1 hour ago
How do you stay present during school time?
When I started my October writing challenge, I asked for topics you all would like me to cover, and a long-time blog friend asked me to address how to handle distractions during the homeschool day. I write this feeling somewhat hypocritical, since I was majorly distracted during our school day yesterday! So anything I say in this post is still somewhat a work in progress for myself too.
When I think about this question, I think of a couple things that could be distracting - other things on the the to-do list, and our phones. I think you have to tackle both of those things a little differently, but both can equally be a problem. I've noticed over the years that any time I try to multi-task during homeschool hours, it takes us twice as long to get through the work, and both and and the kids are more frustrated with the whole day. When I remind myself to stay focused on one thing at a time, everything goes so much better!
Here are a few ways I try to keep myself from the temptation to be distracted.
1. Do as much house clean-up as you can the night before. Each evening I try to make sure there are no major messes on the floors, and that the kitchen sink is clean. If those two things are done it's so much easier to get started right after breakfast in the morning!
2. Try to develop a "blind-eye" to messes until after school work. Most times, if you stay really focused on the school work with your child, it does not take that long to complete. I've learned to put the messes out of mind for that short period of time, just an hour or two when they were little, knowing that if we finish homeschool work, I can tackle my other projects guilt-free.
3. Keep your phone in the other room. When your first grader is painfully sounding out syllables from her reading book, it's so tempting to just whip out the little distraction box from my pocket. "I'll just check this one thing real quick." "I'll just scroll social media WHILE I listen to her read - I can do both!" But the thing is, I can't do both. Physically multi-tasking may be possible, but your brain can only focus on one thing at a time, and during school hours, that thing needs to be my kids. I've had to resort to putting my phone in the other room many times when it was becoming too much of a distraction. After detoxing from social media a while back, I find it much easier to resist the temptation to check my phone randomly, so that has been really helpful. But for the days when my phone is becoming a problem, putting it far out of sight is better.
4. Try to focus on your child's face when things get boring. As mentioned above, those learning-to-read years can be brutally boring for the homeschool teacher. At this point, I've read the same stories with the same first graders four times now - there are no surprises left. Sometimes you just have to suffer through the tedious bits, but I also find that they are easier to bear when I look at my child's cute expressions while we muddle through it. They are learning to read! This is exciting! Noticing how their faces twist up when they get to a difficult word, or how their eyes twinkle at me during a funny part of the story helps me to be in those boring moments with them. They notice when I'm not paying attention, and I don't always realize how many cute little bonding moments I'm missing when I'm distracted.
5. Treat homeschooling like your job (because it is). This is my biggest tip, because to be successful at anything worthwhile, you usually have to shift your paradigm a bit. Our homeschool routine started improving alot when I truly recognized that some people pay teachers a full time salary to do what I'm doing - this is a real job. Would I be checking my phone every five minutes at a real job? Would I be running around doing personal house chores during real job hours? I would hope not. The best part is, when I have a system down, this job does not take all day - I have plenty of time left for other things when I just give this job the effort I would give any other job for a few hours of the day. When I started thinking of "homeschool mom" as a serious job title, it was easier to put distractions aside and give it my best effort.
And what a job it is too! In what other job would I get to spend so much one-on-one tie with my kids? What other job lets me snuggle on the couch with the cutest kids in the world and read books to them while we eat snacks? I think part of being present with our kids in homeschooling is enjoying the process ourselves as much as we can, adding some fun into it, making it a memory for all of us. And those fun touches are so easy to do when I put away the phone, let the chores slide for a minute, and focus my attention on the little students in front of me right now. Being undistracted with them is worth the effort!
I mentioned a few of our resources for studying Christian History as it relates to Africa in my post a couple weeks ago, but one of our favorites of the year so far has been a book that my friend Heidi sent to us! Heidi read on my blog that we were studying Africa, and she herself has personal connections with missionaries in Africa and did mission work there herself for a little while. She has partnered with her African friends to create this beautiful book: African Pearls: A Story Of Faith From Uganda by Pastor Aloys Ntamugabumwe and Jenifer Ntamugbumwe.
The illustrations in this book are done by Heidi herself, and they are just beautiful! She is a very talented illustrator, and the pictures just add so much to this book. It was a delight for me to turn each page because they are all works of art!
If you don't win and are interested in purchasing the book, Heidi does not have it on Amazon as of yet, but you can purchase it through the Lulu bookstore website now!
I've mentioned here and there that in our family, we do once a month grocery shopping, and every time I mention it there is always someone asking me how exactly that works - well, here is my attempt to explain it!
Why We Shop Once A Month
First of all, why do we grocery shop once a month? The short answer is that our family lives in a somewhat rural area, and this is one way we save money.
1. It saves us money on gas.
2. It saves money on impulse buys.
3. It saves money on duplicate purchases.
Not only does shopping once a month save me money on the gas it would take to drive to the grocery store every week, but I find that with shopping once a month, I spend less money than if I tried to shop once a week. Grocery shopping comes with the temptation for impulse buys, and so limiting my trips to the store cuts down on that temptation. I also think that going once a month helps me keep track of what I actually have left in my pantry, so that I'm less likely to buy something that I actually already have at home.
I actually had once-a-month shopping modeled to me by my mom when I was growing up - we often went shopping just once a month, with short stops in between for perishables. So it was natural to continue doing my shopping that way as an adult. I have been once-a-month shopping since Derek and I were first married, though it has definitely become more challenging as we have added more mouths to feed.
Essentials For Once A Month Shopping
1. A deep freezer. It is a definite advantage if you want to grocery shop just once a month to own a big deep freezer. If we didn't have one, I don't think I'd be able to go a month between shopping trips. We have had a deep freezer for our entire married life because we are a hunting family, and when we get something we need a big freezer to store our supply of meat for the whole year. I use the deep freeze for more than meat though - I buy alot of fruits and vegetables in frozen form, and I freeze our bread until we need to use it. I buy the big bags of cheese and freeze half of it until we need it.
Another benefit we have - which is not an essential but is really helpful - is that we have a second fridge in our garage. It's an old fridge that was left there when we moved into our house, and it still works great, so we use it for extra space for items that need to be refrigerated. Not necessary at all, but it is an advantage we have for once-a-month shopping. You could definitely shop once a month without two refrigerators though - I did for years. A second freezer, on the other hand, is probably necessary if there are more than 2-3 people in your family.
2. A place to buy in bulk. Since we shop once a month and have a larger family, buying in bulk is a must. We have a Sam's Club membership currently, and we get alot of our most-used items there - cheese, honey, eggs, apples, peanut butter, etc. It saves us money, and I don't have to worry so much about running out of an item before the month is through since we are buying bigger quantities.
3. A place to store food. It was alot harder to buy a month ahead at our old house because we didn't have a pantry and we had limited cupboard space in our kitchen. I ended up storing alot of bulk items in our laundry room, which was not ideal, but it worked! But you definitely need enough room to store the food - if you don't have the space, once a month shopping is probably not feasible.
How I Do It
After my confession on how I am not great at meal planning (I'm working on it), you are probably wondering how I manage to shop once a month if I don't plan out our meals. Well, I do plan meals in a very general sense, just not specifically from week to week (that's where I struggle).
At the beginning of the month I go through our pantry to see what we still have in there, and I start to form some ideas of what I could make over the next month using food I already have. I usually can come up with a pretty good list of ideas this way, and then I start my grocery shopping list by filling in the ingredients that are not in my pantry.
Next, there are several items that I know we are going to need each month, regardless of what I end up making for dinner, so those go on the list. Typically it's these items:
Basic Ingredient List
Frozen chicken
Cheese
Bread
Cereal
Oatmeal
Rice
Beans (canned or dry)
Noodles
Broth
Tortillas
Frozen Vegetables
Frozen Fruit
*Some Fresh Produce
Peanut Butter
Honey
Sugar
Flour
Eggs
Butter
Olive Oil/Coconut Oil
Milk
Extras (for baked goods):
Nuts
Raisins
Craisins
Chocolate Chips
You can make alot of different types of things with basic ingredients like this, so I try to make sure we are stocked up on the basics.
I usually have a pretty good idea of how much each item is going to cost (at least I did, before inflation started messing me up), and so I start to calculate the price of all the basic things I need to get. Then I know how much wiggle room I have for the things that add the "flavor" to the menu - specific spices I'll need, condiments, special types of noodles, or any other unique ingredients - which I buy in smaller quantities.
The Shopping
After I come up with a really good grocery list, I usually have to schedule out at least 6-8 hours to get the shopping done. This is when I take one of the kids with me and we have a "mom day", with shopping a good lunch, and a small toy or treat. It's a fun and practical way to get our one-on-one time in! As I go through the store and check items off my list, I try to think about how much of each item we will need for the whole month - we typically end up with ten loaves of bread, for example, most of which will get put right into the freezer at home.
I usually pick one non-perishable item each month to stock up on as well, and I'll buy two or three months worth of that item (for example, if it's noodles, I'll buy 20 extra boxes of noodles). Stocking up here and there ensures that there is always something we could make out of basic ingredients when things start getting scarce at the end of the month, and it's also a comfort having a stock of some basics when supply chain issues and inflation start affecting things.
Then I take my ridiculously full cart to the checkout. Is it a little embarrassing - yes! But if any comments are made I just say I have five kids and only shop once a month, and that clears things up.
For transporting things home in my car, I usually bring the cooler and a huge freezer bag for the frozen items, to prevent them from thawing out while we finish our shopping. If it's a really hot day, I'll buy a bag of ice as well to help keep things cool until we get home.
Storing The Food
As I mentioned, there are alot of items that we end up freezing each month.
-All the meat that is purchased goes immediately into the freezer.
-Bulk bags of cheese are opened and separated into two freezer bags. We put one into the fridge to use, and one in the freezer, ready to be pulled out when we need a fresh bag. We also freeze extra blocks of cheese. Freezing does make block cheese crumbly though so we don't freeze unless we have to.
-We freeze all loaves of bread and tortillas that are not going to be used right away.
-I freeze any fresh produce that is freezer-friendly and that I know we won't be using right away. This is a fairly new practice for me. For example, this month I bought fresh ginger and celery in bulk, with the intention of chopping it up and freezing it for later use in soups and other recipes!
Aside from freezing, I also have started buying these five gallon buckets with gamma seal lids for my grains, and I want to get extra buckets to store flour and rice - it's just a safer way to store larger quantities of dry goods to ensure mice, moisture, or insects don't get into it!
Touch-Up Trips
Usually a couple times of month we make a very quick stop at the store for perishable items that won't last the whole month, like milk. We may occasionally have a craving for a specific meal, or I might have missed something on my grocery shopping trip, and we'll buy ingredients for that specific meal. But for the most part, we don't have to do a shopping trip until the beginning of the next month.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do you do about produce?
This is definitely the question I am asked most often. As I mentioned, we do buy alot of vegetables and fruits frozen, or freeze certain things ourselves - for recipes that call for vegetables, such as soups or casseroles, I feel that frozen vegetables are easier to store and work just as well. We use frozen berries for our cereals and yogurt, and frozen fruit for smoothies. Frozen produce can keep in the freezer for quite a long time, and the affects to the nutritional value are negligible, so you are still getting most of the benefits of fresh fruits and veggies!
Other produce actually does keep quite well in the fridge. For instance, we buy carrots, apples, onions, and oranges fresh and keep them in the fridge, and they easily last most of the month before looking a little wrinkly or old. Potatoes last really well just in our pantry. I buy alot of peppers (bell peppers, jalapeños, etc), and they keep for around 2-3 weeks in the fridge.
With produce that does not keep as well (tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.), if I bought them for a specific meal, I try to make that meal toward the beginning of the month rather than toward the end. And for certain produce that we might like to have on hand, like bananas, I'll just buy some when we make our 2-3 milk stops during the month.
I will say that I live in a pretty dry climate, and that does help me when it comes to making produce last. I imagine areas of higher humidity may be worse for produce longevity.
Do you plan out thirty meals at the beginning of each month?
No, ha! As I mentioned, I don't think I am good at meal planning on a weekly basis, much less a whole month. What I do is think through the ingredients I have and come up with a list of possible meals for the whole month - sort of a list of options that I keep in the back of my mind. It's usually a list of 10-15 meals that I could potentially make (because I know there will be leftovers, nights eating out, nights that we just wing it, etc). Then I'll just make sure I have all the ingredients on hand for those meals (plus usually a few new recipes I want to try).
Maybe this is just us, but typically the meals we like to eat are different arrangements of alot of the same basic ingredients (see my basic ingredient list above). If I have those on hand, I can make most things I want to make for the month, without having to plan out every detail.
I'd love to try this to save money, how should I start?
I haven't got this question put exactly this way, but I'm including it here to address how it could look to start shopping less often. If you have a good amount of freezer/refrigerator space and are currently shopping once per week, you could start by stretching out your grocery shopping routine from one week to two weeks between, and see how it works for you. If it goes well and you like it, you could move to three or four weeks next and see if you find it manageable or helpful!
If you don't, that's fine too! Shopping once a month won't work for every family. It works for us because (1) we live in a rural area about 40 minutes from the nearest big town, (2) we eat rather simply (no special diets for anyone in our family), and (3) we have a good amount of freezer space, and (4) I get particularly tempted to buy "extras" when I am in the store, so being in the store less is very helpful for our budget. You may not have the same situation, benefits, or struggles that we do, but if you think shopping less often would help you, start slow until you find that sweet spot for your family!
If you have any other questions, drop them below and I'll follow up! Or if you grocery shop once a month, I'd love to hear. I feel like an aberration most of the time, since most people seem to shop once per week!
Well, it's not Tuesday, it's Monday, but I'm moving my Tea On A Tuesday to today because I want to catch up after falling off my blog challenge last week.
Drinking: Gatorade (not right now, but this week).
Elk Hunting Season
I knew it would be hard to keep up with the challenge during last week, because I had an elk tag for hunting, and I knew I would be out of the house for the whole weekend and probably one or two weekdays as well. Elk hunting tags are not very easy to draw, and I was excited to give it a try again! It's been probably 15 years since I've been elk hunting.
A couple year ago I went deer hunting and was successful, but elk hunting is so different. Deer tend to be all over in smaller groups, but elk are often clustered together in one big group at this point in the year, until the bulls start to go off on their own. Elk also tend to like rougher terrain, so it's often alot more work to find them and to get to where they are. Often during elk season it's famine until it's a feast. You don't see any at all until one day you suddenly do.
That's pretty much how my elk hunting season went. We went out there consistently over the weekend, and we tried road hunting during the week (driving the roads and using binoculars to try to find some elk - had to do it that way when we had no one to babysit the kids). I went out for another full day with my dad during the week since Derek had to work. We saw literally nothing the enire time, until the very last evening when we spotted five bulls...on private land. So I didn't get anything. Se la vie.
(Big Dipper there in that last picture.)
Losing Harvey
But there was a sad memory from last week too, because our sweet dog, Harvey, died. Even though I knew it was coming, the whole thing was harder than I thought. We first got Harvey a year into our marriage, before we had kids. He's been with us a long time. It hurts a little to go home now, because for my entire life (literally, since I was born), I've always had a dog waiting there to greet me when I arrived home - and now there is nothing at home except a quiet and dark house.
The kids took it hard, but they have seemed to bounce back well. We buried Harvey on our property, under a young pine tree, and the kids decorated the place where he's buried. Then we gathered around and prayed and thanked God that He gave us Harvey as our dog. Dogs are just gifts aren't they? Their great purpose for us is for comfort and companionship, and I think that's a gift from God for however long He lets us have them.
We've all been missing Harvey quite a bit, but I am glad that the kids have this experience of having and losing a dog. To own a dog is to know that one day you will lose them. Their lives are too short; it's unavoidable. I've long thought that there is a really good lesson for kids about life and death to be had through owning a dog. You have this creature, you love them, they become a part of your family, and then one day they are gone. There is real pain there, it's a real grief. But in going through that, it's a relatively safe way for kids to experience death and learn how to deal with it. To go through that sharp pain of loss, to feel devastated and sad, but to come out on the other side of it too. Then they have that memory, that map through grief, in their pocket when they'll really need it - for when they lose a loved one, a human being that is more valuable than a dog. Because they've loved and lost a dog, when a larger sorrow visits them, they'll know through experience that even though the pain is so great, there is a way through it, and they'll eventually be okay.
After all that last week, I decided we all just needed an easy week, so we've been doing alot of reading books together for our homeschool, and I've cleaned the house quite a bit (apparently my coping mechanism). We saw friends for a hike on Friday, and my father-in-law for lunch on Sunday, and we're getting back into our routine this week. Every now and then a pang of sadness hits me, like when I'm eating cereal and thinking about how I'll give the leftover milk to Harvey, and then I remember he's not there to drink it.
But overall it's been a beautiful fall week, spicy scents filling the air, I'm working on baking some bread, and there is snow in the forecast, a dusting of white to freshen up the world again. I bought Christmas decorations last Friday, getting a head start on the season.
There is always the next thing to do, and life rolls on.
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Hope you've been having a good week, friends, and here's what I have coming up on the blog this week!
Tuesday: How We Do Once-A-Month Grocery Shopping
Wednesday: {Review & Giveaway} African Pearls: A Story Of Faith In Uganda
Thursday: Homeschool topic (TBD)
Friday: Book Catchup
As I mentioned in a recent post, I am reading C. S. Lewis's The Abolition Of Man this month, and I just finished the third and final chapter of this short book. I have to get a few thoughts out. This book really is very deep and impactful, and I recommend everyone read it.
As I explained in my previous post, Lewis starts the book by explaining this idea which he labels for convenience the "tao", the idea that there is an inherent worth to things, which we recognize when our affections are rightly ordered. The value of those things (or actions) doesn't come from our affections but is inherent, and we have to recognize their value through our right affections in order to be in "alignment" with this greater meaning which underlies creation. I believe that this greater meaning and purpose is given by the true and living God, the Creator of everything - if He doesn't give things their meaning, there is no meaning, and that's the problem that Lewis starts to dip into in the third chapter.
To sum up the third chapter, Lewis is arguing that man's quest to "conquer" nature is dangerous when we stifle, or try to explain away (which amounts to the same thing), the inherent value and morality that underlies the universe. There has to be a point when we stop and recognize that there is something deeper at work in the created world, that the universe and human beings themselves are more than just the sum of their parts - and if we won't stop there, we don't truly conquer nature at all, but we become a slave to nature without God. And that is a terrifying place to be.
"It is the magician's bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls. It is in Man's power to treat himself as a mere "natural object" and his own judgements of value as raw material for scientific manipulation to alter at will...The real objection is that if man chooses to treat himself as raw material, raw material he will be."
-C. S. Lewis, The Abolition Of Man
Without a deeper meaning to the universe, all that is left is our arbitrary desires, motivated by untethered emotional impulses, and not even our own impulses, but whatever we have been educated to think about our impulses by those who have more earthly power than ourselves.
When we start to reduce everything in nature to some "scientific" explanation, and even reduce our own selves to mere molecules with no significant purpose, except perhaps "the survival of the fittest" - but even the survival of the fittest means nothing if our species is of no more value than anything else - well, we haven't risen over nature at all. We've merely destroyed ourselves - we've rejected the underlying thing that makes us human. We've scorned the value of being made in the image of God, we've thrown it away by treating the universe and worse, ourselves as parts with no divine Hand holding us together. We've abolished man in it's truest sense.
"'White!' he sneered. 'It serves as a beginning. 'White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten, and the white light can be broken.'
'In which case it is no longer white,' said I, 'And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.'"
-Conversation between Saruman and Gandalf, The Fellowship Of The Ring
This third chapter was somewhat horrifying to read, because I can see these philosophies at work in society today. Scientists all over the world have, in the words of Malcolm in Jurassic Park, been so busy wondering if they can, that they've neglected the very important question of whether they should. They've scoffed at and rejected the true purpose of all mankind, which is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and instead they have sought to wield their own power over nature, to their own ends. As the sinful, fallen creatures as we are, this whole thing turns dystopian pretty quick.
So how can we stop this frightening progression? I don't truly know. It may be that only Christ Himself will stop it when He returns in judgement. But I think we, as Christians who care about the image of God in man and the glory of God in His creation - we slow it down by teaching our kids that there is more to this world than what meets the eye. That they themselves have inherent value because of the meaning and purpose that God Himself put into every molecule of their being - the same God who that at this very moment holds up all of the universe by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Man may remove all meaning and morality in his own mind, but he cannot do it in reality. Someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:1-11). There will be no explaining away then.
"But you cannot go on "explaining away" forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on "seeing through" things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to "see through" first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To "see through" all things is the same as not to see."
C. S. Lewis, The Abolition Of Man
As always, Lewis says it better, these are just my thoughts on the chapter! I highly recommend the book, it gives so much food for thought.
For the next few years we are taking one continent to study in-depth in our homeschool, and this year the continent is Africa! I wanted to share a few of the resources that I am looking at including in our studies this year - there are so many good ones, and I'm sure I'll end up finding more than appear in this list!
Curriculum:
Taking Africa For Jesus by Generations - This is our core book for our Africa studies. We started the year strong on this book, and we are already six chapters in! We have learned about Ancient Egypt through this resource, as well as the beginnings of the spread of Christianity in Africa. What I love about these elementary history/geography courses from Generations is the focus on tying everything in with biblical history and church history. For example, we learned about some of the Pharaohs in the chapters on Ancient Egypt, but the focus was on the pharaohs who were in power during the time that different biblical figures were in Egypt, such as Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. It also give archeological evidence for why they believe different pharaohs to be the pharaohs associated with the biblical accounts. My kids were so interested in the biblical connections! I also think this would be a really great resource to introduce Ancient Egypt to younger kids, because it doesn't get too deep into their pagan religions and practices. We read this one all together, even with my first grader.
Ancient Egypt & Her Neighbors by Lorene Lambert - As far as African history goes, alot of the history that is easily available is going to be Egyptian, since we don't know very much about what went on in the rest of Africa for much of it's history. It also seems like Ancient Egypt is one of those topics that everyone has to learn at some point, so I figured this was the year to dip our toes in. The thing I like best about this book is that it is written in such an engaging way! So much information is given, but when I read it to the kids, none of us get bored. What I don't love (but what really can't be helped) is that it does give more detail about the pagan religions of the Egyptians, in the context of explaining some of their odd customs - there is not too many details, but enough that I make sure we spend some time talking about it and comparing what we're learning to the Bible (which, ultimately, is a good thing too). I usually let my little girls skip this one - I think it's better for upper elementary and middle school.
The Boy Of The Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones - This is a mystery story set in Ancient Egypt, and it gives an engaging picture of the way that the Egyptians might have lived on a daily basis. Not too much is included of a religious nature, which is also appreciated! Slavery was very common back then, so slavery is also a big part of the plot. Because of that, I'd save it for mid to upper elementary.
The Things They Made: Egypt - This is a great picture resource that I got from Simply Charlotte Mason, and it adds some beautiful visuals to go along with Ancient Egypt & Her Neighbors, printed on high-quality cardstock!
Coloring Books:
Dover Coloring Books: For my little girls, who can't take notes very well yet, I thought it would be nice for them to have something to color instead. I am ordering this coloring book of the African plains, but also think this one on Egyptian fashion looks fun!
Missionary Stories:
I feel very strongly about including missionary stories as we study history and geography - there are so many great ones, and I love to see how God works to bring His gospel to the different areas of the world through ordinary men and women.
Trailblazer Series - I haven't finalized which of these biographies we will read yet, but I am eyeing the one on Helen Rosaveare, Mary Slessor, Robert Moffat, or a different book about David Livingstone. I don't know a ton about any of these individuals, so I'll do a little research and then decide!
Twins' Adventures In Africa by Janice and Faye Rostvitt - This is a collection stories written by missionaries that my childhood church supported, and the Rostvitt twins visited us many times! I can't link it because I don't believe it is sold online, but it will be neat to be able to read their experiences to my kids, since I grew up hearing their stories when they came to speak at our little white church.
African Pearls: A Story Of Faith From Uganda by Pastor Aloys Ntamugabumwe and Jenifer Ntamugbumwe - Speaking of personal connections, I was sent a copy of this book by my dear friend, Heidi Brompton, who is the editor and illustrator! She has personal connections with the Pastor and his daughter whose story is told in this book. It's so neat for us to be able to read stories from friends of a friend! The kids and I started reading this in the last few weeks...first off, let me just say the illustrations are gorgeous. Each page is a work of art! For the pictures alone I would love this book, but Heidi and the Ntamugbumwes beautifully weave in African history with the experiences of missionary life and with testimonies of people in Uganda who have come to know Christ. I am biased, as a friend of Heidi's, but even if I wasn't, I think this would be one of my favorite resources as we study Africa this year.
A giveaway for African Pearls is coming to my blog very soon, so stay tuned! I'll also give you a closer look at the illustrations inside - they are gorgeous.
I'd love to hear any other homeschool resources on Africa that you've liked! I'd especially like to explore books related to other countries in Africa, since alot of our book are Egypt-focused so far. Comment below if you have suggestions for me.
A Quote
"True wishes proceed from humility, a realization that the fulfillment of human desires depends on God's Will and Divine Providence and not entirely on willpower or hard work."
-The Mysteries Of Life In Children's Literature, Mitchell Kalpakgian
A Book
I just listened to In The House Of Tom Bombadil by C. R. Wiley on Canon+, and I have to say, it shifted my whole view of Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry. I never thought too deeply into his character in The Fellowship Of The Ring before, but I have to say, now I have a desire to re-read the book and figure out everything I missed the first couple times. Tom Bombadil can potentially represent so many things, it's pretty fascinating. Highly recommend if you're a Lord Of The Rings fan.
A Bit of Nature
A Recommendation
Since we're in the middle of fall and all things pumpkin, I'm recommending International Delight Pumpkin Spice coffee creamer. It has to be International Delight. I read on a blog once that it is the best pumpkin-flavored creamer, and I truly think they got that right.
A Moment Of Happiness
Last weekend we went to a corn maze and pumpkin patch as a family. We had a fun time, and we topped off our outing by letting the kids pick out their own mini pumpkins to decorate their room. My four year old asked if her baby pumpkin would rot, and I said that it might, but it would probably last until after Thanksgiving.
About an hour later, she asked me repeatedly when Thanksgiving was, and I answered her and didn't think much of it.
Fast forward a few hours, and right before bedtime she comes into my room sobbing. She lays her head down on my lap, wailing, and declares, "Mama, I don't want my baby pumpkin anymore, because I don't want to see it get all ROTTED!! You can have it. It will rot and you'll be able to see all it's CUTS!! I'm just so SAD that my baby pumpkin is going to ROT!!!" (Exclamation points signify extra wails thrown in there).
I reassured her multiple times that it would take a long time for it to rot, but she wouldn't have any of it. I tried not to laugh so many times, and we finally agreed that Baby Pumpkin would sleep in my room each night, and I'd check it each morning for any sign of rot before she looked at it. I still want to laugh when I think about it, because she was truly distressed about her pumpkin rotting, and it was so pathetically cute.
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