Today I started a unit in science with my daughters about plants. We learned about germination, and we are going to make germination bags to watch how seeds actually germinate. We then went outside and started preparing our garden spot for planting (which will hopefully take place within the next two weeks).
All of the talk about seeds, plants, and growing started me thinking about children. There is a lot of talk about saving the planet these days. Some people seem to think that it is more important to plant a tree than to have a family. This is what I think-- I am going to grow children who can plant hundreds of trees in their lifetimes. What a wonderful thing it is to have children to teach and share my values with. I hope the things that are important to me will someday be important to them. If being environmentally aware is important to someone, then why not have children and teach them how to take care of the earth? Instead of worrying about having too many people, why don't we focus our efforts on teaching the next generation how to do things better than we have done?
Planting a tree is a worthy endeavor. Trees provide shade, shelter, food, and homes. You have to take care of a tree, water it, prune it, and protect it from bugs that would destroy. Children are a lot like seeds. You watch them grow, you nurture them, care for them, and try to keep them from the harms of the world. When they are grown they can build homes and families, provide shelter, food, and shade for their family members and others. But they can do more than a tree, for they can wrap their arms around you and love you back. They start giving that love back from the moment they are born.
I plan on planting trees throughout my life. I will do far more for the future, however, through my efforts as a mother.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Fun books for China Unit
I'm taking a class on Children's Literature this semester, and I just finished a group project where we created a lesson about Chinese culture. It was lots of fun, and I found some great books to go along with a lesson on China. I thought I'd share because I enjoyed the books so much!
Seven Chinese Sisters by Kathy Tucker-- This is one of my new favorite books. There are seven sisters who each have a special ability. Six of the sisters have to save their baby sister from a dragon. The illustrations are bright and exciting. This is a fun book. I think preschool through ages seven or eight would enjoy this picture book.
Long-Long's New Year by Catherine Gower-- In this book a boy goes with his grandfather to sell cabbages in the market. They have to sell the cabbages to earn money to buy food and treats for the family's Spring Festival celebration. The illustrations are very unique. They are created on a brown textured paper, so there is brown instead of white where there is no paint. The details in the illustrations are wonderful. My girls enjoyed looking closely at all of the people and activities in the illustrations. The illustrations were my favorite part of this book.
Yeh-Shen: A Chinese Cinderella Story by Ai-Ling Louie- This book is fun for children who are familiar with the fairy tale version of Cinderella. There are many similarities as well as differences, so this is a fun book to read and allow children to compare and contrast with the fairy tale.
The Moon Lady by Amy Tan-- This is another book with beautiful illustrations. In this story a grandmother tells her granddaughters a story that happened to her as a little girl on the night of the Moon Festival. This has lovely illustrations of traditional clothing, especially for special celebrations.
These books can be used with nonfiction books about China to learn more about the culture, or they can just be enjoyed as great picture books! At the beginning of this school year, along with our unit study on China, my daughters and I made homemade paper in our blender (I Google searched a recipe online), and then we looked up the Chinese characters for family and love to paint on the paper. It was a fun activity. (FYI--something I learned this year--Papyrus was the first paper invented by Egyptians, but paper that is more like we know it was invented in China)
Seven Chinese Sisters by Kathy Tucker-- This is one of my new favorite books. There are seven sisters who each have a special ability. Six of the sisters have to save their baby sister from a dragon. The illustrations are bright and exciting. This is a fun book. I think preschool through ages seven or eight would enjoy this picture book.
Long-Long's New Year by Catherine Gower-- In this book a boy goes with his grandfather to sell cabbages in the market. They have to sell the cabbages to earn money to buy food and treats for the family's Spring Festival celebration. The illustrations are very unique. They are created on a brown textured paper, so there is brown instead of white where there is no paint. The details in the illustrations are wonderful. My girls enjoyed looking closely at all of the people and activities in the illustrations. The illustrations were my favorite part of this book.
Yeh-Shen: A Chinese Cinderella Story by Ai-Ling Louie- This book is fun for children who are familiar with the fairy tale version of Cinderella. There are many similarities as well as differences, so this is a fun book to read and allow children to compare and contrast with the fairy tale.
The Moon Lady by Amy Tan-- This is another book with beautiful illustrations. In this story a grandmother tells her granddaughters a story that happened to her as a little girl on the night of the Moon Festival. This has lovely illustrations of traditional clothing, especially for special celebrations.
These books can be used with nonfiction books about China to learn more about the culture, or they can just be enjoyed as great picture books! At the beginning of this school year, along with our unit study on China, my daughters and I made homemade paper in our blender (I Google searched a recipe online), and then we looked up the Chinese characters for family and love to paint on the paper. It was a fun activity. (FYI--something I learned this year--Papyrus was the first paper invented by Egyptians, but paper that is more like we know it was invented in China)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
My Favorite Websites for Children
One of the things that I plan on posting to this blog are websites that I have checked out and found to be kid friendly. There are a lot of mediocre websites out there, but I want to find some really great educational ones to list on my blog. One of the problems that I find with many websites is that although there are fun and even educational games for free on them, there are also many links to outside advertisers. It makes it easy for children to accidentally leave the website you intended for them, and they can end up in all kinds of other websits.
One of my family's favorite websites is www.starfall.com . This is a wonderful site that teaches letter sounds and phonics. It has fun interactive activities for holidays, and it also has interactive stories ranging from beginning readers to more advanced reading. It does not have outside advertisements and is a quality website.
The Friend magazine section of www.lds.org is another one of our favorite websites. Here is a link directly to The Friend http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ae20e975d2a2b010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0 . I made this into a shortcut on my desktop so that my children can double-click on it anytime they want, and they are taken directly to the website. You can also get to The Friend by going to www.lds.org, clicking on Gospel Resources, then magazines, then select The Friend. This website has wonderful uplifting activities for children. They can color online while listening to songs from the Children's Songbook, they can work on puzzles of pictures from the scriptures, or they can read articles from The Friend online or hear scripture stories read to them. Another wonderful feature on LDS.org is the music section. You can download MP3s of hymns and children's songs as well as find the sheet music for the songs. If it has been a while since you have checked out LDS.org I highly recommend you check it out again!
One of my family's favorite websites is www.starfall.com . This is a wonderful site that teaches letter sounds and phonics. It has fun interactive activities for holidays, and it also has interactive stories ranging from beginning readers to more advanced reading. It does not have outside advertisements and is a quality website.
The Friend magazine section of www.lds.org is another one of our favorite websites. Here is a link directly to The Friend http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ae20e975d2a2b010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0 . I made this into a shortcut on my desktop so that my children can double-click on it anytime they want, and they are taken directly to the website. You can also get to The Friend by going to www.lds.org, clicking on Gospel Resources, then magazines, then select The Friend. This website has wonderful uplifting activities for children. They can color online while listening to songs from the Children's Songbook, they can work on puzzles of pictures from the scriptures, or they can read articles from The Friend online or hear scripture stories read to them. Another wonderful feature on LDS.org is the music section. You can download MP3s of hymns and children's songs as well as find the sheet music for the songs. If it has been a while since you have checked out LDS.org I highly recommend you check it out again!
The Journey of a Thousand Miles...
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step... I have been thinking about starting a blog for some time now. My friend Mandy showed me how she set hers up, so I thought I'd give it a try. I am a stay-at-home mom and I homeschool my daughters. My goal for this blog is to provide fun ideas and resources for other busy moms and have some fun at the same time. I'm sure my blog will improve over time as I start to figure out what I want to do with it. So, here is the humble start of my blogging journey...
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