Early Childhood Checklist For the Child Who is Not Yet Peaceful

This is a list that was being passed along through one of my email lists. Love it!

Early Childhood Checklist For The Child Who Is Not Yet Peaceful

* Someone to behold the child's face with joy, hold her, hug her, and treasure her for herself alone.

* Someone to read chapter books aloud for twenty to thirty minutes a day, at a level three years beyond the child's reading level.

* Someone to recite poetry every day, a new poem each week.

* Someone to sing every day, a new song each week.

* Someone to tell delightful stories of the child's own life.

* An atmosphere of open curiosity and inquiry, in which everyone in the family treasures learning.

* Responsibility for caring for himself and his own things as well as contributing to meal preparation and the care of the house, garden, and pets.

* A two-hour weekly limit on all screen media - movies, videos, TV, and computer games - combined.

* Freedom from being dragged around on errands.

* Freedom from the cynicism and sarcasm appropriate to later years.

* Parents who say no cheerfully and mean it.

* Parents who wait until their children are in bed to listen to music, watch movies, play computer games, and watch TV programs, even the news, that are not appropriate to the children's ages or that would give children more media hours than is best for their development.

* Parents who establish and uphold a family child-rearing culture that is appropriate to the child's age and who support age-appropriate independent thought and action and age-appropriate role in decision making in as many areas and as often as possible.

Fallin' Off the Bloggin' Wagon

The crazy train made an unscheduled stop at our house. See you soon.

Grown-up Time Book Review: Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Life of Pi is written by a Canadian author and has not only reached National Best Seller status, but has also won the Man Booker Prize. This book is plain great and that is all I have to say about that. So, let’s fill up some space with my favourite quotes. ☺

"I have nothing to say of my working life, only that a tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he is not careful.”

“It was a huge zoo, spread over numberless acres, big enough to require a train to explore it, though it seemed to get smaller as I grew older, train included. Now it’s so small it fits into my head.”

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”

“Come aboard if your destination is oblivion –it should be our next stop.”

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

A Bit O' History

Our oldest daughter is in confirmation at our church and learning about Martin Luther right now. We missed the session where they watched the Luther movie so we borrowed it and watched it as a family. I always find that I remember things better when I watch a movie or a show about it (visual learner, you think?). ☺ For this reason, I have decided that I would like to build a collection of historically based movies. This one will definitely be on the “to acquire” list. An overview of the life of Martin Luther can be found here.

And Now for Something Completely Different…

I found this article on 100 ways to save money. I have read so many lists like this that there wasn’t too much that I didn’t already know. However, I believe this is the most thorough list I have ever seen, while being so compact (some could expand on this and justify selling it as a $20 book). I do a lot of these things, but there are some on this list that I could be doing and am not, so reading it is a gentle reminder that there are more things that I could do if needed/wanted. The one that was most interesting to me was #78: Make Your Own Stuff. While I don’t think I would make my own laundry detergent as dh would likely have a cow, I just might be concocting some home-made goo-gone when my bottle runs out (which should be about 5 years from now☺). Now I just need instructions on how to make a home-made housekeeper that will make use of my home-made goo-gone.

When you don’t know what else to do…make popcorn

I’m just going to get it over with – just get into the flow of the blog like I have been doing it for years. There is no reason a second post has to be any more less or more important than the 200th, right?
I have been hearing some pretty gross things about the stuff that goes into microwave popcorn packages, so I have been asking around about popcorn makers. I was thinking about something like this whirley pop. The most popular response when I asked how a family popped their corn was overwhelmingly the ol’ pan on the stove method. We never did this in my house so I always thought it would be tedious and possibly resulting in a bunch of burnt popcorn with the smallest change of factors. I tried it tonight with wonderful results! I coated the bottom of the pot with oil and placed 3 kernels inside. Then I put on the lid, turned the stove up to medium and waited for those first kernels to pop. As soon as they popped, then I added a half of cup of kernels (put the lid back on)and shook them about every 30 seconds until they started to pop. Then I waited until the popping slowed and removed the pot. There were hardly any kernels that didn’t pop, none were burnt, and it filled a large popcorn bowl. I was very impressed!
As if that weren’t exciting enough, (yes, I get excited easily) we were watching a version of Alice in Wonderland that I have been hoping to find for ages. I watched this movie so much when I was a girl that I memorized it! It was originally a made for TV movie and so the copy of it I had was taped onto a blank VHS tape, with blips of commercials here and there and a little bit of “snow” added in as we didn’t have cable. I finally found it on DVD this week and eagerly anticipated the opportunity to watch it with the kids this weekend. It did not disappoint. It was not one of those things that you think is great when you are young and then you are thoroughly disappointed wth when revisiting it as an adult. It is peppered with lots of great stars such as Red Buttons, Sammy Davis Jr., and Carol Channing as well as some surprises like Ringo Starr. This Alice in Wonderland held it’s “wonder” for me.

What's in a Name?

Picking the name for a blog proved to be quite stressful for me. How can you sum up what your entire blog will be about or even maybe who *you* are in just a few choice words? Well, I couldn’t do it. The name of this blog is just a nifty name that I finally settled upon, and it may turn out that it has nothing to do with who I am or what this blog is about.
My favourite word lately has been autodidact (my previous favourite word was eclectic, meaning selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas). The definition of autodidact is a self-taught person. I believe I first encountered this word on my favorite blog: Mental Multivitamin. Although autodidact may describe me, and eclectic may describe my homeschooling stlye, and even though those two things are a big part of my life, it does not sum up my whole being.
...and this blog, I want it to be about whatever comes to mind that I feel like sharing. I may want to share some thoughts about being frugal, a day in the life of my homeschooling family, a review of a book I think is super (whether for the kids or me), some learning tips, some crazy thing that happened, and maybe an ah-ha moment or two.
Welcome to Adventures of an Autodidact!