Monday, April 19, 2010

L. Tom Perry quote

I love this...

"Teaching in the home is becoming increasingly important in today’s world, where the influence of the adversary is so widespread and he is attacking, attempting to erode and destroy the very foundation of our society, even the family. Parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility. While other institutions, such as church and school, can assist parents to “train up a child in the way he [or she] should go” (Proverbs 22:6), ultimately this responsibility rests with
parents. According to the great plan of happiness, it is parents who are entrusted with the care and development of our Heavenly Father’s children. Our families are an integral part of His work and glory—“to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). On God’s eternal stage, it is usually intended that parents act as the central cast members in their children’s lives. Fortunately, there are understudies involved in the production who may step in when parents can’t. It, however, is parents who have been commanded by the Lord to bring up their children in light and truth (see D&C 93:40).

Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by one family prayer, one scripture study session, one family home evening, one book read aloud, one song, and one family meal at a time. They know that the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily parenting is among the most powerful and sustaining forces for good in the world. The health of any society, the happiness of its people, their prosperity, and their peace all find common roots in the teaching of children in the home."

(L. Tom Perry:  April 2010 General Conference)

Saturday, April 10, 2010

School: Feb & March 2010


These past few months have been CRAZY over here...more crazy than usual!  We decided that it is time to sell our house and get into something a little bit bigger and a little further from the freeway.  There were so many projects that needed done around here to get ready to put the house on the market.  Every project we did took 4 times longer than we thought it would!  Of course.  But we finally finished and got the house on the market at the end of March.  It is MLS #951928 if you want to look.  Now begins the waiting game and we really are prepared to be very patient.  Houses in our neighborhood have not been moving...at all.  We just figured that if it is going to take 2 years to sell our house, we might as well start now!  School took a back seat to all of the house projects and the kids were HUGE helps during it all.  This is what homeschooling is all about!
Here is what we did do for school:


Devotionals -
  • We spent a lot of time talking about the "Armor of God" and all of the pieces
  • We started studying out of the new Gospel Principles book.  We are taking it slowly and spent about 3 days going over each lesson, reading the scriptures and singing songs about the topic.

Math - Individual lessons in Saxon; Kaiden - Algebra 1, Nic - 6/5 , Luke - 3, Afton - 1

Mom school - (where I teach them things that I enjoy learning about)
  • We did a study on the Olympics and their history and watched them on TV as much as we could. That ended up only being prime time coverage since we don't have cable.  Then we took a field trip to all of the Olympic sites and museums from the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.  It was very cool!
  • We finished up our study of WWII 

Words of the week: (We do this to build vocabulary skills for the ACT) ebb, pandemic, intrepid

Family Reading - started reading "On Wings of Faith" by the kids great grandpa, Fredrick W. Babbel and the 4th Fablehaven book "Keys to the Demon Prison" (it is awesome by the way)

Individual Reading -
Dad - "Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini

Mom -
  • "Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning" by Oliver and Rachel DeMille 
  • "Following the Light of Christ into His Presence" by John M. Pontius
  • "From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out" by Nancy Twigg
 Here is what everyone else is currently doing:

Kaiden (Love of Learning phase) -
  •    Book of Mormon daily reading
  •    Seminary
  •    Weekly trips to the Provo temple to do baptisms
  •    Duty to God
  •    Piano lessons and daily practice
  •    Origami


Nicolas (Love of Learning phase) -
  •    Book of Mormon daily reading
  •    Faith in God
  •    11 year old scouts, working on his First Class
  •    Reading: The Ranger's Apprentice series...I'm not sure where he is exactly, he reads a lot and he reads fast!

Luke (Core phase) -
  •    Book of Mormon daily reading
  •    Faith in God
  •    Working on his Bear badge in Cub Scouts

Afton (Core phase) -
  •    Book of Mormon daily reading
  •    Learning about being a princess

Makensi (Core phase) - 
  •    Learning about being "fancy"
Garrett - 
  • drawing all over the walls right after we paint them

Happy 2nd birthday, Garrett!

We love you, Garrett!  Happy Birthday, baby!

The story of my life!







Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you, at 85 years old, to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $7000 per month.



My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60. Now he's 97 years old and we don't know where he is.


I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.


I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there.

Every time I utter the dirty word,'exercise', I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

I do have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

The advantage of exercising every day is so when you die, they'll say, 'Well, she looks good doesn't she?'

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years, just getting "over the hill."
AND...

We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.