flynn057

It's coming up on Rudyard Kipling week in my home school co-op English classroom! (You can read more about his life here: Rudyard Kipling .) We're going to read three of his "Just So Stories" (like "How the Camel Got His Hump") and three of his poems ("If" and "The Thousandth Man" and "L'Envoi").  Some of these pieces can be found in The Book of Virtues, and you can listen to a narration of Just So Stories on-line.  Kipling is perhaps best known for his Jungle Books , later made into a Disney movie.  You can also see an intriguing virtual animation of " If ." Here is my favorite piece by Kipling, which is obviously drawn from this own varied life experiences: "If" If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied abou...

Preparing Our Children for the Storms of Life by Virginia Knowles (excerpted from my archives) The storms of life will come and go, but will your child be prepared or be blown away? In some ways, home schooling shelters children from many storms of life – appropriately so!  In other ways, it can prepare them to be even more effective in dealing with challenging and disappointing situations.  This process takes effort on the parents’ part as they try to discern the balance of sheltering and preparing.  There are many ways any parent can help prepare a child for weathering the storms of life. Cultivate a sense that God is in control, no matter what happens.  Show how faith, hope, and love can conquer depression, fear, and anger.  We don’t always understand what is happening, but we can trust a sovereign God.  In showing God’s providence and our need for perseverance, you can use Bible stories (such as Joseph, Ruth, or David), Bible ve...

GOD'S GRACE IN THE MIDST OF MIDDLE SCHOOL MISERY by Virginia Knowles 8th grade San Carlos, California.  April 1977.   I had just announced to my classmates that our family was moving to Baltimore.  A red headed chick named Kathleen burst out, “Yay!  Now we won’t have to pick her for our teams in gym class anymore!”   I have laughed about that many times since then, but there was also still a sting from the constant and cruel peer rejection that I suffered for so many years.  I’m sure many of you can relate.   Middle school kids can still be vicious.   Maybe this happened to you or maybe you treated other kids like that.  Middle school misery is real. Well, I was one of those middle school outcasts.  I dressed and acted weirdly.  I talked too much.  I played chess at lunch time in the school library with the other outcast nerds, or we hung out at the nerd bench in the playground.  I had one dear Christian frien...

This is another handout from my series on Great American Communicators that I taught to my students in the middle school English class in a large home school co-op. Benjamin Franklin’s C ontributions to Communications Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706, the 15th of the 20 Franklin children! There must have been a whole lot of communicating going on in his house when he was a kid! He stopped going to school when he was 10 (his parents couldn’t afford it) but he LOVED to read! He apprenticed as a printer -- but he hated working for his brother James and so he ran away. His pseudonym (false name) for writing letters to his brother’s paper was “Mrs. Silence Dogood”! At age 24 he started the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. He created the Poor Richard’s Almanack from 1732 to 1757. It was a yearly book with a calendar, list of events, advice, witty sayings, weather predictions, etc. He founded the first public library in Philadelphia. He established the postal system. He founded a...

Dear friends, If you're linking in from Lisa Stump's Wildflower Academy blog and looking for the article "Do It Well, But Keep It Humble" you can find it on my main blog here: http://virginiaknowles.blogspot.com/2009/08/do-it-well-but-keep-it-humble.html Blessings, Virginia

The Entire Object of True Education by John Ruskin The entire object of true education is to make people not merely to do the right things, but to enjoy them; not merely industrious, but to love industry; not merely learned, but to love knowledge; not merely pure, but to love purity; not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after justice. John Ruskin, 1819-1900 English writer, art critic, professor, reformer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Learn to Discern: To Know and Do What is Right and True by Virginia Knowles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This article is part of a chapter from The Real Life Home School Mom: It’s a Life in ReVision . Learn to Discern: To Know and Do What is Right and True One reason we home school our children is to teach them discernment: to know and do what is right and true! We want to pass along our faith and family values, and not leave them vulnerable to everything else out there. We realize that discernment is not just about making isolated moral choices (like what movies are appropriate to see) or following rules to avoid negatives. It is also living by positive principles set down in Scripture and being able to listen to the Lord for specific life direction in fulfilling the destinies to which he has called us. We each have to discern not only right from wrong, but the “priority best” for us from among many “good” opportunities. Here are several wa...