For a few weeks now I've been looking for a way to add regular cardio training to my life. I am a big believer that a cardio workout will make you feel better than anything else you can do. It does not necessarily help with weight loss, but definitely gets your heart pumping and clears away all the emotional and physical yuck in your life (irritability, weariness, depression, feeling overwhelmed, etc).
The problem is, I can't stick with anything for too long that's boring. When I lived in Austin, I went on walks in the city, which were picturesque. That was interesting and diverse enough to keep me going for years. Now that we live in the suburbs outside Atlanta, well..house, car, bush, house, car, bush, just gets old after a while.
After reading a book which was very inspiring but I don't recommend because of its evolutionary-bent, Younger Next Year, I was even more convinced that I need to get more cardio. The book's premise is that we get sick and have ailments because our bodies are made to be physically active for the purpose of eating each day. This constant physical activity is a message to our system that all is well and all the chemicals pumping through our system from the exercise keep our system running in tip-top shape. We stay healthy. During famine, people didn't get the daily exercise to gather or prepare food, and their bodies slowed down, got sick and died. Evolution isn't needed to know this is true; thousands of years of human history tell us that people have always labored to get food as well as water, and prepare it for consumption - both men and women have always worked hard to eat. Can you imagine having to thresh your own wheat or pluck a chicken?
So, though I don't agree with the evolutionary conjecture of the book, I totally agree with the premise and became even more inspired to get exercise each day.
But what would I do? I prayed that God would guide me.
I went on power walks. That was pretty good when I had a good sermon on my iPod. I signed up for squash at the health club. That's kind of fun. But I can see that getting old as well - white walls and all.
I started riding my husband's bike in the neighborhood. That was a little more fun than a power walk - you push hard to get up a hill and are rewarded with fun down hill moments. I took my boys with me, which made it even more fun.
Then, I decided to take the boys to a bike trail. I loaded up the bikes and...
SERENDIPITY!!!!
I discovered mountain bike trails.
It just so happened that all our bikes are "accidentally" mountain bikes, because we didn't know what to buy. We went on this beautiful trail off the main path, into the forest and mountain biked for about a mile. It was lovely and fun. We were amazed at all the wildlife and beauty - right in the suburbs near our home. We went over small wooden bridges maintained by the mountain bike association, and went up hill and down hill. I got a good cardio workout and it was not in the least bit boring!
I am so happy! The boys are thrilled. I can't wait to get the girls on board, too - they'll love it. They don't have bikes, though. And I'm not sure that my youngest (she'll be eight on Saturday) could handle it. When she's nine, maybe.
I have since learned more about mountain biking from the SORBA website - which is for the southern states. There are maps and groups and clubs. The trails are marked green, for easy and blue, for more difficult. The green trails have some challenging places, but are mostly flat and smooth, winding through the beautiful forest - with spectacular views. I've never been on a blue trail. I think we'll wait until we get bored with green. There are also expert trails that are pink. I downloaded several maps to trails near my home. We'll try to go somewhere every week.
I was also thinking how fun it would be to have a family mountain biking vacation. We could go to beautiful places in America and mountain bike. In the mean time, we are getting great exercise and are really excited when we're heading to the trails, and have a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when we're heading home.
I plan to be younger next year!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Independence
Did you know that homeschooled students perform better in college than their institutionally schooled counterparts? One thing that makes homeschooled students perform so well in college is the fact that they are used to being autonomous and independent in their learning. They are used to self educating. Our job is to give them progressively more autonomy and independence as they age.
How do we foster this independence? Well, once they have learned to read, they should be reading to learn. As they progress through elementary school, we should be using materials that teach the student in the book– requiring less of a human teacher. We should also read aloud less and require them to read to themselves for understanding, comprehension and insight. Most students learn more when they read for themselves and explain in their own words what they learned than if they listen to another read.
Dr. Jay Wile tells us,
"My motivation for becoming involved with the homeschooling movement was the fact that my best university students were the ones who had been homeschooled...If I could point to one thing that made my homeschooled students such good university students, it would be the fact that they were able to learn independently."
I have often seen that parents are burdened by homeschooling because they have taken too much responsibility upon themselves. They don't teach their children to become self motivated and independent. Teaching our children to become independent learners requires parents to pass the baton, giving their children a vision for the future and a sense of responsibility over their lives.
My children have been told over and over that the choices they make about school and learning when they are young will influence their entire future. They are completely and fully responsible and in charge of who they turn out to be, what they will do for a living, how they will live, where they will live and what kind of life they will have. They know that even at ten years old, they are making choices that have far reaching consequences or blessings. My children feel responsible for their education. I don't carry the entire burden; once they learned to read, I passed on most of the burden to them. If they were in school, the burden would not be on the teacher; it would still be on them.
In real life, a self motivated person will always do better than the unmotivated, distracted fellow. In truth, our children are ultimately responsible for receiving their education. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Our job is to help our children see this very important truth - that we are not going to always be taking care of them; one day, they must take care of themselves and others. It is especially important for our boys to know this truth - for they will one day have a family depending on them. Sadly, it is usually our boys that are the least likely to jump at the chance to do school work. Our job is not so much to educate them, as to provide them the tools to educate themselves and instill in them the wisdom to see that their future is in their own hands and they must take it seriously. The tools we provide them are also very important, and that is the last thing I want to encourage you to consider.
Many times, in the fear of "not doing enough" we adopt curricula that actually makes teaching harder and more burdensome for us and our children - unnecessarily burdensome. When choosing curriculum, consider how much time is going to be required of you - the teacher, and how appealing the material looks to the children. Remember, our children should be learning to self educate. Our children will benefit greatly in their future, whether college is a part of it or not, if they are empowered to take ownership over their learning, their knowledge, and their education.
How do we foster this independence? Well, once they have learned to read, they should be reading to learn. As they progress through elementary school, we should be using materials that teach the student in the book– requiring less of a human teacher. We should also read aloud less and require them to read to themselves for understanding, comprehension and insight. Most students learn more when they read for themselves and explain in their own words what they learned than if they listen to another read.
Dr. Jay Wile tells us,
"My motivation for becoming involved with the homeschooling movement was the fact that my best university students were the ones who had been homeschooled...If I could point to one thing that made my homeschooled students such good university students, it would be the fact that they were able to learn independently."
I have often seen that parents are burdened by homeschooling because they have taken too much responsibility upon themselves. They don't teach their children to become self motivated and independent. Teaching our children to become independent learners requires parents to pass the baton, giving their children a vision for the future and a sense of responsibility over their lives.
My children have been told over and over that the choices they make about school and learning when they are young will influence their entire future. They are completely and fully responsible and in charge of who they turn out to be, what they will do for a living, how they will live, where they will live and what kind of life they will have. They know that even at ten years old, they are making choices that have far reaching consequences or blessings. My children feel responsible for their education. I don't carry the entire burden; once they learned to read, I passed on most of the burden to them. If they were in school, the burden would not be on the teacher; it would still be on them.
In real life, a self motivated person will always do better than the unmotivated, distracted fellow. In truth, our children are ultimately responsible for receiving their education. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Our job is to help our children see this very important truth - that we are not going to always be taking care of them; one day, they must take care of themselves and others. It is especially important for our boys to know this truth - for they will one day have a family depending on them. Sadly, it is usually our boys that are the least likely to jump at the chance to do school work. Our job is not so much to educate them, as to provide them the tools to educate themselves and instill in them the wisdom to see that their future is in their own hands and they must take it seriously. The tools we provide them are also very important, and that is the last thing I want to encourage you to consider.
Many times, in the fear of "not doing enough" we adopt curricula that actually makes teaching harder and more burdensome for us and our children - unnecessarily burdensome. When choosing curriculum, consider how much time is going to be required of you - the teacher, and how appealing the material looks to the children. Remember, our children should be learning to self educate. Our children will benefit greatly in their future, whether college is a part of it or not, if they are empowered to take ownership over their learning, their knowledge, and their education.
Monday, September 1, 2008
The Truth about Spelling
Over the last year, I've shared the story at conferences and workshops about how God led me in how to teach my son to spell.
Since then, I've received many queries about the program that I used. In essence, I did not use a program, but a procedure. In the hopes that it will help your struggling speller, I will lay out the procedure here:
Reading and spelling are two different skills. If you try to use the procedure you learned for reading with spelling (phonics) you will be a horrendous speller. Children should be told early and often that words are not spelled phonetically as they are read, spelling is a memory skill.
Let me explain:
When you see the word "beleive" - you probably don't think "I before E, except after C." Rather, you immediately note that the word doesn't look right. It doesn't match the image you have of the word in your head. It doesn't take long before you realize that the e and i are trasposed, but the fact is, you knew it was misspelled because of a picture you had in your mind.
Charlotte Mason taught that a child learned to spell by “taking a picture” of the word and imprinting this picture into the mind. Some children do this naturally, while others need to be taught how. The truth is, you can actually teach your child to become a natural speller. Once they learn how to photograph words in their mind, they'll begin to naturally do it.
You see, your child should study the word in question until they can actually “see” the word in their mind’s eye - with their eyes closed. The word must be memorized in the same way that the face of their mother is memorized. Then, the child will always know when the word is misspelled and what the correct spelling should look like.
Charlotte Mason was adamant that a child should never have a chance to gaze upon a misspelling when learning a word. The chance that they may memorize the wrong spelling is too great. We want to take great care what "pictures" are being imprinted on the young learner's mind.
This is where spelling programs fail; they allow the child to guess at the spelling and look at their misspellings over and over again. This runs the risk of cementing a wrong spelling into the child’s mind for years and years to come.
If your child is still a poor speller at the end of 4th grade, I suggest you have your child memorize the most frequently used words in the English language. Once these words are memorized, the child will be well on their way to good spelling.
Here is the suggested procedure:
a. Print each word in large font.
b. Have the child study the word, spelling it out loud and staring at it.
c. Ask them to imagine taking a picture of the word to imprint in the mind.
d. Have them close their eyes and imagine the word.
e. Study it again. (Active learners should draw it in the air with their finger).
f. Next, spell it out loud once by looking, and once without looking.
g. Look at the word again before writing it.
h. Cover the word and have the student write it from memory.
i. If it is written wrong, mark it out quickly and study it again before you try again.
Do not do spelling for longer than 15 minutes. Once your child has worked through the list of common words, have them use this same procedure with whichever spelling program you prefer. Some spelling programs do not allow the students to see words before writing them. I believe the children should be encouraged to study and memorize words, and then test them on the words later.
About spelling rules: they are helpful when you are in a jam. So, don't totally skip them. But, using the procedure above will increase your child's spelling more quickly than rule memorization since the rules have so many exceptions.
I hope that helps!
Warmly,
Jeannie
For the list of the most common words in English, visit this website:
http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm
Since then, I've received many queries about the program that I used. In essence, I did not use a program, but a procedure. In the hopes that it will help your struggling speller, I will lay out the procedure here:
Reading and spelling are two different skills. If you try to use the procedure you learned for reading with spelling (phonics) you will be a horrendous speller. Children should be told early and often that words are not spelled phonetically as they are read, spelling is a memory skill.
Let me explain:
When you see the word "beleive" - you probably don't think "I before E, except after C." Rather, you immediately note that the word doesn't look right. It doesn't match the image you have of the word in your head. It doesn't take long before you realize that the e and i are trasposed, but the fact is, you knew it was misspelled because of a picture you had in your mind.
Charlotte Mason taught that a child learned to spell by “taking a picture” of the word and imprinting this picture into the mind. Some children do this naturally, while others need to be taught how. The truth is, you can actually teach your child to become a natural speller. Once they learn how to photograph words in their mind, they'll begin to naturally do it.
You see, your child should study the word in question until they can actually “see” the word in their mind’s eye - with their eyes closed. The word must be memorized in the same way that the face of their mother is memorized. Then, the child will always know when the word is misspelled and what the correct spelling should look like.
Charlotte Mason was adamant that a child should never have a chance to gaze upon a misspelling when learning a word. The chance that they may memorize the wrong spelling is too great. We want to take great care what "pictures" are being imprinted on the young learner's mind.
This is where spelling programs fail; they allow the child to guess at the spelling and look at their misspellings over and over again. This runs the risk of cementing a wrong spelling into the child’s mind for years and years to come.
If your child is still a poor speller at the end of 4th grade, I suggest you have your child memorize the most frequently used words in the English language. Once these words are memorized, the child will be well on their way to good spelling.
Here is the suggested procedure:
a. Print each word in large font.
b. Have the child study the word, spelling it out loud and staring at it.
c. Ask them to imagine taking a picture of the word to imprint in the mind.
d. Have them close their eyes and imagine the word.
e. Study it again. (Active learners should draw it in the air with their finger).
f. Next, spell it out loud once by looking, and once without looking.
g. Look at the word again before writing it.
h. Cover the word and have the student write it from memory.
i. If it is written wrong, mark it out quickly and study it again before you try again.
Do not do spelling for longer than 15 minutes. Once your child has worked through the list of common words, have them use this same procedure with whichever spelling program you prefer. Some spelling programs do not allow the students to see words before writing them. I believe the children should be encouraged to study and memorize words, and then test them on the words later.
About spelling rules: they are helpful when you are in a jam. So, don't totally skip them. But, using the procedure above will increase your child's spelling more quickly than rule memorization since the rules have so many exceptions.
I hope that helps!
Warmly,
Jeannie
For the list of the most common words in English, visit this website:
http://www.world-english.org/english500.htm
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