Heart to Heart: Do Your Children Know? / Creative and Fun Teaching Ideas

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Do Your Children Know? / Creative and Fun Teaching Ideas

DO YOUR CHILDREN KNOW...?

One day, a father took his two elementary school-age children for a ride in a pontoon boat … They were traveling down the river when suddenly the motor stopped. When the father looked behind him, he noticed something familiar about the red sweater tangled up in the propeller. Then his young son yelled, "Sherry fell in!" In horror, the father saw his little girl entwined in the propeller of the boat. She was submerged just beneath the surface of the water, looking straight into the eyes of her father and holding her breath. He jumped into the water and tried to pull the motor up, but the heavy engine wouldn't budge. Time was running out. Desperately, the father filled his own lungs with air and dipped below the surface, blowing air into his daughter's lungs.

After giving her air three times, the father took a filet knife from his shocked son's hand. He quickly cut the red sweater from the propeller and lifted his daughter into the boat. Although she had survived, her deep cuts and bruises need medical attention, so they rushed her to the hospital.

When the crisis was over, the doctors and nurses asked the girl, "How come you didn't panic?" "Well, we've grown up on the river, and my dad always taught us that if you panic, you die. Besides, I knew my daddy would come and get me."

THOUGHT: Do your children know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would come and get them if they were in trouble...not matter what? [John Croyle.]

CREATIVE AND FUN TEACHING IDEAS

By Bonnie Bonnette(stepmail1@vol.com who has two children

Reprinted with permission of Virginia Knowles from the Hope Chest Home School News. For a free subscription, send an e-mail message to HopeChest-Subscribe@Associate.com or visit http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html

Some fun stuff that is really working for us.

For PE I bought them a good CD player to use while jogging. They thought that was the coolest.

For history we read and discuss then they act it out. Doing drama really helps them get it and remember it. Much better than taking a test. We are using the history songs and singing them each day and I made copies of them so we can use it for a timeline.

Writing projects: A) a book on the fruits of the Spirit. We are spending 2 days a week for two weeks on each fruit. B) a newsletter for our family who live in Minnesota using the digital camera I bought them. Last year they did a weekly newspaper for our co-op using it.

For current events they read some good articles and at dinner orally tell us about them. They do two nationally and one internationally.

We are using the book "Playpen to Podium" and using the last 15 minutes of our day practicing communication skills. I made a poster that says, "Benefits of communication training" and posted all over it --- intelligence, reading and writing improve, thinking skills improve, success in life, leadership skills improve, social relations improve.

For vocabulary I bought the most wonderful books at Books A Million called Word Ssmart and Vocabulary Cartoons. The cartoon one is wonderful! But they are both good. I just assign them 20 words a week and as part of their reading time they read and study them. Then on Friday they do a quiz, which is already in the book. So simple and so GOOD!

I'm reading poetry to them at lunch.

For science I have a wonderful book called "Creative Sciencing." I just assign them different ones to do and then we check it all when they're done. It covers all different parts of science and is so easy to use.

For Bible study the kids are learning how to share their faith and I bought the most wonderful tool called "Giving an Account of the Hope that is in You Workbook." It is incredible. A home school dad put it together and it covers EVERYTHING! We are taking one day a week to go to a nursing home to get practice with their communication skills and sharing their faith.