Some chefs like to play with food. The results are pretty cute!
Playing with Food
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One-on-One Time
As I said a few weeks ago, sometimes we do school in the summer, and sometimes we don’t. But in both cases, we have a much more relaxed schedule. It certainly helps that the church cuts back on activities for the summer, as does our homeschool group.
A looser schedule lets moms spend more one-on-one time with each child. Having four children, I found that I often looked at them as a group; the laid-back feeling of summer seemed to give me permission to take time alone with each of them, and we sure enjoyed that.
How to spend that time? That was never a problem with the girls. My eldest loved to go shopping with me, while my younger daughter preferred time spent doing something together, like baking or sewing.
As for the boys, my older son wasn’t as interested in spending time alone with good old Mom as he was having her take him somewhere he wanted to go or to get something he wanted without the whole gang trooping along. And that was fine; I learned that even time spent sitting in traffic and talking uninterrupted was good for both of us.
My younger son was used to having alone time with me every week because I drove him to a speech therapist an hour away. We’d sing in the car and stop for McDonald’s somewhere en route, and that was enough for him. However, he was also very happy to have my full attention on those rare occasions when my husband took the older three to an amusement park for the day, or the movies for an afternoon.
Spending time alone with your children, one on one, helps your relationship with each of them grow in a different way than when the whole group is together. Summertime is the perfect time to start a routine of occasional one-on one-time. Why not give it a try?
The New Rainbow Resource Catalog is Here!
Yesterday was the annual event that always threatens to give the mailman a hernia: the arrival of the latest Rainbow Resource catalog 🙂
That’s right, over 1300 pages of homeschool books, curriculum and assorted goodies. I’ve been receiving Rainbow’s catalog for many years, but this one must be the biggest yet.
Especially exciting for me is that this is the first year The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling has been in the print catalog. The review is on page 11:
If you’re going to take the time to read a book about homeschooling, don’t you want it to be the wholesome, practical advice of a mom who has “been there and done that?” Author Barbara Frank’s warm conversational tone leaves the reader of this book with the feeling that you’ve just finished a coffee chat where you’ve been able to ask all your questions and each was met with a knowing smile that implied she knew exactly what you were asking. And each was met with a no-frills answer that empowers the hearer rather than overwhelms. She covers all the basic topics – getting started, teaching techniques and specific subjects, covering the bases, and home organization. Two chapters were particularly helpful – overcoming obstacles and coping with challenges. In these she not only looks at personal habits that can get in the way but also personality-driven roadblocks. Don’t be fooled by the “plain Jane” cover or the lack of detailed information about homeschool philosophies or educational approaches readily available elsewhere; this is a must-have book that will help you start out or “regroup” your homeschool into a livable lifestyle. 192 pgs, pb. ~ Janice
Got your Rainbow Resource catalog yet? If you’ve never seen one, you can sign up here for a free copy. I’ve been buying from Rainbow for 20 years, and you can’t beat their prices or their service.
Letterman Should Be Fired
Imagine this:
“First Lady Michelle Obama took a second swipe at David Letterman on Wednesday, calling the CBS “Late Show” host’s jokes about one of her daughters “disgusting” and “sexually perverted.”
In an e-mailed statement, Obama said: “Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 12-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/N.Y. entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands – that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone’s daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.”
Riffing on Obama’s trip to New York last weekend, Letterman joked Monday night that during the seventh inning of the Yankees game “her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”
Letterman followed up on the line Tuesday night, joking that “the toughest part of her visit was keeping [former New York Gov.] Eliot Spitzer away from her daughter.”
“I doubt he’d ever dare make such comments about anyone else’s daughter,” the first lady added in her statement.
She responded to another Letterman line during a radio interview Tuesday, calling him “pathetic” for joking that she made a stop during her trip and “bought makeup at Bloomingdale’s to update her ‘slutty flight attendant look.'”
What do you think? Awful, isn’t it? What’s wrong with a man who publicly makes sexual references about the young daughter of a public figure? He should be fired.
Surprisingly, this hasn’t gotten much media coverage. You’d think it would. But maybe it’s because of who it happened to.
You see, David Letterman did do this on network television the past two nights, but not to Michelle Obama. He did it to Sarah Palin.
A Great Source for Homeschooling Supplies
Over the years I’ve spent a lot of money on new homeschooling books and curriculum, and it was worth it, no question. But I have to admit that I often found some of my best stuff while browsing at garage sales.
One year I saw an ad in the garage sale section of the newspaper classifieds that said, “Teacher retiring, many years’ worth of books and teaching supplies for sale.” I turned up in her driveway early the first day of the sale, and was it ever worth it! She had beautiful old textbooks, lots of children’s literature (mostly hardcover), and reproducible masters of worksheets from the 1960s that I couldn’t resist. I was like a kid in a candy store.
And how many times at other garage sales did I find unused workbooks, like-new boxes of flashcards and untouched educational games bought by well-meaning parents who planned to help their kids hone their skills over the summer or on weekends but never got around to it?
At garage sales, I’ve bought educational computer games, like-new art supplies and classic literature and movies (Moody science videos!) sold for pennies on the dollar. The beauty of all these purchases is that, once we were through with them, I resold them at my own garage sales.
These days, many support groups sponsor used curriculum sales, and I highly recommend them. But don’t forget to hit the garage sales, too. With money tight these days, finding something wonderful for a few bucks (or cents) can be very encouraging.