• Notable Moments

    Math Problem: Mom says, “Simplify 11/2.” Instead of saying, “Two and one half,” WE answers, “Two and one-twooth.” (tricky one to learn, but thanks for the chuckle, WE) SH describing a time she went skiing – She was with her brother, “waiting at the um, I can‘t remember. I think it‘s called the ‘rabbit’ hill.” (actually it’s the bunny hill, dear) JM, 3 years old, putting Vaseline on his lips while sitting on the bed says, “Mommy, I’m putting gasoline on my lips.” Ohhh… This little boy soon will be able to say his words clearly, not broken or half-pronounced. Word meanings will not be confused. Let me treasure these…

  • P.E. and Math

    Most everyday my kids do a sheet of math facts practice (like Saxon or Calculadder). They were getting rather tired of doing this. To make it less tedious we are mixing it with a little physical activity. I give the problem 6×4 and throw a ball to them. They throw the ball as they give the answer. Simple, but fun. Sometimes we do exercise. For every row we do a different type of activity. It may be leg stretches, push-ups, jumping jacks, running up and down stairs, putting our arms straight out from our sides while turning them in small circles -whatever I can think of. We even use a…

  • Family Fun – Logic Puzzles

    Tonight we played a game called SUDOKU. It is a puzzle that usually comes as a 9×9 grid and within that are 3×3 grids called “regions”. Certain squares already have numbers in them. The objective is to fill all the empty squares with one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1 to 9 only once. We printed off a copy of one of the puzzles in the book for each family member. To our 8-year-old girl we gave a simpler puzzle. The rest of us had the same puzzle. My son wanted to be sure we didn’t have it too easy so he…

  • Recognizing If or Where My Child Needs Training

    This really struck a chord with me today. In his book Hints on Child Training, H. Clay Trumbull (who I believe is the great-great grandfather of Elisabeth Elliott) wrote: “Child training is, in many a case, the bringing of a child into purely conventional ways, instead of bringing out into freest play, in the child, those qualities and characteristics which mark him as a unique and individual personality among the sons of men. How to learn wherein it needs curbing or changing, is a question of questions in child training.” This is really making me think. So often I think I train my children with an eye for making them look…