Letters from Egypt & other Charlotte Mason Recommendations

This morning we started reading aloud Letters from Egypt.  In 1879, Mary Whately wrote to friends and family in England about her experiences in Egypt.  She ties in Scripture references as well as Egyptian culture and customs.  After reading the first letter, I'm hooked!  And thinking that it would be a fill the "family read-aloud-before-bed" criteria.

If Letters from Egypt interests you, another from the Charlotte Mason website that we ordered for this year's enjoyment was Ancient Egypt and her Neighbors.

 From the website: A fascinating narrative of life in Ancient Egypt intertwined with captivating stories of the other civilizations that existed alongside her—neighbors far and near. Makes the ancient world come alive! (Grades 1–6)

Lastly, for grades 1-3, Boy of the Pyramids might grab your attention.

  -Julie

Does Your Child Struggle?

If you read one article this week, this one will encourage your struggling learner.  Or, cause you to view struggling differntly.

Struggle Means Learning: Difference in Eastern and Western Cultures.

-Julie

10 Favorite Books About Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome

Many of these 10 Favorite Books About Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome you can find at the library.

-Julie

Homeschooling Struggling Learners

You are invited you to join me (Lisa Lipe) for "Homeschooling Struggling Learners" at the Home Ed Kick-Off this Tues. night, August 13th at 5:30 at Second Presbyterian Church located at 600 Pleasant Valley Drive (near Cantrell and I-430).

Please come if you are homeschooling a struggling learner (or beginning to suspect that you might be).  Please also invite anyone you know who is thinking about homeschooling a child who is struggling to learn in a regular school setting. 

In this session you will learn the importance of foundational sensory-motor skills for academic learning and for attention.  Receive an overview of interventions including cognitive training, nutrition, & specific teaching methods for reading, writing & math difficulties.   Get information on resources to help plan a successful homeschooling year for your child.  I will be taking questions and will stick around after the session to talk with parents.

All parents who attend will receive a coupon for a free developmental vision screening for their child to help determine if difficulty with visual skills may be contributing to problems with reading and/or attention.

I have been working with struggling learners for over 20 years and have experience with various types of learning issues.  I have spent many years homeschooling my own children and the last 5 years helping other people home school theirs.  I am excited to have this opportunity to speak with you!

Lisa Lipe, M.Ed.
Integrated Learning Connections
www.integratedlearner.com
501-227-437

Aromatherapy - Perky Sunshine

As the school year starts, we begin to think about what worked last year and things we want to try differently this year.

Over the summer some friends introduced me to the healing power of essential oils and I've been learning more about how to incorporate oils in our everyday life.  Last week I listened to a talk by a naturopath Mary Ward, who says she never gives a talk without spraying something in the air.  That day she used a blend she called "perky sunshine" (10 drops pink grapefruit, 10 drops lemon, and 5 drops of peppermint in a 2 oz spray bottle of water.)  Lemon is said to increase concentration and memory building.

I can't speak to it's effectiveness yet.  It's a nice room spray if nothing else.

-Julie

FYI - my essential oils come from Nature's Sunshine.  They have extreme purity standards and are a fraction of the cost of some multi-level marketing companies.

Frankenstein Read by Jim Weiss - FREE

Frankenstein, read by Jim Weiss, is available for free download at the following link this week:  

www.audiobooksync.com

You can sign up for weekly texts of the books avail for the week.

Handwriting and Riddles

I stumbled upon this Cursive Writing Practice Jokes and Riddles book today via Simple Mom.  Looks like there's one for handwriting (print), too.

Hoping to motivate for legible writing,
Julie

Tour of the Landfill and Recycling Facilities

A small group of friends toured the Little Rock Landfill and Recycling facilities today.  I got the idea when visiting the Flower and Garden Show a few months ago - they were giving away small bags of compost.  I thought, "I want to know how they do this.  And I'm sure it would be interesting for kids."  

Sure enough they do tours for school groups.  It was a very interesting tour and I would recommend you going - especially in small groups of 15 or less.  (I don't enjoy tours with large groups.)

Below you see a mountain of yard waste.  In the mid-90's it became a (sensible) law that yard waste could not be mixed with the trash.  If you live in central Arkansas, you will well remember the powerless Christmas day storm that left some people without power for a week.  The composting team is still working through the debris.

 Below is the mulcher.  It grinds up trees as well as bags of leaves.  They usually do the wood separately from the smaller, easier to grind things.

 I'm not sure why some of my pictures turned on their side and I'm not going to waste time to figure it out...I'm sorry for the strained neck.  :)

After the compost is shredded, it is put in rows to "cook."  The below machinery is for turning the compost while keeping it in neat rows.  After cooking, the compost is run through a screen that removes the pieces of plastic bags.

 This is a mountain of finished compost, maybe 30 feet tall.  If you drive out to the facilities, the mulch and compost are very inexpensive.  I want to say that for another couple of weeks, a truck load of mulch is only $10.  The compost isn't much more.

 And here are two rows (of many) of compost.  They keep an eye on the temperature so that it doesn't spontaneously combust.  Seriously.

After viewing the composting we continued our tour in a 15 passenger van up the hill to where the garbage is dumped.

We learned many interesting factoids about the landfill.  Some I knew already because I briefly studied landfills in college but even those who did not study mounds of trash found it interesting.  

Did you know the landfill emits methane gas; the city sells this gas?  Or, that the leachate (the garbage juice that drains from the garbage) is piped into the waste water system?  yech.  Or, at 4:00 everyday the garbage is covered with six inches of dirt?  Surprisingly it did not stink.

However, the recycling center had a bit of a smell.

The recycling center was about a 15 minute drive from the landfill.  Once there we watched a brief and interesting video about how they separate the recyclables.  Then the shades were lifted in the education room and we were able to see first hand the mounds of recycled materials.

Out side were bales of plastic and steel that we could inspect further.

 The tours lasted about 2 hours.  Call Barbara Meier 918-5260 to set up your field trip.

-Julie

Spelling Bee on Friday, May 10

A few weeks ago, I sent an email to the Comm Central group about a Spelling Bee for my competitive 3rd grade son (who otherwise wouldn't be interested in studying lists of words.)  I thought I would post specifics here, in the event someone didn't respond to my initial email but were interested.

After giving it more thought...here's how the spelling bee will shake out (I'm open to suggestions).

When:

We'll just do ONE FRIDAY and see how it goes on May 10 at 12:30. If afterwards we think it was profitable time then we can talk about subsequent Fridays..

Where:

My house (so that my baby can nap.)  Our neighborhood park is only 2 blocks away so if you'd like to take your littles there while we spell, that's fine.  Or, we have a trampoline in the back yard...and a flat driveway & cul-de-sac for ride on toys...Or we can do both.  I live near Whole Foods (email me for exact location.) 

What list?

That's a good question and I'm open for suggestions.  I had planned on using this site for words.

Format:

I'll say the word.  Then ask the child to say the word and let them spell it out loud.  I will allow a piece/pad of paper and pencil for them to write it down and look at it.  Depending on how fast/slow the process is, I could put a time limit on their turn - I will play that by ear.  We will start with easy words and work our way harder until the last man is left standing.  When a person misspells a word, I will spell it correctly for them then ask them to sit down.  The next person will get a new word.  I want the spelling bee to last at least 20 minutes.  If we have a clear winner within 5 minutes, we'll have a second and maybe 3rd round.  I specify these time-constraints because my 3rd grade extrovert will be ready to get the "work" out of the way so he can play. 

I'm not sure of the age span of the children who are participating.  If you could reply and let me know who and what age is participating it will help me plan (or spelling level - like "my child is in kindergarten but he can spell 4th grade words."

Let me know what I've missed.  Feel free to invite non-Comm Central families.  And mark your calendar for May 10 at 12:30.

Julie

luvmyhub AT gmail DOT com

Book:: Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

Several years ago, when my husband and I were thinking of adopting a daughter from China, a friend recommended that we read this well written book to help us understand the culture.

Below is the product description from Amazon.  I have bolded the sentence that summarizes the book.    -Julie


Blending the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history, Wild Swans has become a bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love.

Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving -- and ultimately uplifting -- detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.