Solving for X

A math problem from IXL today:

-2x+3=9
-2x =6
x = -3

We are constantly working on math in this household. Determined to learn from our challenges (and victories) in homeschooling over the years, Tim and I have made several changes in our approach to math. No longer content to let the kids direct the pace where they could be easily distracted by other subjects, or fall behind as Mom/teacher gets busy with life, we added two distinct things.

Loading the bow takes precision.

Loading the bow takes precision.

First of all, we (okay mainly Tim) require the kids to complete an IXL math skills daily. We’ve had a family membership to IXL since Feb 2012. Tim bribes rewards the kids for finishing an entire grade level of IXL (to 100% completion) with a hundred bucks. Admittedly that doesn’t work out to be very much per hour when you think that Sarah alone has done 40,000 math problems and spent 618 hours (not including the time when the computer “timed out” and stopped recording) working on math since we started.

Sometimes you gotta put your feet up.

Sometimes you gotta put your feet up.

In addition to daily IXL work, we also decided to have the kids do math with The Potter’s School, an online academy. Normally the classes are offered only one day a week, but understanding that math needs additional practice and teaching, TPS offers a two-day a week option. David and Sarah are both taking their math courses with TPS twice a week. I still work with them on homework, additional teaching (as needed), and study/prep/review for exams, but the primary teaching and the maintained deadlines/assignments/schedule are put in place by the TPS teachers.

Hit the mark!

Hit the mark!

I strongly believe that homeschooling with grace and confidence is an ongoing challenge. It requires constant work and a humble heart that is willing to ask for help, try new things, admit when a curriculum or course of study isn’t working and to rejoice when new discoveries are made.

Project 365 – Day 26
Kathy

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Indian Spring

In western Washington, we are generally blessed by a very mild climate. Our winters are warm, and our summers are cool. It rarely drops much below freezing or above 85 degrees, Fahrenheit. I wear the same light rain-resistant jacket pretty much year-round. Having spent five winters in Detroit, I am often thankful that in Washington, we keep snow on the mountains, where it belongs.

But I must admit that Novembers and Januaries are a little bleak. It is not unusual for the rain to settle in for weeks at a time in those months, and some people (like my beautiful Kathy) get a little depressed because of the gloom. (They actually have a name for it — Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD.) At such times, we spend hours looking at pictures of Turks and Caicos, and trying to remember what the sun looks like. Unless, of course, there is an Indian Spring.

Today we had a respite from our usual January weather — the sun came out, and pretty much everyone and their uncle went out for a walk. It reminds me of the first thaw in Michigan (usually in March) when the temperatures would rise above freezing for the first time. People would be out in shorts and t-shirts, in 35-degree weather, because it felt so warm, compared to 15 degrees.

The trees don't have any buds on them yet, but there is hope of Spring in the air.

The trees don’t seem to have any serious buds on them yet, but there is hope of Spring in the air.

It doesn’t often get this warm (or sunny) in January — usually we have to wait until the end of February for such weather. In any case, I am so thankful that we are allowed to live here. We have lived in this lovely house on a peaceful, double-ended cul-de-sac for more than ten years, now. At times like this, I am deeply grateful that God has made our world so beautiful, and that He has taken such good care of our family.

Our actual house.  Lots of life and happiness has been enjoyed under that roof.

Our actual house. Lots of happiness has been enjoyed under that roof.

Project 365, Day 25
Tim

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Visitors

Rachel left for Tennessee right after our amazing New Year’s Eve party. She went back for Union’s January Term. We had a wonderful visit with her over the holidays . There’s such a sweetness about having a grown child return home. I love college students – they are thinking and growing and figuring out life practically right in front of your eyes. Rachel is a dedicated student, loyal friend, thoughtful daughter, and godly young woman. I am incredibly proud of her!!

Tarah, Leah, Rachel, Katie and Hannah helped us celebrate the new year!

Tarah, Leah, Rachel, Katie and Hannah helped us celebrate the new year!

Joshua decided not to attend Jan Term this year. Instead we were treated to an extra two weeks of time with him. He worked, played games with us, watched movies and helped with AWANA. The very ‘normalness’ of it all was even more precious. As a junior in college with a heart for discipleship and missions as well as a passion for learning, Joshua is very intentional with his time. Our summers and winter breaks with him have been very brief. The January of his freshman year he went to Germany on a mission trip, returned for the second semester at Union and then spent the summer traveling with WorldView Academy. The next winter he returned to school for Jan Term and then served on Union’s Go Trip in Turkey over the summer months.

Joshua & Rachel at Rachel's Lake City Graduation Party - May 2014

Joshua & Rachel at Rachel’s Lake City Graduation Party – May 2014

Last week Joshua went to Alaska to visit a special friend from college. After a fun week with Kelsie and her family, the two of them flew into Seattle to spend a week with us. Watching the kids grow, form godly friendships, and bring new people into the circle of our family has been a delight throughout the years. Over and over, Tim and I have been proud of the friends our children have made and pleased to enjoy their company as well. We have played games, watched movies, worked on projects, cleaned the house, painted rooms, decorated for the holidays, thrown parties, traveled, prayed, and eaten many, many meals (and more ice cream) with beautiful, amazing, talented, interesting, fun, godly young people over the years. I could post dozens of pictures of our children and their friends. We are blessed by the people they love.

This evening Joshua and Kelsie went to the high school Navy Junior ROTC Ball along with Daniel and many of our good friends. When Joshua and Daniel were cadets, several years ago, Tim and I put on our finest duds and celebrated with them. It was fun to watch them all dress up and go out this evening.

Joshua and Kelsie - ready for the ball.

Joshua and Kelsie – ready for the ball.

The rest of the week, I presume we’ll enjoy more board games, movies, laughter, and family time before Joshua and Kelsie return to Union.

A game of 7 Wonders - Tim posed with my coffee cup.

A game of 7 Wonders – David WON and Sarah came in second. Fun!

Project 365 – Day 24
Kathy

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Wanda’s Honda

Ever since Daniel got his driver’s license, he’s been driving my honda civic much more than his ‘fair share’ making me consider My Car Insurance Quote sercvices. He refers to it as his own car in poetic justice for how I treated (and spoke of) my parents’ little gold Chevette as if it was mine.Car insurance is important for a number of reasons. Without car insurance you could get a ticket which is not cheap. If you do not have insurance on your car you could also end up paying a lot of money to fix your car if you are in an auto accident. If you hit someone else’s car and you do not have car insurance it will be up to you to pay to fix their car. If you do not pay to fix the other person’s car you could end up getting sued.
Car insurance is just as important as home insurance. You would insure your home so why not insure your car? Your home and your car are both very expensive to repair if you do not have insurance on them. You can get insurance for an affordable rate on your home and your car. The best way to get affordable insurance is to do research on the internet. There are several websites that you can go to that will give you multiple quotes so that you can find the cheapest plan available. These days everyone is looking for a way to save money whenever they can. There is no reason to pay a fortune on insurance when you can do research and get a great rate. The cheapest way to get insurance on your car is to just get liability. Liability may save you money but it only covers the other drivers car if you have an accident. You will still be left to pay to fix your own car. Full coverage is a little more expensive but it is worth it in the long run. To get more details about car or motorcycle insurance, pop over to this website . You can get several discounts on car insurance but the best way to do that is to call an insurance company and speak with an agent. The insurance agent should be able to help you find all the discounts that you qualify for. If you have a clean driving record with out any tickets or car wrecks then you should be able to get a discount for that. If you have taken a driving class you can also get a discount for that too. The type of car you drive will also make a difference in the price of your insurance premium. A sports car will cost you more to insure than a family car. You can also get discounts for insuring several cars with the same company.

Some companies will even give you a discount if you buy your car insurance, house insurance, and life insurance from the same insurance company. Saving money is important especially these days when everyone is struggling to make money. Just make sure that you ask your insurance agent about any discounts that their company offers. Your agent should be able to help you out with saving money on discounts. Without auto insurance you could end up having to pay a hefty fine if you get caught. Insurance is important to have on your car, home, life, and even health.

The silver car has been through some pretty rough treatment, over the years. My brother brought it to Kuwait with him when he was stationed there, and the heat of that country caused the rubber door and trunk seals to shrink somewhat. But it was otherwise in very good condition when he sold it to me, with less than 70,000 miles on it, back in 2006 or early 2007. My brother maintains his cars carefully, and I was glad to buy it from him at the very low price he offered.

Daniel and Sarah amuse themselves by making shadow puppets on our movie-watching screen.

Daniel and Sarah amuse themselves by making shadow puppets on our movie-watching screen.

After some eight years of my less-than-tender stewardship, the car has 184,625 miles on it, the engine leaks oil, the exhaust smells and is rather loud, and recently one of the kid’s friends put a worrisome dent near the gas tank — Make sure to check out Vintage VW spare parts importers and wholesale distributors of spare parts. Still, I had planned to sell the car to Daniel this Spring, so it could be his in reality, rather than fantasy.

Today, he told me, “I don’t think I want to buy your silver car anymore.” We were driving home from the doctor’s office, where we had him checked out for whiplash. (The doctor says he will be sore, but is otherwise probably OK).

Earlier today, Daniel was rear-ended by another student at his school, while he sat at a stoplight. The damage to the car was significant, although you can’t really tell from this photo. They say it will cost $4100 to repair luckily he found a place where their repair it at affordable prices in Auto Detailing jacksonville FL, which is more than twice the value of the car, so I’m guessing the insurance company will just cut their losses and total the car.

The rear bumper was pushed up and forward about two inches, with considerable damage to the side and frame.

The rear bumper was pushed up and forward about two inches, with considerable damage to the side and frame.

A few months back, I was feeling rather unhappy about Daniel’s relentless use of my car, so I want it to take my car to get some cash for cars in Melbourne but a the end I told him I didn’t feel well-thanked. After some consideration, I decided that if he was going to use my car, he needed to thank me each day in writing, in order to be eligible to use it the next day. If he doesn’t thank me, he doesn’t use my carthis transmission jack review from autonews center.

Some of this damage was actually done a few weeks ago by a friend.

Some of this damage was actually done a few weeks ago by a friend.

So, every day I get an email or a drawing or some other form of written thanks. Sometimes it is a poem or a limerick, other times just a simple sentence thanking me for some aspect of the car. He has really gotten creative on several days — it is fun to see him enter into the spirit of the thing and to put some effort into giving thanks.

Here was his first offering:

There once was a girl named Wanda,
who had a nice little Honda.
She drove through the town,
and married a clown,
and moved away to Uganda.

I was very moved by Wanda’s loyalty to her Ugandan clown, but I worry about shipping costs — Did her parents approve of her choice of the young clown? Or was there bad feeling, which precipitated the move? You can see that in some ways, this limerick raised more questions than it answered — but I was definitely gripped by the story line. Sadly, Wanda failed to appear in subsequent editions, so we’ll never know if Wanda was happy as a young bride in Uganda.

Now I am trying to persuade Kathy to lend her support to buying a new Corolla, a car I’ve always wanted to own.

When I was 17, a friend loaned me his stick-shift Corolla for two weeks, hoping that I would buy it from him. I could never raise the money, but ever since I’ve wanted to have (and drive) a sporty little car like that Corolla. Kathy says that a new car loses too much of its value, when you drive it off the lot, she mentioned how she even had to get a windshield replacement in cincinnati oh a few months after buying her brand new car. But I’m thinking that I really would like to have a car that I don’t need to worry about repairing, at least for a few years, I guess she wasn’t lucky enough.

I’ll keep you posted on my sales campaign against Kathy’s frugality. Feel free to comment on the relative merits of a new car over a used one, as long as you’re on my side. Comments arguing in favor of used cars can expect to be mysteriously deleted or unapproved.

Project 365, Day 23
Tim

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Leadership Class

One of the privileges of being a part of a homeschool co-op is the opportunity to impact a large group of kids. Every co-op is unique in how it runs its classes, curricula and programming. In ACTS, our current co-op home, if you are willing and available (and have a class that meets a need for the co-op), you can teach a class during one of the semesters. It is a challenging task to add to an already busy homeschooling life, but what an honor!

These five kiddos are, of course, my favorite students (sporting shirts from Thailand and probably the last time they were in “stair step” height).

My favorite co-op kids in the whole wide world.

I remember when they were that size – circa 2010.

I have taught a strange variety of classes over the years. Usually they are things my children are interested in (Civil War, Minecraft, US Presidents, educational games) or things I’ve got a passion for (Peace Makers, public speaking, yearbook) or even areas where I feel homeschoolers should gain proficiency (PowerPoint, Publisher). Last year I ended up teaching several semesters of PE because I wanted Daniel to have a frisbee class and no one else was available to teach. That was the biggest stretch (rivaling my Minecraft class) as I am NOT athletic and don’t have any talent or gifting in leading PE games. In all honesty, Daniel pretty much ran both the Minecraft and the PE classes.

Thanks, Daniel!

You would trust him with your homeschool kids, wouldn't you?

You would trust him with your homeschool kids, wouldn’t you?

This semester I’ve somehow stumbled on a Leadership Class. It started out as a student government/leadership class, but the more I research and study and pray about leadership, the more I find myself developing a passion for really understanding and teaching about godly leadership. This week (our second) we are going to delve into the Proverbs for a look at wisdom, the foundation of any real leadership.

Just who are they sneaking up on?

Future leaders! Heading into battle?

Sword of the spirit - God's Word

Sword of the spirit – God’s Word

Several years ago Tim’s parents gave him the Maxwell Leadership Bible and it has sat perched on a shelf in our bedroom since then. I immediately thought of it as I began planning my syllabus. “Maybe that Leadership Bible will have something helpful in it.”

Stand at attention, my students!

Stand at attention, my students!

What a treasure! Principles, teaching, notes, all sorts of helpful material for, not only the class, but my personal study as well. Rounding out our look at Proverbs, I’ve got movie clips (from silly animations to serious film moments), team building activities, two TA’s who are incredibly helpful, and students who want to LEARN.

Charge!

Charge!

It’s going to be a great semester. I’m praying for each of my students. Excited to see if God can breathe a passion for leadership into the reluctant learners and cast a vision for strong, servant leadership into those who are natural born leaders already.

Project 365 – Day 22
Kathy

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