BIO: Seeds & Memorization

It's likely you've heard this saying before. I created the following picture for our fridge and the kids' memorization.

Daily Morsels - Idioms and Mnemonics

So, it's past the middle of April and we are finally wrapping up a unit that was supposed to be over and done months ago.  What can I say?  Missions, holidays, a wedding, illnesses, and the beginning of baseball season thwarted my plans coming and going. And yet, I think we ended up with a much better "final product." Our unit never stopped, it extended. When I couldn't fight the interruptions, and when time constraints in the middle of interruptions forced me to come up with additional things to not waste what time we had (and, I admit, as I found new resources that intrigued me in my search), the result was a longer but deeper, richer, more comprehensive unit. So, while we are "behind schedule," I'm not going to complain because I'm happy with what we did.

Now, however, with the changing of unit studies, I'm revamping our whole day. (That comes with baseball season as well because our school day hours are fewer. Still plenty, but every afternoon and evening is full.) Today I began a new daily morning routine that sees the addition of idioms and knowledge mnemonics.

As a never-to-recover bibliophile I purchase books faster than I can read or use them. I do get frustrated when I come across a book I either forgot I had, or that I meant to use and didn't get to. These are two books that have been collecting dust on my shelves for years and I do value them and want to put them to use, thus the now daily morsels. Bit by bit we'll consume these and I think it will be perfect because we can savor each little bit. We won't be overwhelmed with information, our daily routine will be enriched, and taking it one little thing at a time will help us remember.

There is also daily reinforcement:  Each idiom will need to be used in a sentence three times to demonstrate understanding, and depending on the information in the mnemonics, a writing or recitation exercise will follow up each day. 

Today's idiom was "ace up your sleeve" and the mnemonic was how to spell accommodate (always remember, you must accommodate two Cs, two Ms, and an O after each.) I guess you could say that I forgot I had these aces up my sleeve and now I will accommodate them and we'll all be winners!

Of Doors and Keys, Prayer and Faith

I inherited an old box of music from my mother-in-law when she made a long-distance move. Every now and then I go through the stack. It's interesting to me how one piece will mean nothing to me one month, but then really catch my eye another. This month, as we have been studying to topic of faith, I was delighted to come across a gem written by Samuel T. Scott and Robert L. Sande. Here are the words.

Prayer is the key to Heaven,

But faith unlocks the door;

Words are so easily spoken,

A prayer without faith, is like a boat without an oar.

Have faith, when you speak to the Master,

That's all He asks you for,

Yes, prayer is the key to Heaven, 

But faith unlocks the door.

This is a poem to memorize!

I've also shared another great song with my whole family that I have been teaching to the Primary children in my ward. This was published in the Friend in 2007. I have turned more and more to music from the Friend recently as there are some fantastic pieces in there to teach doctrine, build faith, and also to mix things up.

For Mothers

I'm continuing to clean out old files and attempting to reduce the paper piles in my house. Today I came across a very old group email exchange between homeschooling mothers that I had printed off. One mom had asked, "Do you all have a favorite scripture that you have posted somewhere around the house that is especially for you as a mom, and a homeschool mom at that? I read a book recently that challenged the reader to really search for a scripture that she could commit to memory that would encourage her in her endeavor as a wife and mother...."

This same mother shared the scripture that she had found for herself:

"Wherefore be not weary in well doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days." (Doctrine & Covenants 64:33-34)

Another mother replied that she had posted the following in her house:

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deuteronomy 6:7)

"Material possessions, and so-called professional advantages are nothing compared to a righteous posterity. In the eternal perspective, children--not possessions, not position, not prestige--are our greatest jewels." - Ezra Taft Benson

 "Mothers, you are your children's best teacher. The Church cannot teach like you can. The school cannot. The day-care center cannot. But you can, and the Lord will sustain you. Your children will remember your teachings forever, and when they are old, they will not depart from them. They will call you blessed--their truly angel mother. Mothers, this kind of heavenly, motherly teaching takes time--lots of time. It cannot be done effectively part-time. It must be done all the time in order to save and exalt your children. This is your divine calling." -Ezra Taft Benson, To the Mothers in Zion pamphlet

Having quotes of scripture and counsel to help stay focused and moving forward is a great boost on rough and tough days, whether you collect them somewhere or post them on a bathroom mirror.

One of my personal favorite quotes, that I truly believe in and try to live by, was quoted by Elder Anderson in Conference. It is from an excellent article written by Rachel Jankovic, titled "Motherhood is a Calling."

 "Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. ... It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for."

As I've mentioned before, and as was suggested by my friend above, memorized scripture is a key source of comfort, motivation, and guidance. When things get fuzzy or frazzled, being able to mentally recall words of God that speak to your soul is invaluable.

There are two scriptures that mean a lot to me as a mother, and especially as a homeschooling mother. While I do consider myself to be an intelligent and capable woman, I recognize that I do not know everything. My love for my children has me ever searching for what I can and should do that is right for them and by them. For all the worldly wisdom out there from the countless "experts," my main source of guidance is my children's Father in Heaven.

"And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore he worketh in me to do according to his will." (Words of Mormon 1:7)

This second scripture is a powerful example to me of what is possible when the Lord is your mentor. If He can guide Nephi to build a ship--and a better one than anything anyone knew how to build at that time--then surely He can guide me to being the mother my children need, and He can do so better than the so-called parenting experts doing things after the manner of men.

"...And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship.

"Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore it was not after the manner of men.

"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 18:1-3) 

 

I'd love to hear the scriptures, counsel, and inspiration that helps you stay a hard-working, fully invested, ever-loving mother. Post it in the comments below.

Things to Get Excited About!

I've run into a few things while traveling this summer that I liked so much I just had to get them for the upcoming school year.

Coloring books are of course everywhere these days. The market is inundated with them and much of the time if you've seen one you've seen them all. But, at a truck stop in the middle of Idaho of all places, I came across this Inspirational Coloring Book for Girls that I really, really like. Each page has a scriptures verse and nice coloring page. It's perfect for my daughter. She is excited about it. I've challenged her to look up every scripture and mark them as well as memorize them. I haven't decided if this will be a daily thing or a weekly thing.

The Book of Coloring Art is something I picked up for myself. (Also at the truck stop!) Inspirational quotes and scripture with really lovely pictures to color, this book flows with serenity and wisdom. I will probably copy some of the pages to give to my kids at different times when I feel they connect with our learning or when a particular principal needs some focus.

A wait for the championship game and an unexpected rainstorm during a baseball tournament drove me inside to a bookstore where I found this Complete the Story journal on a bargain shelf. I love, love, love the tantalizing possibilities of all the unique story starters in this book! We'll be using this for creative writing this next school year and I can't wait to see the stories it leads to. I'm even excited to join my kids and write stories myself with this!

Ponderize!

During the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today, Devin G. Durrant issued a very specific challenge. Interestingly, the challenge is very similar to something I've found myself doing lately already. The challenge is to ponderize scripture. 

To ponderize is to take a verse (or selection of verses) of scripture and to ponder/memorize it for a week. 

I can testify to the benefit of doing this. I have always been a proponent of memorizing scripture. I can't possibly list every instance in which memorized scriptures coming to mind has guided and comforted me. But lately I've come to understand the blessing of really studying and pondering one verse in detail.

One day I came across a verse in my reading that struck me with great force. Mostly it's because I realized that I am not what this verse says I should be. But I knew, in reading it again and again, that I would be so much happier if I could change and I want to be the kind of person this verse describes. So for a period of time, I went to that verse again and again, day after day to read and reread, look words up in the dictionary for greater understanding, and cross reference... and to ponder. I have done a lot of pondering on this one verse and on who I am and who I want to be. Thus a verse that chastised me at first (though that's not how it's written) has become a favorite, trusted friend.

So it is with great enthusiasm that I am going to choose a new scripture tonight to print, post on my fridge, and ponderize this week.

Fun with U.S. Geography

In between our larger units of Early American History (Pre-Columbus through Constitution) and United States History (Constitution through Present Day) we are doing a unit on United States Geography. 

We began by memorizing the names of the states in alphabetical order with the song "Fifty Nifty" until everyone could just sit down and quickly write out all the states alphabetically. 

Then we watched this beautiful video. I thought the narration a bit hokey and lacking, and I wish they'd have done their map segments better, but the real value of this video is the breathtaking views of vastly different parts of the nation. Of course, it doesn't show everything, but there is a good variety and it really was beautiful.

After watching the video I gave everyone two blank maps of the United States (with state lines drawn) and we did a little pretest to see how many states they could label. The goal is obviously to be able to correctly and entirely fill in a map at the end of the unit. The other map was for them to color in every state they have visited. We've been blessed to be able to travel to quite a bit of the country, so it was fun for them to see just how many of the states they have been to.

I have a few different wooden and jigsaw puzzles of the United States, so those have been pulled out and done and referenced often throughout the unit.

The games were and are a big hit. Sequence is a fun game with a strategic component to it and the States & Capitals version lends itself to helping kids learn their state capitals at the same time. I made a rule that when playing a card, the state and capital must be said aloud for reinforcement.

The biggest hit and most favorite activity of all is the game Scrambled States of America. I cannot say enough good things about this game. My kids are playing it all the time and can't get enough of it. Not only does this game help with geography, it also reinforces things like directions, vowels, syllables, attention to detail, and requires quick thinking all while being crazy fun.

An indispensable resource, I think, is Audio Memory's States & Capitals Songs CD. Music really sticks with you and makes it so much easier to memorize things. I have some very musical kids and they love challenging themselves with the quiz songs to see if they can get their geography right. Because they'd played the games and gotten familiar with states and capitals, this reinforced those while giving them a place to put them geographically on a map and a way to memorize locations. 

One more tool for reinforcement and matching was Penguin Hop at Arcademics.

The kids are each also creating a notebook of U.S. geography. 

Book 5 of Draw. Write. Now. works on handwriting and drawing skills while teaching the order in which the continent was settled and states formed, while giving a little history, too.

I like Evan Moor's "Maps of the USA" for focusing on each individual state's geography and basic state information as well as giving regional maps of climates, time zones, etc. The kids color the maps, look up how the flags, state birds and flowers should be colored, and also look up current populations since this was published in 2004.

Then, because my family just loves hidden pictures, we also have a page of them for every state. The items to find are all things that are important to or culturally significant to each state.

Also for each state, every child reads the pages in some compilation books we have (Scholastic's Atlas of the United States, Wish You Were Here - Emily's Guide to the 50 States, and National Geographic Picture Atlas of the Fifty States) and makes a list of 10 facts unique to that state that they learned in the reading.

As you can see, I've used several resources, some of which seem to overlap. I've done that on purpose. Encountering the same information in multiple places in a variety of formats is great reinforcement, yet it keeps it from getting too boring, and helps kids make connections. It also caters to different learning styles. Except for playing games together, this unit is largely an independent one that the kids have enjoyed working through systematically.

Memorizing Maxims

The valuable skill of memorization is going the way of the dodo I'm afraid.  It's more than a shame--it's a tragedy.  The death of memorization is, in some ways, the death of the brain.

When my daughter and I read the entire Little House series, I marveled at the lessons memorized in school in those days.  I'm not sure I know anyone who could commit to memory the things Laura Ingalls Wilder did. It got me to thinking.  I don't believe that strict lesson memorization is the sole answer to education (in fact, I don't believe any method is the sole answer), but I do see value in memorization.

Now, everyone memorizes something.  Hopefully we've all memorized math facts.  Various occupations require or lend themselves easily to the memorization of specific things related to said occupation.  My children memorize entire movies rapidly, as well as song lyrics.  This is not what I'm talking about.  I am talking about purposely memorizing things of wisdom and beauty so as to personally own a cache of goodness that never parts from you; such things can brighten the darkest places and can never be taken away.

It is in this spirit that I required my children to each memorize two quotes from Maxims of George Washington, a book I picked up at Washington's own Mount Vernon some years ago, impressed with the quality and quantity of wisdom and personal writings of one of the people I admire most in history.  (A United States History unit could last years if you wanted to really go in depth.  Deciding what to spend time on and how deep to go on what is another discussion.  Because I have such regard for George Washington and consider him an immensely important figure and role model, I chose to spend some weeks on him alone.)

I allowed each child to choose which maxims he wanted to memorize, my only conditions being that I wanted one of them to have something to do with virtue and character and one to have something to do with politics, government, or liberty.  I also stipulated that they needed to understand the maxim and that it should mean something to them personally.  Today everyone shared their memorized maxims aloud.  As each was recited, we discussed what it meant, citing things we knew from Washington's life and likening the morals and lessons to personal experience.  Here is what the kids shared:

18-year-old P1:
Nature of True Friendship
"...true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shock of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."

Human Imperfection
"...It is to be lamented however that great characters are seldom without blot."


16-year-old P2:
The Most Enviable of Titles
"...I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man."

Self-Control
"...It is our duty to make the best of our misfortunes, and not to suffer passions to interfere with our interests and the public good."


13-year-old P3:
The Patriot's Offering
"...it is my full intention to devote my Life and Fortune in the cause we're engaged in, if need be."

Morality and Civil Government
"...'Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."


11-year-old P4:
Talents, Without Virtue
"...without Virtue and without integrity the finest talents of the most brilliant accomplishments can never gain the respect or conciliate the esteem of the truly valuable part of mankind."

The Soldier's Motto
"...Perseverance and spirit have done Wonders in all Ages."

Spies
"...Single men in the night will be more likely to ascertain facts than the best glasses in the day."


9-year-old P5:
The Government of the United States
"...That the Government, though not absolutely perfect, is one of the best in the world, I have little doubt."

Freedom of Choice
"...it is really my wish to have my mind, and my actions which are the result of contemplation, as free and independent as the air."

I've read that Washington had a sense of humor, and that he disliked posing for paintings.  With that in mind, I'm going to share something my 13-year-old put together using paintings of Washington, not to be disrespectful, but to be creative and do something different.  I think George might approve.