator, is a small wooden box the size of large bird house with "rings" in it....once you get going on the carousel, you pass the box, and try to "grab" a ring with your stick. It's soooooo much fun! Can't you just see the picture in your head? It really looked like children from the 17th century. When we first saw the carousel, it was so old that we thought it was man powered. Oddly enough, I think it use to be but converted to electricity.


Either way, it's a long way to go for a field trip but hey, I like to think outside the box!
Hope you've enjoyed another little piece of our trip...we sure did.

A Year Ago

A year ago, I was living my dream life...traveling the world with my family and putting new things into my brain...inspiration stuff...nothing creepy mind you! This is one of my favorite spots in Europe. I've been several times, at various ages of my life. I want to teach my children to be world travelers, open their minds to the fact that people live and are productive in lots of different ways.


I wanted them to see that the sky is the same beautiful blue, no matter what country you're in.



That our country is relatively a "baby" compared to the rest of the world.



That Spring is a beautiful no matter what language you're speaking.


And that hundreds of years ago...the wealthy lived in some fairly nice cribs!

Yep...we were in Paris. Of course, we did all of the home school stuff like making parisian books to document the trip, practice the language at every ice cream or waffle stand, and of course had a field day with the architecture and art. They came home a little wiser and more aware of life outside of our little compound.

We came away with knowing that most folks live their whole life in a space 1/16th the size of the spaces we live in, that most folks do not consume the amount of food and clothing we do and a simple life that is actually a lot of fun. More orderly. A sense of contentment.

It was a great trip.

Enlightenment is a wonderful thing!

Au revoir ma cherie!

Shaping a Heart - Dreaming

Home schooling...can be creepy to some folks.

When My Hero and I were first married, we lived next door to a home school family with five children. Everyday we came home from work on the verge of calling some government agency to report them. We didn't think it was creepy; we knew it was creepy. Noses pressed against the windows and that blank stare, ughhhh! Get a life! Please!

How could people do this to their children? We wondered this for years. hmmmm,....Then came a moment of enlightenment...

Nine years later, (or is it 10 ?), this is what has evolved...



Pajamas???!!! Oh no...now don't you feel like calling that agency? AND Chocolate chips? It's not even snack time. What about nutr, nutritio...oh, forget it.


"She's ruined"...are these thoughts running through your mind. Keep in mind that this is all between 10 and 11:00 in the morning. Prime brain hours at a traditional school. And this:



A most beloved pair of worn out ballet shoes...what proper teacher would allow that...on the desk!!!! It's an outrage. Gosh. (say that like Napoleon Dynomite, please)


My girl's curriculum is from Abeka Academy in Pensacola, FL. It's tried and true. Classes are all on DVD in an actual classroom. The only reason I really use it is because the math teacher is funnier than anything I've ever seen on Saturday Night Live. I am completely serious about that. We love him.

The upside of home schooling...she dreams...she dreams about the Joffrey Ballet, she dreams about being a Newberry Award writer someday. or...she's contemplating playing tricks on her older brother, or reading to her younger sister tonight, oh yeh...she's probably thinking about what's for lunch.

She doesn't think about who she'll sit with at lunch or what weird boy is trying to get her attention. She doesn't see her friend's character change just to be accepted, or wonder to herself if she should try that. (You were thinking...WHAT ABOUT SOCIALIZATION?...weren't you?)


Don't feel too bad about the whole thing...I do provide a world map for her.

What I love about home schooling: my children are as different from each other as night is from day, and range in age from 14 to 5 ...but... they are close. They truly enjoy each other's company.

A sibling relationship will last longer than any other during their lifetime. I'm so glad theirs is a strong bond. I never imagined this would be the case when we started this so many years ago. It's not the reason we did it.



But it is what happens when you give your heart to someone or something ...and trust.
In this case...just good old, God.


You get something better than you imagined it could ever be.




Try it..the trust thing, I mean...


It is ...all about... shaping a child's heart.

Family Dinner Quiz - Andromeda

Connecting....the need to be relational...it's what we're made for... at my house, we have dinner quizzes. We use this to get the conversation started at the dinner table and move on from whatever yuk may have happened that day. Hurt feelings, disappointing news, busyness, or general humbugs of life. Everyone learns something new everyday whether you realize it or not. We all store a pocket of unusual facts just waiting to jump out and wow someone. After all, who wouldn't like to be on a game show. Mom and Dad turn into Pat and Vanna, but the forum quickly turns into Alex Trebek. Young or old, people all love to play trivia. For example:

"What is the tallest peak in North America?" "OK...here's a hint...it's in Alaska"
My middle child waits with intellectual eyes as no one answers....dad winks at mom and we suffer through the uncomfortable silence.

Now as a wife, I was hoping Daddy would not pose an answer, as he has one of those scary memories that never forgets anything.....especially facts. However, even though men have that tempting need to be the "hero" at times, he maintained amazing self control.
"Mount McKinley" she announces proudly. "Ohh nooo, no way'' answers back big brother.

Another, again from middle child: "What is the largest object in space visible with the naked eye from earth?" I come up with a brilliant..."a star". Silence. Silence. Daddy again, from under his breath..."Andromeda". We all... shocked and amazed the intellectual prowess. A giant among trivia men. Our hero.

For baby girl, a whopping 5 years old, it goes something like this:
I start out with, "Who am I? I rush to the scene, I carry an axe..." an overexcited, very interrupted answer explodes with, "a fireman!" Realization...I need to think of harder community helper questions.

By the end of the game, we've filled our tummies, moved on from the daily yuk, learned something new and strengthened our bond as a family. We loved and we laughed. After all...it's all about the heart.