The Letter "f" Is Redeemed By A Five Year Old.

"This is how the letter "f" reminds us of Christmas.  First it looks like a staff.  Then, when you draw this it is a shepherd.  And that's how the letter "f" reminds us of Christmas."

-The Anchor

How To Use Prompts in Teaching and Parenting

Prompts can be very helpful in teaching, homeschooling, and parenting.  I found this really great article to share with you all about 9 ways to use prompts for children on the autism spectrum, or any children!   

A Complete Guide For Using Prompts To Teach Individuals With Special Needs

It would have gone better if I had known how to use prompts...

Seven sets of eyes stared widely at me as I told the story of Moses.  Some of the children sat on their knees, some sat criss-cross-applesauce -we called it "Indian style" back then, but I'm told that's not politically correct nowadays.  The children were quiet and attentive.  Their wide eyes suggested that they were thoroughly engrossed in the story, but what came next revealed what was really going on inside their little brains.   

I ended the story and started the review.  "Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.  Who led the Israelites out of Egypt?"  Blank stares...  I try again, "Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.  Who led the Israelites out of Egypt?"  Hooray!  One hand goes up.  "Um...  My uncle has a boat and I'm going to go on it today."  O... kay...  Time to color.

I was a freshman in college when I volunteered to be a preschool VBS teacher.  It had been at least twelve years since I was a preschooler who never went to preschool, I rarely babysat, and I was the youngest in my family so I really had no experience with preschoolers to speak of.  I loved the Bible though, and was excited for the opportunity to share it with the children.  Unfortunately, those preschoolers probably didn't learn much from me that week.  

Looking back I think:  I should have used more visuals, hand motions, or props to engage them in the story.  I should have had them repeat key words and phrases, let them act out the story.  I should have use prompts!  I could have said, "His name starts with an M.  It starts like this:  'Mmmoooosss...'"  If I had thought to use pictures, I could have pointed at a picture of him, or taught them a motion.  Instead, I just read the story and got blank stares. 

Now that I've been a teacher for several years these things are almost second nature to me.  I use prompts in my teaching all the time.  With my own kids I use prompts to help them learn without feeling too pressured or discouraged.  I don't expect my kids to get the answers right the first time.  Instead, I use prompts to help them and review until they know the answers without being prompted.

Prompts can also help in parenting. For example, I have three signs in the bathroom that say, "Please flush."  Do the signs work?  Well, that's debatable.  Timers are another favorite prompt I use in parenting.  I use timers to teach taking turns, getting chores done quickly, and hygiene training like teeth brushing and sitting on the toilet long enough for something to come out.  Chore charts, eye gestures, and even common questions like, "Are your hands where they're supposed to be?" are all examples of prompts that can be using in parenting.

So how about you?  Are there other ways you use prompts in your teaching, parenting, or homeschooling? 

Teaching Boys the Bible (Part 3): Egypt and the Exodus

In this unit we focused on ancient Egypt.  We learned about how Abraham's great-grandson, Joseph, was sold by his brothers and was taken as a slave to Egypt.  After many interesting events, he became a leader in Egypt and his whole family joined him there.  They became the twelve tribes of Israel.  Four hundred years later we find them in the book of Exodus as slaves to Pharaoh.  That’s where Moses came in and was sent by God to tell Pharaoh, “Let my people go!”  There is so much more to this fascinating time of history.  If you’ve never read it straight from the Bible I highly recommend it!  (Read it online here:  Genesis 37 - Exodus 15)

I am privileged to have a sister who actually lived in Cairo for a few years.  She and other family members have brought back items for us such as small drums, a papyrus painting of the Tree of Life, papyrus bookmarks, a hieroglyphic decoder, Egyptian alphabet cards, miniature pyramids, and other souvenirs.  

Here are some of the activities we did:  

• I let the boys discuss what they saw in our "Tree of Life" painting and what they thought it meant.  Then we learned about what it symbolized.  This painting and information about it can be viewed at:   http://www.lost-civilizations.net/ancient-egypt-egyptian-art-architecture.html

• We went to an exhibit on the mummies of Egypt that just happened to be at the science museum.
• Learned how people were mummified.  The boys were especially interested in how they pulled the brains out of the nose, so it also because a bit of an anatomy lesson.  Bonus!

• We read Flat Stanley The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery by Sara Pennypacker.  This was a super fun book, the boys loved it.  There is a teaching guide for this book here:  http://www.flatstanleybooks.com/downloads/FlatStanley_TeachingGuideEgypt.pdf

• We located Egypt and the Nile River on the globe.
• Made a Sun Clock kind of like this one:  http://www.sciencekidsathome.com/science_experiments/sundial-1.html

• We decoded a hieroglyphic messages and wrote our names in hieroglyphic symbols

• We put together puzzles of a Nile crocodile and a camel with a palm tree (from Egypt).

• We reenacted the Plagues while we read about them.

• We watched the Prince of Egypt.  It helped bring the Exodus story to life.

• Ate Matzo Ball soup when we were learning about the passover.  We used Streit’s mix that you can probably find at any grocery store.  It’s actually very good and we’ve had it several times since.

Here are the books we read:

Hieroglyphs, the Code Quest by Sean Caller  *This one was fun because the pictures were great, there are hieroglyphics throughout the book that you can decode and there is a CD for more decoding fun on the computer.

Digging Up History:  Archaeologists by Judy Peterson

The Great Pryramid by Hazel Martell

Egyptian Pyramid by Gillian Clements

Flat Stanley-The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery by Pennypacker

Riddle of the Rosetta Stone by James Giblin *We saw a replica of the Rosetta Stone at the museum and and the boys were super excited about it because they remembered it from this book.

In the Days of the Pharaohs by Milton Meltzer

Next Unit:  The Children of Israel (promised land, prophets, kings)

If you haven't read about our previous two units visit the "Class Time" page.

Teaching Boys the Bible (Part 2): The Rise of Civilization

Ziggurat:  click for picture attribution

Sumer, Babel, and Ur, Oh My!  Unit two covered the rise of civilization from Genesis 10-12.  After the flood recedes, Noah's descendants multiply and start building cities, towers, and civilizations that we have evidence of today!  Click Bible Archaeology to read about the discovery of Abraham’s homeland, Ur, by Sir Leonard Woolley.  There are also pictures of statues, jewelry, and ziggurats!  This unit was absolutely fascinating to me since this ancient Biblical cities are part of modern day Iraq.  This link has more information on rise of civilizations.

Unfortunately I did not take pictures of this unit, but here are just some of the activities we did: 

--We looked at pictures of ziggurats (see one above), then created our own mazes on paper.  You can even make your own maze online here.

--We created a coil pot, added handles and painted them to make a nice home made present for grandma’s birthday.  Click here for a tutorial on how to make a coil pot.

--We didn’t do this Coil Pot Game, but I think it would be a super fun thing to add.  

--We built a block tower as high as we could.  Then tried to build a tower together using only gibberish noises.  (Like the tower of Babel)

--I buried items in the sand box and the boys carefully “excavated” them using spoons and small paintbrushes.

--Read and discussed library books.

Note about library books:  Some of our best learning experiences occur on the couch looking over a borrowed book.  I go through the books slowly and let the boys ask lots of questions.  If they see a picture or hear something that catches their attention we stop and talk about it or even get up and put it into action!  If the book is too wordy I just read the picture captions.  If we want to learn more we look it up on the internet or just let our imaginations run wild.  I suggest letting books be more of an interactive experience rather than a just-sit-down-and-listen experience.  

If your library is small (like ours) and doesn't have a great selection of books, check to see if it is connected to an inter-library system online.  I am able to go online and reserve books from other (much bigger) libraries in our county.  They will even deliver the books to my local library and notify me when my books have arrived.  This saves me so much time!  I can just browse the books online by subject at my leisure.  I get enough books for us to read one or two each day.  Just be sure to reserve them a few weeks before the unit starts : )  

Next Unit:  Egypt and the Exodus

Teaching Boys the Bible (Part 1)

Teaching and the Bible are two of my biggest interests.  Then, when my own kids are added into the mix, I feel like the president of the United States couldn't have a more important job.  I want my kids to understand how the big picture of God's plan fits in the scope history.  That's why we study history chronologically starting in Genesis.


The year before, we learned about each day of creation one by one using AOP's Weaver Curriculum as a guide.  We also memorized Genesis 1: 1-27.  This last year we moved on through the Old Testament using Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations & the Bible.  She has a lot of great ideas which include songs, games, science experiments, skits, crafts and much more.  Here are the some highlights from the first unit.

Here is The Free One making fossils.

Unit one included Creation, Adam and Eve, The Fall, Cain and Abel, and the Flood.  Since we had already studied creation in depth, I used this section as a review and spent a little more time on dinosaurs.  We took a walk outside and the boys collected things like leaves, seed pods, sticks, and rocks.  They also made fossils of shells and the footprints of their toy dinosaurs.  We used modeling clay, let it dry, then sealed it with shoe polish to observe the prints better.













Here is a big dinosaur floor puzzle they put together.





We also took a day trip to nearby gardens that have a dinosaur digging sand pit.  The boys found a T-Rex!

The Anchor digging out some dino. ribs.

The Free One unearthing a T-Rex skull.

Here, Mr. Incredible and the boys are using a roly measuring thing to find out how big Noah's Ark was.  We used a nearby soccer field, measured out the dimensions of the Ark and posted someone on each corner.  We also measured out how big elephants, hippos, and other animals are so we could compare them to the size of the ark.  I was amazed at how big it was!

This video shows us on each corner of the ark.  I'm the one with green shoes : ) 

The next unit will be about the rise of civilizations.