HSMJ - In need of your prayer

In my life this week…

Please pray for us.  My eldest son is having some serious health issues and we are in need of specialist appointments and I am anxious for answers and solutions.
As of now my son has been in hospital since Wednesday and so far all the tests have come back negative. (In most ways this is a good thing but at the same time it means that we still don't know why he has no feeling / movement in his legs from mid thigh down.)  We definitely need a revelation as to what is going on.

On a positive note however I placed my order with Sonlight and had the experience of our items arriving in under four days!

In our homeschool this week…
 

• We did a fire safety experiment and worked on completing our firesafety Notebook pages and Unit Study.
• We started our Who Is God ? And Can I Really Know Him? apologetics course from Apologia.Sir N is thrilled with his new Notebook and the stories.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

iHomeschool Network is hosting a FREE printable link up party extravaganza. 

Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler currently has World's Greatest Artists Vol 1 and World's Greatest Artisits Vol II for FREE until Sunday.

 I am inspired by…

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

• Saturday -I accompanied my friend to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  The music was beautiful.
• Sunday - Went for a trip to the beach with friends who came to visit.
• Monday - Was a good day at home and in the evening I visited my sister with a friend who gave us a tutorial in making an explosion album.  I had fun learning to do this.  Sir N also did exercise class with the L family.
• Tuesday - We stayed home.  It's school holidays and we are resting. YAY
• Wednesday - Spent the whole day at hospital with no 1 son.
• Thursday - spent the afternoon at the hospital.  Still no answers.
• Friday - Spent a few hours at the hospital and went out my mom.

My favorite thing this week was…

• 
  

What’s working/not working for us…

• Having my first born in hospital with no answers and him wanting to check himself out.

Questions/thoughts I have…

• 
  

Things I’m working on…

• Fire Safety Unit Study.
• A blog post on composition in the high school years for the Home School the High School blog Carnival which will be on Monday.

On My Bedside Table ...

•  I finished reading  From a Distance by Tamera Alexander (Currently free on Kindle) while at the hospital with Mr T on Wednesday.
•  I have a few books but have not read much since Wednesday due to no 1 son's hospitalization.

In Bloggy world I’m reading…

• I have been poking around the free printing link up over at iHomeschool Network.

I’m cooking…

•  Not much.  I have been blessed with two cooked meals from a friend.

On Pinterest I found...

• A few more pins of interest.  I have been gathering resources to teach Shakespeare in the future with Sir N.

I’m grateful for…

•  The prayer warriors on the Sonlight Forums as well as my friends and family who are praying for Mr T while he is in hospital.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
In the introduction to A Child's History of the World in the introduction the author says this about teaching a child only about their own countries history:

"It only promotes a narrow-mindedness and an absurd conceit, based on utter ignorance of any other peoples and any other times - an intolerant egotism without foundation or fact." Virgil M. Hillyer.

Blessings

Chareen

This post is linking to:

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers - Weekly Wrap-Up
iHomeschool - Homeschool Mother's Journal

HHSC - Writing and Composition in High School

1. What place do you see writing have in your high schoolers education?
   
   • Personally I think that as home educators we underestimate the importance of this vital means of communication.  I believe that being able to communicate well via written communication is as important a skill as that of learning to swim.
   • Looking back I have come to realise that as home schoolers we seem to have a culture of not pushing our children to write as much as they are expected to in school. This in turn breeds an attitude in our children of I don't need to do that because I am not in school.  
   • I have learned that you need to start as you intend to finish.  If you want your high schooler to be a writer then you need your Junior school student to write without complaint and to do this you need to equip yourself with a plan of action.
2. Do you use a writing program?
   
   
   • Yes I do.  My passion for writing programs and one that I recommend to every new homeschooler I meet is from Institute for Excellence in Writing.  I love this program for it's ease to use, the fact that all the teaching and preparation work is already done and all I need to do is pop the DVD into the player and watch Andrew teach my students.  It is progressive and each lesson builds on the lesson from before.
3. What approach do you use?
   
   • In this area I agree with Charlotte Mason and Karen Andreola's approach. If a student can not express themselves verbally through narration then they will not be able to express themselves with ease on paper. 
   • Working on narration skills in the early grades certainly pays high dividends in the high school years with the fruit of a student who is able to "Attend, remember, visualize, comprehend, synthesize (see the whole from the parts), and articulate as the result." A Charlotte Mason Companion page 115.
   • Narration helps a child to train his/her mind to "sort, arrange, correlate, select, reject and classify" information. A Charlotte Mason Companion page 115.
   • "Narration develops the power of self expression and forces the child to use his own mind and form his own judgement." - Karen Andreola A Charlotte Mason Companion page 114
   • I adopted Andrew Pudawa's advice to be my children's dictionary in the younger years. This meant that when they asked how to spell a word I told them. In this way my student practiced the correct way of spelling a word rather than the wrong way. I found when they guessed the spelling (which invariably meant incorrect spelling it resulted in months of practice to undo the incorrect spelling.
   
   • Once my children could physically write and had a basic level of reading I added in copy work.  This served two purposes one they learned to spell new words and two they practiced excellent sentence style and structure along with the benefit of correct grammar.
   • In the younger years my approach is daily copy work of excellent writing.  
   • As the student matures and is able to handle more work I added in weekly work from the IEW Student Writing Intensive programme.  
   • I have used both the introductory and continuation courses.  I have found that the introductory more than equipped my students with the tools they needed to complete many different assignments.
4. Which ‘tools’ did you use in the younger years that helped prepare your high schooler to write and prepare them to join "the Great Conversation"?
   
   
   • I started off with equipping myself with a deeper understanding of writing and style by attending the Teaching Writing: Structure & Style. I found that by having an understanding of how to compose a story / research paper equipped me to plan how to teach my students as well as assist them in accomplishing this task at hand.
   • Second on my list was reading great literature so that my students became familiar with an excellent range of vocabulary.
   • The third thing was make sure that they could spell and spell well. I started my students on the Explode the Code books (we did the first six books) and from here progressed to Spelling Workout books A - H (The Curriculum Choice has a great review of this product)
   • We did not do any specific grammar courses other than read and copy excellent literature.

This post is part of the Homeschool High School Carnival.  Don't forget to pop on over to Take Up and Read next week to read what others are saying about this topic.

What are your thoughts on composition and your high school student ?

Blessings
Chareen

Fire Extinguisher Refills

While on holiday in South Africa the fire extinguishers at the farm needed their annual maintenance check up and service. Bayteck drove to the farm and we were able to see the process.

 First each cylinder is checked for pressure and whether the powder is compacted.

 If the powder within is compacted the cylinder is emptied of it's contents.

 New powder is measured and poured back into the cylinder.

 The nozzle is refitted and the cylinder is re pressured.

 The cylinder is then washed and new stickers adhered with expiry dates and inspection dates.

There are a few types of extinguishers on the market today.

Source

When you use a fire extinguisher remember to PASS

Source

 An interesting look at the history and types have a look at Wikipedia, Atwood Fire and Security, Fire Safety Advice Center,

That sums up our fire safety explorations.
Blessings
Chareen