Thoughtworthy (24 Family Ways, New Episode, Haha, and MORE!)

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We added something new to our morning Circle Time this week. It’s Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson. As I mentioned on Instagram, there are some things I taught directly to my older children that I felt like I had taught to my younger children, but really I was just expecting them to pick it up from the environment, and it sort of failed.

So we’re doing this.

I really like it, and if my children were younger I’d probably do it more closely to the way it is written. But my younger children are 10 and 12. There’s no way I’m spending a week on each way; there’s no way I’m spending twenty-four weeks on this total! (Actually it’d be more because we don’t do Circle Time five days per week.)

Anyhow, I’m stripping it way down. We’re reading some of the Scripture passages and using some of the discussion questions, and I’m adding or replacing with discussion questions of my own as I think of them. I hope to finish it up in 6-8 weeks if I can.

It’s good for homeschoolers to learn to use some things as guides more than scripted curriculum. I mean, this is basically scripted curriculum, but that doesn’t mean it has to be used that way. Something like this — well, it’s probably best, especially when you have older children, to just pick what you need and toss out the rest.

The “family ways” are divided into categories:

• Authorities (i.e. God, Bible, parents)
• Relationships
• Possessions
• Work
• Attitudes
• Choices

What I was really looking for was some help in manners, so while I’ll briefly touch on the first and last sections, those are areas we’re already strong in. It’s in the middle four that I think we could use some work, and so that’s where I’ll slow down, spend an extra day, and really make sure they’re getting it.

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In case you missed it, there was a new AfterCast episode out yesterday. (You should subscribe in your podcast player, you know.) This was the season’s special conversation — I try to do one thing that is “special” in some way each season. I had Brittney McGann on again, who is someone you just can’t go wrong with. It was such a fun conversation and I think you’ll love it, too.

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This made me laugh:

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This month in 2016:

This is still how my binder is organized, but we do even less now than we did when this was written. These days we only do two things: one from daily, and one from one other category. I have it figured out where there is always one sung and one spoken.

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This week’s links collection:

• BOOKSTORE OWNER MAKES VIRAL STATEMENT ABOUT NEW YORK ABORTION LAW from The Daily Caller
  • It is hard for me to fathom why politicians need so badly to kill babies. It is a grievous sin; weep for New York.
• Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa caused by private electrical system, not PG&E, Cal Fire says from The Sacramento Bee
  • This is important, since everyone keeps blaming PG&E. We really don’t want them going bankrupt. The worst would be the state coming in and taking over — I mean, they can’t even run the DMVs correctly. I know that is a stereotypical thing to say, but here in California the DMVs are an especially bad mess. 
• Merck’s Recombivax Vaccine Shortage Causes Reduced Deaths In Babies — A Natural Experiment? from Medium
  • “Following the cyber-attack in June 2017, for the first time in a very long time, researchers have the ability to view in plain sight, a natural experiment whereby one vaccine was abruptly swapped out for another — replacing the very adjuvant many critics are concerned about, AAHS — with an aluminum hydroxide adjuvant contained in Engerix-B. Neither has a published independent safety profile but AAHS is suspected to be more problematic due to its immunogenicity profile.”
  • “Injuries have also halved since Engerix-B was introduced, from on average 1,400 reported annually from 2003 to 2017, to 756 cases in 2018 with one month’s reporting yet to be recorded.”
• Celebrating Henry VIII’s Love Affair With the Humble Recorder from Atlas Obscura
  • My girls were just asking for recorders, and then I read this!