October 30, 2009

FOR TODAY

October 30, 2009

Dawn's Daybook


Outside my window... Beautiful Snow.

I am thinking... about how easy it is to forget to just "play" and be with your own children.

I am thankful for... A warm home, warm clothes and crafts.

I am wearing... jeans, white t-shirt, button up shirt...cabin clothes. ;)

I am remembering... the stories I told my children last year about St. Nicholas, the meaning of Christmas, and family stories thanks to Karissa.

I am going... to finish one christmas gift today. The girls are also working on one.

I am reading... not much today. Mostly instructions for crafts. Tonight likely the Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe for our Math talk.

I am hoping... my husband stays warm and happy this weekend.

On my mind... the holidays.

From the learning rooms... Sewing today. Math at dinner: dyad. The number 2. Polarity. Light and Dark. Positive and Negative. Mobius strips after Dinner.

Noticing that... my 7 year old has a fantastic memory! She recited back the story of St. Nicholas (the real one) she learned last year in our studies during Advent.

Pondering these words...
Psalms 150
1
1 Hallelujah! 2 Praise God in his holy sanctuary; give praise in the mighty dome of heaven.
2
Give praise for his mighty deeds, praise him for his great majesty.
3
Give praise with blasts upon the horn, praise him with harp and lyre.
4
Give praise with tambourines and dance, praise him with flutes and strings.
5
Give praise with crashing cymbals, praise him with sounding cymbals.
6
Let everything that has breath give praise to the LORD! Hallelujah!


From the kitchen... Baked up a storm yesterday (4 lasagnas!) so we'll have leftovers for lunch. Not sure about dinner..

Around the house... It feels like the cozy holidays already.

One of my favorite things... crafting with my children.


From my picture journal...

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Happy St. Nicholas Day Eve!

December 6th
St. Nicholas
Patron Saint of Children

Patron saints have lived a life which is a worthy example of how to faithfully follow Jesus Christ and, as part of the communion of saints, they intercede on behalf of those who call upon them. In other parts of the world, however, St. Nicholas' chief patronage is that of sailors and ships—offering safe voyage and protection from storms


The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.


Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.

Through the centuries many stories and legends have been told of St. Nicholas' life and deeds. These accounts help us understand his extraordinary character and why he is so beloved and revered as protector and helper of those in need.

Widely celebrated in Europe, St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6th, kept alive the stories of his goodness and generosity. In Germany and Poland, boys dressed as bishops begged alms for the poor—and sometimes for themselves! In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas arrived on a steamship from Spain to ride a white horse on his gift-giving rounds.

How is he celebrated?

December 6th is still the main day for gift giving and merrymaking in much of Europe. For example, in the Netherlands St. Nicholas is celebrated on the 5th, the eve of the day, by sharing candies (thrown in the door), chocolate initial letters, small gifts, and riddles. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the saint's horse, hoping St. Nicholas will exchange them for small gifts. Simple gift-giving in early Advent helps preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child.

St. Nicholas' gifts were usually good things to eat: apples, oranges, nuts, and eventually cookies and sweets. The custom quickly spread across Europe and was adopted by both rich and poor. St. Nicholas' example still inspires acts of charity and generosity.

Why Celebrate?

To learn about the true St. Nicholas: the man of faith who lived his life in devotion to Christ. Saint Nicholas loved children and cared for the needy. He brings the love of Christ and the healing of Jesus. When we honor this saint, following his example of selfless giving, we honor the Christ Child who selflessly gave the greatest gift of all—himself.



LEARN MORE

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How Much do you Know about Christmas?

You Know a Lot About Christmas

You got 7/10 correct You know tons about the history and traditions surrounding Christmas. When you celebrate the holidays, you never forget their true meaning - or all the little fun details. Random Christmas fact: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is the first Christmas carol. It dates back to the 12th century.

How Much Do You Know About Christmas?

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Lesson Plan: Thanksgiving Math

Lesson: Thanksgiving Math

Ages: 6-15 (by varying the difficulty)
Materials: Printable Worksheet, Grocery store circulars/trip to the grocery store, Play Money (optional), Math Manipulatives (optional)
Concepts: Money math, Multiplication (quantity X amount), Comparison shopping, Calculating Tax (older children), Money management, Charitable giving
Increasing the difficulty: Increase the difficulty by having the child calculate tax, reducing the budget ($150, for example), shopping at only ONE store (deciding among brands), calculating actual servings from the nutrition information from the label and buy as close to 12 servings as possible, calculate total calories per person if one person ate all of the items on the menu (the exception being only one or two desserts instead of 4, like ours)

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This lesson has been adapted from THIS LESSON.

Instruction: The students will have $200 to buy enough groceries to feed 12 people for a Thanksgiving feast. The child can look through the circulars (or take a trip to the grocery store) to choose the food for the feast and record the cost on the worksheet. For the older children, have them run the balance as they go, calculating actual dollars and cents and adding in the local tax rate (if any) on groceries at the end. For the younger children, rounding will be more helpful. For both groups, it's helpful to also use the play money to "pay the grocery store." This will allow the children to check their work on the datasheet, comparing the money spent and the subtraction.

Remember, this is a feast for 12! Help your students understand servings and quantities.


Happy Thanksgiving!
Update: We completed this activity in 2 hours. The 6.5 year old did all of the writing and math and our 4.5 and 3 year olds chose the food from the circulars.

Tips: Our 6.5 year old had some difficulty remembering the concept of the hundreds, tens and ones and applying them to whole dollars (for this activity, we rounded; for older children, I would definitely have them calculate cents and even tax rates). To help, we used the Math-U-See manipulatives to subtract as we calculated. Once she could visualize the numbers, it was easy for her. The girls did a great job finding the 'greatest bargain' from the circulars this week.

To check our work, we compared our totals to the money totals (we used monopoly money). We were actually $1 off and figured out that somewhere along the way $1 was confused (probably among the mess of circulars and manipulatives around the table).

From the balance sheet (the running substraction) our 6.5 year old calculated the money we spent: $200-balance=spent. We bought turkey, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, 2 shrimp ring appetizers, stuffing, sparkling lemonade, and pineapple salad ingredients for a grand total of $114.

What to do with the money left over? Maisie decided to buy 12 dinners for the homeless through the Denver Rescue mission ($1.92 per meal, total of $24 rounded up--which we will actually donate). The remaining $62 (she calculated as well) will be put in savings.

We also determined that it cost us $9.50 per person for our Thanksgiving meal. The Denver Rescue Mission provides a meal for $1.92. Maisie was amazed at how much better the Denver Rescue mission is at providing low cost food. :)

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Fun, Educational, Silly for Halloween

Halloween for us is fun and silly! Born in October, I love halloween!

Here are some fun links:

Hangman

Ben and Jerry's Yep, the ice cream guys! They have a great interactive site, be sure to click around.

Virtual Pumpkin Carving

Halloween Math Printables

Here's one to do after trick-or-treating: Candy Graphing
You could also add a dimension: have your child estimate how many individual pieces of candy he/she will get. Compare to the actual loot.

This is cool! It's a generated math worksheet, you pick the words, addition and/or subtractions, then a worksheet is generated. When the kids answer the questions, there is a legend below to enter a letter to spell words!

Here's a few Math word problems for the older crowd

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Easter Eggs

New template coming soon...I need a good one, any recommendations?

In the meantime, a picture of our Easter Eggs:

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Snowflakes

Careful, this one will get you addicted! It has the girls and I:

Make a Snowflake

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Chanukkah

Last night, the girls and I attended a Chanukkah party of a good friend in our homeschool group. I know little about Chanukkah so I was excited to learn more. Our friends are Messianic Jews--lovingly referred to as "Jews for Jesus".

>“"Messianic Judaism is a religious movement of Jews and non-Jews whose adherents believe that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they call by the Hebrew name Yeshua, is both the resurrected Jewish Messiah and their divine savior."

I hadn't realized that in John 10:22 the Feast of Dedication referred to Hanukkah/Chanukkah and that Jesus had attended the feast.

“The Feast of Dedication” is an eight day festival of lights to celebrate the ancient victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians. The Feast of Dedication is popularly known as the “Festival of Lights.” This festival is associated with the miracle in which the lamps stayed lit for “eight” days while the Temple in Jerusalem was rededicated, although there was only enough oil to fuel the Temple's lamps for only “one” day.

I found the whole thing fascinating and hope to sit with my friend some time in the near future and talk with her more about it.

I'll post pictures soon!

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How the Grinch Stole Christmas through Consumerism

Am I a Grinch?

Perhaps I am.

Some days I'm proud of my Grinch-y-ness because it means I haven't succumbed to the consumerism of the holidays. Other days I second guess myself and start wondering if I'm taking the joy and wonder out of the holidays.

For example, I see toy ads for some new toy--usually one with tiny little parts that I'll end up walking all over--and I think to myself, "There's no way I'm letting the kids get that toy." And it's not just the small parts; every toy is a collector's item and the kids just have to have all of them! And each one has to be bigger and better. By time the shopping is done, each kid has $300 worth of crap that will be a source of argument each time their room or playroom needs to be cleaned and the kids have loiterally played with it for 2 minutes before moving on to another toy.

Add "Made in China" to the whole argument, and I'm now a Grinch. I'm not buying toys made in China for the mere fact that almost 75% toys are made in China and, apparently, someone in China doesn't have a problem throwing some extra lead into the paint for a cheaper product. I refuse to support the Chinese toy industry for that reason in addition to my fear that, as a society, Americans have become less interested in their country's own economic security and more interested in CHEAP products. Perhaps if our toys cost more and we couldn't afford as many, our children would better appreciate what they do have.

Before I become a complete hypocrite, let me say that I am a product of consumerism. The first 4 years of my oldest daughter's life, I've been a big supporter of China. My children have too many toys and I can guarantee that at least 80% were made in China. I'm a work in progress.

Currently, there are more toys going OUT of the house than coming in. That's my ultimate goal, to pare down and stop buying so much. So far it's worked well; usually on birthdays, I'd buy 3-4 gifts for the birthday girl. This year, it was 2 small gifts. Some years it will be 1 big gift, like the bicycle my oldest dd will get for her 6th birthday because the bike she has is way too small.

We have always had the tradition of getting rid of a small trash bag full of toys before every holiday (and, at times, 2 bags). We will be doing that again this weekend but this time my goal is to get rid of at least 2 bags, if not 3.

Bargains, anyone?

I'm a huge bargain shopper. I buy on clearance all year long for birthdays, christmas, and other occasions. There was a year or two that I bought total crap, and I realize that now. I buy much less these days, especially if I'm not sure what purpose it will serve. I do still buy the day after Christmas--it has really saved us money on stocking stuffers, decorations, stockings, etc.

But now that I'm becoming more aware of where things are made, I will be making different choices this year the day after christmas. I'll still go--gotta love that high from shopping for bargains--but I'll be much more choosy.

For instance, I was at a local Toy Store/Teacher Supply shop and I found a puzzle MADE IN THE USA! It was $7.99 and I didn't hesitate buying one. Not to mention, this puzzle company replaces puzzle parts for free! Puzzles are a big hit in this house.

I'm still a grinch.

And yet, I'm still a grinch. In don't really WANT to buy things for Christmas; not because of the money, but because of everything it entails: a big mess, toys I thought the girls would play with but get tossed aside in minutes, supporting the import of foreign goods.

I know it's my responsibility to foster responsible consumerism in my children. So this year, as in years previous, we are making christmas ornaments and bags of cookies for family members and friends.

And I've cut WAY down on the presents. As a family we draw names (Secret Santa) and buy for one member of the family.

*********I need to plug this site: http://www.elfster.com/ **********************
Set up a secret santa for free! We forgot to draw at Thanksgiving and this is awesome!

Now if I can just convince their grandparents to cut down on the number of presents! LOL

Home made gifts with love

So far, we've made salt dough ornaments (some made with coffee for the color and scent) and cookies. Maisie and Dani made a memory tray for relatives at Home Depot and we added their handprints for decoration.

For the girls, I'm making special "car blankets" since the ones they have are old and worn. I'm making a rattle for Lily as well. I also made hair bows for stocking stuffers.

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Independence day Pictures

Maisie was still trying to get over being ill (she had a HIGH fever for 4 days, and is now congested), so we didn't do as many activities as we'd planned for Independence Day. We colored the flag, talked about the number of stars, and the original 13 colonies.

We did make our firecracker hats. Next year we'll make tricorn hats--I didn't but enough craft foam to make them.

We went to a local display for fireworks. We sat in a Target parking lot and had a great view. Dani, who was afraid of them last year, LOVED them, and Katie (19 months old), who I thought FOR CERTAIN would be afraid, just pointed and giggled and jumped up and down. It's amazing how the third child can be so fearless.

One of my fireworks pictures:

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Independence Day

I was listening to a local talk show this morning on the radio (The Troubleshooter) and he was asking callers what they did to celebrate July 4th, Independence Day. He said he seriously doubted that many people really observed the true meaning of the day or even had a discussion about it with their children--why is that? Most of the callers agreed that their celebrations centered around family, barbeques and fireworks but that the meaning wasn't ever discussed.

I find it sad. We take for granted in this country the rights and liberties we have and what it took to get here. If we, as present day Americans, existed during the Revolution with our present attitudes, would we have prevailed? Or would we have, as we are doing now, simply questioned why we were in the war at all and protested every decision? Because truth be told, we didn't want to be ruled by England or to be taxed by England, but we weren't physically assaulted. When British soldiers attempted to collect taxes they were assaulted. Eventually the Soldiers fired into a crowd of protestors (Boston Massacre) and 5 were killed. England believed they were in the right to tax THEIR colonies to help pay for the French and Indian war, but the colonists wanted independence and self-rule.

The truth is, we have a great system of governing. It is far from perfect, but we wouldn't choose any other. There are those who complain, but do nothing about it. There are those who protest, but still live here--if it's so terrible, why are you still here?

We have a great sense of independence in this country. If you don't like the government, you are free to criticize it...without fear of being beheaded, hunted down and killed. In general, you are free to choose to do anything that doesn't impinge on someone else's freedoms and liberties.

This Independence Day, and every subsequent, my children will learn about their government, freedom, and those who defended our freedoms.

This year, we are making tricorn hats out of craft foam and learning where England and America are in relation to each other. We're also going to color the Flags (colonial and current American Flag) and talk about what freedom means to us, today.

Ah, but you can't forget the yummy food, either! Tomorrow we're making red, white and blue layered jello and a flag cake to go with our barbequed meat and corn on the cob. Family is, after all, important too!

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Mother's Day

We spent mother's day in Rocky Mountain National Park. It's a great time of year to see wildlife and even though the weather was rainy, we had a fantastic time. We hiked a half mile around a lake, saw at least 75 Elk, a chipmunk, some silly ducks, and a woodpecker. Here are a few pictures:

The day was so calm. We had a fire and cooked hotdogs and hamburgers, corn, and (of course) S'mores! The girls were such troopers and loved every minute of it. It was a great kickoff to summer camping.

Happy Mother's Day all!

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