Printable Mega Wall Maps for Homeschool or Just Plain Fun.

I love this idea!  Click on this link to Your Child Learns website which provides free printable maps of all sizes.  There are so many possibilities here!  Has anyone tried this?  I'd love to know how it worked.
Here's a quote from the website: "By coloring and writing on the map, students make it “their own”. Map work moves from rote to fun. The larger map format not only allows more detail because of its larger scale, it also makes it easy for several student to work together on one map. Students can each have a small map, while the teacher explains material on a larger map at the front. Maps to complement a variety of lessons. Have your students learn WHERE it happened."

Confessions of a Serial (plant) Killer

I'm starting to feel better about killing house plants.  I used to have some pangs of guilt after purchasing a hapless violet or a thriving schefflera at Home Depot knowing that once it was in my posession, it was toast.  Some people, like my grandfather, are born with a green thumb but I unfortunately, was not. I've always known this about myself and yet I can't help getting sucked in every year by the spring hyacinths and the poinsettias at Christmas.  They're all doomed once they are placed in my shopping cart, of course.  I pretty sure I've heard them let out little cries for help as they're wheeled out into the parking lot.

My latest victims are two 4 inch pots of fresh basil.  I found them at the grocery store on an end cap in the produce section. With an eye toward pesto,  I carefully selected the two most promising plants; both were wrapped up in cellophane and looked incredibly healthy.  How hard could it be?  I thought to myself.  I believe I can keep them alive for at least a few months.  Well, perhaps a few weeks.  Is that too much to ask?

You must keep in mind that I live in Hawaii where everyone feels good about their green thumb because things grow outside without any effort at all.  I have literally thrown "dead" plants out into the back yard only to have them come back at me bigger, better, and with blooms in just a few short weeks.

Unfortunately, as you no doubt already gathered from the title of my post,"bigger, better, and with blooms" was not to be the fate of my basil.  Despite my attempt to water it regularly and put it in a cheery spot on my windowsill, it croaked within about a week and a half of living under my roof.

C'est la vie.

I said I was feeling better about killing house plants.  I suppose that's a sign that I am, indeed, a certified serial (plant) killer.  A run of the mill plant killer feels more remorse than this I think.  It's starting to get easy for me.  In fact, I'm planning another trip to Home Depot tomorrow.  I hear they've got gerber daisies in.

Through Gates of Splendor

"The will of God is always bigger than we bargain for."  Jim Elliot 1952


There are certain books that I feel close to- like family.  Through Gates of Splendor is one of those books.  It was written by Elisabeth Elliot, wife of Jim Elliot and missionary to the Auca Indians of Ecuador.  In it she recounts the story of five missionaries, who because of their passion for the gospel, and their love for people, boldly flew into the jungle to share the message of hope to an unreached tribe.  All five men were martyred for their faith on that fateful day- January 8, 1956.  That was 57 years ago.

Before I read Through Gates of Splendor, I read Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control (also by Elisabeth Elliot).  Both books had a profound and lasting effect on me in high school.  Elizabeth is a gifted writer and communicator and she was able to clearly convey  her thoughts on dating, courtship and marriage in a way few others had done before.  Her relationship with Jim was a model for me as I formulated my ideas about finding and being a God-honoring mate.


If you have a middle or high school student these two books should be high on the reading list for them.    They inspire Christians to live with holy abandon.  Enjoy!


"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

A New Year's Grace

Last year I posted at the end of January declaring that the only resolution I usually keep is the one not to make any more resolutions (I Cannot Come Down).  I'm happy to say that I did in fact kept that resolution for 2012.  I wish I could say that for 2013 I am making a list and am determined to check off all sorts of excellent accomplishments one by one over the next 365 days.  The problem is that I know myself too well.  In the past I have had lots of good intentions at which I've failed spectacularly (keep my desk straight, eat more healthfully, tame the pile of paperwork, write for 30 minutes a day, pray for 30 minutes a day, exercise 30 minutes a day, keep some margin in my life, remember to take my reusable shopping bags to the grocery store, etc.).  We all know where the road paved with good intentions leads so I have started looking at the daunting task of New Years Resolutions in a different light.  Instead of piling on expectations for myself I'm choosing to live under the grace in which I stand in Christ Jesus and to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2).  

There's nothing wrong with setting goals and accomplishing them.  In fact, I require it in my home.  I am very motivated by the goals I set for myself.  God gives us the ability to be self controlled and self disciplined through the Holy Spirit and it would be foolhardy to decide to float through life reacting to whatever comes along.  

Sometimes though, I've been known to set goals without ascertaining whether they are goals that Drew wants or goals that Jesus wants.  Inevitably, when they are "because I think this is a good thing to do" me-centered goals they flop.  I put pressure and guilt on myself that He never intended me to bear.  Even the seemingly spiritual "read my Bible every day" if done in the flesh becomes more of a check in the box than a relationship builder between my Father and I as it should be.  Likewise as innocuous as the goals of keeping my desk straight or remembering to bring those bags to the store seem, I can beat myself up pretty badly when I feel that I've failed.  I tell myself that other people can do it and I should be able to do it too.  All of the little things that I don't have under control can combine into a viscious ball of guilt.  It's not that I am a total mess (usually) but I know I could do better.  

The problem with this thinking is that it is has a root in pride.  It all comes down to what I can do in my own strength.  Pride is my nemesis.    Apparently I am not alone because the Bible addresses this problem a lot.  Even the attempt at false humility is prideful- go figure!  Whatever I decide to take the reins of and control in my own power, without giving glory to God, (apart from Whom I can do nothing- John 15:5), is an object of pride.  My neat desk.  My organized homeschool.  My healthful meals. My 30 minutes of prayer.  My ("You go green girl!") reusable shopping bags.  

James 4 addresses my problem with laser precision. Read verses 1- 10:

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴ You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? ⁶ But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud
    but gives grace to the humble.”^[b]

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

When the focus of my goal or of my asking God for direction or blessing is self-motivated instead of Christ-motivated it leads to unfulfilled, unholy desires and opposition from God.  The only way to change this is to humble myself under His mighty hand so He can lift me up.  It's no good trying to lift myself up through bootstrap will power and pride.  He only gives grace to me when my heart comes to Him in humility.  His Spirit in me "envies intensely'.  God will not NOT be glorified in me.  His plans for my life are perfect and He doesn't want anything in my life to take His place.  He says that the reason I want things and I don't get them is because I pridefully make plans instead of submitting myself to Him and drawing near to Him.

James goes on to say this in verses 13-17:

"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins."

My attitude should be: If it is the Lord's will, I will live and do this or that.  I will live.  Indeed, unless it is His will I can't even live!  That's a great place from which to start- knowing that apart from Him I can do nothing. If my plans aren't His plans they aren't going anywhere.

So, again, there's nothing wrong with making plans or setting goals, expectations and hopes for yourself.  Formulating plans, goals and expectations and then asking God to bless them is wrong.  It's backwards.   Instead we ought to ask Him what we should pursue, submit ourselves to His will and leave room for His sovereignty and grace in all of our plans.  We need to hold them all with an open hand.  This is difficult because although I am no longer a slave to sin (Romans 6:6), I still live with the effects of my sinful nature. The tighter I hold on to my plans the more it hurts when God's plan is different from mine. That's why I am so thankful that He gives me more grace (v.6).  

Wouldn't you know, God is giving me more grace right this minute?  I am content to stand in this grace and wait to see what His plans are for me this year.  I'm going to try to ask Him what He wants for me and not make assumptions, goals, resolutions or plans without Him.     

 It's easy for me to understand that my life here on earth in this body is a vaporous mist, and yet I am living a real life with a real future (Jeremiah 29:11).  The prospect of a New Year is filled with all sorts of possibilities.  I look forward with humility and joy to the plans He has for me this year as He makes me more like Him by His grace.  

All is Neither Calm, nor Bright

A couple of weeks ago we went through all of the gyrations needed to uncover our Christmas decorations and start getting ready for the season.  As my husband pulled out the boxes from their hiding place I started feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I really didn't have time to decorate this year.  Our kids are teenagers. They probably wouldn't have squawked too much if I'd put up a Charlie Brown tree but I know how much it means to have the house ready for this special season so I determined to go ahead and put some things up- but not go full tilt like I do with many things in my life.  So, one evening we set up the pre-lit tree (all 1200 bulbs finally conked out this year) and a few of my nativity scenes I've collected over the years.   My husband buys them for me when he travels abroad and I buy ones I think are pretty or unique. One of my favorites is a little manger scene inside a coconut.


As I unpacked our biggest scene this year I realized that baby Jesus was nowhere to be found.  Wherever he was, Joseph was also there because Joe was missing in action as well.  We went ahead and put the scene up because it is a pretty one.  Over the past few weeks we've been carrying on a family joke as the kids mix and match baby Jesus in the various manger scenes so He's not always missing from the same one.

  Last  night I came home and looked at them on my sideboy near our dining room table, each of them depicting a scene of peaceful bliss as shepherds, wisemen, cattle, sheep, Mary and Joseph look lovingly towards the manger.  Those scenes are kind of unrealistic.  In fact, I bet He gets a little chuckle out of them sometimes.

Jesus was born in a stinky stable in a messy world.  Mary and Joseph were far from relaxed as they tended to Him in that barn.  Life must have seemed out of control to them.  God had reassured Joseph and Mary separately that He had a plan and that they were a part of it.  Mary's son was to be the long awaited Messiah.  They knew in their hearts that He loved them and that He was more powerful than their circumstances.  But it didn't change the fact that they were on an emotional rollercoaster and that much of what they were experiencing was confusing, uncomfortable and difficult.  Nevertheless, it was true.  God was on His throne and they were squarely in the middle of His will.

I can relate to the raw emotion of the first Christmas right now.  Everything is not all calm and bright these days and yet I know that He still reigns.  Thank you, Lord for being Immanuel, God with us!  Thank you that you know what it is like to be a frail human.  Thank you for giving me hope through your son, Jesus.  That little baby in the manger-  my Savior and the reason for the season.   Help me keep my eyes on You.

A Post to Say that I Will be Posting

Bear with me as I move some of my previous posts from my former blog over to this one so more of them are in one place.  Sorry to those of you who get updates when there's a new post- the next few will be repeats.

How to Make a Home School Wiki

               
(Originally published as "Technology in the Homeschool: Gettin’ Your Wiki On" 9/30/11 on my previous blog.)

                 I spend a good deal of time gleaning the internet for information and resources to enhance our home school.  In my first year of homeschooling, I would find a website that looked promising and I’d write it down on a piece of paper so I could come back to it later if I ever needed it.  Sometimes I’d bookmark it.  Or put  a sticky on my computer.  This system started to deteriorate rapidly as my bookmark bar became overloaded and I could never find that piece of paper with the link to the really cool animation of mitosis.  I needed a solution to help me organize the cool and useful stuff I was finding.  That’s when I learned about wikis. 

             

              If you’re like me the first thing that pops into your head when you hear “wiki” is “not a credible source for research papers.”  Actually, that’s Wikipedia, which is one of about a gazillion wikis out there.   According to Wikipedia (I know, I know), a wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWIG text editor…etc…  Whatever that is.  Don’t let the HTML talk scare you, it’s easier than it sounds. It’s just a great big organization tool to help you rein in the information dragon.   I attended a full day seminar teaching home schooling parents how to utilize a Wiki in the classroom and it has revolutionized the way we organize and manage the power of the internet for school. 

               The internet fosters collaboration and the sharing of knowledge.  As a result, incredible amounts (I think the technical term is “scads”) of information and data are added to the collective intelligence each day.  For those of us who are still trying to figure out how to play 10 simultaneous games of Words With Friends this can feel very overwhelming.  Suddenly, we not only have to tend to vast amount of laundry, lesson plans and healthful meals (and WWF) but we also have to somehow conquer and harness the internet and bring it under our dominion.  A place for everything and everything in its place.    This can be a fast and steep learning curve.   Sometimes it’s tempting to just pretend it’s not there.  Like that pile of papers we’ve been meaning to go through. 

               I remember when I was in high school one of my classmates at our private school showed up in the parking lot with a new car- that had a phone in it!  A no-kidding full-sized bat phone.  We were all amazed.  This was 1989 and we all thought it was ridiculously decadent and “out there”.  Who in the world talks on the phone while they are driving?  Who would they talk to anyway?  No one has phones in their car. You can always stop at a pay phone if you need to call someone.  Or just wait till you get home, for goodness sake!  Little did we know…20 years later we would be wondering what we did before we carried phones with us everywhere we went.  Technology makes it easy for people to stay connected  in ways we might not have thought possible.  Same with the Internet.  Technology is making it easy to get information.  The problem is what to do with it once you’ve got it.  That’s where it starts to feel daunting.  A wiki can help you organize information, media, resources, discussion threads, lists and collaborate with others.  It’s very versatile.

           Let me give you a more concrete example of one way you could use a wiki.  This year my son is taking Apologia Physics.  I have set up a page on the wiki called Apologia Physics 2011-2012.  Off of that page I have all of the book chapters listed and each one links to a separate page.  So for instance, I have “Chapter 4 Motion in Two Dimensions”.  On this page I have links to the lectures for Chapter 4 from an open source online Apologia Physics Class.  So there is a link for “Lecture 1- Navigation in two dimensions” and “Lecture 2- Range Equation”.  I’ve also linked to several Khan Academy lectures and physics sites in case he needs extra clarification.

            You can do this for any course.  Last year, I took the Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science curriculum and found links to videos and extra resources for many of the concepts in the chapters.   So for instance, one whole page was dedicated to Chapter 3 and on that page there were links to extra material for the kids to watch.  Yes, it took some time to search and gather information to put on the wiki but it helps to have it all in one place.  Plus, you can use the information year after year because it’s always right where you left it- on the wiki.

            I could walk you through all of the steps to setting up your wiki but someone has already beat me to it.  Thank goodness.  No sense in reinventing the wheel.  Here’s a tutorial called How to Build an Educational Wiki to get you started.  

            Not many things in life are free- but your wiki can be! Sign up for an account at WikiSpaces for Educators to get your free wiki.   Be sure you make it private unless you want to have it viewable and editable by everyone.

             One thing I will mention is to pay attention to whether you are linking to an internal page or an external page.  If you find a web page or video on You Tube you want to link to your wiki you should have it open in a separate external web page opened in a new window (click the box for new window) so it isn’t stored on your wiki.  Likewise, all private pages should be linked internally. 

              I am not terribly techie so if I can do it, you can probably do it even better.  If you are just getting started here’s how I suggest you organize your (very basic) wiki:

1. Click the Edit Navigation link and delete the blue Page List widget. Now you will be able to edit the navigation bar just like you would edit a wiki page to add links and explanatory text.

If you need assistance editing a page you can watch the very helpful Wikispaces video tours.  In fact, you should probably watch it right now before your proceed. All of the “Getting Started” video tutorials are great.  I’ve also had good success with their customer service when I needed to find out the answer to a question I couldn’t ascertain from the website. 

Now that the blue page list widget is gone, type in these words- one per line- and save.

Home

School Members

Classes

Resources

RSS Feeds

Now you should see these pages in a list in your navigation bar, which is probably on your right.

2. In your navigation bar, click on “Home”. This will take you to a page that says it does not exist yet.  Click on “Edit Page” and type an introduction of who you are and the purpose of the wiki.  For instance: “Welcome to the XYZ Home school Wiki!   Here’s where we post assignments, logs, links to websites and resources for our school. “ Save your page.

3. In your navigation bar, click on “School Members”. Click on Edit Page and type the names of your children and yourself.  One name per line.    

Highlight the first name in the list and click on “link” in the toolbar.  A box will open that has two tabs on it on the top.  One is for internal links to pages within your wiki- this is called “Wiki Link” and one to “External Links”. External links are for anything outside your wiki- like a You Tube video or a webpage address.   External links should always be opened in a new window.  Link these to internal pages with the same name as your highlighted text.

These personal pages can be used by each individual as a bulletin board where they can organize resources and fun stuff they find on the web. 

4. In your navigation bar, click on “Classes”.  Off of “Classes” make internal Wiki links to pages for each class you have and include information that will identify the specific student, subject and school year.     

For example: 8^th grade Art History- son#1- 2010-2011.

 Off of “Classes” make links to assignments, external videos, resources, finished work, etc.  (You could also put these class specific pages under each child’s section under “School Members”.)

5. In your navigation bar, make an internal link for “Resources”.  Off of this page make internal links to general subjects and topics.  For instance: Home school links, Co-op Resources, Stuff I want to read sometime, Curriculum, Inspiration, Technology,  Science, Literature, Math, Projects, Sports, Scouting, Music, Blog and Log, Administration, etc. Off of each of these you can create pages where you link to external websites, videos and  RSS Feeds.

5.  You may want to keep up with certain websites that have RSS feeds. In your navigation bar, make an internal link for “RSS feeds”.  Off of this page use the edit button and click on “Widget” to add a widget.  It will open a link where you can paste the RSS HTML  For the feeds you want to watch.

6.  If your family blogs or your have blogs you want to watch, you can make a page that keeps them all in one place.   I also link to internal logging charts I‘ve made using the “Table” button in the toolbar.  We use these to keep up with reading logs, volunteer service logs and physical fitness logs. (More on those later)

            You can use a wiki to collaborate on projects, reports, papers, or classes.  Just invite other people to join you and start working together.             

            I consider our Wiki to be “fair to middlin” as we say in the south. We use it almost daily and it serves us very well.   No doubt there is a ton more I could be doing with it and as soon as I fold this next basket of laundry I’m going to get right on it.  

            While I’m folding, I encourage you to poke around WikiSpaces for Education and give it a try. (You could also try Wet paint.) You’ll probably find ways to use a wiki that I haven’t even thought of.  If so, leave me a comment and do your civic duty of adding to the collective intelligence.  Let me know how you use your wiki in your home school!