Learning to Knit

When I was younger, I learned to do all sorts of domestic activities (sewing, crocheting, needlework, and so on). But, I never learned how to knit. It always looked too complicated. Well, one of my very good friends told me she would teach my girls how to knit. Last weekend we bought several skeins of yarn, the cool, thick stuff that's really "in" these days. We also bought some different sizes of knitting needles. Someone in our church was giving away knitting needles, so I hurried on over to get them.

This past Tuesday we learned the basic knitting stitch and were off to make a scarf. The girls have been knitting almost every day since. I got a little behind since we launched our conference this week. We are all enjoying our new skill and hope to learn more as we expand our projects.

Kerry

Coffee Cup Wisdom

I just read an article that might encourage your homeschool endeavors, as you decide what route and curricula is best for you and your own kids (not the public school kids). Pour yourself a cup of coffee and get some Coffeecup Wisdom
(click title to go to article)

Do you have any "coffee cup wisdom" to share?

Kerry

Approaches to Homeschooling

Teaching Truth Quest History to Multi-Ages

I've received a few e-mail about using Truth Quest History with a variety of ages. Here's a response I sent.

I started with the Middle Ages several years ago and we are starting it again this week. I would gear your history towards the 5^th grader and find books to read aloud to the K. The older guides do have some easy books listed. The info in the guide will probably be too much for the K, but he/she can still listen as you read to both of them. At such a young age, I would say that simply reading aloud is as much history as you need in K.

Most of all, teach towards the oldest and read aloud to the younger ones.a

Kerry

Worldview in History

I was reading some of the principle approach and worldview posts on one of my loops and thought I’d share what has worked for our family.

I have used Truth Quest History for the past 5 or so years. It is an excellent tool to study history chronologically from a Biblical worldview. I have tried several other history curricula, but none of them measure up to the content in TQ. Someone was asking for questions to study the Biblical worldview. I’ll share the questions that I ask my kids as we study societies in history. These are discussed over & over throughout all TQ guides.

Who is God?
Who, then, is mankind?

These are the questions that you can ask of any civilization or society to determine their worldview. We just finished reading about the Roman empire and discussing their Big 2 Beliefs. We saw that the Romans god was the emperor (government). They truly believed that the emperor would save them. You should read the greeting sent to Augustus on his birthday, near the time of Christ. It even uses the words “good tidings”. Because of their belief in the emperor/government, they looked to the government to determine the value of humans. If the government did not value men, then those guys were dispensable. Just look at the gladiatorial games. This is just a very quick summary of the Roman’s worldview. From here, we can compare their worldview with a Biblical worldview.

For me, these two questions help us analyze any time period of history to determine specifics about their worldview. If you want to read my review of TQ, you can see it at Truth Quest History

Kerry