Creating answer key booklets for the Ray's Arithmetic series

I am very thankful for this "electronic age," which I believe God is using as a great blessing around the world. But I still tend to be very much the "analogue" in many ways!

It is still hard for me to do any serious reading and studying from a screen, so I prefer 3-D books that I can hold. This is why I spend the time to print out and bind books from the past. 

As our children have been using the Ray's Arithmetic Series for their math, we have found it quite inconvenient to have the text printed, but the answers still in their digital form.

This is why I chose to print the answers out separately, create covers, and then staple them into booklets. The Dollar Homeschool discs have made this all so simple because the answers are separated into separate files. 

Here is how I create the covers for these booklets:

I first select the title page of the book and copy it. Then I paste it onto a Microsoft Publisher (there are similar programs that are open-source and therefore free, such as scribus) page, with a landscape orientation, making sure that the cover material will fit neatly on the right half of the page. I like to put a text box with the words "Key to" somewhere above the title page. 

I also like to use a border from Clipart Etc. (you can find these under the "design" section). Here are some links to ones I have used:

Tree

Dog Sparrow

I arrange the two pages so that the title page fits neatly inside the border, then I print my composition out onto card stock. 

I print the answers out two-pages-per-sheet, and two-sided, then I stack these pages on top of the cover I created and staple them all in the middle with my long-arm stapler (this tool was worth every penny I paid!).

I keep the booklets in my special "teacher's drawer" for easy access for both the children and myself. 

Homeschool-lite: no-fuss learning

My little girl makes a basket!

It's summertime--the weather is warm, and the birds and bugs are all around us. There is so much to do--we play basketball together almost every-other day now, and there are all sorts of other things we want to experience. 

So what is a good homeschooling mother to do? 

Instead of fighting with nature, I capitulate and help them along! Here are some of the ideas I have come up with for taking advantage of these months. I have decided to concentrate on thinking and math skills in anticipation for our next round of "formal" academics.

1. Wake up time is instruction time.  We are using that half-hour that it takes to completely recover one's consciousness for good. Besides reading through a creation science devotion, I also continue to read through the Good Morals and Gentle Manners book which was created for the Eclectic Education Series. Then I also read a testimony about praising and thanking God continually in Merlin Carother's Power in Praise. Within this time, we will be learning the Hebrew Aleph Bet, and then pursuing that language more as time goes on.

2. Brain-training. I was recently handed a book from Learning Rx entitled Releasing the Einstein Inside. A lot of what I read made sense to me, so I have begun to use a few of their suggestions with my children, getting them to exercise their higher mental functions, etc. There are all sorts of free resources on this site. 

3. Math games. These are so fun for my gang, but so very simple and cheap! Here are a few favorites:

Buzz. The idea of this one was taken from a vintage book of diversions for young ladies. Everyone sits in a circle, and one person begins by saying the number "1", then next person says the next number, and so on around the circle. When any multiple of 5 or the number 5 is reached, the person must remember to say "Buzz" or pay a forfeit (when the number "55" is reached, then the person must say "Buzz, buzz" and so on). The forfeit is paid by having the offender turn his back to the room, while the gestures of a kiss, a pinch, and a hit are made, in any order (switching up the order each time makes it more fun) by the appointed leader. The offender then says either 1, 2 or 3, and then receives whichever gesture corresponds with the number he has chosen (for instance, if he chose the letter "1", and the first gesture made was a kiss, then he would receive a kiss, and so on). 

The multiples can be changed, such as multiples of 6, 7, 8, etc. My children love this so much that they play it whenever they are needing to pass the time, such as in the car during errands, etc. 

Toss. This one requires only a small stuffed toy or ball. A number of children sit in a circle and pass the object back and forth while saying their addition, subtraction, multiplication or division tables. If the object or ball is dropped, they have to start all over again. 

War. This site has all that one ever needs to know about how to make the best of this simple card game.

Measuring scavenger hunt. My children really get into this one. You will need a kitchen scale and measuring stick, if you have a number of children, you may need multiples!  

You simply make a list of things that need to be found--something that weighs exactly 8 oz., or  you could say 1/2 or .5 lb., something that weighs 13 oz., etc. Also, have them find things that measure exactly 3 and 1/4 inches, or 18 cm., etc. The fun of discovering just how to estimate the weight or length of something really grabs their attention. 

Find the distance. Give them an atlas and a measuring stick and have them calculate the distances "as-the-crow-flies" from one international city to another. 

Candy fun. Take a huge bag of either M & M's candies or Skittles and have the children estimate the total candies in the bag, separate and count the various colors, tell the average number of each color, use division to evenly distribute the candy among family members, etc. 

After helping the children eat count their candy, then it's out to play some more basketball, I certainly don't want to find my hips on that list of things to measure...

McGuffey and the Christian age of America

There are reasons that we find the McGuffey readers so refreshingly moral. They were written in an age of incredible spiritual awakening in America. Here is an excerpt from the site Religion and the Founding of the American Republic:

The religion of the new American republic was evangelicalism, which, between 1800 and the Civil War, was the "grand absorbing theme" of American religious life. During some years in the first half of the nineteenth century, revivals (through which evangelicalism found expression) occurred so often that religious publications that specialized in tracking them lost count. In 1827, for example, one journal exulted that "revivals, we rejoice to say, are becoming too numerous in our country to admit of being generally mentioned in our Record." During the years between the inaugurations of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, historians see "evangelicalism emerging as a kind of national church or national religion." The leaders and ordinary members of the "evangelical empire" of the nineteenth century were American patriots who subscribed to the views of the Founders that religion was a "necessary spring" for republican government; they believed, as a preacher in 1826 asserted, that there was "an association between Religion and Patriotism." Converting their fellow citizens to Christianity was, for them, an act that simultaneously saved souls and saved the republic. The American Home Missionary Society assured its supporters in 1826 that "we are doing the work of patriotism no less than Christianity." With the disappearance of efforts by government to create morality in the body politic (symbolized by the termination in 1833 of Massachusetts' tax support for churches) evangelical, benevolent societies assumed that role, bringing about what today might be called the privatization of the responsibility for forming a virtuous citizenry.

When researching the McGuffey's on line, I came across a lot of negative opinions, accusing them of being "bigoted" and misogynistic. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the morality of all of the different versions points towards kindness and fairness, without exception for gender, race, or creed. All of these virtues were being sought after in the climate of revivals during the 19th century. These books were not written to impress university elitists and educational demagogues; they were meant to appeal to pastors and parents who wanted to pass their faith on to the next generation. Unlike education today, curriculum decisions were left at the local, even the home, level. I wonder how curricula would be chosen today if the same were true!

One-Room School

We have a lot of trouble with the library--I have called checking out books my one acceptable "vice" for many years.

When the children were younger we would check out maybe sixty books at a shot, then something would happen and I would let those books be a few days overdue and...well you can imagine the fines!

One day my dear husband went to the library to check something out, only to be shocked that he owed $43 in fines--I'm not kidding! Of course, he didn't rack up those bucks, I did!

Now I am on a strict diet--no more of this biblio-gluttony. The last time we checked out 20 or so books, one went missing, for three weeks. It was finally discovered underneath the bathroom sink--not sure how to look at that one.

Since we did find the book, we went to the library once again, this time allowing ourselves only one book per person. This made us all very particular, and very careful as to our choices.


For my book, I chose One Room School, by Raymond Bial. I loved all of the photos in this one--especially the vintage ones of a class of students standing in front of the schoolhouse.

These children were often dressed in a rugged, pioneer way, holes in the knees of their britches, etc. Some were only sod houses, one was just a bunch of tree branches bunched together in the form of a makeshift canopy.

Children sat on puncheon benches where there was an abundance of wood, back when Professor McGuffey would have been formulating his readers.

We like to think that we are so advanced these days--but we have lost the will to persevere and overcome. Lincoln, the man who wrote one of the most famous speeches in our history on the back of an envelope, started in a log hut--and we haven't seen the likes of him in quite a while.

Consider this from McGuffey's Fourth Reader (original) with the notation Beecher:

We must educate! We must educate or we must perish by our own prosperity. If we do not, short will be our race from the cradle to the grave. If in our haste to be rich and mighty, we outrun our literary and religious institutions, they will never overtake us, or only come up after the battle of liberty is fought and lost, as spoil to grace the victory, and as resources of inexorable despotism for the perpetuity of our bondage. 


But what will become of the West, if her prosperity rushes up to such a majesty of power, while those great institutions linger which are necessary to form the mind, and the conscience, and the heart of that vast world? It must not be permitted.

Awfully prophetic, wasn't it?

See the Light DVD Review/Giveaway!

Art is in our blood. We have artistic/creative-types on both sides of our family, and some have been quite successful. Five out of six of our grown children are in some way involved in Graphic Design, two of them make a good living at it. All of our children began to sketch at an early age; the humorous thing is that, if we have to correct them, we just take away their drawing privileges for a day! 

So the other day, when we were all working on a design project, the most perfect thing for us to keep the younger ones happy was to put in a DVD from See the Light. This particular one was entitled, God's Runaway, which covers the story of Jonah. The girls sat in the family room with some supplies and followed along with the DVD.

 

When I later asked the girls what they liked about the See the Light video, the oldest of the three, who is nine-years-old, said she loved how they made things glow, and that she learned about curves, how to hold her pencils better, and about shadowing. This meant so much to her, since she draws probably about three hours a day!

My children have learned how to draw and create intuitively, which has helped them to be creative problem-solvers, but I think it is important that they also have some time for actual instruction in methods and technique from those who are more skilled. I know that the few tips that they have learn on these wonderful art instruction DVDs has helped tremendously! I highly recommend them to you. If you would like a chance to win this wonderful learning tool for your own family, just click on the link below:

See the Light Giveaway! Just click here to enter...

* The FTC requires that I tell you that see the Light is a paid advertiser on my blog and I received a free DVD in order to review it.

Lilla Rose Mother's Day idea!

This would make a great gift for Mom (hint, hint)!

 

* The FTC requires that I disclose that I am paid to advertise Lilla Rose products on my blog

Older Children and Home Learning

Sometimes I think we get it too much of a hurry for our kids to grow up. We prod and push them to smile, to crawl, to walk, to ride a bike.

But some children just will not cooperate with our schedules. Children who grew up to be radio broadcasters or famous speakers sometimes did not speak until they were toddlers. I once had an athletic friend who did not walk until she was three-years-old.

There are some thoughtful leaders, the types that have made famous speeches and been vastly influential for good, who have never enjoyed talking, at least not shallow chit-chatting.

There was a time when being thoughtful and quiet was an appreciated character trait. Young people were encouraged to take time to think before speaking, not to jump into a conversation too quickly, not to be flighty or too social.

I used to fret about how I needed to drum up "opportunities" for my youngsters to have "social experiences," partly believing the lie that home-schooled children aren't outgoing enough, but I have since repented.

I have learned to relax and trust; trust that God knows His times, trust that my children are maturing at their own rate. 

Without the outside pressure to perform in public, they have learned to listen to God, and have learned to tune in to find out who they are.


One child spent hours upon hours studying the history of "costume" and how to make patterns from scratch and sew beautiful clothing. She grabbed Harvey's and Pinneo's grammars and plunged herself deeply into language arts, writing page after page of poetry. She went on long walks to the library and bought classics to read such as Cervante's Don Quixote. She played with her younger siblings and created all sorts of pastry treats in the kitchen. She studied chemistry and anatomy so that she could learn everything available to aid her in her artistic pursuits. And she drew and drew, fantastic scenes and lovely ladies.

Another child has spent time building up his body; he regularly does calisthenics, goes on long morning runs, and works in the yard without being told. The rest of his time he spends reading theology books and thinking deep thoughts about God. He will spend hours on his face praying, and then, when the time is right, he will share his love of the Master in his booming voice with the enthusiasm of an 18th century evangelist. Funny, but we never assigned any of these books to him, and we never required him to do exercises or run, he just decided that these activities would be worthy of his time.


According to Dr. Raymond Moore, the Smithsonian Institute studied the common life influencing factors of twenty world-class geniuses and found them to be:

1) Warm, loving educationally responsive parents and other adults.
2) Scant association outside the family.
3) A great deal of creative freedom under parental guidance to explore their ideas, drilling as necessary.

Instead of being concerned for my children and their social life, I am relieved, thankful, hopeful, overjoyed!

When our oldest daughter at home did eventually take some college courses, she was a little bit intimidated at first, but it did not take very long until she realized just how blessed she was to have had all of that time to explore on her own. There are some things that she is learning that have helped her, but she is advanced in most of her classes, because she took advantage of her time and didn't just explore, but honed her skills until they were finely tuned. 

Besides, she really has no trouble being friendly, but in a very grounded, self-assured way. Unlike most young people, she knows who she is, she has a close walk with God, and this has stabilized her. Certainly, she is still discovering new things about herself in her relation to life, but not with the uncertainty of most people her age.

She has learned the lessons of being by herself and enjoying it, something that many adults have never had the time to do.