Needles, batteries and strips....

Well, I thought I hadn't done a diabetic post in awhile.  A friend on facebook had posted about The Mom Song from YouTube.com...well to the same tune we use the Type 1 Mom Song.  Before I post the link to this, I thought I would explain the main difference.  In this video the two children have Type 1 Diabetes.  In one family.  It seems that this isn't very rare anymore.  I have been hearing a lot about more than one sibling having Type 1.  In our family we have 3 of the 4 children that are Type 1 as well.  They all 3 wear insulin pumps.  And I, the mother, has Type 1 too.  So there are 4 of us in our household that are diabetic.  Keep that in mind when you watch this video:

Then we get a lot of people that ask us stupid questions about our diabetes. Or make comments when we eat sweets as if it is not allowed.  Not calling people stupid, just the question.  I suppose a better word would be ignorant.  Most people think of diabetes as something people get and later on they get gangrene and eventually lose a limb or go blind.  Many people in the diabetic community are well versed in what to say in these kinds of conversations...but here is a great video that shows the dialogue.


So the next time you see a child or an adult offer them a piece of real candy and not that sugar free stuff that has more artificial stuff in it that makes you poop instead! hahaha

Bible Drills

Does anyone remember as a kid in sunday school having bible drills?  Such as the adult calls out a scripture and the first one to find and say the scripture wins.?  Anyone?

Well, I have incorporated the books of the Bible in our curriculum this year.  I told Judge that I found this to be very beneficial that they know their way around the Bible.

This week the kids are memorizing the first 10 books of the Bible.  And I found a cute song on youtube too.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Oc8mk1nyPg

This week we are in session

We took last week off from school...but no worries, we have a lot of days already built up since we started in the summer.  While everyone else was sweating we were in air conditioning or cooling off at the outdoor pool.  Yep, that's what our summer consisted of.  That and me trying to figure out what curriculum would be best for each of the children.  It was a time of really looking at the big picture.  We are well into the swing of things with a plan too.  I just wish that I was a week ahead in my planning.  But I guess we are just week to week these days.


Elizabeth is working on skip counting of 5s so I can start her in learning how to tell time.  I figured she would have already learned this by now but she hasn't.  So this week we are concentrating on this.  Map skills are fun but unscrambling word sentences are not so fun...her words, not mine.  She is also working on her prayer sticks as are the other kids.


The three older kids are still continuing their math drills with lattice multiplications and Jacob will be doing his pre-algebra.  Here are the Lattice Worksheets we are using for the drills.  http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/lattice.htmlThey will also be working hard at studying and memorizing the first 10 books of the Bible.  I feel that it is important for them to know where scripture is while listening at church.  This will be an on going project this year.


Jesse and Elizabeth are using  http://www.scholastic.com/dodea/index2.htm  a lot of language supplements from this website.  It came at a time that we needed it.  I didn't have a full A Beka curriculum for either of them in language.  So we have made our binders and are keeping it well rounded with reading.  Jesse is reading through the Magic TreeHouse books and picked Mummies in the Morning.  And we are using this website to guide through this book: http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading5/mummies.htm  I only put a Questions packet together for him.

Homeschool Planners

I figured I would blog about this before I lose the website again.  I don't buy planners because I like making them my own way and use different ideas and I am very ADD with this.  But I came across a website that I liked the front covers that they offered.  I mean I really liked it.  Now ready to sit down to print it and I can't find it!  I looked everywhere...thankfully for only 3-4 minutes.  But I found it!! !Yay!
http://new-bintexas.webs.com/freecurriculumplanner.htm  there are different options here but I liked the blue and yellow one.  I think it is the last one.  Anyhow,  they have 12 month calendars at a glance that I am going to print for the backside of the binder.  There are other places that offer free planning pages such as Donna Young's site  http://donnayoung.org/index.htm  she offers more than just home school planning sheets.   Here is another site
http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/gettingorganized/planner.php

Check out New Beginnings and see what you can creatively put together!

Free Resource

If you haven't found the website Teachers pay Teachers I urge you to spend the time to check this webiste.  Lots of freebies and lots of resources that are very cheap  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-List-of-Character-Traits

This is an example of something I downloaded for free.  When we write I find that it is crucial for my children to enlighten their writing with words that bring the reader an expression and to feel a part of the story.

Prayer

I saw this on Facebook but the person who posted it borrowed it from someone else...so I have no idea who the original author is to this but I know its not me. But the words just stood out to me and it made every perfect sense to the problems of the world. Remember how in the big beauty pageants they would get up there and say "world peace"...does everyone not know that Jesus is the reason for the Season? That doesn't just go for Christmas. He is the reason for everything all around us.

A little girl wanted to know what the United States looked like. Her Dad tore a map of the USA from a magazine and then cut it into small pieces. He told her to go to her room to see if she could put it together. After some minutes she returned and handed the map correctly fitted and taped together. The Dad was surprised and asked how she had finished so quickly. She said, "On the other side was a picture of Jesus and when I put him back then our country just came together."

This came from a child's voice...what is that saying, "from the mouths of babes".

This we are focusing on prayer with the children. How to pray for people while using our prayer pail and what to pray for. And then we are also going to teach them how to pray at dinners. Jesse did a family dinner prayer that was very innocent and unknowing of what he was actually saying and I am glad that he opened his eyes and wasn't embarrassed but some of us couldn't help but laugh on the inside. We may abandon all our normal classwork to work on Prayer this week. Its so nice to homeschool and have such flexibility

.

Ten Principles

1. Parents are the first and important teaches. - The more involved you are, the better your child's chances of getting a good education.  You can make the difference.  (I totally and whole heartedly agree with this...not just in homeschooling but for public school educated children.  My children went to public school before homeschooling and I have had countless parents who have talked to me about how the school is a Title 1 school with a high minority demographic.  Do you know what I said to that?  I always told those parents that the school is as good as you make it.  If you are not involved in your child's education then you have not the right to complain....)
2. Your teaching must not stop when schooling starts. -Some parents withdraw from involvement in education once their children reach school age.  This is a mistake.  Teachers cannot do a good job with out your aid, support, and interest. (Too many times have the public schools been used as a daycare center.  Just drop off and go. See you at 3!  Parents think that they are let off from the responsibilities of their child because it is during school hours.  I was at our school and a constant presence in the classrooms of all 4 of our children.  For more reasons than just one.  We did not encounter any behavioral problems.  Remember growing up you usually had a family member who worked at the school you attended?  Well I had several family members that worked at my elementary school.  So many that, they knew I was in trouble before I knew I was in trouble!!  Kids don't fear their parents anymore.  They shrug their shoulders and have a "Whatever" attitude when ever they misbehave and the consequences aren't there anymore.  We have allowed other to discipline our children and it doesn't get that for because of government regulations stating what they can and can't do...as far as consequences go.)
3. The early years build the foundation for all later learning.   - Make it sturdy.  The first few years of life and then the first few years are critical.  a solid education by eighth grade is a necessity or there will be trouble in high school and beyond. ( I have two sides to this.  Kids are raised differently have different ways of learning.  I have one child that was reading books before kindergarten and sat in a kindergarten class twiddling his thumbs...was not a bored troublemaker but a child that needed challenging.  These days kindergarten teaches what we, as parents, learned in 1st and 2nd grade.  Kindergarten is very structured now as the teachers have high standards to compete with.  If I had another child that was of kindergarten age and we started homeschooling at that time I would more than likely use an "unschooling" method from Preschool until the beginning of what would be 1st grade.  That is not saying they wouldn't learn to read or write but they would learn more of life skills while still being taught how to read and write.  Having a child bring home projects in the first grade that are clearly way over their heads to comprehend and know that it is the parent's job to do it with the child is not an effective project to learn from.  The last science fair I attended with the children I noticed kindergarten and 1st graders doing projects about molecules and chemical reactions.  Come on...really?  My first grader won her school science fair doing bubbles.  And timing the bubbles by using different brands of soap.  This was a "her" project...not a "me" project.  The same goes for my other daughter who won her 5th grade school fair doing absorption rates of different types of socks (polyester, wool and cotton)  she measured the water levels...she did her own work and her own data, at 5th grade she should be expected to be able to figure this out on her own.  Teaching the kids to be independent and responsible for their own education would be a great concept.  If you don't know about WWII then you should have the opportunity to read about everything you can about WWII...too many resources are not used.  Even someone in a lower demographic can go to the library and read or use audio books.  Books build your foundation
4. American schools are underperforming.  Trust but verify. -Many schools don't pay enough attention to academic basics, and standards are often too low.  Trust but verify.  Do not just assume that your school is doing a good job. (This goes along with what I stated above.  Be a constant presence in your child's education.  Our local school was underperforming but with change in leadership I believe they were doing their best to strive to get the academic basics higher.  There was more of an emphasis placed on reading in my children's last year in public school.  Not only did they make this emphasis but they turned it into a way that made it fun and at the children's level of understanding how reading is very important.  My daughter had a great 5th grade teacher but dreaded returning to school after spring break because she knows the drill...TCAP TCAP TCAP.  That's all they did up until the BIG standardized state testing.  They drilled the concepts in the kids for the few short weeks preceding this test.  She did not enjoy school anymore and the learning wasn't beneficial.  The fact of the standards being too low is something that I could invariably recognize in the classroom.  You can have Joe sitting in the circle of the desk kind of slouched down while others are learning about fractions.  Sally and Greg may already know this too...but the rest of the class doesn't.  So what is Joe, Sally and Greg going to do while the others are learning fractions.  They do nothing.  The curriculum is dumb downed to the lowest learner and for those that are beyond the concept are left by the wayside.)
5. Learning requires discipline; discipline requires values. -Too many classrooms are disrupted by disrespectful, unruly children.  Too many kids have not been taught the virtues necessary to succeed in school. ( I remember a day of being in the school office and hearing a substitute teacher calling down for help in my daughter's classroom because the children were throwing furniture! And intervention was needed by administrators.  The problem was taken care of but it was only a temporary band-aid.  As i stated before children don't know what real consequences are and they look at education as being forced on them instead of a right and a privilege to be able to learn.  Teachers work very hard to put themselves through school and go into a learning environment on fire with enthusiasm...ready to teach!  And they are met with parents who would rather complain and do nothing with their child's education.  Not only that but the kids pick up on the behavior of their parents towards school and react upon that and it is aimed toward their teachers.  I feel bad for public school teachers who are there with all of their heart and want to love on those children as if they were their own children.  They use their own money to buy basics needs for the children in order to learn.  Kids come to school without pencils, paper or even a clean pair of clothes on them...its heartbreaking to see how the family trickles into the classroom.)
6. Follow your common sense. - Some people act as though it takes a special degree to know if a school is doing a good job.  Wrong.  You are the expert on your own child.  Pay attention, talk tot he teachers and other parents, and trust your instincts. (You are your child's advocate and YOU will know whether your child is learning.  You don't need a test grade to tell you whether they studied enough to get that grade.  But if you don't have any idea what your child is studying in school then how will you know if their learning is effective or not?  You are putting all your trust into the teachers instead of putting trust in yourself and your child to know that they are well equipped to walk into that classroom.)
7. Content matters: what children study determines how well they learn.- Many schools are unwilling to say exactly which facts and ideas their students should know.  This is a fundamental problem in American education.  Some things are more important to learn in elementary school than others. (This is a high priority issue with me as I home school.  I can see developmentally when my child will be able to learn certain concepts.  Obviously you are not going to be teaching algebra to a kindergartner...why?  Because they are mature enough to comprehend such difficult math problems.  But what if you had a child that could? But they aren't going to get a chance to learn the Pythagorean theorem until say 7th or 8th grade because that is when it is scheduled for the child to learn this concept.  I don't want my children to be on anyone's schedule at any time.  They run their own schedule of learning and it is my job to have the resources and tools available to them.)
8. Television is an enemy of good education. - In many homes, TV is the greatest obstacle to learning.  We urge you to shut it off from Sunday evening until Friday evening during the school year.  (I can accept that if children are just sitting and watching mindless programs all day long.  The TV has been used in many ways as a babysitter to keep the kids attention while you are doing something else.  I remember as a kids I watched Sesame Street and Mister Rogers and really those are the only programs I remember watching until I was a bit older.  Television programming has changed over the years (decades) to tune in to a more mature audience.  We do watch TV during the day and evening.  We have no problems turning it off.  But often we are able to find documentaries or nature programs to coincide with our unit studies and teaching.  There are great benefits to a lot of the programming out their if you choose to seek these out and put it to good use for your child's learning.
9. Education reform is possible.  You can change the system. - You can change the system.  If you are interested and engaged, there is much you can do to ensure that your child receives an excellent education.  there are ways to improve your child's school, especially if you join forces with other parents. ( Sounds like the squeaky wheel will get the oil, right?  I say, yes, as long as it is done through the proper channels and with the right attitude and manner of speaking.  If a parent walks in to the school office being really loud and boisterous (you probably have a child from that family that reacts the same way) and threatening it may not be taken as well as another parent who gets their ducks in a row and presents it to the correct person.  You have heard the saying " you get more with sugar than with vinegar...I love that part in the movie "The Blind Side" when he asked his wife how that tasted coming out of her mouth and she replied "like vinegar" when having to tell her husband that "he" was right and she wasn't getting her way.)
10. Aim high, expect much, and children will prosper. -No parent, school, or child is perfect, but we all rise toward the level of expectations.  The surest way to learn more is to raise standards. (Schools are rewarding children more and more and to the point where they are expecting something for doing good.  They even expect something if they did better than the next person.  The sheer thought that they accomplished something is not enough in our material world.  it is so materialistic that parents expect the schools to reward our children with treasure box trinkets, trophies, pencils, stickers.  The older children should be given a goal to work towards and then positively praised when they complete their goal and give themselves the pride of knowing and being educated.  The child's self esteem will be one that is within him and he doesn't have to look for his self-esteem in other people's expectations of him/her...this will make children prosper!)

Taken from William Bennett's book "The Educated Child" The text in orange was used from this book.  The text in purple are solely my own opinions and not those from this book...they are my own ideals and thoughts based on my own experience.  I suppose this is my disclosure. This book is an excellent resource to any family whether with public schooled children or with children that are home with their families.

Making Banana Pudding and maybe some bread!

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups cold milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 4 bananas, sliced
• 1/2 (12 ounce) package vanilla wafers

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk and vanilla until smooth. Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.
2. Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch dish with vanilla wafers. Arrange sliced bananas evenly over wafers. Spread with pudding mixture. Top with remaining whipped topping. Chill.

I found this earlier.  Going to make this today and omit the condensed milk.






I have got to make this!!

Pretzel Rolls
The Dough
7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups milk, slightly warmed
1 cup water, slightly warmed

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

The "Bath"
7 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
4 tablespoons baking soda

In a small container, mix yeast with warmed milk and let rest for 10 minutes.Whisk flour and teaspoon of salt in a large bowl.

Add canola oil and warmed water to yeast mixture. Pour mixture into bowl with flour. Knead in the bowl until dough is very smooth. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let rise for one hour.

Punch down dough and knead in bowl for one minute. Cut dough into 15 pieces. Form balls by pulling the dough under. Place on a well-greased surface. Let the dough balls rise for 15 minutes.

While the dough balls are rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and get the pretzel "bath" ready. In a large pot, bring water, salt, and baking soda to a rolling boil. Plunge three dough balls into the water and let them "poach" for 1 minute on each side. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to a well-greased baking sheet. With a serrated knife, cut 2-3 lines across each roll and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until pretzels are a rich brown.  These are best eaten the same day they are made.
http://une-bonne-vie.blogspot.com/2010/08/pretzel-rolls.html

It is 12:01am on 9-11-11

My story for this day in history...
Was I homeschooling...no


Did I have children...yes, Jacob and Emily and I was expecting with Jesse (due in April).


Was I watching tv as it happened.... no, actually I was tying the children's shoes and getting ready to leave for preschool at our church.


How did I find out...my step-mother had called me on the phone to ask if I had seen the news.




Judge was out of town on a worksite for a few days. I was alone with the 2 children and on our way to preschool I turned the radio on to hear whatever I could.  While at the church there was a lot of chatter going on about the morning's events.  I didn't hang around long as I used that time that the children were in preschool to rest and relax at home (with a high risk pregnancy).  I watched the news though for the rest of the morning.  Hard to relax while in such disbelief   


Even to this day there are comments made about terrorists and the Middle East.  I don't think I have any comments.  It really leaves me speechless.  I don't want to have hate against anyone.  I don't like seeing our military working so hard for our freedom and then hear of tragedies.  I don't want to judge anyone either for fear of my own judgement some day when the Lord calls me home.  I just pray.  Not much else I can do but pray for our hearts, our families and our country.  I pray for the families that lost their loved ones on that tragic day.  Will you pray with me today?

PRAYER

Book Giveaway

As a celebration that it only took about 3 hours to get 25 "likes" on our new facebook page!!!!
We are having a unit study giveaway!  Since fall is fast approaching I would like to give one lucky person the Autumn Treasures Unit Study that you can see to the right of this blog.  The unit study is by Amanda Bennett.  You can click on the Unit Study to the right too and see what it is all about.


Rules for getting entries in the giveaway:


1.  Go like the new facebook page:  www.facebook.com/OneHomeschoolMom
2.  Leave a comment in the comment section here and introduce yourself and why you like homeschooling
3. Sign up for blog email to the left
Disclosure: This giveaway is in no way affiliated, endorsed or related to facebook in anyway.


I have lots to check out and offer to homeschool families.  Here at One Homeschool Mom I blog about not only homeschool things (though that is the majority) but I love photography, Pinterest (to the left is a button), We have 3 children with Type 1 diabetes that we chat about on here and I love to cook, bake and try new things all the time.


The winner will be announced on September 16th at 9pm CST!!!


Get those Entries in!!!

First Giveaway!!!

Watch later today to see what the surprise giveaway will be today!!  There will be several ways to enter!!!  Keep Watching......

What about you?

After seeing someone post about Sally Clarkston's website I found an interesting way of looking at things.  She states that she has always told her kids "I have always told my children that if you stand up to lead, you automatically become a target."  This makes so much sense in our world.  It doesn't matter if you are a child or an adult.  We are all God's  children trying to make our way in this world  We all want to make our own footprint here but with doing that comes persecution.
When we made the decision to homeschool all of the children this year and not just Jacob...we fell to many a comment against us.  I was warned by our homeschool support group leader to expect this.  Not just comments, but illnesses and other difficulties...they are all not God's doing but just a distraction.  
We are so far ahead in our schooling that us taking this week off from school will not hinder us at all.  I have been under the weather for awhile now and just couldn't do anything this week....plus, I need ink!! I think we go through a cartridge of black ink a week.  Fine...and a new dry erase marker.


How are you raising your children?  Thank you Sally for writing things a little simpler to uncover our eyes.


Here is the website that was shared on fb:http://www.itakejoy.com/are-you-raising-warriors-or-refugees/

Cool weather is coming

Have you dusted off your crock pot or slow cooker yet?  About this time I start getting antsy to bake and make chili...I LOVE CHILI!! I would eat it year-round but the family wouldn't.  This is one of my favorite websites http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ where there are tons or recipes to choose from.  I believe most is gluten free too.  I had bought the cookbook but let someone borrow it and it never was returned :(  It is sadly missed daily in the slow cooker season.
A friend of mine swears by this recipe  http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/02/asian-peanut-butter-pork-crockpot.html  I am one day going to set off on my day to make this and see if my family likes it as well as her family does.  Take a look around and check out their recipes and see if some can be adapted for yourselves.  I know in our family a meal that can be cooked without much prep and constant "needs" is great for us!  I am still looking for the book 101 things to do with Ramen or something like that.

New Resources...

As I have had a restful week while feeling under the weather I came across some resources in this month's Family Circle magazine.  There is an excellent article entitled, " Leader of the Pack".  I highly recommend you to read this article so rush out to your magazine stand to read this article.  Just a few pages before this article is another one called "Live and Learn (online!)". There are a few links I would like to share with you from this article.

ITunesU...we have all heard of this and know what content they cover.  I am actively downloading the new version of ITunes right now.

LiveMocha.com...I have checked this out briefly.  It looks to be a good solid resource for a language tutor.  It is connected to facebook and you have tokens that you can buy...this makes me a little standoffish (my word) when I see tokens and paypal used in the same sentence.  So is this really a free program.  I am not sure yet.  I will play more around with it.

Academicearth.com...looks like recorded lectures and they do have courses you can take for credit and the courses look to be under $500.  The one I looked at was at Oxford for about $424...it is comparable to the local university possibly depending on added fees.

Einztein.com...has a claim to be a learning social network.  I think this is probably a coming of age website that is looking for its niche in the social network marketing.  Looking for a specific group of people to boost their name.  It looks promising from what I have viewed.


Do pick up a copy of this month's Family Circle...it is a good one this month!

Prayer Pail Project

 The kids are working hard at creating our family and prayer prayer pails.  See, pinterest has its quality moments that are useful besides just sitting and pinnning stuff.  We are putting it to good use.  The purpose for me to have them do this is to get them excited to pray for people and to learn to pray too.  So far they have been adding tons of people to the popsicle sticks.  I fully intend to let that person know on facebook (if they are on there) that they are being prayed for today.