Awesome Autumn, Adieu

I love all four seasons and I would never want to live in a place that didn't have four distinct seasons. I welcome the changes and traditions of each season and always want to make the most of each.  That said, autumn is my favorite.  Every year I just cannot get enough time outside to soak it all up. It seems it's over as soon as it starts and I regret not having spent more time outside. 

This year I was determined to spend as much time out in the autumn awesomeness as responsibly possible. I'm still not sure it was enough, but I'm so glad I made a conscious effort to not let the season pass me by. So, tonight, as the snow softly falls outside my window at the close of Thanksgiving weekend and the beginning of the Christmas season, I bid a fond farewell to a beautiful autumn and challenge myself (and you) to seize the day(s) during the coming winter season and not let it pass you by without enjoying it--whatever that means to you.

"Teaching children about the natural world 

should be seen as one of the most important events of their lives."

-Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth-

"Along with milk and vegetables, kids need a steady diet of rocks and worms."

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you...

While cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

-John Muir-

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." 

-Henry David Thoreau-

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

 -Albert Camus-

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

 -L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables-

"No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face."

 -John Donne-

In His Image - Fall Leaf Rubbings That Mean Something

What is one of the most common autumn art activities in childhood?  Leaf rubbings! So why not make them really count for an impressionable lesson?

Gather a variety of different types of leaves. Discuss whether you'll find a maple leaf on an oak tree. If a "helicopter" is planted, will it grow into a poplar?  If an acorn takes root, will it produce a fir tree?  What about other seeds?  Can a watermelon seed grow green beans?

Now turn to the Bible and read the following verses:

Genesis 1:26-27

 26 ¶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Acts 17:28-29

 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

 29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.

Sing the hymn   "O My Father", paying special attention to and discussing verse three.

Demonstrate how to do a leaf rubbing.  Talk about how just like the image on the paper is in the image of the leaf, we are made in the image of God.  Then let the children copy the above scriptures and decorate with leaf rubbings. 

Celebrate Color!

One thing about blogging is that it's hard to blog and live at the same time. So, this post is a month overdue.  But maybe it will still inspire.

For National Color Day (October 22) we revisited a Color Unit we've been exploring off and on. (Hopefully that will get posted in its entirety one of these days.  <Sigh.>  The hard drive that held all the photos crashed and I'm in the process of trying to salvage the pictures.)

We did some exploration with color in poetry with these two fabulous books that I love.

We also read a book that beautifully and poetically describes the colors of people.

We learned about hue in color and I pulled out these super fun boxes of crayons that I've been saving for over a year and colored MindWare pages. (One page would be colored in only red hues, another in only yellow hues, etc.)

And, with autumn being the perfect time to explore color in leaves, the big project was to experiment with leaf chromatography from Almost Unschoolers.

We gathered a large variety of leaves and mashed them up in rubbing alcohol.

After putting a piece of coffee filter paper in each bowl and letting them sit all day, we were able to see the pigments pulled out.

This didn't quite deliver the results I was hoping for, but it was still a good experiment. I want to do this again next year with leaves in various stages of change and see if the results are different.

There are so many things that can be done to celebrate and learn about color that I definitely want to mark this day every year.

See You on the Other Side

A song that my family is loving right now is "See You on the Other Side" by Shaun Canon.  We heard about if from our missionary yesterday and we just can't get enough of it.  We listened to it first on The Mormon Channel and then found a different video version to share here, but you might wanna grab a box of tissue.

If this song touches you like it does us and you'd like to listen to it more, you can get a free download.

I have a strong testimony that this life is not "it." We existed before here and now, there is another, better place, we are eternal beings, and we WILL see our loved ones again.

Go into the Mount Oft

Oh, how I love the mountains! I couldn't live without them! I am blessed to live in a place where I see mountains out of most of my home's windows and where I am just minutes from several canyons. There is something about the majesty of mountains that fills my soul with all things good and makes me feel closer to God.

The scriptures are full of references to mountains and their holiness.  It was on Mount Sinai that Moses met with the Lord and received the commandments. Abraham's test with Isaac took place on a mountain. Book of Mormon prophets wrote of personal prayers and answers received on mountains: "And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things" (1 Nephi 18:3, see also Ether 3).  Jesus went purposefully to the mountains, a few instances of note being to teach (Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7), to give priesthood keys and be transfigured before Peter, James, and John (Mount of Transfiguration, Mark 9:2-10), and to pray (Luke 6:12).

As we studied mountains in our geography lessons, I wanted to impress upon my children the spiritual nature of mountains outside of plate tectonics.  So we gathered up our scriptures and our journals and headed into a canyon we haven't previously explored.

We've had an unusually warm and dry autumn, but the morning we took to the mountains we had a change overnight to record lows. It was a beautiful clear day, but it was a cold 12 degrees! Thankfully my 14-year-old Boy Scout knew where some matches were in the car. With some garbage papers and a lot of twigs and wood laying around, he had a fire going in no time and we gathered around it for a search and discussion in the scriptures.

In peaceful solitude I shared my love for the mountains with my children as I told them how much closer I feel to God when I'm in them. I told them of the clarity a running river brings to my mind and shared why I believe that is with Joseph Smith's account of his vision of the Savior in the Kirtland Temple:  "His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah..." (D&C 110:3)  

And then we spread out to each be by him/herself with thoughts, prayers and journals and we were still. 

Then with dirt and icy cold water from the creek we put out the fire and headed home, hopefully with a lasting impression.

What Do You Get for Being a Mormon?

The past few years I have enjoyed occasionally listening to Brad Wilcox's talk, "What Do You Get for Being a Mormon? A Better Education."  I was reminded of it this past month as my daughter participated in a children's choir for a Veterans Day concert. It was a program for the community, but it was sponsored and directed by our stake and held at our church. It was one of many occasions where there were noticeable blessings for being a Mormon.

You see, my daughter loves all things music. She sings and whistles and plays the piano all the day long. She has been involved in some choirs and productions in the past, but directors in these organizations have moved on and/or timing ceased to work for us and so this year there is a hole in her life. I have wanted to provide other opportunities for her, but it's not in my budget at this time and so she and I both have been mourning the loss. 

But, never fear, the Lord provides!  Through church we have found musical opportunities that cost us nothing but time we are very willing to give.  I'm sure many churches provide similar opportunities, but as we relished the wonderful Veterans Day program, I was extra glad for what I get for being a Mormon.

No Man is an Island

Because current active volcanoes are on islands and are forming new islands as I type (in Japan, the Canary Islands, Hawaii and even, fleetingly, there was a new island in Pakistan ) it was only natural to follow up volcanoes with a study of islands.

I love Kids Discover magazines and the KD "Islands" was the base of information for this mini unit inside our geology unit. I added the tactile aid of some Hawaiian coral, and used some other activity books from Hawaii to add some Hawaiian culture and language to our studies.

We made large notebook pages from 11"x17"paper, folded in half. On the front we recorded definitions of island words like atoll, archipelago, barrier island, etc. On the backside we recorded associative scriptures that we discussed the meaning of (2 Nephi 10:20-21 and Doctrine & Covenants 1:1-2). The inside was a map and information spread where we noted interesting facts of various islands such as that Indonesia is the country with the most islands at about 17,500, and Greenland is the largest island with 840,000 square miles.

You can't really study geology without geography mixed in, so we continued some map activity by looking at photos of different islands and finding them on world maps.  (I have a stockpile of calendars that I collect for the pictures--from the dollar store or cheaply elsewhere when they go on a rock-bottom sale around February--and I pulled out the ones with island photos.)

For Language Arts and additional Social Studies the kids each researched and wrote a report on Iceland.

Each child also read and wrote a short book report on this book:

Then, in what became a highlight for me, we studied three versions of "No Man is an Island" and wrote comparison essays on them. 

The first and original use of the phrase came from poet and pastor John Donne (1572-1631).  The passage now titled "No Man is an Island" is from MEDITATION XVII from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. (Phrases from this passage have lived on and inspired such works as Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.  Donne also penned the poem "Death Be Not Proud.")

No Man is an Island

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 

own were; any man's death diminishes me, 

because I am involved in mankind. 

And therefore never send to know for whom 

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

In 1950, Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer penned a song, "No Man is an Island" which The Letterman performed and added to their repertoire.

No Man is an Island

No man is an island

No man stands alone

Each man's joy is joy to me

Each man's grief is my own

We need one another

So I will defend

Each man as my brother

Each man as my friend

I saw the people gather

I heard the music start

The song that they were singing

Is ringing in my heart

No man is an island

Way out in the blue

We all look to the one above

For our strength to renew

When I help my brother

Then I know that I

Plant the seed of friendship

That will never die

Then, earlier this year, American contemporary Christian music band Tenth Avenue North released their version of "No Man is an Island," a song that moved me from the second I first heard it and has had a very powerful affect on me and my kids.

Lyrics in poetry form

Volcanoes are a Blast

Discovering Volcanoes was a prominent base aid for our study of volcanoes as we continued with our geology unit. We used several of the activity pages for our notebooks. This book focuses mostly on the volcanic areas in the Northwest of the United States, but it also covers the Ring of Fire, types of volcanoes, the anatomy of a volcano, and lava basics. We read additional books on Mount St. Helens, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaii.

This is my favorite artistic rendition of Pele. I love how her hair is pahoehoe lava.

Because we lived in the Seattle area when the children were younger, most of them have been to Mount St. Helens--but the youngest ones don't remember it. I pulled out the photos as well as all of the educational things I purchased there.  We watched the DVD Fire Mountain:  The Eruption and Rebirth of Mount St. Helens.  We put together a jigsaw puzzle of the mountain before, during, and after the eruption. We examined ash and pumice and lava rock (the lava rock actually came from Hawaii) and saw for ourselves that pumice, a rock, does indeed float.

In 1980, when Mount St. Helens blew, there was an appropriate LDS General Conference talk titled, "Seven Events of Great Consequence" given by J. Thomas Fyans.  After learning all about Mount St. Helens, we listened to the talk, reviewed the printed version, and created these notebook pages.

Because I recently flew to Anchorage, Alaska via Seattle, Washington, I also had photos to show the kids that I took from the plane. The Cascade Mountain Range is huge and lovely, but from the plane you can easily see the volcano mountains standing out, larger than the others. In this photo you can see Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, and even Mount Hood in the far distance.

A few years ago we took a field trip to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  I wanted to go there again during this unit, but it's a good few hours away and we didn't have the time. So, we looked through all the pictures we took from our last trip there, read up on why and how it is there, and then made notebook pages with a map from the above mentioned book, photos from our past trip (this one the kids did remember) and summaries the kids each wrote of their reading about the geology of the area.

We watched a couple of videos about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, lava, and volcanologists. I really do recommend watching videos rather than just looking at still pictures or books because it's the only way to get the full effect with the sound and movement of the lava. The explosions are cool, of course, but so is everything else lava does. My husband and I have been to the island of Hawaii and biked around the volcano and toured HVNP, so I also had personal photos and experience to share.

Our read-aloud chapter book at this time was Rage of Fire by Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson. It is another in the "Mysteries in Our National Parks" series. (I'm still not sure what I think of these books. We've read two in the series now and I just can't decide. The mysteries are interesting and exciting enough, and the settings are perfect. There are some rough subjects, though, as a continuing element of these stories is that the family of main characters take in foster children from various backgrounds who have had bad experiences. Part of the premise of the books is that the children in the "blessed" family are learning more about the lives of the less fortunate and how to appreciate and get along with them as they come in and disrupt their life. The backgrounds are indeed rough, and there is a lot of conflict between characters. So far I haven't finished a book feeling like it was a really great read.)

Visual and Language Arts were incorporated with a volcano collage and volcano haiku. First I introduced them to the concept of collage and we looked at many different samples online. I printed several 8.5 x 11" photos of active volcanoes for the kids to cut up and use in their art.  Then I reviewed/taught haiku poetry to them (for my youngest two this was new) and everyone fiddled with it using various subjects until I said they each needed to write a volcano haiku.  One of them wrote two, and one of them had too much to say to limit it to three lines and really wanted his volcano poem to not be haiku.

I felt a little guilty that there were two active volcanoes in the news during this time. It made for great learning, but it was at the expense of others. Mount Ontake in Japan was of course a topic of discussion, especially why there was no warning.  And the Puna lava flow from Kilauea in Hawaii continues to be news.

Iceland is also a volcanic hot spot with current volcanic activity.  I assigned the kids to research and write a report on Iceland.

Finally, we used up 2 gallons of vinegar and a huge, huge bag of baking soda making volcanoes in the back yard. As fun as every kid thinks this is, it isn't just for fun. The vinegar/baking soda reaction releases carbon dioxide, which is one of the main gases released in a real volcanic eruption. So there is a correlation. We learned that we owe our atmospheric gases to volcanic eruptions and that they are a necessary part of this life-producing and life-sustaining planet.  Further, we experimented with pressure. We used plastic bottles as our magma chambers and built mud mountains around them. We let the lava flow without a lid, then we tried it with the lid screwed halfway on, then with the lid screwed on completely but with a few holes nailed into it. The kids did more videoing of the eruptions than picture taking, and by the end we were all covered in soda and vinegar because we were able to create some huge eruptions due to enormous gas pressure. (P.S. I added food coloring to get a more orangey lava color.)

This experiment also demonstrated the creation of lava rock with all its holes.
The carbon dioxide bubbles left pock marks in the mud just as they do in lava rock.

In this photo you can see the lid being blown off the bottle.
The mountain is literally blowing its top off.

Thank the Homeschoolers for Thanksgiving

Sarah Josepha Hale

History is abounding in tales of thanksgiving, however quiet and unfamiliar they may be. The beloved Pilgrims of Plymouth may be the most well-known thanks-givers (at least in the U.S.A.), but they weren’t the first or the last. There were Daniel and David in the Old Testament, Lehi and Moroni in the Book of Mormon, various Native American tribes, Spanish conquistadors, etc. There were many who recognized the Almighty as the giver of all that’s good with sacrifices, prayer, fasting or feasts. But for the traditional Thanksgiving as we know it today, we owe our thanks to “homeschoolers.”

George Washington penned the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation at the behest of the Continental Congress, who had declared a variety of thanksgiving days of prayer throughout the Revolutionary War. 

I love what he wrote: “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor... (I) "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:...”

Following Washington’s presidency, officially proclaimed days of Thanksgiving were sporadic. It was James Madison (another homeschooler) who proclaimed the last day of national Thanksgiving prior to a very long dry spell. Many individual states issued their own proclamations, but there was nothing more on a national level. A home- and self-educated woman by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale (who, incidentally, was America’s first female magazine editor, first female novelist, and the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) was passionate that the United States of America should set aside a uniform day to offer thanks as a nation. For decades she persuaded the women and petitioned the presidents of America to establish a national day of Thanksgiving. She succeeded in winning the hearts of many fellow Americans, but it wasn’t until another home-educated president was in office that anyone in the White House listened. The president? Abraham Lincoln.

In the springs of 1862 and 1863, President Lincoln issued Thanksgiving proclamations over victories in the battlefield. Then, in the fall of 1863, after the lobbying of Sara Hale for the revitalization of a national Thanksgiving on the same day President Washington had originally issued one, President Lincoln began anew the tradition of declaring the fourth Thursday in November a national holiday in which all gave thanks.

He wrote, in part: “... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God... It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States... to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

To think of one homeschooled woman, doing what she could in her realm, and one homeschooled man doing what he could in his, together bringing about the grand tradition of an entire nation praising our Heavenly Father simultaneously is tremendous. God’s benevolence is no less today what it’s been in times past. Our nation will always be in need of Him. The power of an individual to influence for good is no less today, either. Our nation will always be in need of stubborn, stalwart, superb homeschooled people like Sarah Hale, Abraham Lincoln, and You.

Recommended Reading

Thank You, Sarah, The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson

P is for Pilgrim, A Thanksgiving Alphabet by Carol Crane

Thanksgiving in the White House by Gary Hines

Additional Excellent Information
Thanksgiving Proclamations
Pilgrim Hall Museum's Archives
The Godmother of Thanksgiving, the Story of Sarah Josepha Hale



*************************************
I wrote this article several years ago. It was published by The Sentinel, and republished by The Sentinel again in 2011.

Come, Ye Thankful Homeschoolers

A few years ago I wrote a homeschooler's version of the Thanksgiving hymn "Come, Ye Thankful People." Originally published in LDSNHA's The Sentinel, it's been a good, long time since I've read it. Proverbially dusting it off today I was reminded of the specific blessings of homeschooling that I am especially thankful for.

Come, Ye Thankful Homeschoolers

By Sasha Takis

Come, ye thankful families come;

Raise the song of school at home. 

All are safely nestled in

Ere the culture storms begin.

God, our Maker, doth bestow

More edifying seeds to sow. 

Come, learn in your temple, come;

Raise the song of school at home.

Education is God’s own,

Fruit of knowledge is his throne.

Not of the world, but in it dwell,

Gathered at home, all is well.

Free to choose the means and source,

The shape of our eternal course.

Lord of wisdom, grant that we 

Understand veracity. 

Funning Up a Skills Challenge

Practicing or testing writing skills does not have to be boring. There are so many ways to mix things up and keep them interesting.  

This past week in the journalism class I am mentoring I wanted to cover fact and opinion as well as punctuation, capitalization, and a few other skills. In honor of it being Halloween week, I created an activity that combined all of that with some festive flair.

I wrote several statements about spiders, some fact and some opinion. I wrote them with all sorts of mistakes that needed to be fixed. I set the statements around the room and added cobwebs and spider rings. Then I gave each student a glow stick and turned out the lights. (It was darker in the room than the photos show.) Statements were read by light of personal glow sticks; students had to determine if the statement was a fact or an opinion, and rewrite it with correct punctuation, etc. When everyone was done, we turned the lights back on and went over the statements and reviewed rules for writing together.

Keeping it fun and fresh!