Sunday, June 24, 2007

Baby Got Book

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Dinosaur Study Unit -Pre K

As a nanny I like to do educational activities with my charges. Here is a dinosaur study unit:

Goal: Introduce different dinosaurs
Practice tracing/beginning letter formation
Learn the concepts extinct and fossil


Tools/Books: Dinosaur Time
Summer Bridge Pre-K to Kindergarten
How do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?
How do Dinosaurs Eat their Food?
Fossils Tell of Long Ago
National Geographic: Really Wild Animals- Dinosaurs and other Creature Features

Schedule:

Day one: pg 9/10 of Summer Bridge (or practice tracing circles and triangles on own).
Read about Stegosauruses and learn about their key features (used Dinosaur Time).

Day Two: Pg 11/12 of Summer Bridge (or trace lines and choose rectangles from a page of misc. shapes)
Learn about Pternaodons (researched on web general information)

Day Three: pg 12/14 of Summer Bridge (trace 'U's and ovals)
Review Dinosaurs

Day 4: Discuss the terms fossils and extinct
Watch National Geographic DVD

Day 5: Have a Dino Dig:
Make fossils out of clay ( take chicken bones or use sticks, forks, etc to create indentations in clay). Leave outside in sun to harden. Place hardened clay in a bucket/box full of sand (without the children). Then let the children dig up the fossils.

Notes: I did this brief unit study with a four year old. While I have a Summer Bridge book, you can easily reproduce the tracing and shape activities on your own with lined paper.
We only did this two days a week, so this unit lasted a little over two weeks. I found that a slower pace kept the 4 year old's attention better.
We read the two picture books throughout the unit. While the storyline had nothing to do with learning about dinosaurs, they were great 'fun' books to read while doing this unit.
Fossils Tell of Long Ago was too advanced for Pre-K, but it was good to look at the illustrations of fossils and for me to gather information from.

Cost: Less than $10 (without Summer Bridge) or about $20 (if you buy a Summer Bridge book). I found all of the books/Dvd at the library.
I do reccomend buying the Summer Bridge book. It is FANTASTIC. It has several (over 150) pages of worksheets, flash cards, activities, etc. It's a great supplemental tool when planning mini units such as these.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

I just found a wonderful new blog.

True Womanhood in the New Millenniumhttp://truewomanhood.wordpress.com/

Where the comments are just as good as the posts! I have a feeling I will be on the computer for quite a while reading all of the archives.

Notable Favorites:
“women don’t need to go to college to be wives and mothers” sigh, again (Karen)

Comment # 21
I have read enough on the internet to see that some of the “girls should not go to college” mindset folks sometimes use reasons that seem to be out of a spirit of fear– that their daughters are going to be coerced by worldly influences or not be submissive to their future husbands just because they went to college. To me, that seems fearful because the parents do not seem to trust that they have raised a daughter who is capable of making her own decisions. If they have raised her as a godly woman in the LORD, they should trust that IF she does decide to go to college


# 19
I do think that there are motives behind many of these teachings that are not biblically based.

I wonder who gets to decide in each case when it is okay for a woman to go to college and when it is not okay? Who is the final judge and arbiter?

““normative practice of Christians sending their daughters to college is generally wrong.” In other words, college for girls is, most of the time, outside of God’s will.”

So, sometimes it is okay for women to go to college. Does anyone know what makes it okay in those certain exceptions? And, why do they get to make the rules and terms?

I have been troubled by some teachings coming out of this movement that tell daughters that they are to serve their fathers and even their brothers until/if a husband comes along. Really, serve their brothers? Serve their fathers? What if God has given them a gift of being single so they can be single-mindedly devoted to serving HIM? I mean, the Bible tells us that the married man and woman is concerned about how he/she may please their spouse where the single man or woman is more concerned about how he/she may please the Lord.

Then, it stands to say that a single woman’s main focus is the Lord and serving HIM, not serving her father/brother as some sort of surrogate husband. There is nothing wrong with helping those around us and doing things to bless others but when it is expected that a daughter/sister is there to serve *ME*, then I do not think that is grounded in scripture.

It troubles me that in this patriarchal movement we have brothers becoming an authority over their sisters. It troubles me that it seems that it is being taught that fathers are the head of their daughters when the Bible only teaches that the only “head” a woman has is her husband. The analogy leads us to the Church and it shouldn’t be extrapolated onto all male/female relationships. It troubles me that the mother is pretty much out of the picture and that it is taught that a mother’s authority over her own children is given to her by her husband when scripture clearly teaches that a mother’s authority over her own children is given to her by God. I do not see that a father has more authority over the children than the mother because scripture tells children to obey their parents and to honor their mother and father and Proverbs is full of examples of sons, even grown sons, listening to their mother’s wisdom, teachings and advice and how a disobedient son is a disgrace and shame to his mother. I am troubled by how older daughters are expected to be surrogate moms to their siblings while their brothers get to choose what it is they want to do. Don’t boys grown up to be fathers/husbands, too? Or is that a secondary calling on a man whereas it is a primary calling on a woman?

There are many things taught that are not grounded in the whole of scripture and this college thing is just one more of them. Is it wise to send our sons to college? What are the reasons? Are not they the same reasons for not allowing our daughters to go to college? It seems that the number one reason a daughter should not go to college is because the are in danger of developing an “independent spirit”. What exactly does that mean? That they can make decisions concerning their life and are responsible to the Lord for those decisions?


And you just have to read this post and comments!
"Visionary Daughters"


Hat Tip: A Gracious Home

Sunday, June 10, 2007

other views on dating vs. courting.

Other bloggers recent viewpoints on dating vs. courting:

Another friend and I were discussing Biblical Courtship and why it was totally impractical. I've raised two teens and I'm telling you it's a feeble-minded idea. The thing is, if you trust your kids so little that you have to watch them 24/7 lest they start humping each other on the dining room table thats a dead give away that your parenting was rather less than effective, yes?

Besides - any teen with a spine will just start lying and living a double life. Any teen that doesn't is just a totally cowed social retard, basically. Or is a glassy-eyed, pod person just like their parents.

So, under this plan, you either end up with a liar, or a whipped spineless coward, or another obtuse piece of fodder for the its-too-hard-to-think-for-myself-religious minority. None of which *I* personally want as a child and heir.

I've raised two teens. My stepkids.They are both grown. No promiscouis behavious, no STD's, no pregnancies. No criminal records.

I didn't beat them over the head with the Bible, or blanket them with guilt. I didn't withold honest information about birth control, or STD's, but neither did I scare them with unreal odds of getting them, either.

Instead, I stressed school and activities. Made sure they had plenty of entertaining things to do.

I told them to respect and love themselves, and realize they were more than just a sexual being.

I told them not to let anyone push them into something they didn't REALLY want to do. I told them that they would know when the right time was, and that the only person who would know the right time WAS them. Because in the end, they, like all the rest of us - would have to assume responsibility for their actions.

They are grown now. They made good decisions. They waited until they were in their late teens, one waited until marriage, I think. I'm proud of them both. We are still close, even though their father and I are divorced. And I plan on using the same method with my two little girls - just a baby and a toddler now, but I know that day will come.

I'd rather use honesty and love and empowerment, than threats and guilt. Because I don't want to alienate MY kids to the point where a postcard is all I get, and I don't get to see my grandkids because I was a hardheaded idiod.

-http://lowderra.blogspot.com/2007/04/hello-love-you-wish-you-werent-nuts.html

Okay, thing one: Courtship is silly, and putting the word Biblical in front of it makes it neither Biblical nor good. The idea of courtship is that parents have an enormous amount of control over who your future marriage partner will be, the two people involved are NEVER alone together (cuz they might have sex! that's immediately what happens when opposite sexes are alone together!) and there is never any hand holding, kissing, hugging, etc.

Well, let's see. What could be wrong with that? Well, first off, it assumes the parents have a CLUE about who is actually a good marriage partner for their child. It assumes the parents listen to God about this, instead of their own prejudices and social norms. It assumes that the child is too spiritually weak and intellectually stupid to have any idea who they should marry. If your child is actually ready for marriage, they're ready to pick their own marriage partner. If they're not ready to pick their own marriage partner, then, as a parent, YOU HAVE ALREADY FAILED in that area of parenting! Sure, you still may be able to help them pick up the pieces after a bad marriage, or help them turn a bad marriage into a good one, but your lessons on "What is a good marriage" and "What makes a good spouse" were lost on deaf ears.

Secondly, it mistakenly assumes that lust cannot be had in the presence of others. Sure, maybe sex cannot be had in the presence of a good chaperone. But lust can be had in a classroom of 35; lust can be had in a packed baseball stadium. Lust can be had in your grandmother's parlor. You cannot stop someone else from having lustful thoughts. And frankly, the idea that two people would get married without having even the remotest lustful thought toward the other is unlikely and scary. Marriage is supposed to have passion. Want a good way to get your husband to file for divorce? How about telling him "I'm so glad to sleep with you in duty to the Lord." Yeah, that's exactly what most men want, right? Or women, for that matter. To assume that passion would not exist 30 seconds before the vows and comes into existence immediately after "you may kiss the bride" is naive.

How about raising your children, and then letting them live their lives when they are adults? What makes you so certain you have all the answers? And frankly, what makes you so certain that YOU are responsible for making choices for your adult children? Guess what? YOU are not perfect. Maybe, just maybe, you should focus on perfecting your own life rather than leaping to perfect the lives of others. Oh, and guess what.....That's Biblical.

And by the way, Biblical methods of "getting together" weren't necessarily good. Would you like to trade 14 years of labor for 2 daughters? Oh.....and yes, that's 2 daughters (and 2 maids) for ONE man. We don't treat women as a trading commodity anymore. For good reason.

Oh, and last thing on this subject (and yes, we're back on lust). Would you try to convince your children that they should never be angry? No. Yet we are told "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath" in Eph 4:26. Do you feel compelled to keep your adult children awake until they're not angry anymore? Of course not.

-http://meangoose.blogspot.com/2007/04/things-on-my-mind.html


I'll be posting both sides of the issue. These are just things I've bookmarked.

why I disagree with courting

I made the following post on my favorite message board. I plan to do a series on my views about dating soon.

I disagree that "casual" dating leads to a divorce mentality and sexual activity. I have no problem casually dating someone. While I never would waste my time dating someone I could not even think of marrying, I don't feel like I'm giving my heart away to every guy I meet.

I am anything but promiscuous. I am very proud of the fact that I am waiting for marriage (and in fact have kissed very few guys) and actually try to mentor a lot of younger girls to let them know you can have fun, meet guys but not have sex (I'm in a sorority for goodness sakes!)- and by no sex I mean NO sex. Nothing you wouldn't be ashamed of doing if your parents were in the room (which for me is only a quick kiss).

I value my parent's input and listen to what they have to say. But honestly I feel that if I'm mature enough to pay my own bills (my house rent at school, my cell phone, car insurance, books, etc), take care of myself and lead a productive life, than I can make proper adult decisions in terms of my relationships.

My parents have raised me well and in a Christian home. I don't automatically lose my morals because a cute guy is in the room.

But to answer the original question I would not date a non-Christian. Jesus is the center of my life. I could not share my life with someone who did not feel the same way.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Interesting

You Are 81% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man).
You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.
Online Dating