Are you beginning to look at curriculum for next year? Here is a course worth checking out. Globalmania is a program for that states you can learn World Geography in 7 months. This is regularly $14.95, but can be downloaded for free! They also have other products that include historical biographies and unit studies.
Yep, I am in one of those kinds of moods. My girlfriend and I have been training for the half marathon since January and I am getting an attitude. I can’t say it’s a good one either! I hoped I would see some pounds being shed as I continue to take longer and longer walks, but it’s not happening. I am up to 7 miles and you’d think I’d see some lower numbers on that scale.
I have been using various exercise videos on my cross training/ easy days. Wow, I realize that I have a long way to go to get in shape. I won’t name any names, but the first DVD my friend brought over was for older, wiser exercisers. I quickly grabbed it out of her hands, threw it down on the floor, and pretended to stomp on it. I was insulted that my friend put us into that category! Grant it, I am not a spring chicken any more, but I’m not that old either! I did do it twice and there were some great stretching exercises, but I was looking for a more stringent program and a younger crowd to work out with. After all, I deserve it.
The next video my friend showed me was a woman who is older than me, but she obviously has been working out a whole lot more than me! Her videos were 20 minutes and my friend and I were both panting and gasping for breath as we were doing the video. I had felt that I was fairly fit, but after working out with that said individual I realized that I am going to have to step up my cross training. A thought did cross my mind about her though… “She is pretty well off financially. Maybe she has had some nips and tucks here and there. ” I know, what a terrible thought to have. 😦 I drank some water and completed my session with an ice cream bar. After all, I deserved it.
I then spoke to a friend who is a few years older than me and she has run 3 half marathons. She is planning on running this marathon too. Did I mention I am walking, not running? Anyway, I asked her what she has done previously to cross train. She mentioned another lady who I think most of you have heard of, but she shall remain nameless as well. (Her initials are JM.) I watched a UTube video of her as she twisted and contorted, encouraged, and modified exercises for beginners that I am sure she felt were fairly easy.
“Are you kidding me?” I screamed at the video screen. I huffed and puffed, grunted, growled, and finally fell down laughing at how pathetic I was at doing the exercises. After a day of psyching myself up, I decided to give it another try with a different easier video of hers. Yeah, right! I did reward myself though, with a little chocolate since I had burned off quite a number of calories. After all I told myself, “I deserve it.”
So, here I sit no lighter than I was before I began training, but no heavier either. I guess I can see now why I haven’t lost any weight. I have convinced myself that I deserve all of the fattening things that I have consumed after exercising and have even rationalized that muscle weighs more than fat.
What I really deserve is exactly what I have now- no difference in my weight. So, I am going to try to do better; eat more veggies, cross train and lift weights more diligently and I am sure I will see a difference.
Speaking of seeing a difference,I want to see a difference in my attitude towards my family and others. I am also going to give grace liberally. I am sure that when I am less impatient and listen with empathy I will see a difference. It has to start with me. After all, it’s what they deserve.
~Lisa
Hillsdale College is offering a FREE online American History class that will be on Monday,February 25.The course title is History 102: American Heritage. You can click on the link below to find out more about the course and get registered. This would be great for either you or your high school student to watch.
I feel sorry for Cincinnati weathermen. They have to have one of the most challenging jobs in an area that the weather quickly changes. The forecast called for a rain/snow mix this past week with no accumulation. We ended up getting one inch of snow and slippery roads when I was trying to get back home from teaching. As I sit here now looking out my kitchen window, just two hours later, the snow is melting and there are large green patches of grass where the sun is shining down. In a couple of hours you wouldn’t even know there had been a winter weather advisory issued!
That reminds me of our everyday homeschool life and how quickly moods change. One minute things look bleak and the next minute all is sunny and you’d never know there had been bad weather. So, if you are discouraged today, take heart. Tomorrow is a new day and things will get better. I am thankful that His mercies are new every morning.
We are one day closer to spring, one day closer to summer. Be encouraged; you are almost finished with school. Don’t give up. You and your students can do it! 🙂
Galatians 6: 9 “We must not get tired of doing good things. If we do not stop doing them, we will get something back when the right time comes.”
~Lisa
I am a member of an egroup that is for homeschool families here in Cincinnati. A homeschool mom was asking about ideas for unit studies and here is my response to her.
A great place for unit studies is the internet. You can begin with a lapbook. There are wonderful topics of study on homeschool share that can be downloaded for free. They are literature-based and you can use as much or as little of the lapbook as you like. My boys really enjoyed them and I did too. I would call these lapbooks “unit studies” as that applies loosely to the idea of studying topics as a whole. A unit can vary in length from a day to a year.I have a few ideas to help get your creative juices flowing in terms of unit studies…
My oldest son is a wonderful writer and artist. He enjoyed the freedom of being able to write what he wanted in lapbooks instead of being told what to write. He could draw things as well. My youngest enjoyed the fact that there wasn’t a lot of space to write. He wasn’t intimidated by a scary “whole page” that I, on many occasions, put in front of him! He didn’t like to actually “write” so he would dictate facts or ideas sometimes to me, which I thought was fine since the idea was to get him to think and tell me what he knew. I found that when he had to write with a pencil or pen he’d write as little as possible. I am glad my oldest son enjoyed writing- that was a huge blessing to have one who did! He is still a wonderful writer, maybe unit studies help foster that?
I also encouraged drawing and thinking about what I read aloud to the guys by giving them a binder filled with blank paper. As I read to them the boys could draw what they thought was important, such as a battle, an event, a science concept, etc. You can have pictures to help your son if he can’t imagine anything to draw or can’t “picture” it. He can also write a poem, a short summary, or a list if he doesn’t like to draw. You might be able to find coloring sheets to go with the topic being studied or he could create a model or a diorama.I still have my oldest son’s history notebook and I showed it to him the other day (11 years later). He actually remembered drawing some of the pictures and could tell me a little about the stories. He said, “I thought I was really quite good when I did these.” Of course I told him he was and still is a good artist! 🙂 Quite amazing that he was able to recall some of those events when he saw those pictures as I don’t think I could dredge up much of what I had read to him!
One time the boys and I studied Native Americans and they each made a teepee in our small living room. It was so fun as I watched both of them “tell stories” through drawings like the Native Americans originally did on their portable homes. Ian drew scenes of baseball, hunting dragons and buffalo and deer (quite the mix!) and Malcolm drew trucks and Indians with bows and arrows shooting at buffalo (also quite the mix of modern and the past).It was great watching them help each other set up and sit inside of their creations. I used washable markers, sheets, and wooden poles that Dale had purchased from the hardware store. lol We did it another time because it was such a big hit and my brother-in-law gave me Tyvek. That was virtually indestructible! I let them wear “war paint” and they had a blast with that too.
You can incorporate any hands-on project into what you are studying. That was the beauty of doing units. I had one extremely bright, creative, slightly mischievous son and another son who couldn’t sit still for more than a few minutes and joined right in on the mischief or created his own special scenarios. This provided a great outlet for both of my very different learner-type sons.
If you want unit ideas KONOS has more than you can imagine. So, if you use the older editions just pick and choose what interests you. The old books have a million projects and if you happen to use those, don’t try to do everything. It would take you years to get through it! It is a fantastic resource.I checked out her website and she has a lot of options to choose from do-it-yourself to it’s already done for you. I see it says semester long projects, but I bet they could be stretched out to a year as they are a bit pricey.
My advice is to start out with one or two units and ask your son what he’d like to do. I always found the enthusiasm level went up when the unit was chosen by one of the guys. You can set parameters if you want to direct what is being studied. You can also do a google search for free unit studies and you will be able to find quite a few. I always used a traditional math curriculum in conjunction with the units, but incorporated nearly all of the other subjects into the unit.
I am really glad we did unit studies as it gave confidence to my sons and provided a creative outlet . Unit studies also gave me “permission” to do some things that I think I otherwise would have said no to (like the teepee), thinking that doing something like that wasn’t “school” because it is, it just looks a bit different. 🙂
Schoolmarm Ohio 
