What a day, what a day.

I’ve been thinking over my personal goals for the year ‘08 and breaking those down into smaller, more manageable objectives and tasks.

On my immediate to-do list is to begin reading at least one classic (after finishing up any other books I’ve begun last year– and there are several!)

I want to continue to read. I want to be a great thinker. Great minds read. So I need to read really good books.

Most of the books I’ve been reading up until now have either been self help or Christian inspirational, which are definitely great reads! But, now I just want to go a bit further and stretch myself into reading material that I’m not typically accustomed to.

Books that will make me stop and think and ponder. Books which will broaden my vocabulary and help me to see beyond the common and the ordinary.

Another one of my goals: read through the entire bible this year.

Reading through the bible is something I always wanted to do, but I’m one of those slowpokes who likes to linger…

I like to hang on to every scripture and meditate on it (chew on it), get all I can out of it before I move on to the next. Part of my nature is teaching, and as a teacher I like to digest the information for myself so I can be in a position to share it with others…

but I also realize that teachers know how to digest LARGE amounts of information in order to get the whole picture and create a synopsis for their teaching…and that’s what I’m working on now. Learning how to take in the entire meal…

So, I’m plugged in to The Daily Audio Bible as a tool to help me with the bible in a year program.

Another objective — to write a book.

Yep…

I want to write a book. I began writing a book for singles (married hopefuls) last year but never got around to completing chapter 2. I have the outline of the entire book but just no definite plan to work on it in a systematic way. I bet if I wrote a little every day I could have that book finished in a month.

As for home education? I want to put forth more effort and energy into teaching my daughter piano.

She’s so in tuned to the music, even playing by ear…and I want to find an easy way to teach her note recognition and good music theory and help her practice her songs every day.

I wish there was a Christian ballet company where I live– I’d enroll her in a minute.

(She’s asking about ballet since her last lesson 2 years ago. We dropped the ballet due to the clique-y-ness of it all, the competition, and the overemphasis on what our family considers to be too ‘worldly’ in nature when we are determined to raise our children in a godly fashion. ) In other words, I’m not going to pay for my child to be encouraged by her ballet teacher to “shake her booty” to some trashy pop song. Of course, if the classes were more classical in nature, I wouldn’t have minded keeping her there. I want to encourage my children to use their giftings to the glory of God. Dance is given to us a type of expression to be used for His glory…and that’s what we encourage in our family.

Back to goals…

On a more personal note, I want to be more conscious of my prayer life- praying in the spirit all day every day.

Being a typical busy mom means I don’t have the time to just have a 3 hour prayer session in a “prayer closet” or anything, but I have 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there sporadically throughout my day as I go about cleaning house or using the bathroom or putting my baby down for a nap. Those are times I can bless the Lord with my prayers and praise alone with Him (instead of running around crazily trying to accomplish other things, which never really seem to get done anyway!)

Women’s Ministry - stop and smell the roses

and see what God has (or doesn’t have) for this year’s objectives at Christian Ladies Connect and Christian Ladies Talk Radio

Music– I’ve got to begin recording my music again.

When I stop writing songs, I feel that I’ve stopped living. Music is a part of me.

Maybe I’ll start posting some of my music here from time to time. That may encourage me to keep at it…

…More goals and objectives later as I think about them.

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Today I sauntered around Barnes and Noble as a pasttime…right after we homeschooled from the hotel room.

While in a store like Barnes and Noble, surrounded by books, and feeling much cocooned in an ambience of java and knowledge, I tend to mellow out and begin to think on really deep, philosphical terms…

But hey, that didn’t happen today.

It was more like this:

I maneuvered a Graco stroller with one arm while using that hand to distract my infant with a little rattle toy while my other hand tried to turn the pages of a book while holding it simultaneously, all while watching my 5 year old walk 3 feet in back of me (engrossed in a kiddie book of her own)…and we all move progressively forward through the store in this strange, makeshift fashion.

It’s the way I do it nowadays…and you want mellow? That’s my mellow.

So…as I saunter through the store all distracted and what have you, I run upon a display of classic novels.  You know, all the good ones:

Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility

The Great Awakening

The Great Gatsby

Charles Dickens

…stuff like that.  Good stuff.

So I made a promise to myself and set yet another goal:  to take it upon myself to read through a few of the classic novels  (at least 1) before the end of the year ‘08.

I’ll of course blog about that when I do…

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Just thinking about the classical homeschool method again.

Gosh…there’s so much I didn’t know and so much I have yet to learn about it…I’m beginning to really fall in love with this methodology and wish that my upper elementary and high school education followed this. Man…I would have really soared in my college academics!

Not that I was bad…I did pretty good back in college, but not until my junior and senior year when I’d changed my major, and at this point had matured to the point where I knew what I was in school for (not to play around!) and had finally figured out HOW to learn and how to study.

Without the proper tools, children can’t learn (and neither can we adults). We need the building blocks…the foundational tools first. Then with the proper tools, learning becomes easy.

My first year in college was nearly a dismal failure. Not because I flunked out…I mean, I did okay. I was average, made mostly C’s and a few failing grades and an occasional A or B. But I struggled.

So for me, the key to my success my last 2 years in college (where I made Deans and Presidents list) was not some magic formula…but the fact that I discovered how I learned best!

And that was it.

I simply figured out how my own brain works.

I need audio. I need to hear things repeated over and over again until it becomes part of my thought processes and “gets in my spirit” as I like to say.

So I made tapes. (THis is back when purchasing CD’s was expensive). I recorded myself onto a tape recorder reading back my lecture notes from class each day, and I listened to my recordings over and over again, especially the week of exams.

By exam night, I knew the material backward and forward, and not just out of memorization, but now that I had listened to the notes, the content which may have once been confusing now began to clear up and make sense for me.

Anyways…back to today…

Today, I sat down with Nyomi and we worked on spelling.

Just plain old copywork. We also did some dictation and narration. “Tell me what you learned today about________” and wrote this down in her notebook.

We practiced handwriting. Then I called out spelling words which spelled orally and a few I asked her to write down as I called them out (dictation).

We did a math review of subtraction. (Last week was addition review). We finished the Math U See Primer back in December so now we’re just doing review sheets until we purchase the Alpha set.

In Science, we’re studying baby animals. Today her interest was in ponies so we did an internet search on ponies where we found a site that she could play puzzles and games and find out fun facts about ponies. Recently she loves everything ponies…(especially the over-commercialized “My Little Pony” at Toys R Us).

Now I’m looking up some great internet links by Usborn on history and ancient civilization. We began our study on history, timelines, and archaeology last week. It’s just a basic introduction to the concepts, nothing major. I mean she’s only K-1, so it’s not as though I have to flesh out the details nor be extensive, but I’m excited that she gets introduced to history so early, and even more grateful that that I found The Well Trained Mind to help guide me through this classical method.

Thank you, Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise, for this LIFE-CHANGING book!

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Well I decided to go with my Hubby to Birmingham for a week, and so far, so good…

Hotels are not home, but it really is true that home is where the heart is … so I’m at home. It’s one of those extended hotels with all of the home-type amenities, which makes it a little easier, although it doesn’t exactly make it home. But I’m okay with it. It’s just great being here with him before he goes off on his next business trip which I won’t be able to accompany him on.

Anyways…

Tomorrow we settle in and start our homeschooling again. Should be interesting, and fun! We began our history last week and will be checking out the Usborne internet links on ancient civilization.

I was a little disappointed in the Kingfisher’s explanation of ancient times and how the world began. Maybe I had a false hope that somehow it wouldn’t touch the theme of evolution at all…but it does very subtly by suggesting that men evolved into cavemen types and eventually became more upright/erect, and it brings up ideas about how the walls of Jericho fell by fire and not by the sound of trumpets as the bible says it does. Makes me wonder if we made the right choice in history material.

Hey, I want to teach my kids history…REAL history. Not evolution! Not heresay or theory.

I am a firm believer in the Creation and the Word of God. That is what my kids are going to know. That’s not to say they can’t know the theories behind other ideas…but they are going to know the truth first and foremost.

Any other homeschoolers have suggestions about good history and science text for the Christian homeschooling family?

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To contact Demetria:

Email: demetria *at*faith-media.com

Skype Id: demetriazinga

Twitter ID: demetriazinga

Mail: P.O. Box 864809, Tuscaloosa, AL 35486

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Well, WAHM University is off to a great start…
I’ve got the blog going now, and will probably transition the static site over to the blog, little by little.
I’m thinking of adding resident experts to the blog also.
I’ve been asked by quite a few people if they could help participate in some fashion, and I’m thinking that’s a WONDERFUL idea!

So far, I may have a Time Management coach.
If I could find any others interested in being a part of this team, I’d like to get you plugged in ASAP– so let me know.
Just think…if you are a coach or expert in any number of topics related to the woman entrepreneur, this platform could mean establishing your expertise…and it COULD mean more money in your pocket…

Hey, it’s all how you look at it.

At any rate, there are hundreds of women on my list that I truly care about getting the correct information about entrepreneurship and what it truly means to work from home.

So, if you have expertise in areas such as professionalism, business start up, budgeting, etc. — be sure to let me know and I can get you plugged in right away.

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I found out about Flashmaster yesterday.
I may be purchasing this soon…

Well, next week Hubby has a little trip to make for exam week. He’ll be taking tests to improve his visibility in the networking field…and though the test site is only an hour away from where we live, he decided to just stay overnight for 5 days. I had the choice to come along with him or stay back in town. I think I’ve finally decided to go.
We haven’t really gotten out anywhere since Zoe was born. Maybe this will be good for me.
At least I hope I don’t go bonkers being cooped in a little hotel room most of the day.
I have a feeling it’s going to be a good trip, though…
I’ll make my final decision by Sunday.

You know, I’ve thought about starting another blog that’s strictly laid back…more of a casual, mommy type blog that really expresses my personality about mommyhood from a “bella” point of view. I also want to continue with my homeschooling blog, but just not at The Homeschool Blogger community anymore since the templates and settings of my blog are so limited there. I’m all about hosting my own content on my server because WordPress is off the chain. There’s so much more flexibility in my designs and plugins with WordPress and THe HOmeschool Blogger is just way too limited to express all the things I want to do in my blog.
Problem is…I’m not exactly sure how many readers I really have. Subscribers? A few…
Readers…not sure. I’d probably need to check my stats more often.
But I would love to know how many people are actually enjoying this blog…or not.
That way I can see where to put my energy.

If you’re a reader (and just haven’t commented before), I’d love to hear from you!
At this point I’d like to get a more decent blogroll going, so I’d hop on the idea of adding you to my blogroll with the idea that you’d do the same for me if you have my blog interesting in any way.

Okay, on my next post I may have some ramblings about my business…

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I was reading a post by Lamplight Christian Academy who talks about how she uses the Charlotte Mason method in her homeschool (and, of course, putting God first).

I’m beginning to notice a few similarities between the Charlotte Mason method and Classical…

anyway, she mentioned a few resources I’d like to check out. She says…:

“For Elizabeth, she did one page of Horizons math, but when it came to the second page (a bunch of addition) we were met with tears. We decided to work on reviewing her basic facts for the rest of the week using Flashmaster.”

What is Flashmaster? I need to go find out…

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So it’s been an interesting week so far…and you’ll know why if you keep reading.

First of all, if you’ve been reading any of my earlier posts you’ll know that I’ve changed over to the Well Trained Mind classical method education for my daughter. This week’s homeschool structure has changed, and so has our schedule…and that meant getting ORGANIZED!

Here’s a little corner in our home near our washer/dryer that we weren’t using efficiently:

Quite a mess in fact.

There’s a little toddler art table, an end table, homeschool crates, binders, toys and organizing drawers that are in fact disorganized.

So… I brought in her computer desk, and did a little rearranging so now it looks like this:

Quite a difference, eh?

I’m quite proud of myself I must admit. Now we can think, breathe, and have school in a more organized environment.

Okay…now for the funnies…

What does a 5 year old do when she tries to flush a few wads (or maybe rolls) of toilet paper down the toilet?

Why, the only sensible thing to do, of course! Put up a sign!

Did you catch that? “OUT OF ORDER”?

yep.

That’s Nyomi for ya…my creative and orderly Little Lady.

Speaking of Nyomi…we spent a great deal of time last Thursday making out Valentine’s Cards for her little friends at our homeschool co-op. You remember back in grade school how important it was for our little boy and girl friends to get our Valentine’s in their goody bags?

This was an exciting time for her! We’re just really blessed that homeschooling doesn’t mean she still can’t have some of the social outlets we had as kids…and we’re SO blessed to be part of our local co-op, which is unbelievably awesome, (and I’m bragging!) but probably one of the best nationwide.

And one more pic for the day…

We always tell Nyomi she’s our little star…so here she is singing to her heart’s content (with her Daddy accompanying her on the piano next to her).

Wish I had a video of this!

That’s all for now.

Hope you enjoyed this update on family happenin’s in the Zinga home.

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The history texts are AWESOME. They’re full of bright, colorful pictures for the early elementary child with lots of descriptions, and a timeline. The idea is to study a period of civilization from the ancient times all the way to modern times - one period per year from 1st grade through the 4th grade, and then start all over again from 5th to 9th, and again through the 12th grade. It’s a great way to study history…in order. Unlike the way most schools teach history (american history/ Native Americans — skip to Civil Rights — skip to unit study on Thomas Jefferson– skip, skip, skip), the Classical Education method believes in presenting material in an orderly fashion so it makes sense to the learner.And me being a neat freak, of COURSE I love this way of doing things.

Let me tell you, when those books arrived…I felt like a kid in a candy store!! (and so did Nyomi)

Maybe it’s because homeschooling is definitely a calling for me. I absolutely LOVE the fact that the education of my children is in my hands. It doesn’t feel like a task. It’s a joy.

In fact, one of the reasons I’m so excited about teaching her World History and Science this way is because my education in these areas was not nearly as concise. I went to public school and my graduation class had about 500. My teachers did the best they could for classes of 25-30 kids each period, but the majority of our work was worksheet and answer key based where we learned to barely get by and cram for the next night’s rote memorization test on spelling words or the periodic table, etc.

One of the things about the Classical Education method that threw me for a loop was the idea of having young school age kids simply memorize for the sake of memorizing. At first I thought the idea of this was pathetic at best.

I come from a Child Development background where living studies and real life projects are honored above seatwork and drill…

But the more I looked into the classical education ideas, I realize the truth in the trivium. That kids ages 5-8 are generally sponges, still ready to soak up ideas and facts (ex.- multiplication tables, counting 1-100, reciting poems). All of these drill work activities are a daily part of the classical education method. It’s called “exercising the brain”. Kids at this age just love to recite things for fun.

They recite commercials and they have a great memory…so the idea is to give them the facts at THIS stage while they’re eager to learn.

The next stage of the trivium would be logic stage when they actually begin to piece their ideas together…

Well, Nyomi and I are also still working on French. We have a lot of French resources at hand but no set curriculum. So, we’re just using the different tools I have available.

Her dad is a great resource and he speaks to her in French whenever he can. And lately we’ve been listening in on The French Pod Class which is an AWESOME, awesome way to get exposed and submerged into both the French language and culture. Sebastien is just way too cool!

We’re still learning piano. We’re working on memorizing our notes. So far she can play Mary Had a Little Lamb and Ode To Joy. Nyomi also enjoys picking out notes on the keyboard to a song she’s heard…hence, the beginning of playing by ear. I encourage her to keep doing it…

We have other subjects too: Math (we use Math-U-See), Language Arts (we do spelling, narration work, handwriting, assigned reading, and grammar int he mornings), Biblical Studies (going through the bible beginning to end with The Daily Audio Bible and using supplemental workbooks for elementary age kids)

I’ll be updating soon on our studies together…

Right now I need to start our school for the morning…then later it’s office time (I’m pulling together some business info for my next couple of newsletter sendouts to my list).

On to start my day…

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