"You always start with ideas. If you don't start with ideas, you get lost."

George Shultz, former Secretary of State

I was watching a very interesting biography the other night on PBS called, Turmoil and Triumph, The George Shultz Years. It was extremely interesting and informative. I felt a little bit a part of it, as some of the events took place when I was a young child and I remember some of the things they portrayed. The above quote was shared towards the end of the program. There was more to the quote, but I was not fast enough to write it all down. It said something about ideas being a compass to learning.

When I heard the quote, I thought immediately of some of the questions people ask me about our home learning. I often get the, "So, what exactly are you learning now?" or "How do you decide what to teach?". When I explain to them that I believe that as their mother, part of my responsibility is to expose them to opportunities or information that will ignite something in my kids to want to learn. Some people don't quite understand my response. I often times say that we read. We read a lot. We read all the time.



I am amazed at the looks of shock or confusion in response to my response. I am waiting for the day when someone actually says, "Really? That's all you do? Read?".

Yes, that's what we do. From reading, my children are introduced to a plethora of ideas from which they then, in turn, learn more about. For example, when we read the book The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White, they asked to learn more about:

Trumpeter Swans, foxes, TAPS, birds held in zoos, journal writing, swan boats, etc.

How do you get children interested in learning? You give them ideas. The way I give my children ideas is through reading. What are we reading right now?

Bambi, Ferdinand the Bull, American History Stories Vol. 2, the Old Testament, Aesop's Fables, Grimm's Tales, the list goes on and on.

So, as Mr. Shultz says, if you don't start with ideas, you get lost. Are you feeling lost? Do you have a child that just doesn't seem to click with what you are doing or teaching them? They need an idea to lead them into the exploration that is learning. They won't even realize that they are learning. It is amazing. Enjoy!

Cousins & Camping . . .

We have had a busy, fun, exciting, sometimes trying two and a half weeks. It all started on a sunny, late spring day in mid June when travelers from afar brought us three cherubic boys to spend two and a half weeks while their parents were abroad. I feel parched . . .anyway, the cousins were finally here to play, dream, and imagine with, and the kids could not have been more excited. Originally, we were going to have a grand plan of what to do with them here, but gradually the thought changed to, "let's just see what happens."

Everything imaginable has been played and they have had a great time with it. We tried to stay close to home because the idea of loading up SEVEN children between the ages of 1 and ten, frankly scared me. We did venture out a few times and all went well. Some of the things they did were:


running through the sprinkler, jumping on the trampoline, playing games, playing video games, play-dough, visiting Grandma & Grandpa, observing bugs and snails, watching fireworks, eating, eating, eating ( really, it still amazes me how much food BOYS eat!!!), watching movies, going for walks, riding bikes & scooters, playing at the park, blowing bubbles, building cities out of legos and blocks for the homeless pet shop animals, getting to watch the baby learn to walk (this may make his Mom and Dad sad) it was so fun to see him go from crawling to walking, more, more, more

We have had such a great time with them, but I know they miss their home and parents so while we will be sad to see them go, it will be happy for them.

We also went camping over the long Independence Day weekend. This we were not so brave to do on our own, so Grandpa and Grandma came along to help out and it was great to have them there. It was our first time at this camp spot and we were really pleased with it; plenty of shade trees, streams, wildlife. We got everything set up and the kids immediately went exploring. Within in the first few hours, they had all found some amazing snails on some of the trees. The snails graciously accepted ( ok, so they had no choice) the invitation to reside in cups for a couple of days and be observed by some eager kids. We did all the great camping things; roasted marshmallows for smores, cooked hot dogs on the open fire, skipped rocks in the streams, collected every stick, rock, and willing bug in sight. They built a small raft with Grandma and Dad and floated in down the river. The kids had a ball!


We went for hikes on two of the mornings and though the trails were within a mile or two of one another, the scenery couldn't have been more different and enjoyable. The first hike was a trail just out of our camp. The trail was mostly steep, not much shade, and the vegetation was more desert like. It was a challenging hike for the kids but they were troopers and when we made it to the top, we were all amazed to see the view.


The second hike was a lot less steep, but the vegetation was amazingly lush and at times we had to go through plants , wild flowers and weeds that reached up to our chests ( sometimes, over the little's heads). We followed a stream hoping that we could make it to the source. The trail got a bit more trying and the vegetation a little more dense. The trail, at times, seemed to disappear and then be clear again. I wonder if we were some of the first hikers of the season. We stopped for a little rest and decided that we would go for ten more minutes and then turn back, no matter what we found. The kids were up to it and so off we went. Not 5 minutes farther, we found the source of the river and it was a beautiful and breathtaking view. The spring was one of the biggest I've seen just rushing right out of the mountainside, up through the rocks. Part of it was concealed under trees and brush, so to be sure we found it, Dad and I hiked a bit farther til we could tell it was the spring head. The little's didn't quite understand what it meant, but the older kids thought it was pretty amazing. An experience I hope we can keep having.

Well, I've been a bit longer than I wanted to be, but we had an amazing time and are soooooo happy that our cousins could come spend time with us! Enjoy!

A Patriotic Resource . . .

Thanks to Latterday Conservative for the link to this wonderful resource. I have never seen this pamphlet before and after looking it over, I think there are many great parts that I can use to encourage knowledge of our country, the founding fathers, and our wonderful Constitution.

The fact that this was put together under the direction of men inspired from the Lord is even more encouraging. Here is what they said:

Our Dear Brothers and Sisters:

On September 17, 1987, we commemorate the two-hundredth birthday of the signing of the United States Constitution. The group of inspired men assembled for that convention produced the document that the Prophet
Joseph Smith referred to as “a glorious standard” and “a heavenly banner.”

In commemoration of this important event, we are providing this booklet, which contains three family home evening lessons, activity ideas, and a copy of the Constitution. We encourage you to prepare and teach each lesson prayerfully so that family members may feel the divine significance of the Constitution in their minds and hearts.

Faithfully, your brethren,
The First Presidency
(Ezra Taft Benson, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson)

Follow the link below to download:

http://www.latterdayconservative.com/articles/family-home-evening-lessons-for-the-bicentennial-of-the-constitution

AMAZING DEAL . . .

Just wanted to let everyone know about this great deal! Thanks to Free n' Equal at themisfircygnet.com for the heads up. I have looked at this book many times at the library and it never gets old. They use it as reference only. Great companion to the full version 1776. Follow the link below, Enjoy!



http://www.seagullbook.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?

Just Wondering . . .

First, an update. Things are going great with us. I feel like the "learning" part of our lives is blending in smoothly with the rest of the everyday grind. When people ask what a typical day with us is like, I think they are a little surprised to learn that our learning is just another part of our day like meals or chores. Most people expect us to have a time set aside for "school". We do, it is just part of what we do. If we feel like starting a chore a little later because we are deep into a great book and the kids don't want to stop (yes, it's happened) then we keep reading. The best part of core phase is that they get to play their little hearts out and eventually they want to learn. It's amazing to experience, but you have to be patient in the process. Having had two children experience the public school system for a couple of years, I not only had to retrain their thought process but my own. It has been hard, but amazing at the same time.

We have been reading Bambi and loving it! It is an amazing story and I love the way the author gives the reader little tastes of nature and life from nature's point of view. We are coming to some critical parts of the story and I am interested to see what kind of conversations they will initiate. We have already had a few good ones. I do want to share with you a portion of my favorite chapter so far. It is not too long, but the author does such a great job of making it come alive to the reader.

The leaves were falling from the great oak at the
meadow's edge. They were falling from all the trees.

One branch of the oak reached high above the
others and stretched far out over the meadow. Two
leaves clung to its very tip.

"It isn't the way it used to be," said the one leaf to the other.

"No," the other leaf answered. "So many of us have fallen
off to-night we're almost the only ones left on our branch."

"You never know who's going to go next, " said
the first leaf. "Even when it was warm and the sun
shone, a storm or a cloudburst would come sometimes,
and many leaves were torn off, though they were
still young. You never know who's going to go next."

"The sun seldom shines now," sighed the second leaf,
"and when it does it gives no warmth. We must have
warmth again"

"Can it be true," said the first leaf, "can it really be true,
that others come take our places when we're gone,
after them still others, and more and more?"

"It is really true," whispered the second leaf. "We
can't even begin to imagine it, it's beyond our powers."

"It makes me very sad," added the first leaf.

They were silent a while. Then the first leaf said quietly
to herself, " Why must we fall? . . ."

Really, I encourage anyone to read this book, it is enriching. I do have a question for you all, what do you do when you have something throw off your schedule for a period of time? What do you do to keep things relatively on track? During the summer is especially hard because you have family visiting, vacations to go on, things throwing the balance off. What do you do?

Battle of the Purge . . .

This is, in a sense, a continuation or update from an earlier post, "Joining In". I had said at the end of that post that I had since moved onto the basement in our battle to purge our home of any and all things non-needful or non-used. The hubby and I dug right in and went through every square inch of the basement. Every box, tote, anything that could hold or store something. We made piles; one for trash, one for keeping, one for selling/donating. I know what your thinking, why go through the trouble of a yard sale. That is exactly what my husband said. He is disgusted with the whole idea of having a yard sale and I just kindly told him that it would be nice to get some money out of all the things we were getting rid of. I also reminded him that it would be me and me alone that would do EVERYTHING for the yard sale.

The piles grew and grew and grew. I was SHOCKED at all the stuff we had that was just junk and what was not to be kept. There was so much! I went through all of our DVD's and CD's and got rid of about 95% of the CD's and about 60% of the movies. The movie average is low because about 75% of the movies we kept are Living Scripture movies or movies made by the LDS church. When my husband saw how many movies I had in the "get rid of" pile, he questioned it. I told him why I didn't like this movie or that and he agreed, there is better.


In the end, we hauled off about 400 lbs of TRASH! It was crazy how much there was. I did have a yard sale and was able to sell about a third of everything there. I made $150 in the 5 hours that I had it and felt it was worth it. We will be putting that in our trampoline fund. (One of the downsides to living "in town" is not having all the room to just go, go, go.)

After the sale, I loaded our Expedition up with all the boxes of things to donate and drove them promptly to the local thrift store. It feels so good to have it gone! So, farewell music from our teenage years in the late 80's and early 90's that was never appropriate to begin with. Goodbye stamps and other scrapbooking supplies that were lovingly used for a couple of years but not even looked at for the last three years. So long to all the piles and piles of DVD's that were watched 1, 2, maybe 3 times and never looked at again. The list goes on and on and on. I am glad to be rid of it and I actually think I lost a few pounds in the process. Enjoy!

Seeking . . .

I have had a HUGE reminder this week about the concept of good, better, best. I spent some time reading some of the posts at The Misfit Cygnet and immediately thought of a portion of the 13th Article of Faith that says:

"If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

I don't think that is too high of a standard to determine what we experience in our lives. I think the first requirement, anything virtuous, would actually weed out a lot of things we may consider. At the 2010 TJEd forum, the keynote speaker talked a bit about virtue. He defined virtue as,"... being that what you were created to do or be." Once we decide if something is virtuous, we can then use the other requirements mentioned, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, to help decide. This is were it can get a little tricky. Just as Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:

" We have to forego some GOOD things in order to choose others that are BETTER or BEST because they develop faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ and strengthen our families."


I have decided that I am not ok with "good enough", "it's alright", "it's not that bad", or "there's worse". I want to know that what I am exposing my family and myself to is the best that is out there and that it is, "virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy." I am not ok with just enough, good or better. I want the best for my family and that means not being afraid to go against the "norms" of the world.

Will I come off as a little strange? Some might think so. Will we miss out on some of the things kids these days are into? Sure. Will this help give my children a giant step towards gaining the testimony necessary to make it through this world? I know it will.


So, through our devotionals and scripture studies, I am seeking. I am seeking those things that can help my family live in the world but not of it. I am seeking for those things that magnify the gospel principles and help me be a better mother and wife. I am also going to always be asking myself, is this the best?