I received an email recently that pointed out to me once again the importance of correct spelling and grammar. Actually, I received two – one an actual request for information and the other a humorous look at the communication skills of some adults!
Proper use of the English language is becoming a lost art it seems. In my opinion, spelling and grammar skills, or lack thereof, speak volumes about who you are and can impact the response you receive from people. For example, look at this email I received a couple of weeks back which I have typed exactly as it appeared in my mail box. “How can I use frash cards as a teaching aid to lower basic. pliz answer me its an assignment. THANKS.” Thinking it was a junk email I did not respond. Imagine my surprise when I received the same notice again a few days ago, asking for a response to the initial note! Nothing in the spelling, punctuation, grammar or even the capitalization error in the second sentence lead me to believe that this person was seriously interested in education, let alone a response! My only hope is that for the writer of the note, English is their second language.
In reading posts to various blog sites, many of which are home education sites, it is appalling to see the grammar and spelling errors. Sometimes I cringe when thinking about the fact that those writers are actually teaching their offspring to follow their lead in communication skills!
To tickle your funny bone, I have included the email I mentioned in my introductory sentence above. As you read these “School Notes,” consider your own communication skills. At the end of this email, I will give you suggestions on how the writers of the notes you are about to read could reverse their obvious weaknesses in spelling and grammar. If you are a home educator, you might want to have your child(ren) read these notes as a Language Arts assignment and they can fix the errors. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Climbing to Good English, grammar, Sequential Spelliing, spelling, useage of English language
Children and teens are more inclined to study and to learn new skills or information if they see adults studying and learning! So, if you are a home educating parent – you need to be continually learning something and your children need to be kept aware of what you are doing. Practice what you preach! If you are not a home educating parent, you still need to be in a mode of continuous adult level learning and enhancing the basic package – no matter what your age.
Tags: adult level learning, continuous learning, Home Education, home schooling, re-treaded
Although my home education days are over as everyone grew up on me, I still follow a great plan for February! It still works, whether you teach children at home or not!
There is no getting around it — February has impacted many of us. Perhaps you are feeling it too! Around our home FEBRUARY used to be the month when mom (that is me) went berserk and my very sanity was questioned! For our first five FEBRUARIES in home schooling I questioned my sanity, my ability to educate even a dog–let alone my children, and my wisdom. Be it understood that I reconfirmed my complete and total failure as a mother! If I remember correctly, my usual tirade went something like: "Let’s put them back in school, any school will do as ANYBODY can do a better job than me — I am a failure as a mother, wife, homemaker, housekeeper . . . " Something HAD TO CHANGE!
In some years "February" started the last week of January and ended sometime in March! I realized at last that I was focussing on the negatives and could not see ANY positives during those dreary winter weeks where we seldom see the sun where we live. Preparations to avoid the inevitable collision with "The Month" (or was that "The FEARSOME Monster?") had to be planned well in advance and carefully executed. God gave me a plan. It is quite simple really and has worked beautifully for us during many "FEARSOME Monster months!
Tags: depression, February, Home Education, home schooling, planning, re-energize, reorganize, rescheduling
Although my home education days are over as everyone grew up on me, I still follow a great plan for February! It still works, whether you teach children at home or not!
There is no getting around it — February has impacted many of us. Perhaps you are feeling it too! Around our home FEBRUARY used to be the month when mom (that is me) went berserk and my very sanity was questioned! For our first five FEBRUARIES in home schooling I questioned my sanity, my ability to educate even a dog–let alone my children, and my wisdom. Be it understood that I reconfirmed my complete and total failure as a mother! If I remember correctly, my usual tirade went something like: "Let’s put them back in school, any school will do as ANYBODY can do a better job than me — I am a failure as a mother, wife, homemaker, housekeeper . . . " Something HAD TO CHANGE!
In some years "February" started the last week of January and ended sometime in March! I realized at last that I was focussing on the negatives and could not see ANY positives during those dreary winter weeks where we seldom see the sun where we live. Preparations to avoid the inevitable collision with "The Month" (or was that "The FEARSOME Monster?") had to be planned well in advance and carefully executed. God gave me a plan. It is quite simple really and has worked beautifully for us during many "FEARSOME Monster months!
Tags: depression, February, Home Education, home schooling, planning, re-energize, reorganize, rescheduling
At first read of the title you might wonder what in the world “Curses or Praise” has to do with homeschooling, or the raising of children even if you are not a homeschooler, or with your life in general, Well, it has a lot to do with them. It just might be that some days praise may not be front and center of your thoughts! You know, those days when nothing is going well, you are sick, the children are not being stellar examples of cooperation, the car has broken down – again, and so on. Had some of those days?
The bulk of today’s blog was written for publication in the Christian Perspective column for the January 28, 2010 edition of the Orangeville Citizen. It just happened to be my turn to write this week so I figured the article could do double duty! Hopefully what I have written will impress upon you the importance for yourself and your children to always be ready with a deep seated faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You just never know when you will be put to the test. In the face of tragedy, will the words out of your mouth be those of curse or praise?
Tags: Church of the Nazarene, encourage, faith, Haiti earthquake, praise
Now, lest you think we have lots of real estate that we must have lost, don’t panic. We don’t even own any real estate as we live in a church provided parsonage! But, we have been reclaiming real estate nonetheless.
For a variety of reasons, this past five years our “one thing in, one thing out rule” is about the only thing that got thrown out. Well, that is an exaggeration, but, not enough got thrown out so we were getting buried alive. Five years ago we set out to establish a library in an unused bedroom. We failed to realize just how many books we had and the space was quickly full to overflowing and became unusable and the books virtually inaccessible. Our adult son moved from our basement a couple of years back, leaving furniture and personal possessions behind. We used to home school two girls and had a lot of stuff from those days, plus lots of craft making stuff. A dear friend died in 2008 and we still had some of his estate stuff here. From our relatively small home we run our business office, our church office, print books and produce audio and visual resources, carry out a variety of volunteer responsibilities, and the three of us care for six cats and two dogs. Each task, responsibility and relationship takes up valuable “real estate space” within this structure we call home.
Tags: clutter, declutter, Family Buried Alive, Help on the Way, mental real estate, mountain, organizing, panic attack, real estate, success
The season of blessings and good cheer is upon us. In just two days, people will be quoting those words, “Not a creature was stirring – not even a mouse!” We at JOY Center of Learning have another blog site under the name of http://www.dogandcatviews.com You might enjoy reading about the antics of our livestock, and information about pet care and much more. This week, I am sharing a post from that site. This post was “written” by Gracie, our black panther like cat – one of six cats in our home. The postings are all written by the livestock who know me as Mrs. Noah! Do enjoy the spirit of fun in this little true story. Who knows, you might even be able to use this as an illustration to teach your children all about compassion, sharing and loving! Let the story begin:
It’s sad, but true. Back last summer at the warehouse Mrs. Noah found a mouse in a big box of styrofoam packing wiggles. It was stuck in there and couldn’t climb out. Now this was a good thing because he/she had been messing up the warehouse for a little while and there had been considerable conversations about the various options for getting it out into the great outdoors. This was a golden opportunity. Mrs. Noah loaded the box into the back of the van; she drove several miles away from the warehouse – way out in the country – and she let the mouse go free beside a nice big field. The only thing is, it turned out there was more than one mouse and none of the rest of them had the good sense to fall into a box of styro wiggles! Hence, much more discussion.
Tags: Christmas, compassion, mice, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
There are probably some among the readers of this blog entry who are not quite in sync with the spirit and tune of “Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la. This the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la!” Their holly has wilted, their jolly’s gotten lost, and their fa la’s have been somewhat off key and decidedly flat. Some who are in sync might feel badly and might be hiding their jolly thoughts for fear of making others feel even worse about their unfortunate situations – job losses, poor health, deaths in the past year, financial stress and struggles, rebellious children, plans that didn’t go as expected – you know, the seemingly “usual” fare these days if you listen to the news and read the newspapers. I personally don’t listen often to the news because it can surely suck you into a black hole and I really am not fond of groping around in the dark!
Tags: Christmas, Deck the Halls, encouragement, light, peace
Why would anybody in their right mind educate their children at home? Because it usually works and works well! I homeschooled for 20 years, loved it, and am still sane.
Why homeschool? Beyond eliminating the pressures that occur in most school environments, some benefits include: the flexible schedule allows planning education around their life, not life around the rigid school schedule; you can travel as your classroom is wherever you are; you can pace the instruction and level of difficulty according to the needs and interests of the child; accomplish more in a fraction of the time the school takes; have more time to pursue interests beyond academics; experience the excitement of your child’s learning; see museums, tourist attractions, etc. when fewer people are there, eliminating wait times and getting more attention from staff. Impart your values daily without the often negative impact of peer pressure. No two families or homeschools are alike and that is great!
Considering all the benefits, why not homeschool, or educate children at home? If you are just considering the future path for education of your children, or you are already educating your children at home and want to advise other parents, here are some basic steps that need to be addressed:
Tags: Getting Started, Home Schooling Toolbox, steps to take, The Educational Information and Address Booklet