Truly Rich and Blessed

Homeschool Help: How to Teach Kids About a Lunar Eclipse

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I’ve been ‘silent’ here for the past few days because I got sick, we were busy celebrating my mom’s birthday, and then Anne’s cough got worse, which meant ‘unlilatch’ time for the both of us!

Anyway, I’m writing this quick post to share with you some activities I’ve listed down in an attempt to prepare the kids for the lunar eclipse happening TONIGHT!

Photo credits to Philstar.com

Photo credits to Philstar.com

Sadly, the kids aren’t here now (they’re at my parents’ place — explains why) but I sent my mom an email with the following activities:

1. Read a book/books about the solar system.

I asked my mom to look for my brother’s I Wonder Why Stars Twinkle book in their collection at home. If you don’t have an astronomy-related book, you can read this (aloud or have your child read it): http://www.ducksters.com/science/physics/lunar_and_solar_eclipses.php.
You might want to read this fictional short story about a lunar eclipse too:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/04nov_lunareclipse2105/

2. Watch these videos about lunar eclipses:

3. Do a simple experiment.

Try to simulate the lunar eclipse using 2 balls and a flashlight. Or try this experiment.
 If that’s too hard, just play/experiment with shadows in a dark room! 🙂
Explore Sandbox actually has a wonderful “sandbox” about “The Night Sky” — it has LOTS of great activities that your kids can do to learn more about the night sky, including different phases of the moon. We received a box recently and I’ll write about our experience soon!
Screen shot from the Explore Sandbox website

Screen shot from the Explore Sandbox website

Don’t forget to mention that it is God who created everything, including the sun, moon, earth, etc.! 🙂 You can even read the Story of Creation in your Bible. Instant religion/Bible lesson! 🙂

So that’s it! I also asked my mom to have Tim write a short paragraph about the eclipse on his blog, after they’ve seen it. 🙂 Let’s all pray for good weather tonight!

Homeschool Log for October 3, 2014: Of Being Sick and Keeping Your Promises to Your Kids

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I know I ended yesterday’s post by saying that I was going to prepare the kids’ things for our bird-watching activity with the  in honor of today, the Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi, but sadly, we weren’t able to join them at the last minute. I started feeling unwell and Anthony didn’t want to leave me alone with Anne, so everyone ended up staying home.

Here's a photo of the bird-watching activity yesterday. Too bad we missed it! :(

Here’s a photo of the bird-watching activity yesterday, shared by one of the ROCKERS members. Too bad we missed it! :(

I did feel a teeny bit better later in the morning though, so I brought the kids to a much-anticipated playdate with their fellow homeschooling friends. You see, I’m all about keeping our promises to our children, and this playdate was something they had been looking forward to for the loooonggggeest time!

So off we went, and they really had lots of fun! It was a time to catch up a bit with my friends and fellow homeschooling moms too, so it was a win-win situation for us all!

It was my mom’s birthday yesterday, too, and we had planned to visit her after the kids’ playdate. Sadly, once we got home, I started feeling really sick again. So much so that I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon, which meant that the kids had to “fend for themselves,” in a way.

Rysse kept herself occupied with playing and watching some videos, while Tim built all sorts of things from his Legos. Praise God that Anne also slept for a while, so I didn’t have to “deal with” her. 😛

Praise God, too, that Anthony was able to come home earlier than he usually does — I had to send him a “PLEASE HELP!” sort of text message, when the kids were hungry and I couldn’t pull myself out of bed! Thank God again that He led us to this apartment, which is really near Anthony’s office. GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME! 🙂

So yes, there are days when things don’t go the way we want them to… but I still thank God that He makes all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28)! Even if yesterday didn’t go the way I had planned it to, He still showed me that He is in control of everything in our lives! 🙂

 How about you? What do you do when things don’t go according to your plans?

Homeschool Log for October 2, 2014: On homeschool routines and “slow,” unhurried learning (and slow blogging!)

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*This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase any of the books I’ve listed here via the links posted here, you will be blessing our family’s homeschool funds, at no additional cost to you! :) Thanks in advance and God bless you!

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True story: Yesterday was a day full of challenges (and failures!) for me as a home educating parent. I found myself yelling raising my voice not a few times at our kids, and I have no excuse for my “bad behavior.” 🙁 Thank God for His grace, forgiveness, healing — and for my kids’ patience and forgiveness as well! (End of confession. Back to regular programming!)

On homeschool routines

Now, before I go to our homeschooling activities for yesterday, allow me to share our routine with you. It has deviated a bit from the typical homeschool day I posted about months ago. Actually, for the past few months, our routine has been something like this:

9-9.30am: Kids wake up / Say good morning and goodbye to their Papa / Morning bathroom “ritual” (Sometimes their Papa gets to join us for morning prayers. Prior to the kids waking up, I’m already up — usually by 4 or 5 am — to finish whatever work I need to get done.)

9.30-9.45am: I try to round them up for our morning prayers (Am I the only one who hears these phrases often?:”Wait, Mama, I’m still building something!”, “Wait, Mama, I’m still playing!”, etc. I’m praying that one day, soon, this will change! 😛 But our kids are young, and even us adults need prodding sometimes to pray, right? So, yeah, I’ll be patient and wait!)

9.45-10am: Morning prayers and a Bible story/passage

10-10.30am: Brunch

10.30-11.45am: Free play time as Mama does chores (laundry/preps lunch/etc.) I used to let the kids help me with chores but I have found it easier to just let them babysit/play with their little sister while I get everything done. Sometimes, if the toddler is especially frisky, I let all the kids watch a short video during this time, too. (Yep, you can go ahead and judge me now, if you want! 😉 A mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do!)

11.45am-12.30pm: Lunchtime

12.30-1.30pm: Clean-up time/Free play time/Reading time

1.30-4pm: “Formal” learning time — with LOTS of breaks in between (including Mama putting down the toddler for a nap)!

For Tim, this consists of the 4R’s daily (Religion, Reading, Writing, Math) plus other subjects once or twice a week. Sometimes, Tim does his handwriting practice in the morning, plus his Math and Grammar lessons “so I can already build stuff!” he says. At least the kid knows his priorities, right? 😉

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Re-starting Another Homeschool Year + Homeschool Log for September 29, 2014

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*This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase any of the books I’ve listed here via the links posted here, you will be blessing our family’s homeschool funds, at no additional cost to you! 🙂 Thanks in advance and God bless you!

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2 weeks ago, . Well, things didn’t really go the way I wanted them to, and I feel like we need to “re-start” by having a better ‘routine’ — one that will encourage more learning and that will have me more involved with the kids’ activities.

With this in mind, we will be re-starting our homeschool year on October 1, the Feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who happens to be Rysse’s ‘patron saint.’ So, we’ll be celebrating her name/saint day as well. 🙂

Anyway, starting this week, I am going to try to document what we do every day here, as part of my pitiful attempts at record-keeping . 😉 I hope you’ll also be able to pick up something useful as I do this — feel free to ask me about what we do and why we do things via the comments, or by sending me a message! (I’ll try to post about our curriculum for this school year tonight, or tomorrow, plus other details.)

So, here are our read-alouds for this week:

10482191_644738525644204_1117520555841109904_n [Read more…]

A Prayer for the Homeschooling Conference

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It’s the first day of September and the Homeschooling Conference 2014 is just days away! I’m not officially part of the Organizing Team but I’ve been helping my friends from Manila Workshops and The Learning Basket promote the conference and get sponsors, too. We are all super excited for Saturday! (Will we see you there?)

In the course of our preparations though, we have experienced some trials and challenges, and either one of us, or our kids, have been getting sick. One time, when we were all chatting online about the preparations and sharing about how we were getting sick one after the other (or our kids were), I told the ladies that I truly believed that we were experiencing “oppression” — because I firmly believe that the Conference will bless many families and lead them closer to God.

Yes, as “corny” as it may sound, I believe that we are under spiritual warfare, as it says in Ephesians 6:10-20 — not just us, the organizers of the conference, but perhaps even the participants, speakers, maybe even the sponsors!

So, that’s why I’m writing this quick blog post — to ask for your prayers. Whether or not you’ll be attending the conference, or believe in spiritual warfare, I humbly ask you to say this prayer with us. 🙂 Thank you SO MUCH in advance, and may God bless you abundantly!

hsconferenceprayer

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