A night out inside

There were three in the bed and the middle one said, "Roll over!"

The boys wanted to sleep in a tent. Actually, under a tent made of blankets inside their bedroom.
No particular reason, it just seemed like a fun idea at the time.
Last night they thought it was a little cold. James rolled over taking their only blanket with him. Peter ended up hopping back into his bed and Eric was left feeling rather chilly.
Tonight they are using more blankets.
It worked well for us too. We gave them an ultimatum. "If you muck around you will be thrown straight into bed and no more tents."
"Yes Dad." they dutifully replied, "We'll be good."
And they were!

Fixing List styles

The scribe blogger template makes all lists, ordered and unordered, have a little flower. This is a pain if you actually want an ordered list to have numbers indicating the order such as:

1. Good
2. Better
3. Best

The unordered list is fine:

• Red
• Blue
• Yellow

To fix the scribe list you need to replace the section called .post li with this:
.post ol {
margin:0;
padding: 0 0 .6em 17px;
}
.post ul li{
line-height:1.5em;
list-style:none;
background: url("http://www.blogblog.com/scribe/list_icon.gif") no-repeat 0px .3em;
vertical-align:top;
padding: 0 0 .6em 17px;
margin:0;
}

That works.
See these posts for examples:
Learning HTML (ordered list)
Family Roles (unordered list)

I'm learning new things every day.

Maths Quiz

Everyone counts. Even Lana.

The immediate recall of basic maths facts is very important for our children to learn. It helps in all later mathematics work and is of great assistance when shopping.
We have created a Maths Quiz in Excel and Open Office formats which provide daily worksheets with 50 random questions for each of Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. The first column of the subtraction page is the answer to the addition page. This allows for quick marking. Each set has the ability to randomise each set of questions. The younger children do the addition/subtraction set as 10 +/- 10, whilst the older ones use 100 +/- 100. The multiplication/division is 12 x/ 12, but we are aiming to get to 15 x 15.
All the children gather around the table and Lana has a stop watch. The children have 10 minutes to complete each page. They should finish in a lot less time. Ariel finishes the multiplication and division ones combined in under five minutes. Between each page the children run around the block to get their blood and heart pumping and keep them alert.
We then keep the finished pages and each child tracks his progress in a graph.
This works for us and we thought you may find it useful too.

(Note that Lana uses this time to get in some cross-stitch!)

Update: I have made some changes to the Maths Quiz sheets and discussed how we use them here.

Hello to all visiting from the Homeschooling Carnival. You'll find lots on this site conveniently sorted on the left hand side. Enjoy!

Tempting, Tempting

Portents of Rain? Nope. Just teasing.Over the last few weeks we have had hot days of high 30's and early 40's (high 90Fs to 100F's). Then we had lots of rain in a few days, filling and overflowing water tanks and cooling everything down. Then heat again.
Yesterday the clouds came over threatening (promising) rain. Four drops and on it went. Bah!

Learning HTML

I figured it was time for me to learn more about how to create web sites and HTML. The best way to learn most computer related topics is to buy a good book and read it.
The Missing Manual series of books is a great series. The book I am using now is "Creating Web Sites". As you can see I have changed how this blog now looks.

1. The background images have been changed to a marble look. A fine place for background images is http://www.grsites.com.
2. The headings on each of the lists onthe left side are now pretty pictures rather than text.
   
3. Some of the pictures now have a caption, border and white background. This was tricky.

As I can't show HTML without it being interpreted, I have a Word document here with details: How to Add a caption to Blogger Photos.

You can have a look at these posts for some examples of photo captions:
Family Roles
A Baby Pumpkin
Making Pumpkins

There you go. Now back to more learning ...

Updated: Aargh! Trying to show html code inside a blog post without blogger re-interpreting it is not easy. So I have created a document so you can see it better as it should be.

Google Ads can be interesting

On the left hand side there (<----) I have a link to some Google Ads. These are based on key words using Google's special matching algorithm. I have found some interesting links in the past but today's was odd. The links were to:

Funky T Shirts
Punk Rock
Punk Lifestyle
Punk Personals

Huh!? I guess is must be something to do with yesterday's pumpkin post? Normally the links make sense, such as homeschooling, fairy tales, and so on.
Anyway, the only reason I have the ads is because they occasionally link to something interesting, such as when they led me to some discount source of Lord of the Rings figures, or Homeschooling supplies I didn't know about.
But somehow I don't think I'll be investigating the punk stuff.

Family Roles

Rose paying her rentEvery family has to organise itself in a way that helps it achieve its various ends. Whatever the background of the mother and father, all families need to address these ends, some of which include:

• the raising and education of children
• providing shelter, food and clothing for its members
• getting to heaven
• contributing to the wider community
• providing for the future (parents, grandparents and children)

There are many other aims and ends but these are the biggies. Every family has to make a decision how they will handle these ends. In some cases the decision is to make no decision and just see what happens. Most families make their choices either consciously or subconsiously. Many base it on what their parents or others have done, whilst others decide to try new ways.
How you allocate chores, arrange for the education of yourself and the children, earn and spend money, the entertainment you choose, the ways you spend your spare time and even the clothes you choose all reflect your choices.
And children aren't silly. They can sense the contradictions between words and actions. If you say one thing and do another the children may pay lip service to your words but will act the same as you. Scary, isn't it?
Early on we realised we had to be consistent. It was no point promising a treat or making a threat if we didn't follow through. We became much more careful in what we said and the words we used - especially when driving!
As we tell the children that we are a family, we spread the jobs across the family. Each of us has jobs and we all contribute in whatever way we can.
From the time each child is three months old they must supply one smile a day. That is their rent. (Rose has paid well in advance as the top photo shows!)
The sleep of the truly exhausted
Luckily a marriage is a union of two people, each with differing and typically complementary skills. Each has talents and time to commit to the family and unique perspectives to solve issues.
When the children are younger, the bulk of their care is shouldered by Lana. However as they grow I become more involved. Recently I have been the one to put Rose in bed. Whilst she may fight sleep longer if her mother is putting her in bed, when I put her in she surrenders and falls asleep very quickly. Rose has turned a corner!
The children all have tasks including washing their own clothes, making their beds, cleaning the table and kitchen, putting out the rubbish, emptying and filling the dishwasher and so on. All help from the oldest to the youngest.
The children are with us as we help our parents and others in our community, how we are involved in various groups and the ways in which the world comes into our home and we go into the world.
In all these ways the children are learning our values and the ways we intend to achieve the family ends mentioned above.

A Baby Pumpkin!

Big things from small things grow. We hope!

It looks like the "Tickling the Flower" we did a few days ago worked!

Look! A little pumpkin is starting to grow.

Now we'll monitor its progress - along with the many others which we have likewise encouraged.

Tennis with friends

We don't watch Television and have little exposure to many different sports. This brief introduction is to explain the following discussion Peter (7) just had with us.

"Dad. I was at Grandma's house and she was watching a film. There were two persons, an Australian man and a German man, and they were playing a game. The Australian one won the game but they are still friends."

There you go. Mum was watching the Australian Open currently being played in Melbourne. I wonder if those two players realised they were such good friends?

A lovely quiet day at home

by Lana
I thought that I would share a story about what we did today.
As it is still Summer holidays here in Australia, the children and I were having a relaxing day. We were listening to the audio book 'The Angels Command' by Brian Jacques.
Whilst listening, I try to encourage the children to do something. Anything. They must have been listening!
I was stitching Angel of Mercy by L&L, Ariel was stitching EMS Sandcastle from the toy baby book , Eric was stitching a Knight on a Horse (a freebie from the internet), James was spinning around in a chair and Peter was stitching an Outlaw (another freebie from somewhere).
Clare was also stitching a group of balloons on 11 count. She only achieved about 6 crosses but it is a start. She often wants to stitch but I have to be ready as she has to check with me for every needle placement to make sure it is in the right place.
Oh and Rose was asleep which helped. A lot.

A Great Love Story

Mary Ellen of Tales from A Bonny Blue House has a timely post about A Great Love Story. This is an appropriate follow-on from our comments on Taming of the Shrew.
Although Lana likes the occasional "Love" story - or as I call it a "Chick Flick" - we both realise the vapidity of them. I find them worse than mere piffle. They annoy me greatly.
Modern Chick Flicks portray love as only sensation, no thought, no honour and steeped in sin. If it "feels right" the shallow relationship goes into territory only married couples should go, and then breaks up at the drop of a pin.
Love is a cumulative thing. It grows with the little things accumulating, the shared experiences, the times when movie love is AWOL.
Dating without any thought to marriage prospects, and dating with any intention of going "too far" is terribly dangerous. Marriages of a lifetime are not often based on such frivolities and dangerous beginnings.
We are blessed with the loving relationships on my parents (43rd wedding anniversary yesterday) and Lana's parents married for the same time. At our US parish, the priest always made note when couples celebrated an anniversary. When one couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary he announced to us all, "See? It can be done!" I enjoy being close to these type of couples and seeing all the little signs of love which speak greater volumes than the external signs the Chick Flicks present as compulsory.
Love is in the details.

Taming of the Shrew

We have been searching for a copy of the BBC production of Taming of the Shrew for some time. I suspect that as it is so politically incorrect with regards to the relationship of men and women it has been spurned in the US and Australia.
But we have success! At Moviemail-online in the UK we were able to purchase our copy on DVD. Naturally it is PAL and region 2 so can only be played on region free DVD players.
Lana and I enjoyed the tale anew last night. Subtitles have made a major difference. The first time we saw it some years ago it took us half an hour before we worked out they were speaking English. So, with ears attuned, we restarted the play and laughed throughout!
John Cleese and Sarah Badel play a marvellous Petruchio and Katherine. Once Katherine is tamed, the two of them share glances that married couples in love share. You know - that glance across a room that conveys a story. Our children have often chided Lana and I on our "secret" communications.
This version of Taming of the Shrew started our interest in Shakespeare. Now we all get to listen and have interest in an author neither of us had read before. Hurrah for contagious learning!

Until next year ...

Not long after January 6 (Epiphany) we packed away the Christmas tree, the nativity sets and all the trimmings. I forgot to post some of our new decorations given to us by some US friends as parting gifts. We were to open the presents just before Christmas so they could be used. Faithfully we opened them on the day before Christmas and all went "Ooooh!" and "Ahhh" as each ornament was unwrapped. The top set of hand carved wooden ornaments was from Grandma B - a feisty New York lady whose company we thoroughly enjoyed.
As they were reasonably hardy they were able to be lower on the tree without too much protective stress.
The next set was from Mr and Mrs W, a delightful couple who played the organ and organised the choir. There is also one for each of us, the birds being Lana and I, the snowmen for the boys and the angels for the girls. Being glass they were definitely higher up the tree!
Mr and Mrs W also dedicated quite a bit of time to teaching the Children's Choir. Although the children only sang at four or five Masses during the year, practice was held every Sunday after the 11:00 Mass during school months. The children discovered that they could sing with the right encouragement and the collection of hymns were practically all beautiful classic hymns in a variety of languages.

When we were organising the hymns to sing for Christmas Carols here, Ariel and Eric mentioned the hymns they knew and the Mother organising the group clapped her hands in delight and included those hymns. They sang Silent Night in German and a few others.

Now they are all packed away, awaiting next Christmas to come out again and remind us of our US friends.

Carnival of Homeschooling Week 3

The 3rd week of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Why Homeschool.
We're under F is for Family which is always appropriate!
I don't know how long this carnival will continue but each new one introduces us to more interesting homeschooling families. Huzzah!

Making Pumpkins

Tickling the flower. Now to wait.

The pumpkin plants in our vegetable patch have grown over a large area, and look as if they want to take over the back yard. There are plenty of flowers, but the heat tends to scare away the bees.
Lana's parents have shown the children how to do the work of the bees by finding the male flowers, peeling away the petals, and then finding a female flower to transfer the pollen by "tickling the flower".
It works! A number of pumpkins have started growing and we are checking the progress regularly.
When one is ready we will be making pumpkin damper, pumpkin scones and pumpkin soup. Yummo.

Disruption is not a pretty thing

I have discovered an interesting blog (nihilo) by a homeschooling family of eleven children - mostly adopted. They discuss the issues with homeschooling children adopted from countries that speak a foreign language. I was amazed at a new concept he has taught me regarding adoption in the US - Disruption. (Also read this entry) An adopted child may be "unadopted" if it "doesn't work out". This is called Disruption. Can you imagine that! Being adopted from another country into a new family and culture and then when you are having troubles settling in you are told, "Nah. Didn't work out. Sorry kid. Bye."
This is what the encyclopedia of adoption has to say on the matter.

Innovative Families

A key aspect of family life is working out how to do your own thing within the confines of conflicting resource allocation amongst the other family members. Most larger families have limited funds and homeschooling families also often have only one income. When parents and children get to spend lots of unstructured time with other family members and other families they come up with some great innovative ideas.
If children are out of the home doing structured activities all the time (such as school, sports, external tutors and so on) or are recovering at home they don't get enough time to try out their own ideas.
We have mentioned quite a few of these here and will always post great ideas when we see them. That is why we so much enjoy visiting other families. In our last trip in the US we met over 21 families and learned many new methods and ideas.
Some of the ideas we have discovered over the last few years include:
Down Under Flower Pots
Treasure Table
TV Guardian (US only)
Baby Sitting family swap
Backyard jousting
How to Mosey
Liquid Soap Extender (doesn't work but was worth a try)
Picking up little beads the easy way
DIY Knight Outfit
Protecting Fruit trees from birds
Ice Cream Birthday Cake
A bush cuppa
Tabletop Geography

If you know any nifty ideas, let us know and we'll post them here too!

(The photo above is of the boys pretending to be woodcutters with a chunk of wood they discovered.)

The B team are busy

The latest trip gave us plenty of opportunities for entries for B Where's. Lana reckons the funniest photo is me in builder's overalls helping our hosts build a concrete base for a wall he needed. Amazingly I didn't injure myself as I normally do when doing building type things.
The B Where's posts are:
B4 enjoys the summer at home
B1 goes a-concreting
S11 shows us her weird cat
B3 joins the fight against fruit flies
B7 sees a nice doggie
B4 verses the giant merino

Also, a special mention to Jonathan of Where's Jonathan fame. He is now wearing sunglasses too!

Down Under Flower Pots

Our friends had this interesting way of storing cut flowers. (They had the idea from other homeschooling friends).
When the children come in with cut flowers (normally way too short) they stick them to the lid of a glass jar with Blu-Tac (or some other sticky stuff), fill the jar with water, lower the lid with the flower attached into the jar, screw very tightly and turn over.
Voila! Clever use of cut flowers which lasts for a week or so and really highlights the colours.

DIY Knight

After seeing Narnia Peter (7) decided to make his own knight's outfit. Armed with scissors, A4 sheets of cardboard and duct tape (*) he created helmet, breast and back plates, shield, leg guards and whatever else he required. The sword he borrowed from our friends as we left his own at home.
This was all his own work using his memory as a guide.
After the photo he proudly told us, "I didn't smile because troops don't smile."

(*) Duct tape is like The Force from Star Wars - it has a light side and a dark side and binds the universe together.