Debi Pearl

BESTOWING FROM YOUR BOUNTY

24 HOURS IN A DAY
Time is limited for all of us, making it a precious gift. Great wealth is not necessary for you to let someone know they are special. One of my boys still remembers a week from his childhood that he fell asleep hearing my used sewing machine grinding. By the end of the week, he had his own super hero outfit and cape. This past November, I was cleaning out a closet when I discovered he had saved that old mask and a shirt I had made for him long ago.

TALENTS
Several weeks each year were used by my grandmother to crochet special gifts

USE YOUR IMAGINATION
Children would thrill to have a chair

SHARING YOUR DELIGHT
who will get the homemade cookies

THE ART OF LIVING
To touch the cup with eager lips and taste, not drain it;
To woo and tempt and count a bliss, and not attain it;
To fondle and caress a joy, yet hold it lightly;
To watch the sunset in the west without regretting;
To hail its advent in the east, the night forgetting;
To smother care in happiness, and grief in laughter;
To hold the present close, not questioning the hereafter;
To have enough to share, to know the joy of giving;
To thrill with all the sweets of life -- that's living.

FLOWER CHAIN SCHOOLING

How would you like to enjoy a project with your child that offers variety and repetition of needed skills? What if that same activity provided your children with precious memories of time spent knitting their hearts to your own?

 

Making chains and garlands of flowers can accomplish this and more. A son can be taught this skill so that he might one day present treasured keepsakes to his wife or daughters. Your daughter will feel much like a princess with a wreath of flowers on her head.

 

This project requires sturdy stemmed flowers. Some of the flowers that work well for this include: asters, black-eyed Susan, daisies, globe amaranth, red clover, zinnias, bachelor buttons, chrysanthemums, dandelions, marigolds, and tithonia.

 

 

Plant identification is another practical skill to be learned. Note which ones are edible. Do the plants have other uses? Learn to identify the parts of the flower. Show your child where the stamen and pistil (the name for the style, ovary and stigma) are located. What are the functions of these parts? The ideas are endless.

 

Plucking a flower firmly but gently exercises fine motor skills. By reaching for the swaying flower blooms, a child develops hand eye coordination.

 

 

 

 

Adorn your child with the finished project in .

 

To your child, you just spent time with them, showed them how to make floral decorations and had a great time. You will know that you just used one outing to cover several subjects

 

 

Page 224, THE VISION by Debi Pearl

"We lay there together, our heads close and our fingers intertwining. Her eyes sparkled with delight as she handed me a long-stemmed clover and ask me to teach her how to weave a crown for her head. . . . .
"

Schooling Davy Crockett

Mooooom! Can we do school yet? I wanna learn more about Jonah!"

I looked up from checking my email to see two little boys in coonskin caps, plastic rifles, homemade tomahawk, and fringed shirts. "Puhleeeeeeease? Can we start NOW?"

Sure, Davy!" I replied.

I met him at the kitchen table with colored pencils and a printout of the text of the book of Jonah. We've been going through the short story (only 4 chapters) and marking key words. We went through the first chapter of Jonah. Every mention of Jonah was marked with a fish, mariners were marked with a boat, etc. This slowed us down and required that we looked at every word carefully.

Hidden in our 'learning how to study like Daddy' exercise were some grammar lessons: capitalization and pronouns. *wink* I've also thrown in some map reading activities. All of the questions are answered from the text, which can be a challenge when we think we already know the whole story. Davy comes by this trait honestly, unfortunately *blush.*

Davy doesn't realize that he's learning parts of speech, creative writing, study skills, etc. He thinks we are just ferreting out interesting facts that he can dazzle Daddy with when he gets home.

Each day, he writes out things he learned from the text.

His list for the first chapter included:
1. He learned a new word -- mariners -- and what it meant.
2. He learned that the mariners went from calling on several gods, to making a sacrifice to God after surviving the storm.
3. He learned that Jonah was a prophet. (Apparently, Davy Crockett didn't think God would use a rebel for that purpose. *smile*)

So, we recorded our findings sitting there at the kitchen table. Davy wore his best fringed shirt and jeans (with a hole in the knee) for the occasion. We sat there with a Bible, a map, extra paper and colored pencils, determined that every word be given careful consideration. Learning SO much -- especially ME.

I learned that if it is framed as an adventure, my never-wants-to-fail son is a happy learner. He's not afraid of a struggle. He thrives on the feeling of accomplishment that comes from seeing his own progress. He isn't a BIT interested in seeing a good grade on a test. Grammar or writing exercises for the sake of practice would just tempt him to rebel. He needs to see it all as a means to an end -- learning with a purpose.

One day, he will have a family of his own to teach. He realizes that he NEEDS to know how to study these words and KNOW their meaning for himself. He's learning how to be a teacher, to bear the weight of man-things. . . Such a HUGE task for a skinny kid . . .

Yet, when we were done, he flopped his coonskin cap back onto his head, shouldered his haversack, picked up the plastic rifle and with shining eyes said, "You think I'm doing good, mom?"

"Yes, son, you're doing GREAT!" I replied.
He stood a bit taller on his bare feet and said, "I'm going outside, okay?"

Sure, Davy -- king-of-the-wild-frontier -- go play!