Teaching Literature to High School Boys

 You'd think that since I've been homeschooling for 21 years, I'd be an expert at most things.  You'd think that having taught four high school boys Literature for a total of 11 years, with 4 years more to go, that I'd have it down.  You'd think.

British Lit has been one of those hair-pulling experiences for my boys.  Of course, my daughter loved it.  She reads faster than I do, and by fourth grade I couldn't pre-read her anymore!  (Pre-read:  the act of reading a book so that you could determine whether or not the content was worthy of sticking into her brain!)  By the time we got to Brit Lit, she was raring to go and I couldn't assign her enough books to keep her happy.

I do remember one agonizing time of reading Wuthering Heights and I was trying to get my son to love it as much as I did. I was at a loss, as he complained, and rightly so, that there were too many characters with the same name.  My daughter and I ended up drawing a map of the two houses, and putting the appropriate characters in the right house.

Number 2 son, just wanted to read.  If there were murders and war, he'd happily soak it in.

So, now I'm on sons 3 and 4.  One of them loves to read, but doesn't want to write about it.  The other one only wants to read sports stories.  So, how do I tackle Brit Lit?

Thanks to son number 1, Wuthering Heights is off of the list!  It was determined that if it was a female author, they would watch the movie, but they didn't want to read it.  We enjoyed Jane Eyre via Netflix last week.

I had asked last Spring if anyone wanted to join in, as I lesson planned for 5 Brit Lit novels.  I figured I'd have to do the gory novels, the war-fraught novels, and novels with murder and intrigue.  No one bit last Spring, so this summer I picked my 5 books:  Henry VIII, Pilgrim's Progress, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and some Dickens' novel.  A friend emailed in July and said she might be interested, and that they were going to read Romeo and Juliet.  OK, I can switch out Henry VIII with Romeo and Juliet.  And I began lesson planning for Pilgrim's Progress and Frankenstein.  I really wish there were stand alone Teacher's Manuals, but alas, that wasn't to be, so I started reading and plotting and planning.

Fortunately, there was just enough killing in Romeo and Juliet to capture the imagination of the guys.  They read it without complaining.  We talked about world views, morals of the story, history of the story and all of the literary components in between.  They were ready for the book club meeting.  They really did get a lot more out of it than I thought!

For Pilgrim's Progress, they are drawing a map of Christian's journey through the land.  I'll post pictures when they are done.

When the youngest was in fourth grade, my friend Amber Healy introduced me to a "lap book".  I had heard of them, but had never done one with my kids.  It was really a fun way to walk through California History.  And it was very elaborate.  Every year since then, I have looked for "lap books" for certain topics.  I wished there were kits that you could buy everything already cut out.  I wished there could be lap book ideas for the topics I was teaching.  I wished there could be lap books for high school level.  I wished.  I wished.  And I wished.  So, finally, as I've been struggling to find innovative ideas to teach my kinesthetic learner Brit Lit, I decided last year that I'd create my own lap books.  The one below is for Frankenstein.  And I'm going to publish it on the web, so that if anyone else wants to do a lap book on Frankenstein (am I truly the only one with a kinesthetic high schooler?), they will have access to my ideas.  And I'm certain that anyone can improve upon them, because my ideas are very simple.

Here is my instruction sheet:

Instructions for Mary Shelley’s

Frankenstein

Hands-on book

Put the title of the book, backed with scrapbook paper, on the top front of the folder, with the folder lying sideways.

Attach the Tree, the Cottage, and the School House to the front of the folder. On the tree, attach green leaves, with the names of the Frankenstein Family members.  On the Cottage, pink, write the names of the occupants of the cottage, plus their visitors.  On the School House, red, write the names of Victor’s professors.

  Open up the folder and attach the timeline to the right side bottom.  After you’ve read a few chapters, start jotting down on the timeline when certain events happened.

In the open folder, attach the gray frame to the left side top.  Trim the frame to fit inside the folder.  Cut out pictures from magazines, or from images from the internet, and organize Victor’s workshop.  OR be totally creative, and draw your own vision of Victor’s workshop.

   Using clear packing tape or duct tape, create a book using the composition notebook (representing a journal), stationery (representing the letters), and the notebook paper, with one sentence on each page summarizing the chapter.  After it is completed, attach the “binding” of the book to the open folder, above the timeline.

 On the back of the folder, attach the picture of Mary Shelley to a piece of scrapbook paper.  Type on a piece of paper that will fit on the scrapbook paper, 3 interesting items about Mary Shelley.  Attach the whole thing to the back of the folder.  You may need to use clear packing tape.

Attach the World View questions to the inside of the folder, right below your rendition of Victor’s workshop.  You may attach them to a piece of scrapbook paper.

World View

1.     What modern day activities could equate with Victor’s workshop?

2.   How does advanced technology help or hurt us today?

3.   How did technology invade nature in the story?  How does technology invade nature now?

4.   What is Mary Shelley’s commentary on the poor?

5.   What is Mary Shelley’s commentary on Natural Law?

6.   What is Mary Shelley’s view of religious freedom as mentioned in Chapter 14 in regards to Safie?

Type the themes that you found, and attach them to the back of the folder, right below Mary Shelley’s picture and facts.  You may back them with scrapbook paper.

  Fold up the 3 pieces of scrapbook paper.  Two of them are 5”x4” (fold to make them 2.5”) and one is 12” x 2” (fold to make it 6”).  Attach the 3 pieces of scrapbook paper along the side of the notebook/journal and in between the time line and the notebook/journal.  Attach the name of the characters you wish to analyze.  You have four to choose from.  On the inside of each character write either one each of the physical, emotional, and psychological traits.  OR, write 3 traits of one of those subjects. 

We have 3 students that will be joining us in two months, after they have read Frankenstein.  So, each of the five will create their own lap book prior to our meeting.  I instructed them to create their folder with whatever theme they wanted.  Gothic?  Romantic?  Or just create the book by meeting the bare elements of the assignment.  We'll see what they do and I'll post pictures of each of their creations.

UPDATE:  I am posting their creations!  This worked out great for everyone!

The boys did a far more simple job.  They met the basic requirements.  Still it was a lot of fun.

 The gal with the yellow folder added an additional pocket for the diary entries.  She even burned the edges of the paper to give it an aged look.  She also took pictures off of the internet of the characters for her timeline and her character analyses.

Next, we have the second red folder.  This gal chose to use her imagination and drew her rendition of Victor's workshop.  She had everything neatly labeled.



The themes that stuck out to her were:  Secrecy, Knowledge and Revenge.





The next red folder was done by a very creative gal:

She had very neat and artistic letterings, notes and paper backings!  Her themes included:  Seeking knowledge can lead to ruin; and Loneliness can have devastating effects on human lives.

When we all met together to discuss the book Frankenstein, I made some special snacks.

Our Veggies

Our sweets

Our salty (Chips and guacamole)

Our Fruit

The kids humored me by trying everything!

Here is my lesson plan:

Frankenstein Lesson Plan

7:00 - Open in prayer

7:05 - share lap books

7:15 - Read a louds:

Chapter 5 - 2nd paragraph - Victor proud of himself
Chapter 15 - 12th paragraph - half way down to start “...Their happiness was not decreased...” - Monster - to Victor Frankenstein
Chapter 20 - 10th paragraph - The Monster to Victor Frankenstein
Chapter 24 - 14th paragraph - Victor’s resolve toward The MonsterChapter 24 - second to the last paragraph - The Monster to Mr. Wallton

7:30 - The plot - 3 separate plot lines:  Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, The Monster.  Give a brief synopsis of each plot.

7:45 - Answer the following questions:

Are the characters of Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein similar or dissimilar?
Discuss what is meant by the Romantic patterns found in the novel?
Describe the personality of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he creates
How does the monster learn about the world in which he lives?
Is the ending inevitable?  Do the monster and Victor have to be destroyed in order for there to be order restored among men?
The genre - How is Frankenstein both a Romantic novel and a Gothic horror novel?
Discuss the role that nature plays in this novel.
What is the significance of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Plutarch’s Lives, and The Sorrows of Werter?

8:00 - go over world view questions

8:15 - Discuss themes - technology, treatment of the poor

8:30 - Character Analysis
Victor Frankenstein - family, education, job - did things to excess
The Monster - Physical appearance, adopted family, personality
Elizabeth Lavenza - family, personality
Justine Moritz - family, why she was a martyr, how she fits in Mary Shelley’s world view

Teaching Math Facts

Teaching math facts to 2^nd and 3^rd graders is kind of like wanting to lose weight.  It would just be easier to take a pill.  But, alas, just like there is no weight loss pill, there is no math fact pill!  You just need to do the work.

But first, why memorize math facts?  I made my eldest memorize math facts because that was what he was “supposed” to do.  As my children got older, we saw kids that had never memorized math facts, and consequently could NOT do simple division and multiplication problems without the use of their calculators, I became convinced that it was imperative that my younger sons memorize their math facts.  More on this later, but I don’t let my students use calculators for math until Algebra 2.  We do use a Calculator Math curriculum so that they know HOW to use their calculator, but for their math lessons, I make sure that they understand the way they need to compute everything.

I taught math facts using two tools.  We used Calculadder  http://www.schoolmadesimple.com/calculadder.html  for speed, as a drill every day.  Each page allows you to do a 2 minute to 5 minute timed test.  After my children got a perfect score on a page, I would allow them to move on to the next level.  After they were finished with all 6 books, they were done. 

Priscilla detested the math drills.  She didn’t mind doing the computation, but she did mind being timed.  She would protest that she would never be timed in real life.  One day, I had the opportunity, as we sat in a drive-thru line at Taco Bell, to teach her that sometimes we live in a timed math test.  I said to the five passenger children sitting in my 12 passenger van, “I have $10.  Figure out what you want, and how much it costs, and let’s see if we have enough for drinks!  I have until the two cars in front of me drive away from the speaker.  Oh, no!  It’s a timed math test!”  With David and Priscilla taking orders, and starting the math on the $0.69 tacos and burritos, I heard whooping and hollering, and stomping of feet as they were adding up out loud.  I’m sure Stephen was only screaming because he was trying to keep up, even though he was only 6, and Philip was just stomping his toddler feet to add to the excitement.  David proudly announced the total of what the younger set wanted.  And Priscilla proudly added that we could get 3 drinks.  She never fussed about the timed math tests after that.

The second tool I used was simple flash cards.  I had one set each of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  I would introduce a game called Penny Math.  I read about it years ago.  I’m sorry I can’t reference the original author.  As soon as they had been introduced to the 9’s in addition, I’d start them in addition. 

I’d keep a timer, a bowl of change, and the flash cards.  Each day I’d give them ONE round.  I’d set the timer to two minutes.  I’d let them answer the flash cards for the full 2 minutes.  I would give them a penny for each card they answered correctly within the two minutes.  After they answered 30 correctly, I’d move them to 1 minute for the next day.  After a couple days of trying that, when they would get to 30 answered correctly in 1 minute, I’d move to 30 seconds.  It might take a couple of weeks to get to 30 in 30 seconds, but that was the goal.  After they could do that, I would consider that their math facts were memorized.  I’d do this with the four different sets of cards (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).  I remember at one time, David said it was his goal to answer 29 in 30 seconds so that he could just keep collecting 29 cents a day.  He may have tried, but pretty much after having his math facts memorized he’d go over the 30 in the 30 seconds.

A side benefit to Penny Math.  I’d have them keep their cups of pennies within easy reach.  Sometimes, after our Penny Math drills, which typically took under 2 minutes, we’d spend more time changing pennies for nickels, nickels for quarters, and even quarters for dollars.  They learned their money values at the same time!

Answering the Questions about Schooling When You Have Toddlers and Infants

One of the biggest questions I get from young families as the new school year starts is, “What do I do with my little ones?”  Well, I only had five, which may not seem like a lot to some of you, but it felt like plenty to me.  For 12 years I taught older students (Basically all of my eldest ‘s school years) while I had at least one preschooler.  For many years I had an infant and a preschooler, while homeschooling.  The funny thing is that I started that way (David was in Kindergarten when Priscilla was 2 and ½ and Stephen was an infant), so I didn’t realize that it could be any other way.

Let me give you my overall philosophy.  Your little guys are going to take your time, no matter what you do, so you might as well give them your time up front.  Plan for it.  Schedule for it.  Make it a part of the routine.  It will be a lot less frustrating.

I had lots of ways of coping.  Some years required different tools.  I’ll list some of the different things I did to accomplish the formal part of education.  If I think of other things that I did (the things that didn’t work for me, I blocked out!) I’ll edit this post.

1.       Divided up the toys – I had 5 Rubber Maid containers, and I divided the toys into Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  The Legos were left out all week, along with the Thomas the Tank train track (along with pictures of previously made tracks to be copied), and the dress up box.  We’d only open one container each day.  Then, at the end of the day, we put the toys back in the same container and they wouldn’t see them until the next week.  Yes, I had enough toys to fill more than 5 Rubber Maid containers!

2.      Flip school hours -  One year our routine looked like this:  breakfast, dishes, throw laundry in, do Bible, head to the park with the math books and a timer.  Let the kids play for 15 minutes, when the timer went off, David was designated to run over and do a page of math.  I chose math for him because he had great understanding and there were no needs for additional tools.  When he was done, he’d run back and play and Priscilla would run over and do a page of grammar.  I’d try to do 2 subjects with each of them.  Finally, we’d head back home, ready for lunch and naps.  I’d feed everybody lunch, throw the clothes in the dryer, and then do some read aloud history (we used Beautiful Feet http://bfbooks.com/ and did literature based history).  Now the little guys were ready for naps.  Then, I’d finish the subjects with David and Priscilla before the little guys woke up.

3.      Do a subject that can cover multiple grade levels -   For me this meant Bible and History.  Some of my most precious memories of homeschooling my kids is nursing a baby, a toddler sitting on big brother’s lap sitting next to me, the other little brother sitting next to me, with the girl curled up like a cat on the back of the sofa, looking over my shoulder.  We did a lot of read out loud books.  And with Beautiful Feet, they also had recommendations for tapes (before the CD era), so we’d all sit there together and listen.  This was a good segue to nap time also.  After the little guys were down, I’d work on the writing and research with the older ones.

4.      When you have many that need to be schooled intensely, use a timer! -  I would set my timer for 15 minutes, and I would play with the little guys.  Maybe we’d build a train track.  Start a puzzle.  Line up all of the trucks.  Read a picture book.  By the time the 15 minutes were over, my goal would be to have them involved in an activity that they could complete/play on their own.  When the timer went off, they understood that that was the signal for me to work with the older kids.  I’d set the timer for 45 minutes with the older kids.  When the timer went off, I might have more than one little one at my side, knowing it was their 15 minute time segment.  If I was intensely teaching something, like writing or research, I’d ask David and Priscilla to take a turn and play with their siblings for a 45 minute stretch, while I worked with the other.  David almost always took them outside, and Priscilla almost always read books to them.

Again, the little guys need and deserve your time.  You might as well just give it to them up front!  

Reflux in a Newborn - Nursing Mom's Diet

It has been wonderful spending the last two weeks with my grandson, and of course, daughter and son-in-law!  Priscilla has been a fabulous mother to her newborn.  She has been patient, loving and very attentive to little Kekoa's needs.

I have had the privilege of making her lunch and dinner most days.  Primarily, I was concerned that she was getting enough protein and dairy.  I didn't worry too much about food allergies, as she has none, and is not a picky eater.  She has even asked for some of the things I used to make at home that were her favorites.  You know, good, old-fashioned comfort food!  (If you call cauliflower, cream cheese and butter, comfort food!)  The amazing thing is that at two weeks, she is already into her regular wardrobe!

Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (Kekoa was 2 weeks on Thursday), in the evening, he'd throw his back into an arch and start crying.  I haven't been there for the episodes, but it is always after Priscilla's bed time, and they feel badly for the little baby.

I never had a colicky baby, nor a baby that fussed with reflux, though looking back, my poor David probably had reflux.  Most people only remember his baby days by his projectile "spit ups"!  He never fussed, and he gained weight, so I never changed anything.

After doing some research (going to my pediatrician's website) I found a list of foods that can be considered to cause reflux in newborns, and should be eliminated until they are proven to be safe.

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/fussy-baby/coping-colic/colic-causing-foods-breastfeeding

Priscilla, in her research found the same list:


Banned foods:
Dairy Products
Caffeine
Soy
Peanuts
Shell Fish
Chocolate
Citrus Fruits
Wheat
Chicken
Beef
Nuts
Eggs
Corn
Pre-natal vitamins (iron)
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Onions
Green Peppers
Tomatoes

For a new mom, who is already short on sleep, the list was overwhelming.  I suggested that she eat oatmeal for one day and that I'd sift through the information and come prepared with a clean diet for her on Monday.

Baby didn't fuss on Saturday or Sunday.

Monday (today) she ate Ezekiel cereal with rice milk for breakfast.  I served her Ezekiel bread with roast beef and Promise margarine, coconut milk, and peaches.  For an afternoon snack, I served her gluten-free crackers with hummus.  For dinner, I made chicken thighs, cooked in the crock pot with chicken broth, served over gluten-free penne pasta, tossed with olive oil and parsley and green beans, and a salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing, more coconut milk, that she flavored with a blop of vanilla and a shake of cinnamon.  I left a dairy-free, gluten-free, pre-prepared rice pudding for dessert for her.

She left a message tonight that the baby was fussy again tonight.

Could it be the Ezekiel bread?

We wanted to challenge the soy tomorrow and see what the baby could tolerate.  Since he is fussy tonight, it looks like we can't move on.


I would like a little help from my friends.  If you have experienced these issues, if you could post a menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks, Priscilla and I would really appreciate it.  I would like to solve this problem before I leave here on Monday.  I want to leave her equipped to deal with a baby with an immature digestive system. :)  And since this won't be my only grandchild, I feel like I'm laying groundwork for any future grandchildren that might have a problem.  :)

Grandma Status

Although I have been up for about 20 hours, after pulling off a red eye the day before, I am still too excited to sleep, so I thought I'd post some pictures of my last day.  I know that Priscilla's friends won't be able to see this from my facebook wall, so I'll have to email her the pictures when we have better internet access, or she has more time, whichever comes first.

I arrived in Virginia on Wednesday morning, June 20th and arrived to Priscilla and Josh's apartment around 7:30 am.  Red-eyes are brutal.  After seeing what good condition she was in, emptying my carry-on of all the things I found corners for, and finding out that I could check into my hotel room at noon, I went to my hotel room, took a shower and a 90 minute nap and then returned to Priscilla's to take her to her midwife appointment.  Here is a picture of her as we left for the midwife's office:

The midwife was concerned that Priscilla wasn't measuring bigger, and told her to schedule an ultra sound for Friday or Monday.  Priscilla left, not too concerned, and telling me that she'd schedule it for Monday, hoping it wouldn't be an issue by then, since she was due on Sunday.  We stopped at Target to pick up some items, and then met Josh for dinner.  After dinner, even though I was tired (more like exhausted), I wanted to take a picture I thought the boys would like:

And then a couple of pregnancy pictures:

I had intended to come back to the hotel and upload them, but I got back to the hotel and was asleep by 9:00 PM.

I woke up at 4:00 am, and thought "Oh, good, I have a few more hours," and decided to see if I could easily go back to sleep.  I did.  I awoke to the phone ringing at 4:30 am.  Priscilla asked how I felt about getting another short night of sleep, and if I'd come on over.  She'd been having contractions since midnight and they were going to call the midwife.  She sounded very cheerful and excited, so I got dressed, packed my backpack for a long stay, and left.  I arrived at her place around 5:00 am.  She was happily working her way through contractions.  One of the things that we had purchased the night before was nail polish, because her toe nails were bugging her and she couldn't reach them, so around 5:30 am, in between contractions, I painted her toe nails.

Finally, she had a contraction that made her involuntarily cry.  Two more and she said she was ready to go to the hospital.  This is the picture I took before they walked out the door.  Note, she was still smiling!  And I believe the clock said "6:50am"!

We took separate cars to the hospital.  I could see Josh reaching into the back seat every couple of minutes.  It took about 50 minutes to get to the hospital.  The receptionist looked at Priscilla and asked her what she was there for.  Priscilla said, "I'm in labor."  The receptionist took off for about three minutes.  When she returned she asked Priscilla if she really was in labor, and told her to take a seat.  Time about 8:00 am.  Finally, the receptionist came back.  Priscilla told me to hang tight and as soon as they got settled in a room, she'd have Josh come get me.  Josh called me about 45 minutes later and said that the baby had been born.  Huh?  I told the receptionist that Josh was coming to get me and that the baby was already born, and she said, "What?  She didn't even look like she was in labor!"

This was the scene that I walked into and I instantly burst into tears.  It was so lovely:

Priscilla can tell you the story from her vantage point, but probably not this month!  Let's just say that she is very good at this labor and delivery stuff!

And that is the story of my last 24 hours!  Good night!

The Guilt of Motherhood, an open letter to Priscilla

Dear Priscilla,

You are about to enter the most guilt-ridden profession: motherhood. From the minute you decided to use a mid-wife or a doctor, there will be someone questioning your decisions. And then you move into breast feed or bottle feed. No matter what you choose there will be nay-sayers.

And don’t get me started on co-sleeping versus a crib.

Career versus stay at home mom?  Wasting your education?

But none of the condemnation you receive will be like the judgment of homeschooling! And that’s only from the people who don’t believe in homeschooling. Within homeschooling there is all the guilt of whether or not you picked the right curriculum, courses, outside activities. And then homeschooling high school!

There are a couple of guidelines I’d like to suggest to you to get through this!

1.  Listen to the Lord. Although there isn’t a book written on how to raise Kekoa (or any subsequent children you may have), God will be there to direct your path.

2.  Consult with your husband. Sometimes it might seem that they don’t care about how you cope, but ask what is important to him. Is it dinner on the table on time? Is it a clean house? Is it a quiet house?

3.  Do what works best for you. There will be a lot of people willing to offer you advice (and I will be one of them! J). But their families are different than your family. Take what you need and throw the rest out. Being a hybrid of many different parenting styles and techniques isn’t a bad thing. In fact, the “bigger the piece of marble, the bigger the sculpture can be.” And, of course, none of your children will have the same personality or needs, so what works for one, probably won’t work for the other and you’ll have heard lots of ideas to give you something else to try.

4.  Be flexible. What works in the beginning weeks, might not work at 6 months. Allow yourself to be changed.

5.  Get plenty of rest. You think this is an easy thing. It is not! Here I am in year 25 of my parenting, and I’m finally getting to the point where I can actually get to bed on time and wake up early happily. (You'll notice the emphasis on "happily", waking up early is a given!)  Maybe the toilets don’t get cleaned because you took a nap while the baby was sleeping. That’s okay. They can get cleaned tomorrow, unless by some chance magic fairies show up!

Some days the guilt might be stifling. You have a bad day, you kicked the dog, dinner burnt, and for some reason the baby has been crying all day, and you can't figure out why. And then you find out that the baby has an ear infection, the sweet little girl can't see well enough to read the songs on the board, and even though you’ve been through phonics 4 times with the child, he still can’t read, and you’re really swamped with guilt.

I could be my usual self and tell you to get over it, it comes with the territory. But the nice response would be to put on some worship music, get into the Word, hold the baby, and the guilt will pass until the next issue arises. I’d like to tell you that the guilt stops after parenting for 25 years, but so far it hasn’t!  Save the guilt for conviction of sin, NOT because you don't do everything perfectly.  If you feed the baby, change his diapers, and keep the Department of Health away, you're doing fine.

Love you,

Mom

P.S.  Anytime you want advice, feel free to ask. J

Monumental, The Movie

http://www.monumentalmovie.com/

We noticed that Monumental will be in the theaters on April 13^th both at the Spectrum in Irvine and in a theater in Orange. Don and I saw it when it first aired on March 23^rd at 8:00 PM. I don’t know if it will show beyond April 13^th, so check out the theater times and figure out when you can go.

We would like to encourage you to go see this documentary done by Kirk Cameron. Older high schoolers, parents and grandparents might really catch the vision. Young High Schoolers and Junior Highers might like this movie if they are history buffs. With younger children, I would think that you would get more out of it if you made it a date night and hired a babysitter. But, we encourage all parents, or those of an age considering parenthood, to grab their parents and grandparents and make a night of it. It might give you a “generational perspective.”

Don and I have had a vision for our five children. With the Biblical mandates of loving the Lord God with all your soul, heart and mind, from the Old Testament, and Love your neighbor as yourself, from the New Testament, we figured the best thing we could do for them is to teach them those things. Do we do it perfectly? No. But we do try to do it consistently in all of our parenting efforts.

Monumental, is a documentary type of movie that shows that others before us have had that kind of vision. The pilgrims who first came to America were kind of like us. Did they do everything perfectly? No. But they, too, were consistent in their beliefs and acted on them.

Mr. Cameron has done an excellent job of doing the research to dispel the myths, uncover the mystery, and teach on the memoirs of the Pilgrims. They had a “generational perspective”, or a vision, for their children. Do you?

Peep Wars

This morning, on my drive to Laguna Niguel Regional Park for my walk with Linda and Carie, I heard of "Peep Jousting". The idea was to take left- over peeps, put tooth picks in their beaks, put them facing one another in the microwave, and let them rise until one launches the toothpick into the other one. Sounds like something Stout boys would want to try.

I only had to suggest it once. They got two blue peeps (all of the yellow peeps are gone) and put in the tooth picks. Andrew says his was the one with the poison tip. (The poison tip was actually the residual plastic on the fancy toothpicks.) They worked at it, until the toothpicks were pointing directly at one another.

I recorded the action in the microwave. Too bad my camera decided to focus on the microwave dots! It didn't work as we expected, but we had fun none-the-less. Now we're working on ideas to tweak the experiment and make it work. Any suggestions? There are more peeps in the house to try another day!

OK, when everyone got home tonight, they decided to include dad in the fun. We're not convinced that it worked the way advertised, but it sure made the house smell like roasted marshmallows!