Constituting America

I support organizations that teach Americans about America. I have read The Constitution of the United States a few times, but I heard about this undertaking by Constituting America to read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers in 90 days. I decided to take this challenge and hope that you all will too!

I'm a little behind in posting this, but I hope you'll do it with us!

Reading Schedule (Article are the Articles of the Constitution):

• Tuesday, April 20 – Read Article I
• Day 1 – Wednesday, April 21 – Blog on Article I; Read Article II
• Day 2 – Thursday, April 22 – Blog on Article II; Read Article III
• Day 3 – Friday, April 23 – Blog on Article III; Read remaining Articles (IV, V, VI, and VII) of the United States Constitution
• Day 4 – Monday, April 26 – Blog on Articles IV, V, VI and VII of the United States Constitution; Read the Amendments 1-10, Amendments 11-27
• Day 5 – Tuesday, April 27 – Blog on the Amendments to the United States Constitution; Read Federalist Paper # 1

August '09 - Week 4

Devotional - "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.

Government - "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen - Part I - Discussion on the Articles of Confederation and how it was inadequately balanced.

Math - Individual Math-U-See books

History - Story of the World, Vol. 2 - "Medieval Monasteries" - Famous Men of the Middle Ages - "Alaric the Visigoth" - Stories of Beowulf Told to Children - "How the Fire Dragon Warred with the Goth Folk", "How Beowulf Overcame the Dragon", "Beowulf's Last Rest" - We are also keeping a Book of Centuries (see Mom Notes below).

Science - Magnetics Kit - "Chemistry for Every Kid" - Learning about how magnetism is a force of nature.

Latin - We began Latin two years ago and pretty much let it go after awhile, but we are getting more serious about it as our foreign language for high school. - Latina Christiana I - Lessons 1-3.

Family Projects - Reading: "On the Banks of Plum Creek" - We had a lot of yard work and cleaning of camping equipment to do. I am so much cleaner with the camping gear than when our stuff is used by the Boy Scouts. We had a LOT to clean! I took the kids to the Retreat last week only to find all of our stuff was so filthy that we attracted a lot of bees.

Fieldtrip - We attended our first outing with the local homeschool support group. There were tons of young adults, which was very exciting for our youth. I can see that there will be lots of youth for them to get to know that have common educational lives.

Individual Phases and Studies

Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Guitar practice. - Reading: "Ugly", "Zel", "Bound", "Boy Proof" - Mind Benders A4-B1

Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Guitar practice. - Reading: "Wizard Heir"

Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Reading: "Utopia" by Thomas More, "The Edge of Recall" by Kristen Heitzmann, and "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine - Math: Math-U-See Algebra - Reviewing what I have forgotten. Apparently I can't remember how to divide fractions either...

Mom Notes: We created a Book of Centuries last year, but actually put very little into it. I decided to put more effort into this in hopes of making a binder of reminders of all the history we have studies and where it fits in a time line fashion. For more information, see this site about the Book of Centuries.

Grand Canyon & Other Stuff

Grand Canyon
Last Wednesday (was that a week ago?) we went to the Grand Canyon with Les & Ronda's family. They stayed the night and we all got up early and drove about an hour to the canyon. It was such a beautiful day! Here are some pics from that trip. It rained on the way home, but at least we did not get rained on at the canyon.

Chicken Run (Nope, not about the movie.)
We worked on a fenced area for the chickens Saturday. They are getting bigger and needed room to roam...safely! We added a doggie door to the coop so they can get in and out of the coop as needed to get out of the wind, rain, and snow. Our bunny, Joey, decided he wanted to explore that area too and had a great time hopping around. He was hilarious doing some extra little hops and twists to show how excited he was to be out in the dirt. The bunny has a hard time with the doggie door, he sometimes slips off the ramp and takes several attempts to get into the coop/shed. I need to get that on video...it is so funny!

Bunk Bed
Chris got a bunk bed for his room off of Craigslist. It is one of those with a futon couch on the bottom. We spent hours putting that thing together on Saturday. *whew!* He is happy to have the couch so he can sit on that while he plays Playstation games and uses his Linux computer that we built together. We now have plenty of beds so come on up and visit!

Goat Barn Anyone?
We are looking for a large shed or small barn to house some goats. Marly is anxiously waiting for the right price on milking goats, but she needs a place for them to stay first so we can keep them safe (see More Nighttime Visitors). She has saved up close to $200 for the goats, but it is far from enough for a shed for them to live in. Heavenly Father has blessed us with several things to allow us to have animals and I believe he will send something our way when the time is right. Craigslist and Freecycle have been huge blessings!

Week 19

Ok - I've been very bad about keeping up on my homeschool posts with moving and all. But, it is never too late to get back on track...forgot to post this one on the right day.

Christian - King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Sir Thomas Mallory, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Playaway) - We let Christian go out-of-town with cousins for most of the week, so he did not get as much done this week. He did take a couple of classic books with him on Playaway.
Marlayna - Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl, Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques, The Shamer's Daughter by Lene Kaaberbol,
Me - Books - Emily Post's Etiquette and started Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Audio files at LDS-HEA - Darla Isackson, Paul Mero, Reed A. Benson, John Taylor Gatto, etc.

Do Together -

• Devotionals - Let Him Ask of God pg. 143 thru147
• Read Aloud - Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingals Wilder
  
• Government and Freedom - Mandate video on the President's of the United States, Civil War, and The New Deal
• Mathematician - Mathematicians are People Too "Galileo" pgs.45-51
  
• Musician - Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers pgs.27-34
  
• History - "Roman Empire" - Story of the World Vol. 2 pgs. 1-5 and Usborne Encyclopedia of World History pgs. 182-191
• Genealogy - Worked on my side of the 15 Generation Chart - See Mom Notes below.
  
• English and Grammar - Winston Grammar (we skipped school this day)
  
• Artist - (we skipped school this day)
  
• Science - "Ears and Eyes" - Usborne Science Encyclopedia pgs. 370-373, How the Body Works, Human Body Coloring Book
  
• Words of the Day - irreverant, meticulous, vindicate,

Mom Notes - We are loving the 15 Generation Chart! It has been so exciting to write in all the names of the ancestors we have information on. It makes it easy to see where work needs to be done. Also, we decided to highlight those born in other countries. Each country has a color - England, Canada, Ireland, France (American born are not highlighted at all) - so that we could get a visual picture for what percentage we are of each culture. We discovered that my mom's side of the family is American clear back for 9 generations! Also, I am a 4th generation Arizonan and my children are 5th generation Arizonan. How often do you find that?

Spring Break

We are having a truly awesome Spring Break! I wish I could post pictures, but Sam took the camera with her to her dad's before I could download the pics. Oops! The only huge bummer about this trip was that Mike was working the whole time and could not go with us.

We took off to cooler country...but not that much cooler! It was 70 degrees in Flagstaff while we were there. Oh well, at least it does not get over 100 there. We spent time exploring the countryside and visited the Sunset Crater Volcano and Walnut Canyon in Northern Arizona.

Sunset Crater Volcano - This was really neat, especially since we just read the book and saw the movie for Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. Of course, the movie is NOTHING like the book. In the book, they describe the lava fields and entering the dormant volcano. We could totally picture what it was like since we could see it in real life. Very cool! If you ever get a chance, don't forget to take an hour out of your way to see it! We did not hike too much, but there is a 1/2 mile hike further up to see more. Oh, and they don't allow dogs on the hiking trails! :-( It was sad to lock Maggie up in the car.

Walnut Canyon - We have seen the turn-off for Walnut Canyon several times and never taken the time to go. It is right off I-40 and closer than I thought. Marly was not up to taking the 240 stairs down to see the actual cliff dwellings, but we'll attempt it another time when she is feeling better. There is a short Rim Trail that allows you to see the caves from the opposite rim. I wish I had known more about this because we would have brought binoculars. We'll remember to bring them next time! Again, a very cool place to stop and see. Dogs are not allowed there either.

We are so lucky that Marly has a Golden Access Pass that was given to her when we went to the Grand Canyon a few years ago. She was restricted to a walker at the time and we inquired about handicap services. The next thing we know, they are handing us this free life-time pass for her to get into ANY National Park for free. It is for her and up to 4 people. So, needless to say, we take advantage of owning this pass.

What do we do for Homeschooling?

Our First Adventure at Home Education
When we first started homeschooling, we actually used an online public school with a virtual academy using K12 curriculum. Because it is a public school, we had to meet their requirements, have a teacher oversee us, and take the state testing. The first year I thought it was great...and then I started seeing some problems with being under someone else's thumb.

The first issue was that they require so much more than what my kids would do at public school. It was A LOT of stuff to do! It was full of busy-work, worksheets and fluff. In order to meet their requirements, we were constantly rushing through the lessons without really LEARNING the material. It seemed just like regular school to me, only harder.

The second issue was that my children are very different people, with different learning styles. Their program said it allowed for several types of learners, but we did not find that to be the case. It was still too much like public school at home.

The third issue was that my kids were on completely different science and history. While this is a good thing for reading, grammar, and math...it was very complicated to study different time periods and science subjects making more work for me.

We also tried Connections Academy, which uses the Calvert Curriculum. I liked it better than k12, but it still has the same issues above.

Our Second Adventure in Home Education
After feeling the online schools were not working well for us I decided to start reading books on homeschooling. This was scary to me! I was worried about my ability to do it, and most of all, to do it WELL. I started with The Well Trained Mind, which focuses on a Classical Education. This book came highly recommended, but it was overwhelming and difficult to see how I could possibly implement all that the book said was needed. I tried doing all that it recommended. I bought tons of curriculum, only to find that I sold it later. The only things I kept from this was our history uses her books, The Story of the World, which is a fabulous series of sequential history. Isn't that how history happens - sequentially? Makes sense to me!

I looked into Unit Studies next and thought this would be a great way to have both of my kids on the same history and science. Next I read about the Charlotte Mason method and loved how she talks about using REAL BOOKS, not textbooks.

Our Third (and Final) Adventure in Home Education
Then a homeschooling friend, a veteran of over 16 years, recommended that I read A Thomas Jefferson Education. My eyes were opened to this concept of education - which is not just for homeschoolers. It can be for charter and public school students as well. You can read more about our path to Leadership Education at Batchelor Family.org.

The beauty of this method of education is that I can focus on similar subjects with all my kids, whether I have 2 or 8 it does not matter, and teach them all at the same time. I allow each child to do a level of work that matches their abilities and goals.

This method also focuses on each person OWNING their education, making it truly theirs...not mine, or their teachers, or the state school boards. The method is not nearly as expensive. We get the majority of our curriculum from the public library - for free! We use "real books" not textbooks. If my children are learning about the civil war, we get books about the civil war - picture books, biographies, encyclopedias, etc. We focus largely on classic books, which we find all over the place inexpensively. I love finding these gems at garage sales and Goodwill.

Why am I sharing this? Well, I have had so many people ask me about homeschooling lately that I decided it was a good time to share. I have also had several people I know bring their children home and worry about if they are doing it "right". I think there is no one way to homeschool, but there is a "right way" for your family. Each family is different and our education needs will be different.

2009 - Week 4 - This Week in Homeschooling

This week my children began a babysitting job for a sister in our ward who had a very preemie baby (1 lb. 10ozs.) I am happy for the experience my children are receiving, but greatly saddened by the situation of this dear friend and her family.

Kid's School:

• Devotionals - Gospel Principles lessons 10-11 (spent 3 days on lesson 11)
  
• Classes/Clubs Attended - Principles of Leadership
  
• SAT Prep vocabulary & spelling words - Review last week's words - New Words - dilate, doleful, conciliatory, insolvent, fawn
  
• Grammar & Writing - Journal Entries on each book read - The Winston Grammar Program: Basic Level - Word Roots Level A A1 & A2
  
• Science - The Human Body Unit - Nervous System - Useborne Science Encyclopedia pg. 364-367, How the Body Works pg. 115-121, Human Anatomy Coloring Book p. 24 (College level book - we do not memorize the terminology, but the detailed pictures are really good).
  
• P.E. - Daily dog walks. We were supposed to attend a hike at the Arboretum, but we had car trouble. :-(
  
• Math
• Marly: Math-U-See - Epsilon - Chapters 5-8
  
• Chris: Math-U-See - Delta - Chapter 14, Review for Unit 2 Test, online math drills (see below)
  
• Individual Reading
• Marly: The Story of the World: Vol.2 2-17, Princess Academy, The Seventh Tower, Book of a Thousand Days, Johnathan Livingston Seagull
  
• Chris: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Vol. 1, 1-35 thru 1-37, finished Dragon Rider, started The Silver Chair.
  

Mom's School:

• Reading list - How to Be Totally Miserable: A Self-Hinder Book by John Bytheway, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (quite an eyeopener - I recommend this book as a MUST READ!)
• Projects - (1)Drupal theming - see batchelorfamily.org where I converted the theme from this blog to my Drupal website. I know I'm the only excited about it, but that's OK. :-) (2) Prepared our taxes!
  

Free Online Math Drills!
I hate wasting paper on printing math drills. Math-U-See has free online math drills for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The website allows the student to drill on specific facts (multiply by 7's) or select a mixture of practice questions. I do not keep grades for drills, only for tests because we focus on mastery, so for me this works out perfectly. It has a timed factor that I love, it tells the student how fast they accomplished the drill, but it does not have a countdown visible to the student. I like this because some students have difficulty with "test anxiety".

Misinterpretations of the Constitution

I took a class from nccs.net earlier this year and it was fantastic. It opened my eyes to many things about our country that I had not known or understood before. This is part of an email I received and I wanted to share it with everyone. I highly recommend taking the time to read The 5000 Year Leap. It helped me to understand just how many of our freedoms we have lost.

Only Two Ways to Interpret the Constitution One of the friends of the Founders in the present Supreme Court is Justice Clarence Thomas. In a recent speech, he said: "Let me put it this way; there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution--try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up. No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers, they have no more basis in the Constitution than the latest football scores." (Wall Street Journal Opinion, October 20, 2008) A look at several of today's issues clearly reveals most of our government programs today are far from the Founders' original intent and as Justice Thomas says, have about as much basis in the Constitution as the latest football scores--the authority is purely made-up. For example: U. S. foreign policy: Founders' intent : Expressed in the Monroe Doctrine wherein the U. S. promised to stay out of the affairs of other nations, particularly those of the eastern hemisphere. Made-up intent: Involve ourselves in the affairs of nearly every nation on earth and try to buy their friendship with money we don't even have. U. S. monetary policy: Founders' intent : Congress to establish and control our money system based on gold and silver standard to prevent manipulation. Made-up intent : Give control of monetary system to private bankers who issue fiat money which lets them make money out of nothing--money on which we then pay them interest. Federalism or vertical separation of powers : Founders' intent : Only limited and carefully defined powers to the federal government. Government concerned with people's lives and property is only at state level or lower. Made-up intent : Allowing Washington to have direct influence and control of local government, which destroys strong local self-government. Horizontal Separation of Power: Founders' intent : The power to make law was given exclusively to the representatives of the people in Congress. Made-up intent : More laws are being made by the executive and judicial departments than are made by congress, which effect millions of people and their property. National Debt: Founders' intent : Debt is a temporary evil and if used must be paid off before the generation that borrowed it leaves the scene. It is immoral to pass debt on to next generation. It amounts to taxation without representation. Made-up intent : Debt is a blessing to America. We can borrow ourselves wealthy. Passing debt onto the next generation allows those to pay the debt who will benefit from the programs paid for by the borrowed money. Income Tax: Founders' intent : The Founders put a prohibition of income tax into the Constitution because its enforcement violates the privacy rights of U.S. citizens. They said there are much better ways to raise revenue. Made-up intent : Unconstitutional programs pushed in the "Progressive Era" became so expensive that new sources of revenue needed to be developed. A tax on incomes began at two percent and is only limited by what politicians can get away with. It is also a vehicle to implement a graduated tax to redistribute wealth. Welfare Programs: Founders' intent : The Founders' scale of fixed responsibility for one's welfare is: self, family, church, community, county, and state. Never was the federal government to be involved in welfare programs. Made-up intent : The federal government has unconstitutionally become the sugar daddy of the American people. One reason the federal government has done this is because the monetary system lets the money managers create money out of nothing. It buys votes and wins elections. Agriculture: Founders' intent : The Founders specifically excluded agriculture from the purview of federal authority saying it is only a local and state function. Made-up intent : Government programs in agriculture have taken away the freedom to fail, a necessary ingredient in the free-market system. The federal government has increased the cost of food by layer upon layer of regulation. Marriage and Domestic Law: Founders' intent : The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family, therefore governments have the responsibility to foster and protect its integrity. Made-up intent : State and federal judiciaries have injected themselves into the questions of marriage, redefining marriage and endangering the most fundamental building block of society. Thomas Jefferson constantly warned against letting the federal government gradually usurp power over the people. Such bureaucracies bring heavy spending and debt. He said such debt would put the people under such a burden that all they can do is to work long hours in order to survive. Said he: "And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude . If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, [and] give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow sufferers.... This is the tendency of all human governments." (The Making of America , page 395) Sadly, with the makeup of our new administration and congress, it looks like we may be far down the road to fulfilling Jefferson's fears. Sincerely, Earl Taylor, Jr. P.S. Our seminars around the country are increasing in number and frequency. Click here to see if one is coming close to you or your friends.

National Center for Constitutional Studies

37777 West Juniper Road
Malta, ID
83342
US

Constitution Day

September 17th is Constitution Day!

We have several things that we use to learn and study about the most influential event in history...the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America. Take a look at these links:

• Constitution Center
• Constitution Day
• National Center for Constitutional Studies

We are going to watch the movie A More Perfect Union produced by Brigham Young University and I use this free Teachers Guide.

Happy Birthday Constitution!

Modern Day Revelation

I received this from a friend and felt it was important to pass along.



President Ezra Taft Benson also wrote a pamphlet called "The Proper Role of Government". I read this about 8 months ago and found it a powerful reminder of how far our country has come away from the original constitution. We are loosing many freedoms...without even realizing it. I believe this video is meant to remind us of the obligation we have to keep the constitution intact and to actively participate in our government.

Homeschooling 4 - 5 Kids

Adventures in Homeschooling! My sister-in-law, who also homeschools, is on mandatory bed rest for a few weeks. She is pregnant and there is a hole in the placenta. They lost a baby in August 2007 also. So, she is an at-risk pregnancy in a couple ways right now. I offered to take her kids for the next few weeks to homeschool along with my own. Sam was home because she had her wisdom teeth out (poor baby!) and she schooled right along with us, working on an online world history class and studying for her other classes.

It is easier than I though it would be. I feel comfortable enough in educating the kids that it was easy to find things for everyone to work on and they have a great time!

I used to stress myself out with complicated curriculum, both public online school and curriculum I purchased. Now I've worked to simplify our education by focusing on a good math program, classic reading materials, and the interests of the children in science, history, and PE. My children are becoming more focused on their own education and actually OWNING it, rather than doing it because they were told to. They chose their own reading materials from the classics list and from the racks at the local library. I have some unit studies and lapbooking materials for times when they just need a creative outlet to show what they are learning.

Here are what we are educating our children with right now:

• Teaching Textbooks - Awesome math program!
• Classics list #1 - Thomas Jefferson Education List
  
• Classics list #2 - 1,000 Good Books List (by grades)
  
• Old Testament Lapbook - (history)
  
• Book of Mormon Lapbook
  
• Discover the Scriptures - Book of Mormon & Life of Thomas S. Monson
  
• Science Kits - Electronics Snap Kit, Froguts, Astronomy for Kids, and the Science Channel.
• Kid's personal projects - Chris is working on a website and Gamemaker. Marly is working on knitting, cooking, and crocheting. Sam is sewing her clothes for an upcoming Pioneer Trek reenactment.