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!

Adventures through U.S. History

I am teaching U.S. History, once again. When I teach U.S. History, I like to hit it on all fronts: audio, visual, along with the required history book, which can or cannot be considered “dry”. We read a lot of historical fiction and biographies. We read different American authors. We watch movies. Tonight was “movie night”. I used to have a box of videos and CDs, but somehow and somewhere I have misplaced it. Yes, a “bankers” sized box. Full. So I did the next best thing: I co-opted our Netflix account.

Now mind you, we rarely use our Netflix account. In fact, we started getting two DVDs at a time and a couple of years ago we went to one DVD at a time. However, when I take it over and we watch “educational” films, I mostly get groaning and complaints.

I decided to do it differently this time. Instead of getting documentaries, and narrations from Discovery or the History Channel, I spent hours and hours and hours searching for titles that were good movies with good historical facts, that we could enjoy together and I would not hear the groaning. Now, I cannot vouch for the facts of these movies, but here is the list I made:

The Crucible (1996) – PG13– The Salem Witch Trials. Review: It was rated PG-13. Since I have an almost 14 year old son and a 16 year old son, I was thinking this was "safe". In the first 10 minutes there was partial female nudity, rear and front that took us by surprise! It was too late to fast forward. When they get to the scene of the girls dancing wildly in the woods, and the Pastor comes upon them, quick, fast forward. The rest of the movie was OK. I'm trying to remember if there were even mild cuss words, because they were all speaking with early American accents and the Puritan speak that we would expect. I don't remember any. But, in any event, because of the 2 seconds of nudity, I think this movie should have been rated R. This movie captured the hysteria, the deceit, the people trying to save themselves by confessing, and those standing in their innocence until their death. Because of the affair of one of the men accused of witch craft, I wouldn't recommend this to students younger than Junior High. It will make me do a thorough search on the Salem Witch Trials tonight to see what was inconsistent, so that tomorrow, when I talk with my boys, I can talk about what different historical perspectives said really happened, along with I Samuel 28. One of the inconsistencies that I found was that Abigail Williams, played by Winona Ryder, in the movie, had an affair with John Proctor, which caused her to accuse John's wife of witchcraft. According to a textbook that I read, Abigail Williams was 11 years old. And evidently, there was a family feud between the Putnams and the Porters, so that they charged each other with witchcraft. To sort through all of the names from all of the different sources, I'd have to draw a family tree. Since I'm ready to move on in history, I'm not inclined to do that. If someone else does, please let me know!

The Last of the Mohicans (1991) – The French and Indian War
Review: We originally decided not to do the R rated 1991 version, and we rented the 1971 Masterpiece Theater version. That version had 2 discs, and each disc held 3 shows. Well, two teenage boys raised with Hollywood versions and the DVD playing amidst the laughter, I hurriedly checked a website that would detail the vulgarities. The authors rated it extremely violent, with only a prolonged kiss that was done fully clothed, with moderate cursing. They mentioned someone was scalped, someone had their heart cut out, and someone committed suicide, along with showing lots of dead bodies. With two teenage boys at home, and one at a university in the Corp of Cadets, I figured they could handle the violence. After the first show on the first disc ended of the Masterpiece theater production of The Last of the Mohicans, we streamed the 1991 version, starring Daniel Day-Lewis (who coincidentally was hanged as a witch last week in The Crucible). The reviews were true. It was extremely violent, but I've seen National Geographic documentaries worse. At least we knew it was all acting. The plot stayed true to the story that I remember reading 25+ years ago. And it was a good reminder to our sons that war is violent, even way back during the French and Indian wars, and they sure had strange rules of engagement!

Johnny Tremain (Disney 1956) – New England Colonies - bummed. It's showing as "Saved" on my queue!

John Adams - the miniseries 2008 - We purchased this set and would watch it on and off, when a movie was short, or we had a spare evening home.  We really enjoyed this and got caught up in the history of John Adams.  This became one of our favorites throughout the year.

1776 (1976) – The Summer of 1776 in Philadelphia - Review: although a musical, we did enjoy it and the boys hung through it all. It did show the agony of the different delegates and their lack of unity. And then even after Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration, there were still compromises that needed to be made, including slavery, to get the Southern States to sign on. And although the sequences between John Adams and Abigail Adams seemed fanciful, it seemed that their "conversations" were really the letters that went back and forth.

April Morning (1988) - made for Hallmark. Rated G. A young man, who is barely of age to "bare arms", signs himself up for the militia, somewhere between Lexington and Concord. After the "shot heard around the world", he realizes that he doesn't have it in him to actually shoot and kill someone, and spends the rest of the movie reconciling his actions with his true beliefs. We should have seen this BEFORE 1776.

The Crossing (2000) – George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Day

Benedict Arnold: A Question of Honor (2003) – Battle of Saratoga win to traitor to the United States

The Patriot (2000) – Revolutionary War - I watched this the first time.  I can't stomach the violence, but I let my teenage boys watch it.

Davy Crockett: King of the wild Frontier (Disney 1954) – Early Indian wars to the Alamo - my boys thought this was "lame".  I thought it was "wholesome".

The Alamo (1960 - John Wayne) – 1835 Texas Revolution

Amistad (1997) – American Slavery in the 1830’s

Amazing Grace (2006) – Abolition of Slavery in England (I know it isn’t U.S. History, but I thought it might be a good follow-up on Amistad.

Lincoln (2012) - Accurate portrayal of Lincoln according to the history books.

12 Years a Slave (2013) - The autobiography of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was abducted from New York state and sold into slavery in the mid-1800's.

Dead Man’s Walk (1999) – The 1840’s Texas Rangers!

The Comancheros (1961 – John Wayne) – again the Texas Rangers of the 1840’s.

The Santa Fe Trail (1940) – the life of J.E.B. Stuart. We’ve spent a lot of time in Harper’s Ferry, so I think the boys will like it.

Gangs of New York (2002) – covers the immigration of the 1840’s to the 1860’s and the slums of New York, all while the Civil War was beginning. Don't do it!  It didn't seem like it was worth it for all of the sexuality and nudity.

Gone with theWind (1939) – I’ve never seen it before, so I guess now is the time.  Never got around to seeing, but we added a bunch of other movies!

Far and Away (1992) - Irish Immigrants and the land grabs in Oklahoma in the 1890's.

Gods and Generals - Stonewall Jackson - We ended up watching this as we saw on IMDB that it was the "prequel" to Gettysburg.  We enjoyed it.  I actually got tired of war movies about this time.

Gettysburg -

World War I, American Legacy

Andrew Carnegie, the Age of Steel - documentary - about this time I realized that I needed to switch back and forth between movies and documentaries!

Geronimo and the Apache Resistance

Charlie Brown - THESE were a lot of fun!
     -The Birth of the Constitution
     -The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
     -This is America, Charlie Brown!
     -You're not elected, Charlie Brown!
     -The Mayflower Voyagers

The Lost Battalion (2001) - A drama about an American battalion of over 500 men that gets trapped behind enemy lines in October 1918, during the closing weeks of World War 1.

The Doughboys, Heroes of WW1

Dear Home, Letters from World War 1

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - The Great Depression Era

Saving Private Ryan (1998) - As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, Ranger John Miller and seven others are ordered to find a brother, who has already lost 3 brothers in the war.  Some movies you don't have to wait until American History to watch!

Band of Brothers (2001) - The story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborn division and their mission through V-J Day. Again, why wait until you teach American History?

The Longest Day (1962) - D-Day.  I think my guys watch this every D-Day!

A Motion Picture History of the Korean War

The Red Baron

Underground Railroad hosted by Alfre Woodard

The Last Stand at Little Big Horn

Thirteen Days (2000) - JFK and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

I thought that I’d document these movies, so that if anyone else is teaching U.S. History, they can benefit from my research. As I go along, I’ll try to give a review from the point of view of a conservative, homeschool mom.

I have 20 more weeks to cover, but I’m thinking that at some point I’ll find that box of videos. In the meantime, I am open to suggestions.

Kamakawiwoole Wedding Portraits

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Stout Family Adventures May 3 to June 3 2010

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Something Bigger Than Themselves

Every year we participate in the annual Spring Production with our homeschool group. This is in addition to the Christmas Production, which kicks off our extremely busy Christmas season.

The Spring Production brings all sorts of challenges for our family. For years we had several boys playing baseball. And then throw in Speech and Debate season, and you have a full regular schedule, never mind the additional rehearsals that a Spring Production brings.

Years ago, I came to grips with what this kind of production meant. Years ago, we had tech rehearsals, dress rehearsals, principle actor rehearsals, harmony singer rehearsals, and this was all in addition to the regular once a week rehearsals. Some years I had a kid make a cameo. Some years I had a kid who actually had a line or two. Some years I had to find some elaborate costume for one of my kids for a 1 minute appearance, and then they needed to change back into a choir t-shirt. (Did you know that dryer vent hoses, the silvery kind, make really cool robot arms and legs?) In recent years, my younger boys have lost all previous inhibitions and go big, with lots of lines. Those are the years where "The Production" means we set aside 40 minutes EACH day to go through the whole play to make sure the lines are memorized. (That was this year.)

Many years, because the kids are together so often in the last week, rehearsing extra hard, they get sick. Yes, all of them. They share the same cold. One year we got to all share the same stomach flu. I remember when my daughter had a cameo as an angel. She went on stage, delivered her message (it was in a box on her angel wings), and then she walked back stage and threw up in a bucket. Why was there a bucket handy? Oh, you just take a guess! She had been with all of these kids all week!

But what does this kind of production really mean? The lessons are simple. No matter how small or how big your part, you are all part of the show. If it were just the principle actors, how boring would that be? Robots making appearances, Professors of Theology scootering in with some profound one liner, angels delivering messages... these are the parts that make the play interesting. We are all part of the body. We work together to make the play more interesting.

As a homeschooler, I can teach all sorts of things with life lessons: Math, English, Foreign Language, Sciences. I do have a hard time illustrating how the body all works together, even though I divide out chores. (Maybe it's what we are doing, not how we are doing!) I am blessed that our homeschool group offers us the opportunity to be in a choir and to have a Spring Production. Through this vehicle, my students can learn how all parts make a big whole! They will see that their small part in service to their church and their community can equal something big. They can see how if they cast their one vote at election time that it can equal a victory.

Yes, I take all of these lessons from the simple Spring Production. And when the show is over, everyone has done a good job. Solos were perfect, lines were perfect, dancers were perfect, and even the camera men with no lines lent a great deal of fun to the show! And I can also mention how fun the air guitarists, air drummers and "make up" girls were! Kisses and hugs go all around. Flowers are given, along with bunches of kudos. The hard work paid off, and it took the whole cast to make it a success. May my children always remember the lessons that they learn from their Spring Productions: that they were part of something bigger than themselves!

Teaching Boys to Write Papers

I remember reading the first letter my husband ever wrote to me. I was 21 and had just finished my Junior year in college. Actually, it was a thank you note, but I remember thinking, "Wow, he doesn't write like an engineer." He had a degree in Physics and a degree in Mechanical Engineering, but I thought that he really wrote like a Liberal Arts major! Not only was his penmanship neat and "pretty", but his language was "flowery" and very interesting to read.

I don't know when I developed my perception of how people wrote, or what it said about them, but here I was 21, and passing judgment on a young man who had innocently written me a letter. Well, come to find out, law school fit him to a tee, and maybe I was right after all!

So, here I am given the task to educate four boys. However, NONE of them have demonstrated strong liberal arts tendencies. My daughter started journaling as soon as she could form letters. I have precious little notes that she wrote while on a field trip in first grade stuck in my photo albums. A couple of years later she was appalled at her spelling, but I know that probably now, as a senior in college, she can appreciate the process of becoming a fully functional writer. Her journaling turned into essays, critiques and term papers. Giving her ANY instruction in style only enhanced her writing, as she'd instantly try to adopt the new style. When she went back to Strunk and White, she said, "I don't consider all of that writing a waste. It basically gave me a bigger piece of marble to sculpt from." Ahhh.... music to a mother's ears.

Back to the boys. The Science boys. So far, I have one that graduated with a degree in Chemistry. Son number two has expressed an interest in getting an Electrical Engineering degree. Jury is still out for sons three and four, but I still have to go through the wringer trying to get them to write papers.... needless to say, they didn't start journaling at the age of 5.

Here is what I do. 9th grader needs to write a cultural paper for Geography. I supplied him with ideas for about 5 different papers and let him pick his favorite topic. He chooses the topic that sounds the most interesting: Religions of Asia.

I grab a stack of index cards. I make him ask me at least 20 questions on Religions of Asia. I set the timer for 30 minutes. He knows some of the main Asian Religions. But, he starts with the easy one: What are the Religions of Asia? He gets warmed up, and starts asking varied questions. How did Buddhism get started? How did Islam spread? How many people practice Hinduism? I am furiously writing his questions down, separately on each card. Before he has finished, in 1/2 an hour, he has come up with over 30 questions.

Next, we take the stack of index cards and I have him categorize them. Now I have him line them up on the dining room table in an outline form. Still just questions on the cards, but he has an outline. Sometimes I'll have them transfer the questions onto a sheet of paper, but when they are younger, it is easier to just tape them onto a poster board, and let it sit up against a wall until the paper is done.

Over the course of whatever time frame we have, I have him do research in 1/2 hour increments on as many questions as he can answer. He puts the answers on the reverse side of the index card, and then puts it back into his outline. As he uses a reference, I have him make a Bibliography card, where he lists his references as he goes, and numbers his reference, and puts the same number on the question card that this reference answered.

When he is done gathering his information, he writes the body of his paper. This is where style is worked in. Using Institute for Excellence in Writing, or IEW, (http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/) has been very helpful for my boys. There is something to be said for using a checklist for them. I don't make them follow every rule, every paragraph, but it becomes like a puzzle to them, if they do try to finish the checklist. They understand how to vary their writing, and I am glad to have a checklist to give them.

In a week or so the paper is finished, waiting for me to (depending on the age): type it, run through it with my red pen making marks on all of the grammatical and spelling errors, and then let them redo it.

The "question method" of generating their outlines has really worked for my boys. The success has been that after they have done it for a couple of years, it becomes easier each time, with the goal being that when they get to college, they can just write those 20 questions into a document on their computer, and go for it. At least that's my goal. The "getting them to journal" goal never really got off the ground. And I don't know that they'll ever write like a liberal arts major, or their father, but I have hope.