A New Year Cometh

This article originally appeared in the Pitter Patter newsletter of my MOPS group in January 2000.  We were facing a new year, a new decade, a new millennium.  A few things have changed over the the last 11 years, so I have updated a few spots in [brackets] and in color.

It is strange to think that not only were we raised in a different century from our children, but a different millennium. And certainly this is a different “age.”

The age of technology is upon us. My three year old has already mastered her “preschool” computer program. She can click her way through the screens as well as mom. Mom never touched a computer before junior high and then it was the one computer in the whole school for “kid use” – a TRS-80. It worked off of cassette tapes somehow. Sounds like ancient history.  [Okay, so this really is ancient history, my now-teenagers are playing games over the internet with friends in other neighborhoods, took their driving test online, use Google instead of a dictionary or an encyclopedia, and rapidly assimilate new physics apps on the iPad.]

In the “good old days” my brother and I spent Saturday mornings glued to the TV set with such questionable fare as Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and Pepe LePew. They [child psychologists and parents] worried at the time about us not understanding why the coyote did not get hurt when he fell into the canyon. My children are not allowed to watch Saturday morning cartoons due to violence, bad language, bad attitudes, poor adult role models, and new age doctrines that are not hidden, but openly displayed. And forget regular daytime/ nighttime TV too. The coarse humor, overt sexual relations, and the “selling” of the homosexual lifestyle have made this hobby a thing of the past for my family.  [The main TV show my children have grown up with is Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition which is now about to go off the air!  We were pretty good about keeping TV limited to that one hour a week, with "safe" videos thrown in here and there.  With some new digital TV stations, this year my kids have branched out to Batman (Adam West), Get Smart and Hogan's Heroes.  It has been fun watching them get a kick out of all the oldie goldies.]

School was a safe place for children to go and learn when I was growing up. Our children will find that a laughable statement. A teacher could hug you and love you like a surrogate parent. Now they are afraid to brush against a child for fear of lawsuits.  [This year alone, I have heard of 8 kids hit by cars at their bus stops, 2 bus drivers who went to battle with students on their buses, a bus driver that wouldn't let a parent board, teachers and principal who fell into the pits of pornography, sexual abuse, and cheating with and for their students.  Bullying continues to sky-rocket even with all this "tolerance training."  We opted instead for the last 10 years to homeschool.  Our homeschool isn't perfect:  we are behind in some things.  But, my children know the Lord, they tend toward kind and respectful, and we know each other.]

[I wrote this article BEFORE the events of 9/11...just think of how that one event affected our lives.  Airport security; field trip tours to the dairy, the newspaper, and other interesting places; bag checks at theme parks,  and so much more!]

Doctors used to know you and your family and your history. [Uh, let me know if you can find one of those near me.]  Restaurant and grocery store employees used to be friendly and competent.  [Not to be rude, but if the power goes out, nobody knows what to do.  There is no way for a cashier to tally up your groceries (they are not visibly marked anymore) even if she is able to do the math.  I have noticed with the recent recession that workers are tending to be happier in having a job and working harder to keep them.]

This new society begs the question, “How can a young man keep his way pure?” The answer, however old-fashioned, is still “By keeping it according to Thy word.” (Psalm 119:9)

How can we best help our children in the New Millennium? By teaching them God’s Word from the Bible and giving them God’s standards for living. Maybe they won’t fit in with their generation. I pray they will not.

Road Trip!!!

We need a long road trip!  That's how I felt when I listened to The World's Greatest Stories as told by George W. Sarris.  We LOVE to listen to CDs while traveling, especially fun and exciting stories!  Mr. Sarris' versions of Daniel in the Lion's Den, Elijah and the Prophets of Baal and all the others really fit the bill.

In reality, you don't need a long road trip to enjoy these stories, although each volume is approximately one hour long, most are generally broken into five stories so you can start and stop in ten to fifteen minute increments.  The BEST thing about these stories is that they are word-for-word from the Bible!  You can get King James (my choice) or NIV versions.  The NEXT BEST thing is that Mr. Sarris uses a wide variety of voices (his own) and sound effects that help grab your attention and keep it.  As your child listens, they aren't getting a watered down or fictionalized version of the Bible -- they are chewing on the real Word.  If you listen over and over, I'm sure you and your child would soon have many parts, or even whole stories memorized.  Currently, there are 6 volumes of stories...here is what you can get for only $7.95/each volume.

Volume 1 = The Prophets
The Blazing Furnace
The Handwriting on the Wall
Daniel in the Lion's Den
Elijah and the Prophets of Baal
The Prophecy of Jonah

Volume 2 = The Life of Christ
the Real Story of Christmas
The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
The Healing of the Blind Man
Things Jesus Said and Did
The Real Story of Easter

Volume 3 = Beginnings
In the Beginning
A Lame Man in Lystra
A Jailer in Philippi
The Story of Ruth
The Raising of Lazarus

Volume 4 = Joshua & Esther
The Battle of Jericho
The Book of Esther

Volume 5 = Joseph & His Brothers

Volume 6 = Defeating Giants
David & Goliath
Namaan the Leper
Micaiah the Prophet & Josephat the King
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Gideon & His 300 Men

There is also a series of CD messages on homeschooling dads, dating, impacting our culture, and more for only $4.95/each.  You can find those here.

The narrator, George W. Sarris has some pretty impressive credentials.  He has worked commercially in New York as the principal spokesman for radio and TV commercials for Burger King, Duracell, Pizza Hut, Sprint, UPS, Honda and others.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Speech and a Master of Divinity.  He has served on the staff of the Mass Media Ministry of Campus Crusade.

These stories are aimed at ages 4 and up, and I think would be enjoyed by everyone!  I have teens, so they smirked a little at first, but later I overhead them quoting bits of the story back and trying to imitate the voices!

As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I was provided the World's Greatest Stories:  the Prophets, Volume 1, KJV version, plus a Sampler CD free of charge in exchange for an honest review.   For more TOS reviews of this and other products, click here.  I hope you will check out this series of stories and invest in them for your family.  Truly one fun way to meditate on God's Word!

Flinging Fun & History!

From Alexander the Great, to World War II, to current-day "Punkin Chunkin" contests, catapults have been favorite weapons of war and tools for fun for a loooong time!  Pitsco brings catapults and trebuchet siege machines into your home and classroom as a history lesson, a science lesson, and an all-round fun time!

When the Pitsco box arrived, my then-12-year-old son took over with glee.  He opened the package to find a booklet telling him all about the history, "science, technology, engineering, and math of medieval siege machines."  After an introduction into the history and safety in the use of the catapult, the 32-page booklet covers topics like tension and torsion, mass vs. distance, metric conversion, calculating averages, elasticity, experimenting with rubber bands, gravity and levers, prediction (math), force & motion, and more.  For several experiments, there are charts to fill in for scientific testing.

Okay, so being a boy, and mostly kinesthetic at that, the book was soon pushed aside a bit and my son began to build the thing!  He found the catapult to be easier than the trebuchet.  The instructions and pictures for the trebuchet were harder to understand.  But, with some help from Dad and a bit of perseverance, both weapons of mass destruction were together within hours (spread over a couple of days).  The siege machines really work and my son was soon pelting clay missiles at things and having a grand time.  Soon, we will be going back through the book and filling in the head knowledge more completely.

This kit would be a great accompaniment to your medieval (or other history) lessons.  You end up with sturdy, usable weapons/toys and a sense of accomplishment from self-building.  The lessons are based on the standards of the National Science Teachers Association, International Technology Education Association, and National Council of Teachers of Math.  This kit is aimed at grades 5 through 12.

You can see what the catapults and trebuchets look like here.  But, Pitsco offers many other curricula and products you might enjoy...If you want to encourage a budding engineer, architect, scientist or math whiz, be sure to check out their other offerings on their website store.

The catapult and trebuchet go for $10.95/each and the Siege Machines book is another $3.95.  You do want the book!  If you are hosting a co-op, you can get reduced prices for groups of 10 ($8.39) or 30 ($7.67).  Or you can get a package deal with the catapult, trebuchet and Siege Machines book for $21.95 which includes the weights for flinging!

If you really want to go indepth, Pitsco also carries a more expensive package that includes all of the above, as well as two in depth teachers/curriculum guides that provide another 20+ hours of teaching materials for each kit.

I was provided the Catapult and Trebuchet kits, plus the Siege Machines book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.  I honestly think your hands-on, science-types will love them!

Shameless Plug

After working almost 30 years in the space program, my husband has landed a great new job at home.  He has incorporated as Digital Worship, LLC.  His vision is to design apps for Apple and other hand-held devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android) that are helpful in the Christian and homeschool and education markets.  

This week, his first app appeared in the Apple store!  Dad's Prayers is designed to encourage parents to pray for their children.  Paul has compiled a bunch of sample prayers taken from his own prayer-life, backed up with scripture.  You can use them as a skeleton on which to build your own prayers for your own children.  

This is a FREE app, intended as the first-fruits offering of Digital Worship.  If you have an Apple hand-held device, we hope that you will download a copy today and also share with as many parent-friends you may have!  You can find all the information here.

We'd love to hear back if you find this a useful tool or if you have suggestions.  And, hopefully, soon we'll have more and different types of apps to share with you!

In My Lifetime...

Men started letting women open doors for them.
Men stopped offering chairs to women.
Women began cussing, without making excuses for it.
Women started wearing short skirts and decolletage shirts and considered it "business attire."
The word "gay" stopped meaning "happy."
Men started kissing men and women started kissing women on TV.
Our President declared that America wasn't a Christian nation.
Our currency lost its gold backing.

Jesus may return.

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.  2 Peter 3:9-14

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

One bite at a time!

Maria Miller breaks math down into edible bite-size pieces in her Math Mammoth series.  I had the opportunity to review the Multiplication 1 e-book and I loved it!  My son is well past the age of multiplication -- well, he is supposed to be.  But, there are a few facts that keep eluding him.  So, I thought this would be a great chance to review and rebuild some concepts that he must have missed.

The Multiplication 1 book is broken into 2 parts.  The Multiplication Concept covers the meaning of multiplication (Many Times the Same Group), the relationship between Multiplication and Addition, Multiplication as an Array and on a Number Line.  Ms. Miller uses various types of exercises to repeat the same thing, so your child can SEE what multiplication is.  They see it, draw it, hear it, etc.  The book was laid out nicely for independent work.

The second part concerns Memorizing the Tables.  She gives great instruction in how to give oral drills.  She takes the tables not in numerical order, but in order of simplicity so that the child builds memory with ease and repetition.  You can see Maria Miller explaining multiplication algorithms on video here.   She also explains her structured drill practice on video here.  There are lots of other videos you may wish to check out.

We are still finishing up Part One of this book, but I have already seen my son's comprehension and speed pick up while doing his other math work.  I am super-pleased with Math Mammoth and would recommend it highly.  Ms. Miller offers lots of other math curriculum from kindergarten thru Algebra 1.  Besides complete curriculum, she also sells math by topic (just clocks, just geometry, or just word problems, etc.).

These books are not expensive.  Maria Miller explains:

"I've always (since 2003) wanted to offer materials at affordable prices. For example, the complete curriculum products cost $32 a grade (download).  But if you are REALLY having to watch every dollar, check into the Blue Series books - the electronic versions cost between $2 and $7.00 apiece!"

Ms. Miller gives a great list of helpful resources on the Internet which you can use to supplement your math work.  I just noticed also that this e-book is now available for annotation, meaning you can have your child fill in the pages on the computer, rather than printing!


I was provided this e-book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.  I honestly recommend it to you!  You can see more TOS Homeschool Crew reviews of Math Mammoth here.

Vocabulary Facilitation (Vocab Made Easy!)

To prepare for an AP English class, I was assigned a vocabulary book to complete during the summer before my senior year of high school (many, many, oh so many years ago).  To my knowledge, I am the only dork who actually completed the assignment!  But, actually, I enjoyed doing the lessons and playing with the words.  For one chapter, I recall writing a poem about a fairy who "liked all things incendiary," as a way to help me remember what I was learning.  Josh and Judah Burk, of  College-Prep Genius fame, have taken my little idea and run with it.  They have written whole novels around their SAT vocabulary lists!

Josh explains:

"When I was a student (preparing for the awful SATs), I did a lot of reading to improve my vocabulary.  I learned a lot of great words through the process of looking up every unfamiliar word, but it was often extremely tedious.  Some of the best books had me pulling out the dictionary several times a sentence!  This often sucked the fun out of reading and made learning vocabulary a chore.  The VocabCafé Book Series tries to remedy this by keeping the power of learning through context while relieving the annoyance of dictionary interruptions!"

You may know that the Burks earned full ride scholarships based on their SAT scores and all the many hours of practice they put in on them.  So, their advice about learning vocabulary is definitely of great value!

So far, the VocabCafé series holds four books:

1. Planet Exile (science fiction)
2. The Summer of Saint Nick ("realistic" fiction)
3. I.M. for Murder (murder mystery adventure) and 
4. Operation Highschool (spy adventure)

The first three were written by Josh Burk and the last one by Judah Burk.  Two more are planned for release later this year.  Though the vocab review idea is a series, the books are not a series in the sense of sharing characters or events.  Each novel stands alone and they are all quite different.  You can find descriptions of each plot here.

On the positive side:

In general, the main characters are nice kids, they love their parents and try to do good.  Though not overtly Christian, characters mention God, say grace, and go to church.  There is a lesson or several lessons that are well-stated and embedded within each novel.  

The interaction between the main characters in I.M. for Murder is well done.  I love the description of the game the boys play when they throw all the patio furniture into the pool and then go searching for "buried treasure."  The author really captured how spirited boys play and while I, as a woman/mom, would fear for their safety, I still could appreciate that that is how it is!  

Obviously, the biggest selling point about these books is that they expose your child to new vocabulary words.  At first, it is a bit shocking to encounter "plebiscite" in the middle of a regular sentence (kind of like Spanglish), but that is probably a good thing because it draws your attention.  The words are bolded and italicized and their definitions are on the bottom of the page where they are found, like I have done with a few words in green on this blog page.  At the end of each chapter, there is a summary page of the words to review for that chapter.  There is also a glossary in the back of the book, listing all 300+ words and their definitions.  

On the negative side:

Often consequences do not follow actions.  Teens lie, sneak out of their houses in the middle of the night,  pull pranks, and commit arson without being caught.  Even good behavior, like giving away over $200,000 to charity, is not really rewarded.  Although this is very realistic in the sense that we aren't always caught or rewarded (here on earth), it gives the reader a sense of loose ends.

Though there were no swear words, some of the slang used was a little too hip for me.  "Freaking" is used as an adjective (the origin of that word is a euphemism for something I consider to be a swear word) and there is a "screw that."  But, those occurrences are rare and that is pretty realistic for how kids talk today, so that is up to your personal preference.  The back cover of Summer of Saint Nick mentions "the hottest girl in school," but the insides of the book do not reflect that kind of language or attitude towards girls.

Some of the teen activities give me, as a parent, the willies.  In Operation High School, the front cover and the first chapter had me wondering if this book was going to be about the occult (late at night, circle of candles, blindfolded, etc.).  Although that fear was unfounded, there were hazing type activities (tying up a  blindfolded girl and leaving her alone out in the woods to find her way to a mysterious location) that I hope will never be imitated by readers.  I liked, in I.M. for Murder, that the teens would discuss the fact that they were "stepping over a moral boundary" before they did it, at least giving the reader the knowledge that this was wrong.  However, part of what they were doing wrong was using the internet to lure a pedophile/murderer into the open -- a dangerous game, to say the least.

At times, the omniscience of the 3rd person narrator is jarring.  For the first half the book, you have been in the head of the main character, but suddenly, and without warning, you jump into someone else's head and know all his thoughts and motivations.  

There are slight editing issues in several of the books that aren't too troubling.  But, Operation High School has a plethora of errors that will set an English teacher's, and maybe even your student's, teeth on edge.

Some of the themes are definitely better reserved for older teens and adults.  There is a situation (already referred to) with a pedophile/murderer, some violence, decapitation of a cat, dating/kissing (very mild), and the like.  I like that Josh Burk is up front with this stuff.  He says:

"***A WORD ABOUT CONTENT – These books were written with an intended audience of high school teenagers, although many parents find them appropriate for their middle school or younger students.  As a family-based company, our goal is to make a quality product that can be enjoyed by everyone.  Thus, these stories contain no magic, sorcery, swear words, illicit situations, nor do they encourage negative behaviors.  However, we recommend that parents should read every book that they give their children (not just ours) to make sure the messages coincide with their beliefs and standards.  The VocabCafé Book Series does contain boy-girl relationships (non-sexual), mild violence, and mature thematic elements."

I did not have a problem with my daughter reading this series, but told her to use her best judgement as she went along (she read them first).  She opted to skim I.M. for Murder and to skip Operation High School.  She was more comfortable with the other two books which seemed aimed at a younger audience.  In fact, I would say there is a big separation between the books.  I think Planet Exile and The Summer of Saint Nick are fine reading for middle-schoolers, but I would be leery of I.M. For Murder and Operation High School until late high school -- and I would definitely suggest you read them first to make sure you find them acceptable for your family.

The authors are good writers, but they are also young neophytes.  I can see real improvement in their writing as the books progress, so given the chance, I think they will continue to get better.

The VocabCafé books sell individually for $12.95 or as a set of 4 for $28.85.  College-Prep Genius offers many other ways to prepare for SAT testing, including prep classes, workbooks and DVDs.

Dork /dork/ N - social misfit; geek
Vocabulary /vō-kab-yə-lerē/ N - body of words
Positive /päz-ə-tiv/ N - good quality

Hazing /ha-zing/ V - force to perform strenuous, humiliating, or dangerous tasks
Plethora /ple-thərə/ N - an excess of

As part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew, I was provided this series of 4 books free in exchange for an honest review.  For more TOS reviews, click here.