Responsibility

A Bag of Tools

R. L. Sharpe

Isn't it strange 

That princes and kings,

And clowns that caper

In sawdust rings,

And common people

Like you and me

Are builders of eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools

A shapeless mass,

A book of rules;

And each must make-

Ere life is flown-

A stumbling block

Or a stepping stone.

I first heard this poem as it was shared by an evangelist many years ago.  It "spoke" to me then and I asked the evangelist for a copy.  A few years later I was delighted to find it in the second volume of KONOS under the character trait of responsibility.  I found myself this morning looking back over the responsibility unit that we were completing....seeing what I missed before going on to the next unit.  And boy, did I miss a lot.  I have been very discombobulated in the last few years trying to balance all of my children from the oldest to the very youngest, having a daughter marry and make me a grandmother. It has been a season of change and, once the changes started, there is no going back.  I lost my focus on our homeschool....lost direction and the fortitude to stick it out.  I have become a slacker mom!!  We are still doing and learning, but we are not really enjoying it  and I am not seeing the character development that I would like.  The character training got lost in the struggle to get the academics done and my children have become a reflection of their mother.

This morning I had somewhat of an awakening as I looked over all the Bible verses that we should have covered during our time on the responsibility unit, but didn't.  We will spend the next two weeks doing some in-depth Bible study in this area while starting our study of the Revolutionary War.  There has been a good bit of discussion at thehomeschoolchannel.tv about young men who have been homeschooled, but are not being trained to be "real men".  I also was told how young some of the leaders of our Revolutionary War were....young men in their late teens and early twenties who did incredible acts to bring about  a free country.  They had to have been given lots of responsibilities early in their lives to give them the gumption to start a new country.

So, what does it mean to be responsible?  It means doing a job in the way and within the time that it is expected.  I want my children to understand why it is important  to be responsible
--to get the job done
--to help others who are dependent upon us
--to have extra time for other things
--to avoid the consequences of being irresponsible

I want them to learn how to be responsible and to whom to be responsible.  To learn the truth, to practice skills and to please God and their parents are their primary responsibilities but they also have to be taught to do what is assigned or expected right and efficiently and to do more than is expected.  (Taken from KONOS, vol. 2)

I have an opportunity to go back and re-focus on the character training in myself and in my children.  I want to be a stepping stone, not a stumbling block.  How are you doing?  Are your children reflecting any of your bad habits?  Children are mirrors, reflecting what they see in the lives of their parents.  Sometimes it hurts!

Learning with Costumes and a Give-Away

From the time my oldest daughter received her first tutu, my children have loved to play dress-up.   There is no end to the play as they dress up like knights, princesses, firemen and cowboys.  However, my children have also dressed up as frontier men and women, presidents, Pilgrims, Indians, Africans and more.  Making costumes can be fairly easy, especially if you let the children do most of the work.  Here are a few of our costumes from years past with a little explanation.  Of course, checking Walmart out the week after H-----ween can result in a good stash of costumes as well.  We have found princess costumes, firemen, knights, penguins and horse costumes.  We have also found versatile capes to use for many different looks.

These African costumes were made with fabric purchased from the clearance table at Walmart for one dollar per yard.   Kaelan's was simply made into a wrap around skirt with a shoulder wrap.  The other children had simple tunics.   Jordan's costume (the taller one in the back) was a shirt dress in stripes purchased from the Salvation Army.  It has served many purposes.  

Kaelan is wearing black hand-me-down cowboy boots, jeans, Texas tee shirt and a Walmart cowboy hat.  She is sporting a cap gun as well.  Jordan's confederate hat was purchased from a battleground park.  He is wearing a simple gray shirt and jeans with a munitions belt to complete the look.  Aaron has a Walmart soldiers helmet, green jeans and his dad's old army shirt.  The boots were on clearance from 

Vision Forum years ago. The munitions belt and canteen were Walmart finds.  The rifle from a re-enactment store, however,  Jackson received a new one this Christmas from Vision Forum.

This was a cool day, so Kaelan is wearing clothes underneath what could be either an Indian dress or a mountain man's shirt.  I bought several ladies olive green t-shirts on clearance.  We fringed the bottom and the sleeves and poked holes in the v-neck line to string with rawhide boots laces.  The boys later cut them up the middle so they could belt them.  These shirts have probably been the most used of our costume stash.

Here Jordan is dressed as George Washington.  His tri-cornered hat was purchased at colonial Williamsburg.  His wig is cotton batting.  He is wearing my trouser socks and baseball pants.  The coat was a cast-off from dad's closet that we embellished with lace trim around the sleeves and piping around the pockets and collar.

This is a younger Washington.  He has on the same bottoms, but left the coat off and added a tapestry vest found at a thrift store for 50 cents. 

 

Here are the same shirts from earlier only cut up the middle and belted.  Jordan, our Pilgrim, has shaped the three-cornered hat to be more Pilgim-y and is wearing sweat pants pushed up under his knees.  He is wearing some suede ankle boots, a ladies thrift store dress shirt with a cape.  

For a fun tea party, the girls dress in Sunday clothes and add lacey shawls found at the thrift store or grandma's closet.  The hat I found on clearance at a dollar store.  I purchased several of them and they lasted for years of dress-up play.

It really is simple to create costumes for your children's studies and play.  Just keeping your eyes open for clearance tables and sales will bring lots of great additions to your costume closet.  To encourage you to add costumes to your home school fun, I am giving away a KONOS video by Jessica Hulcy.  Costumes-Creating a Memory will encourage you to learn with your children and to have fun creating costumes as you learn about God's world.  I don't know if the videos are still available or if they have been transfered to a DVD format.  This video is left over from my KONOS representative days.  If you would like the VIDEO, please leave a comment with your email address.

And yes, this is me with KONOS author Jessica Hulcy six years ago this month.  We were having high tea at a ritzy hotel in Dallas and I was deathly ill with all day morning sickness.  I look somewhat nauseous and green in this photo.   Continue to pray for Jessica as she recovers from her car accident last May.  She still has lots of pain in her left arm and leg, but is also still coping with recovery from the brain injury.  She has come a long way and we rejoice in that!  Continue to pray for a full recovery, though!  She has so much wisdom to share with the homeschool community.   

This Week's Preview

Last week we were studying the Great Lake states. We read another great Holling C. Holling book Paddle to the Sea, which took us on a tour of the Great Lakes from Lake Superior all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Holling's books are terrific. If you haven't read them, please do!

Another aspect we looked at when studying the Great Lakes was the dairy industry. We read a few books on dairy cows, drew a few pictures of cows and Saturday evening had a fabulous fondue dinner. Becky made a terrific parmesan cheese fondue and we dipped baked chicken morsels, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and toasted bread cubes into the fondue. We added a salad and then topped it all off with ice cream cones and homemade chocolate ice cream!! We are going to be so fat after studying this unit!!

This week we are studying the midwest states and will be covering many fun topics: the Pony Express, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Oregon Trail, Sitting Bull and George Custer, Mt. Rushmore, buffaloes, and farming. That is a tremendous amount of info to cover in one week, but we have some great resources to help us tackle that feat. My kids already know a lot about the Oregon Trail through playing the Oregon Trail game on the computer. Weather permitting, we are planning a trip to our local farming implement store to ask questions about and get close up to some John Deere equipment. Then we are thinking of re-enacting the Lewis and Clark expedition and/or Oregon Trail on the nature trail at the Natchez Trace Visitor's Center.

Someone else has discovered my favorite cookbook series for this unit at the library, so we may not be cooking much for this week. A few years ago when studying Lewis and Clark we had a large group over and cooked venison over an open fire and had several other dishes that they would have had on that expedition. Need to pull out the frontier shirts that the older boys made years ago...Jackson can use them now and make powder horns, possible bags and sketchbooks. My creative juices are flowing--now if we can just find the time to make it all happen.

We also begin our enrichment classes this week. Jordan will be taking drama, a Dave Ramsey money class and a intro to physics lab. Aaron will also be in the Dave Ramsey class, music theory and health/nutrition/volleyball. Kaelan will be taking drama, arts and crafts and a science lab. This is our first time doing something like this, so I am praying it will be a rewarding time for the children. Kaelan and Aaron also have violin, piano and chorale, so we are staying on our toes keeping up with everything this semester. Oh, and while they are at enrichment classes, I plan on hitting the clearance racks or the library with the little boys tagging along.

Jordan is continuing his history studies this semester with the Renaissance and Reformation period and is taking a biology course. He is also doing lots of writing, a Shakespeare study and finishing up algebra. Lots going on a the Chamblee house!

What will you be learning/studying this week? You don't have to be a homeschool mom to continue learning. Education is for life!

This Week in the Great Lake States

This week we are studying those states that are in the Great Lakes area..Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Our main focus will be reading Holling C. Hollings book Paddle to the Sea which tells the tale of a carved canoe making its way from the source of the Great Lakes through all the lakes and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean. We are also reading biographies of Henry Ford (Detroit, Michigan is the capital of the automobile industry) and today we are going to our local automobile museum which is huge! I have been there before, but the children haven't. The cars are lined up in several rows from the earliest days to the latest. I think they will enjoy seeing this museum and I hope to have pictures to post tomorrow.

We are also reading lots of great books about each state and I am reading a biography of John Kellogg, you know...Kellogg's Corn Flakes? Seems he was a little loony, but I haven't had time to really get into the book yet.

We will also study the dairy industry and will cap it all off with a fabulous dinner Saturday night. We are planning a cheese fondue dinner with a chocolate fondue and homemade ice cream dessert! My lactose intolerant stomach is already protesting, but I will enjoy the good eats!!

Hope you all are having a great week.

Traditional Recipe

The only experience I had in my growing up years with cranberries was the canned cranberry sauce that we had every holiday with our turkey and dressing. A few years ago my mother-in-law began making this cranberry casserole. We really enjoy it and I think you will, too! BTW, a side note for those of you doing the KONOS states and regions unit beginning in January---you will need cranberries as you study the New England states in week 2. Sam's has a big bag that you can get to make this recipe and then freeze to use for the recipes in your study. Enjoy!

Cranberry Casserole

1 c. peeled raw apples, chopped
3/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. uncooked oatmeal
2 c. fresh cranberries
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 c. chopped pecans (I leave these out due to allergies)

Butter a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Put a layer of apples, half of each sugar, half of oatmeal and half of nuts. Repeat layers. Pour melted butter over all and bake in 350 degree oven for 45-40 minutes. Serves 8-10 people.

This also freezes well. I will be making two pans this week.