Seven Quick Takes on Geography, Circle Time, THM, and More!

:: 1 ::

Recently, I realized that my fourth grader is weak on geography. It’s not a big deal, at her age, but she’s weaker than I’d like her to be, and she’s also really resistant. I was trying to think of a simple way to get her more familiar with geography without causing a battle, so what I started doing was opening our history readings by using a globe. We’re using George Washington’s World for our history spine, and it jumps from place to place, and so naturally my concern was that she wasn’t visualizing how all of it went together. This has been like magic. She’s taken to the globe so much better than she has maps, and after a few days, she started helping me find some of the cities and countries, something that was like pulling teeth before.

Using a globe is a really simple — and possibly simplistic — way to integrate geography into our day, and it’s really working for us right now.

 

:: 2 ::

I’m not doing any Circle Time plans for Term 3. I’ve decided to continue with review, plus the pile of odds and ends I found in my “on deck” section of my binder {which I had forgotten about}. O-Age-Six has been really frustrated that he doesn’t know many of the songs the others know, so we’re focusing on him for a term. The older children are enjoying singing a bigger variety and revisiting old favorites.

With that said, I wanted to add something new. It helps liven up the last term, which is especially hard for us when Easter is so early in the year. I decided to add some commentary reading to our morning Bible time. We’re going to use Leviticus by Nancy Ganz because it was highly recommended by Jeanne, one of my favorite people. There is probably something wrong that I am starting with the third book in a series, but I’ve been wanting to read Leviticus with my children, and my hope is that this will keep us from drowning in the minutia.

 

:: 3 ::

Here’s this week’s link collection:

•  Diagramming Sentences — Online Resources from Contently Humble
  • I think this might be of use for those of you who are attempting Cindy Rollins style group grammar lessons!
• The Scorching of California by Victor Davis Hanson
  • Better than the last drought article I shared. Long, but thorough. Hanson is always a feast, I think. {HT: Amber}
• From Lesbianism to Complementarianism by Jackie Hill-Perry
  • This was really fascinating.
• This Book is Too Hard from The Common Room
  • Yes. Exactly.

:: 4 ::

We welcomed twin goats to the microhomestead on Wednesday! One doe, one buck, and both waaaaaay cute.

The buck we named Socks due to his four black feet. He’s got beautiful blue eyes, and we’re hoping they stay that way. The doe we named Roxy.

I had been convinced their mama was going to have three or even four kids; she was so huge. It was a very difficult delivery. At birth, they were bigger than our one-week-old doeling, Snowdrop, and she’s grown quite a bit in a week! We are so thankful that mother and babies all survived.

 

 

:: 5 ::

Congratulations to Misty Newsome, winner of the Simplified Dinners for New Cooks giveaway! For the rest of you, keep in mind that our $5 discount code AFTERTHOUGHTS is good through Monday, March 23, 2015.

 

:: 6 ::

Some of you have been asking me about THM. Yes, I’m still doing it, and yes I’m still happy with it. I find it to be very doable in daily life, and then I just schedule in cheats so that when I go out, I don’t need to worry about it. Here I thought I’d share some of my favorite products:

• Sweeteners:
  • THM Sweet Blend: This is part erythritol and part stevia, and I like it for smoothies, which I drink almost daily.
  • NOW Eryritol: I use this for hot drinks at home. It doesn’t have an aftertaste like stevia does, but you do have to use a bit more than you would regular sugar.
  • Stevia in the Raw: I have these little packets stashed in my truck, in my husband’s car, and in my purse. I don’t want a random coffee splurge to turn into an unplanned cheat, so I carry this with me everywhere.
• Oolong Tea:
  • Prince of Peace 100% Organic Oolong: I prefer my teas organic; it’s one of a handful of products that I am picky about. This brand is one of the best prices, and it has great flavor.
• Whey Protein Powder:
  • Pristine Whey Protein Powder: This is made by THM, and I’ve never seen it on Amazon {which is a total bummer}. It’s the best whey powder I’ve seen because it is comparatively low priced and also free of all the yucky additives found in a lot of protein powders. It tastes great. I find that a scoop of this a day helps me get enough protein; I just don’t take in enough when left to my own devices.
• Gluccomannan:
  • NOW Foods Gluccomannan Pure Powder: Used in small amounts, this can serve as a thickener, or be used in smoothies to make them smoother. My interest was actually that it is pre-biotic.

And that’s about it. I’ve tried some of the other things out there, of course, but these are the only things I’m purchasing again and again. I tried noodles made from gluccomannan and they were just okay, and then later I had an aching tummy. Really, I prefer spaghetti squash or spiral sliced zucchini, and I think that is a lot more nutritious anyhow.

 

:: 7 ::

Answering Your Questions:

• Question: What makes classical education different from modern?
  • Answer: For years, I wanted an easy book to suggest for this question. Karen Glass finally wrote the book on the subject last year. It’s called Consider This and it is concise, easy to understand, and focuses on the most important things. I love Norms and Nobility by David Hicks, but it is very expensive and also difficult to read. Consider This is the book I recommend over and over, especially for those who are just beginning their course of study on this topic.
• Question: Is there a way to find older posts or do I have to scroll through them backwards? You’ve got some great ones I would love to be able to access again. Is there maybe an index somewhere?
  • Answer: There will be. I’m sorry! When I moved to WordPress, not everything transferred nicely. There were posts without tags, posts with wrong tags, and no categories. Hayley and I are working on categorizing and tagging everything, and when we’re done there will be a navigation bar to make it easy for you. I only wish we could go faster, but alas, we have children. 😉
• Question: Should I just read the written narrations or should we discuss them?
  • Answer: I have my children read their written narrations aloud to me, with my eye on the page so I can know that what they say they wrote is actually what they wrote. They catch basic mistakes themselves, without my saying anything, when it is done this way. My year four student only writes a couple sentences, so I actually rewrite them correctly, and then she copies them. This is due to her horrible, terrible spelling. 🙂 With my older child, I usually choose one thing to correct. I don’t know if this is the “right” way to do it, but it’s what I’ve been doing.