For the Beauty of Blue Planet Earth

I'm sitting here watching BBC's Planet Earth, again, and just marveling at the wonder of Earth and the life on it. Several years ago I came across a great deal on the complete collection of Planet Earth and Blue Planet, and every time we watch any of it I am so thankful and happy we invested in them. It IS an investment. If you want your family to really learn about and appreciate God's awesome creative handiwork, invest in these DVDs for inspiration.

P.E. a Problem? Kids (and Moms) Like to Move It

I have heard many a homeschooling mother ask questions in the vein of, “How do you get your kids to do P.E.?”  It’s made me laugh out loud. “Are you kidding me?” I’ve thought to myself.  My question has always been, “How do you get your kids to STOP doing P.E.?”  It just goes to show that we all have different strengths and challenges.  (And we should never laugh at each other.)

From baseball to basketball, sledding to fox ‘n’ geese, laser tag to Just Dance™, swimming to hiking, I have a much harder time getting my kids to hold still.  They even bounce their legs and/or dance with their upper body while doing their schoolwork.  None of us can sit “normally” in a chair for very long—it’s actually painful.  Because my children are such movers and shakers, and because they are heavily involved in organized sports leagues, I’ve never worried about them getting enough exercise. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still physical things for us all to learn or that winter doesn’t challenge us.

Below is a list of ideas for incorporating more physical education into your homeschool, all year long.

Begin with the basics.

*Start with teaching and practicing some basic skills such as playing catch with a baseball, dribbling a basketball, doing jumping jacks, jumping rope, walking a balance beam, doing a somersault, etc. You may think these things trivial, but they are essential for developing coordination, both physically and mentally. 

*Teach the basic rules of play of a variety of common sports and give them a try. (This can mean try a recreational league, or just give it a go in family home evening.) You never know, your children may discover talents and passions that lead in the direction of their life’s mission.  Even if you’re not a particularly athletic family, it’s a good idea to have a basic education in sports.  I’ve never wanted my children to have to sit something out because they feel physically awkward or athletically uninformed.  I could write a dissertation on the value of sports in children’s lives, but suffice it to say that physical education can be a great tool for building confidence.  Many social skills are learned in organized sports as well.

*Learn and/or make up lots of different physical games.   Many ideas are just a click away on the internet, or you can get a good game book like The Pocket Guide to Games by Bart King.

*Go and do.  Set aside days in your homeschool schedule for hiking and biking and enjoying the seasons.  

Having enough bodies.  Many physical activities require a larger number of people than you have in your family.

*Adapt games to your family size.  My husband will divide our kids into 2 teams and then play quarterback both ways in flag football.  

*A group in Utah County, Utah arranged a P.E. program with a local university.  The undergraduates in the university’s physical education program “practice” on a group of homeschoolers, benefiting everyone.

*Organize a homeschool P.E. day once a week or twice a month, or whatever your needs are.  Use a park or someone’s yard.  A group where I live was able to use the gym at the National Guard armory at one point while one of the Guard’s homeschooling fathers was teaching self defense there.

*Find a professional who is willing to give a group discount for doing a class in the middle of the day.  When coaches and teachers find there’s an untapped resource before 4:00 pm, they’re happy to offer something like karate or gymnastics to groups of homeschoolers.

The challenge of winter.

*Embrace the season.  Besides sledding (which naturally requires lots of uphill climbing that is good for the heart) there is also snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and of course downhill skiing to enjoy.

*When many roads are icy and crowded, church parking lots are often clear and empty.  Load up your car with bikes and skateboards and head to the parking lot for a safe riding zone.

*Visit an indoor fitness or recreation center.  If you live in the right place, you can do almost anything indoors, including running, swimming, and tennis.

*Winter is a good time to check out exercise DVDs.  The whole family can give it a try!  Videos on belly dancing and Tai Chi also enhance social studies lessons.

*I have some kids who really work up a sweat dancing with Just Dance™.  Some video games can be healthy!

*Speaking of dancing, just turn on some music and move!

*Make hopscotch squares with carpet remnants.  Our squares have been hopped on a lot over the years.

Equipment and other costs—managing what isn’t free.

*Used tennis rackets, baseball bats and other equipment can be found in thrift stores or classifieds.

*Ask for these things for gifts.  One Christmas my husband’s brother surprised us with an indoor basketball arcade game that has been a lifesaver on many a day too cold to go outside.

*We cashed in my husband’s frequent flier miles from business trips to get a free ping pong table.

*Lift tickets, recreational center passes, bowling alley gift cards, etc. can all be given as gifts from you to your children for birthdays and holidays.

*Reward systems can be set up to make a trip to an indoor trampoline park or a soft play climbing gym or the rental of snowshoes a goal everyone is trying to earn with behavior or schoolwork or chores.

Moms like to move it, too!

As much as I’d like to be my old skinny self, for me fitness is more about being able to go and do the things my kids are doing.  I want to be able to have a foot race with them and not need CPR.  For the most part, just doing what they’re doing and playing right along with them is good enough.  My now high school baseball pitchers started out playing as much catch with me in the middle of the day as they ever did with their dad after work.  But as my kids have grown and advanced in their athletic goals, I find myself more on bleacher duty watching them than on active duty moving as much as they do.  A few more quick ideas for adding movement to a mom’s day:

*Stash a set of small hand weights on the bookshelves.  Work your arms while your children read aloud.

*Listen to music while folding laundry or doing dishes and dance during your chores.

*When things get testy and tense, jump up and call a jumping jacks contest, with you leading the way.  It burns calories and frustrations.

*During recess, don’t just send the kids out to play.  Go out with them and take a brisk walk around the block or demonstrate a jump rope game from your own childhood.

Exercise and physical education are important. As a woman who has found exercise to be absolutely necessary in maintaining not just physical but also mental and emotional health for myself, and as a mother who has seen the behavior and focus benefits from sports and activity in my children’s lives, I hope everyone will find ways to “move it.”

Flag football with quarterback Dad.

Rollerblading kids rushing rollerskating Mom.

Mom teaching kids the tricks of jumping rope.

Mom photographs the hillside family before joining in the ups and downs.

Dad and P2 face off in the championship round of the
Christmas Eve Family Ping Pong Tournament.

Creative Writing with Picture Books

"Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery--it's the sincerest form of learning."

George Bernard Shaw

Some children are naturally inclined to sit down and write stories out of their heads. Others are intimidated by blank space on a paper or computer screen. All children need to be exposed to different writing styles and different methods of storytelling, however, and some of the best writing prompts are children's picture books.

Below are some examples of picture books I have used to inspire different ways of writing with my children. I read the book to them and then they had the assignment of imitating the style or premise of the book, but to think for themselves and make their writing their own. I used many of these to teach a specific concept or skill as well.

Any good ABC book can be used, or better yet, read several different ABC books. Then have your children write their own. Their ABC books could have a theme, like a holiday or a sport, or could be completely open ended. 

After reading One Fish Two Fish... we created our own books titled (and thus themed) From There to Here and Here to There, Funny Things are Everywhere, a line taken straight from the book. This was a fun project to get crazy with crazy.

This book is so rhythmical and clever. After reading this book, kids write their own book on colors, with or without rhyme.

All writers need to learn the concept of main idea and supporting it in writing. I use this book to start the discussion. The writing assignment is to then choose some important main ideas and write about them.

This wacky book has so many spinoffs nowadays. It's fun to read several versions and then write your own.

After reading The Friendly Book (Things I Like) we explored writing writing biographical poems about the things we like. I like reading about what they like!

This is another ABC book, but each letter of the alphabet is the first letter of the answer to some clever and challenging riddles. We explored writing riddles after reading this book.

The entire If You Give a... series is so charming. These books were used to teach cause and effect. I used a cause and effect PowerPoint I found online that was based on these books, then we read the books, did some cause and effect worksheets, and then everyone wrote their own story that began, "If you give a...."

This is a fun book to explore words with. After reading this the children had to find some new and interesting words, one for each letter of the alphabet, and then write a story that incorporated all of their "new" words. 

Tap the Untapped - Be a Tourist at Home

Whenever I travel I am quick to pounce on the travel brochure kiosk at my hotel. I also peruse whatever maps and free information  are available at ranger stations, rest areas, state and national parks visitors centers, etc., and I've purposely visited various towns' visitors bureaus when I know virtually nothing about a place.*  But I've never tapped that resource right here in my own hometown, until recently.

Just before Christmas a new, highly detailed map of my area was published by National Geographic, the first such of this area. I was so excited because I'd heard that "this trail" hooked up with "that trail" if you went far enough and all sorts of other things about particular canyons or peaks, but I wanted something that would show me everything, in both one big picture and in the minutest detail. This map that I desperately wanted was being sold at the local visitors bureau, so one day I stopped by there with my kids.

I stopped in my tracks and marveled. Ten years I've lived here and not once have I stopped by there. I'd picked up some things here and there at a nature center, a ranger station, or the library, but here at the visitors bureau was the wealthiest treasure trove of information beneficial to learning about and living in this area (and much of the outer surrounding area and even surrounding states) and I was just incredulous that it had never occurred to me to go there--because I live here. 

So, I'm telling you. 

If you want to enrich your life at home and if you want your children to learn more of everything about where they live, take a field trip to your local visitors bureau. My daughter was just as excited as I was and we giddily brought home stacks of free maps, history, folklore, scientific information, activity suggestions, and even coloring/activity books that fit right in with our current unit study. I even had a wonderful conversation with a knowledgeable elderly gentleman who volunteered there. 

So, go! Get you to your visitors bureau!

*Yes, I know you can find almost anything on Google. But don't you get tired of everything being on a blasted screen? Give me a map I can touch and smell and lay out on a table and peruse for hours! (And can carry in a backpack to places where there's no internet.) Besides, a web search is only as good as your search words. I guarantee you there are things you'll miss because you just don't know all the things you could be looking for.

Good Things to Come

At a particularly cloudy time in my life when I was having a hard time wanting to keep putting one foot in front of the other, a friend sent me Elder Holland's "Good Things to Come." It has become a favorite pick-me-up. 

Here we are, just shy of two weeks into the new year. I've already had some personal "splats" that could just kill any motivation for continuing to climb. So rude! It would be nice to at least get into February before face planting!

But the only way is up, so...

Keeping Christmas in a Jar

Every Christmas I wish oh wish oh wish to find a way to keep Christmas close all year long. As a huge Trans-Siberian Orchestra fan, I listen to their music over and over and over, and yet these words get to me every single time I hear them:

"So, tell me Christmas, are we kind,

More this day than any other day,

Or is it only in our mind?

And must it leave when you have gone away?"

("This Christmas Day")

"If you want to arrange it,

This world, you can change it,

If we could somehow

Make this Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor,

Or even a stranger.

And to know who needs help,

You need only just ask."

("Old City Bar")

One summer night while visiting my parents, I saw Christmas Jars on a shelf and decided to read it. I'd been aware of the book for quite a while, but hadn't bothered to look into it. After reading it, I decided it was a tradition I wanted to start with my family. I waited until the week after Christmas a year ago to buy the book (75% off, and it's on sale again now!) and then I waited until this week to share it with my family because I wanted to wait for a new year to start the tradition, when everyone is in the phase of being sentimental that Christmas is over, but wanting to start anew to do good things.  We're just getting started, but I hope it's the beginning of keeping Christmas every day and changing the world one heart at a time.

Writing in the New Year

I like to start my kids out with some reflective but creative writing at this time of year, the annual stepping through the gate from one year to another. Here are some of the things we've done through the years.

Since the year that just ended was 2014, the writing assignment would be "Fourteen Things I Learned in 2014." We started this several years ago and it gets harder every year as the numbers go up, even though everyone learned way more things than they're required to list. I love reading my children's lists. There is everything from "Silk comes from silkworms" to "Roman gods and goddesses" to "It's hard to beat my dad at any game" to "The times table" to "Trampolines can fly" to "The earth curves every eight miles" to "How to throw a knuckleball."

One year we turned this idea into an art project. Here is what one of the kids did.

We've also made lists like "Twelve things I Want to Learn in 2012."  I loved that my then 7-year-old listed things like "How to pack my own suitcase," "How to put my own earrings in," and "How to sweep." It was a good litmus of what mattered to her.

Another writing assignment we've done is to break the year into two lists:  "The Top 20 Things I Want to Do This Year" and "The Bottom 15 Things I Do Not Want to Do This Year" (for 2015). This is meant to take some thought and be both a goal and a wish list. There should be some serious and specific goals, like "Get my Eagle," but also hopes for spending time, like "Go swimming more." The "not to do" lists are usually good for some laughs. I've seen anything from "Don't lose to ______" (meaning don't lose a baseball game to a specific team) to "Don't get married" (from a 12 year old!) to "Don't play with Barbies" (from a boy) to a list of specific items someone refused to eat.

One of the trickiest New Year's writing assignments was to turn the new year into an acrostic poem. I'll share mine to show you what I mean:

2 decades of marriage to appreciate and celebrate

0 irritations I don’t try to patiently abate

1 marathon...maybe...can I run 26 miles?

3 times more snuggles, hugs, kisses, and smiles

Ring in the new year with reflective writing!

Our Latter-Day Hymns

My copy is well worn. It has become a staple for our morning devotionals as we pay closer attention to our hymns and try to heed the counsel, own the wisdom, and soak up and reflect the light inside them. Many a sermon is found in a song and the poetry of the hymns and the truths contained in them are nurturing, strengthening, and inspiring.

Whether you are a student of music, interested in people and their stories (writers and composers), entertained by trivia, or you love the hymns and want to learn more about them, this book is packed with material good for Family Home Evening, family devotionals, church lessons, and personal study.

Climb Every Mountain

Climb every mountain,

Search high and low,

Follow every byway,

Every path you know.

Climb every mountain,

Ford every stream,

Follow every rainbow,

'Till you find your dream.

(From Rodgers and Hammersteins The Sound of Music)

We started the new year hiking (in 12 degrees). It was renewing and invigorating to me. Rather than symbolizing toil, trouble, and obstacles, to me a mountain means, "Onward and upward, to better things." I hope to take the urge to climb that I always feel when I see a mountain and energize myself in areas where I've stayed low too long.

Happy new year, and remember, the sun (and Son) is always shining!

Calvin & Hobbes, the Natural Man, and New Year's Resolutions

Whether you believe in making New Year's resolutions or not, there’s a good discussion to be had with your children on goals and change at the beginning of a new year.  Here is a fun lesson plan for a brand new year.

Begin the lesson singing Hymn #217, "Come Let Us Anew." 

Come, let us anew our journey pursue,

Roll round with the year,

And never stand still till the Master appear.

His adorable will let us gladly fulfill,

And our talents improve

By the patience of hope and the labor of love.

Our life as a dream, our time as a stream

Glide swiftly away,

And the fugitive moment refuses to stay;

For the arrow is flown and the moments are gone.

The millennial year

Presses on to our view, and eternity's here.

Oh, that each in the day of His coming may say,

"I have fought my way thru;

I have finished the work thou didst give me to do."

Oh, that each from his Lord may receive the glad word:

"Well and faithfully done;

Enter into my joy and sit down on my throne.

Read the notated scriptures (Matthew 25:21 and 2 Timothy 4:7-8) and discuss phrases in the hymn and the purpose of life. You may or may not wish to use the words of the hymn as copywork.

Next, ask what is a resolution?  It's a firm decision to do or not do something.

I love Calvin & Hobbes and have shared that with my kids. Over the 10 years of the comic strip, Bill Watterson almost always did a New Year’s bit (missed 2 when he took a couple of sabbaticals) and he’s hit the philosophy of pretty much every person through the course of it. So, I printed out all of the New Years strips and we read them and talked about the different ways of thinking. We compared them with what we think and believe the gospel teaches, recognizing that at some point most everyone experiences the range of emotions that Calvin expresses from frustration to apathy to hope..

After reading the comics, have your children summarize the ideas being presented about resolutions and change.  List them on a whiteboard.  (Examples include “I don’t want to change.”  “Why do I need to change?”  “Everyone else needs to change.”)

Calvin raises the point that every year our problems seem bigger than what one person’s resolutions can change. It’s pointless.  Introduce the following poem:

“Your task?  To build a better world,” God said.

I answered, “How?

“The world is such a large, vast place—

“So complicated now.

“And I so small and useless am,

“There’s nothing I can do.”

But God, in His great wisdom, said,

“Just build a better you.”

How is Zion built? One heart at a time. How do we change the world? One person at a time. Challenge everyone to memorize the poem.

The great thing about Calvin is that as he over-reacts and exaggerates in embracing things we might think but never say; we get to see through him the fallacy in the negative. In these comics, Calvin embraces the natural man. No matter what you think of making resolutions, you must realize the truth in Mosiah 3:19, that the natural man is an enemy to God, unless he changes:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Where Calvin complains of change being hard, uncomfortable, perhaps harmful, and sometimes painful, the Book of Mormon teaches us that change is necessary and something to desire. (See Mosiah 5:7, Helaman 15:7, Alma 5:12.)  Discuss people in the Book of Mormon who changed, such as Alma the Younger, Lamoni, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies.

What does the Book of Mormon teach us brings change?  Faith and repentance. 

Finally, read Isaiah 1:18:

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

And that brings us to the very last Calvin and Hobbes strip that Bill Watterson penned, published December 31, 1995. The final strip was number 3,150. Though I wish it hadn’t ended, I think he finished it well. This final strip exhibits how I like to look at each new year.