Thursday, April 28, 2011

LotsaThoughts

A Call to Anguish,  by Pastor David Wilkerson,  mighty man of God. He will be missed this side of eternity!



The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America. This is a very reactionary film, if I say so myself, even though I agree with a lot of the facts. What do you think?




READING
Grooming the Next Generation for Success by Dani Johnson. A must read for anyone wanting to parent with intention. I'll be doing a longer review soon. I highly recommend it.

The Book of Joshua, in  the Bible. If you want a non threatening forum for  talking with your kids about anything and everything, read the Bible out loud to them!
If you are looking for a good flick we LOVE the movie Joshua and the books by Father Girzone were very much worth reading, too.

Completed
ETC 8 and Flower is done with all phonics instruction.It's kinda weird, teaching my last kid to read. It's one of the greatest joys of parenting and homeschooling, imho; giving one's child the gift of reading. You open their eyes to the world!
And if you are looking for an excellent, inexpensive phonics program, I will, forever and always, recommend
AlphaPhonics in conjunction with ETC.
Writing TalesII
Health 6
Sea to Shining Sea- American History
IEW American Lit
Minute Math 3
Co-op ends this week. It's been a great semester. I'm glad it's about over! It's been a blast but I'm ready for a lighter schedule!
I  planned summer school and started planning coursework for fall. Feeling pretty organized! I still don't have history planned. I am still throwing around TOG. Someone convince me, or throw out something else! I want to do history with all 3 of my kids, grammar, dialectic and rhetoric stages. I want to be doing history together again!
And I did decide on Singapore with LoF thrown in. The Story  Problems are fantastic. And I want to get Problemoids.
My list is long, and not inexpensive!

Gardening!
We put in lettuce and spinach and finally have seedlings coming up! It's supposed to get up to the high 60's this week-end! We might put away our socks and sweaters here yet!

Writing
I'd love it if you took a minute to read my post on Train up Your Child to Grow Spiritually and leave a comment on Heart of the Matter on- line. And I'll be posting on Saturday at HSV on Taming Curriculum Addiction. Any ideas or burning questions you have for my regular "how to" column? Lmk!

For You
Don't forget to sign up, if you haven't already, for a chance to win The Artist Within program and book!
And if you need prayer, comment here.

Link up at Conversion Dairies; Home is Where You Start From The Homeschool Chick

11 comments:

Julie... said...

Thank you for posting about David Wilkerson's death...I had no idea. He was a great man of God and planted many seeds. He will surely be missed.
Blessings, Julie

rednanasteph's place said...

Teaching kids to read is so fun and rewarding. I can hardly wait to teach Tori

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but I do not know who David Wilkerson is. I'll have to look him up. I'm a new GFC follower from Friday Blog hop. http://www.grandmasguidetolife.blogspot.com

MERYL JAFFE, PhD - parent, psychologist, teacher, author... said...

Powerful post. I am an educator and your piece is very sad. As a consultant I have to say that there are teachers and schools like those on the video and there are others who are just outstanding.

As a language arts specialist I always encourage kids to write, write, write. And as they write, we slowly tweak the spelling, grammar, punctuation. Letting work go uncorrected is just wrong. As is over criticizing.

Life for educators (and parents) should about encouragement,support, structure and balance.

Nice meeting you, I look forward to more visits.

Kelly L said...

The first video I agree with much of it also - the 2nd video was disturbing - thank you for sharing.
I'm your newest follower from Friday Hop. Looking forward to reading your posts - Would love a follow back!
I've Become My Mother
Kelly's Ideas
Amazing Salvation

Ritsumei said...

That 2nd video is... disturbing. A lot of the stuff in there I've seen other places. The NEA and Rockefeller doing evil things to our children, for instance. I don't like the way he presents the typical teacher though, having worked in a couple different schools at various times. I don't think that's how it is. I've come to the conclusion that teachers are simply not paying attention to what their unions are doing or who is making the national policy or what those policy makers' motives are. Teachers are good people, who are at times duped into participating and funding some really awful things.

laughinglioness.lisa@gmail.com said...

Ritsumi,
I agree that the points made are WAY over stated. My dh is a psychologist and you saw how thouroughly they slammed that profession ; ). My dh was actually mortified that I linked it, but I think it's good to be thinking and have the discussion.
I am way beyond thinking that there is only ONE right way to educate (i.e. homeschooling) but I think consumers/joe public needs to be aware of some of the vision going on behind the scenes.
Thanks for your comment!

Regena said...

I am sorry to hear about Wilkerson. I am trying to view the Dumbing Down of America, but the right side of the screen is cut off and I can't seem to figure out how to enlarge it or overcome the problem so that I can see the entire screen.....

Regena

laughinglioness.lisa@gmail.com said...

Regena,
Maybe trying it on Youtube would work better.

MissMOE said...

Teaching reading is one of those great joys. I've already told my kids that I would love to teach grandbabies to read.

Lisa @ Our Country Road said...

Excellent videos, hank you for sharing!