Reading About Heroes of History and Faith: the Sower Series

Not only do we drink tea or eat popcorn while we read...  We also love to draw and paint!  This week served as a fresh reminder that busy hands, help encourage focused minds...

As I mentioned last week, we are reading about Johannes Kepler.  It is a pretty heady book, especially for the 4 and 6 year olds. Painting {and eating and drinking} help keep them interested!

I've always been a lover of books, especially older books where the history hasn't been re-written in order to erase evidence of Christian influences.  Even before my kids were born, I would scour used book fairs for out-of-print books that portrayed accurate history.

At the same time, I'm also a big fan of the library.  I love free books and not having the responsibility to store all of them. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by many of the books and videos we found this last year during our study of early American history.

My kids loved the Liberty's Kids DVD series. They are very patriotic and we enjoyed watching them every once in a while during our intense summer afternoons last year.  I couldn't help but feel a little sad that all references to faith had been removed.  It wasn't anti-Christian, but the silence spoke in profound ways. 

On a bright note, we found and fell in love with this children's biography about Nathan Hale.  It was easy enough that Xander was able to read it on his own last year and yet captivating enough that I ended up re-reading it to everyone.  We were thrilled that it included how he wrestled with his faith and the opportunity to spy for his country.  After he was captured and awaited trial, we were all inspired as we read of his unswerving faith in God and of his request to meet with a pastor and pray before the British carried out his execution.  It was such a cool opportunity to discuss with the boys how our faith plays a role in decisions we make.  In a culture that segments out faith from having any real impact on our lives, I find it is so important to intentionally wrestle with these issues and help our children see how they can apply their faith to everyday living.

This experience inspired me to be on the lookout for books that we could incorprate into our studies that delve into matters of faith and how that intersects with the calling God has given men and women throughout history.  That's why I'm so excited to share how much we've enjoyed reading books in The Sowers Series.  This series gives an engaging glimpse into the lives and accomplishments of these famous men and women and oftentimes uses direct quotes from their wrestling with integrating their faith and their vocational calling. My parents bought many of these books when we were growing up.  We enjoyed them as teens and I even borrowed the book about Susanna Wesley when I was in the thick of trying to find how time with the Lord was possible in the midst of mothering.

Now with our study of astronomy, Xander and I love reading about Johannes Kepler. These books are geared for 9-14 year olds, so they are a bit of a stretch for the younger boys, but they have provided us so much to talk about.

I plan on making sure we have every book in the series and look forward to incorporating them into our studies!  Our children are in desperate need of inspiring role-models and I love how they get to read, about the faith of so many important men and women. 

Check out the many biography options this series offers.  I promise, you won't be disappointed!

*Disclosure: this 'review' is entirely my own opinion, based on years of experience with these books and most recently our delightful last week with the Johannes Kepler book.  This post does, however, contain affiliate links.  Should you make a purchase after clicking one of these links, I receive a tiny commission that helps to support this blog and my book-buying habit.

Web Wonderings

I love how much information, encouragement and creative ideas are at our finger tips, thanks to the internet.  I found this video clip (If you can't see it, click here) when we were learning about the Armor of God last October.  I think I've watched it at least 15 times and have been inspired each and every time.  I just had to pass it along to you.

Speaking of the Armor of God, OhAmanda started a series on exploring this with her kids.  It is already chock full of wonderful ideas and inspiration to have these kinds of important spiritual conversations with your kids.  You can check out her introduction here.  She explores the Belt of Truth not once, but twice.  It is a series worth following!

I'm also so excited about the launch of Karen's new blog, Bible Based Homeschooling.  She describes what it looks like in her introductory post.  I'm pouring over her free Bible resources for the Kindle post right now!

Is anyone else out there homeschooling in the midst of sleep deprivation. {Raising hands like a looney lady over here.}  Poor Greta is either having horrible teething pain or a food intolerance flair because she has struggled these past few nights.  I've had to be extra mindful of my attitude and reaction in the midst of normal life with the boys...  So I found myself so encouraged when I read Megan's guest post over at So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler on the topic.

And finally, we are loving our foray into a study of the seasons (mostly for the 4 year old's benefit) and astronomy {have you seen our Astronomy Pinterest Board?}.  My poor guys are pretty confused on the whole fall/winter thing since in the last several weeks we've had the last of our leaves turn and fall from trees here in our desert home... Here was their initial assessment of what months go with what season here in Arizona.  Can any fellow Arizonans relate?

We've had fun exploring poetry as I help my four year old understand things like 'snow', 'frost' and stereotypical 'fall'.  So with poetry on the mind, I was super excited to find Stephanie's post on 10 Ways to Inspire our Children with Poetry.  I pinned it and am implementing some of her wonderful ideas!

Teatime Talk and Popcorn Reading

Any other tea drinkers out there? Winter weather, even here in the Arizona desert, has a way of bringing out the teapots.  In this B.O.Y. heavy house, I try every once in a while to help civilize them.  My husband just rolls his eyes.  I look at it as a way to not only prepare them for marriage one day {ever seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?}, but also help bring in a little balance as their sister gets older.  Poor Greta, at 16 months, is already wondering around the house with a toy 6-shooter making 'pshhh' sounds.  She is in serious need of some genteel influence...

As we've embarked on our morning Bible study using The Dig, we've added 'tea-time' to the mix.  Our favorite right now is peppermint tea.  My busy young boys need something to keep their hands busy, so that their minds can listen and engage in our study. Tea-time is perfect for short sessions like this.

{They loved wearing their Safari hats in fitting with the theme of our devotional...  And my boys get their sense of humor from their dad - hence the mocking of 'dainty' manners.}

I'm a big fan of pulling out REAL tea cups.  I think it is good for them to have some experiences where they need to execute great care with things. Tea cups certainly fit the bill for that. Of course it always comes with a reminder to be so very careful.  The four year old is repeatedly told that he is excused from his normal chore of clearing the table afterwards. I can just picture him tripping on his way in to the kitchen and my beautiful china shattering everywhere.  Although after Skypping with my sister and her kids this weekend and seeing K2's effect on their tiny teapot, I'm having second thoughts...

As an aside, I never thought I would be a Kindle convert since I just love the feel of real paper in my hands.  But I have to say that I'm loving it more and more.   

For our afternoon reading time, we pop popcorn.  Remember when I posted about Popcorn in the Park and shared our Kettle Corn recipe?  We eat popcorn pretty much ALL the time now.  I blame it on my limited diet last year when I was gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, peanut-free, soy-free, etc... 

Well, this last August, I began playing around with blending my love of popcorn and chocolate.  Hence our obsession with chocolate popcorn.   While we normally go for plain popcorn with some butter and nutritional yeast added, we love our chocolate popcorn so much that the boys wanted me to share our recipe with you!

• 1/4 c coconut oil
• 1/8-1/4 c sugar {I've worked us down to 1/8 c. It is NOT sweet enough for Rich this way, so sometimes we add more!  I've also added a few drops of vanilla stevia we have!}
• 1/8 c cocoa powder
• 1/2 c popping corn
• salt to taste

We heat the oil in our stove-top popcorn maker and add two kernels. Once those pop, pour in the rest of the corn, sugar and cocoa powder. Stir regularly until it is all popped. When finished place in a bowl and add salt for that delicious blend of chocolate, sweet and salty!  

If you are making this for read-aloud time, be sure and reserve some for yourself, otherwise they will devour everything and you will get nothing.  Trust me on this!

So what are we reading right now?  Earlier this month we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  It was an amazing experience.  This last week we started reading a book about Johannes Kepler.  This is a bit of a stretch for the two younger boys {popcorn helps here}, but Xander and I are loving reading about this man's great faith in God, his love for science and his willingness to ask questions and challenge the status quo.

What are you reading right now?

 

* some affiliate links included.

But WHY Shouldn't We Look at the Sun?

I'm a 'why' person.  That is probably one of the main reasons why I ended up studying biology in college.  It is why I ended up with my research and teaching position while an undergrad.  Ha, ask enough questions and they'll invite you in to ask even more... I love to ask 'why'. 

Now in the midst of mothering and teaching my children, I get to be on the receiving end of the 'why'.  It is challenging for sure and yet something about it is so exciting.  I know how important it is to foster that curiosity and desire to know why.  Once stoked, the fires of curiosity will fuel life-long learning.

As we embarked on our astronomy explorations, I embraced the barrage of questions, asking a few of my own.  This week we've been reading about the sun.  It is one thing to read about how powerful the sun is, it is quite another thing to actually SEE it.

A few days ago, we read of how damaging it can be for us to look at the sun.  I could see my almost 5 year old get that look in his eyes as I read.  He wanted to go try and see for himself.  The 8 year old, my cautious one, was wise enough to ask why.  Instead of relying on 'because the book said so', I grabbed a magnifying glass while the boys found a few leaves that hadn't been hit by our big freeze earlier this month and we proceeded to head outdoors to test the powers of focused sunlight.

I reminded them that we have a lens in our eyes, much like this magnifying glass that it focuses light and images for us.

{photo credit: wikipedia}

 So what happens when we focus sunlight into one small spot?  FIRE!  For real.  Do I know how to make boys happy or what?  Of course now I need to make sure and hide the magnifying glass from the preschooler.

Greta wasn't too into making fire, but she sure loved playing with acorns and hanging out with us during our experiments...

While the older two certainly understood the lesson here {don't look at the sun}, I wasn't entirely convinced that the youngest understood the ramifications.  We we embarked the next day to make 'eyeball' cookies.  In this case, they made snickerdoodles and we plopped chocolate kisses {that are who knows how old} into the middle upside down.

Once our cookies were finished, we popped them in the freezer to chill before taking them outside to see what would happen to our eyes when the magnifying lens concentrated sunlight.  They understood and were begging me to stop the experiment before we totally ruined their rare cookie treat!

It's days like this when I am reminded how special it is to stay home with my kids and learn along side them!

10 Tips for Helping Your Picky Eaters

Oftentimes, someone will tell us how 'lucky' we are that our children eat so well.  But the fact is, luck has NOTHING to do with it.   It's taken a lot of hard work, consistency and a little creativity thrown in as we've encouraged them to venture out and try new things.

But we weren't always here... 

Wide-eyed and new to this whole getting-a-toddler-to-eat thing, I remember asking an experienced mama her secret to getting all 5 of her boys to eat just about anything she put in front of them, including lots and lots of veggies. 

Her simple response: "I expect it."

I was left scratching my head a little.  This seemed daunting, but we were determined to work on it.

Now four kids later, they will eat nearly everything that we put in front of them...  because we expect it!

While there are still days that they begrudgingly eat, go on an eating strike and/or complain, it has been fascinating to watch them acclimate and actually enjoy eating healthy, nourishing foods with gusto. 

Today I'm going to explain how we got here and how we are continuing help our children cultivate a taste for healthy food!

So without further ado, here are my top 10 tips!

 

1. Expect It!

Ok, ok, I just told you I would give you more than this, but it is important to have the end goal in mind. What do you expect?  You are the parent.  And yes, you can and should expect them to eat what you offer. Our children will rise to our expectations. 

2. Small Portions!

When introducing a new food, we start with small portions.  They are required to 'try' it.  Our children each have preferences.  While we try to honor these to some extent, we've also taught them that they need to take at least a few bites.  We try to make this fun by issuing our boys the challenge of 'training their tastebuds' just as an athlete would train.

3. Give Them Better Choices.

If you were to ask my children if they would rather have a carrot or a cupcake, they'd take the cupcake each time.  The key here is to empower your children by giving them choices that are a win-win.

What not to do: Would you like a carrot or goldfish for your afternoon snack?
How about:

• snack time: "Would you like pepper strips, carrots or cucumber slices?"
• after dinner dessert: "Would you like an apple or an orange?"
• oh, you're still hungry: "I have sliced veggies in the fridge."

My boys, even at their tender young age eat A LOT.  We've already been eyeballing our food budget and preparing for the teenage years.  While we set limits on carb foods and even fruit, there is an open-fridge policy for fresh veggies!

As I shared a few years ago, we've had great success in the veggie department when we are out and about.  For some reason, when we go to the zoo, they have voracious appetites.  Since veggies are the only snacks I pack, except for an occasional piece of fruit, they've acclimated to pounding enormous quantities of veggies in the form of red pepper strips, carrots, cucumber slices or peas.  Even if they are not currently into those veggies at home, I've found that if that disappear quickly when that is the only option on the road.

4. Give them a Reason: Nutrition Education

It must be the homeschooler in me, but just about EVERYTHING in life becomes an opportunity to learn.  And that is certainly the case here.  We really hit a turning point in their attitude towards food when we equipped them with the 'why' behind nourishing food!  We fell in love with Dr. Sears book, Eat Healthy, Feel Great.  It has been read over and over again.  They actually understood 'why' we should put good food into our bodies and the concepts of food that helps them GO (and what boy does not want to GO), foods that slow us down and foods that stop us.  I blogged about our nutrition learning adventures with this fun book that literally had my kids begging for broccoli.

Long-term, if we want them to own healthy eating choices (or any choices for that matter) we really need to give them a reason to embrace good decisions beyond just 'because I said so.'

 

 

5. Eat to Learn-Learn to Eat  

I'm a big fan of engaging the senses during our homeschool adventures and that includes our taste buds!  I always try and play up the adventure and encourage them to at least 'try' it!  We've eaten George Washington's breakfast, foraged in our suburban neighborhood so that we could make pancakes out of mesquite pods and eaten Chinese, Mexican and Indian foods as we travelled the world during our geography unit.  While we've had a few flubs, these kinds of culinary explorations usually pay off.

 

6. Let Them Help

This powerful option was on full display tonight as I was getting ready for dinner.  My four-year old is all about helping me in the kitchen right now.  He loved peeling the carrots and pretty soon his brothers were peeling too so they could all have a pre-dinner snack.  Peeling is a great motor skill for those preschoolers of ours and a wonderful way to get them invested in the process.  They still love making cucumber boats and sailing them right into their mouth and down into hungry tummies! We're also big fans of the apple-ring sandwiches!

I've been convicted in this area a lot recently and it has been paying huge dividends as let them do more in the kitchen.

7. Make It a Competition

Now I'm not sure how this would fare with the girls in your family, but our boys thrive on competition.  I used this to my advantage a couple of weeks ago when I was trying to unload the rest of the broccoli.

Mom: Who wants another serving of broccoli.
Boys: "me"
               "not me"
                     "not me"

Mom {in a moment of brilliance}: "Fabulous.  Xander and I will definitely out-race you both   tomorrow after eating our extra servings of green-light foods!"
Boys: no comment, just a mad rush to claim rest of broccoli!

We've used many a variation on this theme!

8. Find Fun Names

When my boys were really young, Rich and I found that much of our sons pickiness was mental and if we were creative in naming foods, we could circumvent his picky inclinations.

So we eat

• Snowball Soup
• Cowboy food  {finally got past the squash aversion with this one} 
• cheesy triangles -cheese crisps
• trees-broccoli {actually this didn't fool him when he was young, but it has been quite effective with our third born.}
• flaming swords - red pepper strips

And our newest one we want to try: "Rabbit Food".  A friend of mine told me her kids all gather around pretending they are bunnies and nibble on bits of romaine lettuce.  I'm intrigued!

Of course, sometimes even the best plans can totally flop.  My kids still don't like raw cabbage, even when it came to creating boats.  While not full-proof, this can still be quite effective.

9. Have a Plan

My personal nemesis when it comes to eating better as a family is having a plan.  Since I'm busy with homeschooling and everything else, I'm usually too tired to even think come dinner time.  The habit that has saved me is creating a meal rotation to take the 'think work' out of dinner prep.  I have a 6 week spring/summer plan and a 6 week fall/winter plan. It has made life easier and we actually eat something for lunch other than pb&j from time to time...

10. Try, Try Again...

And finally, it is important to keep on trying.  It can be discouraging at times, but it has been neat to see our persistence paying off!   If you keep offering them good food choices, they will acclimate. 

This is still a work in progress for our family, especially now that we have a toddler in the house again... I'd love to hear what has worked in your home.  I'm always looking for new tips!

linking up with: Hearts for Home

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Memories are still quite vivid of my mom repeating this mantra to me over and over again during my homeschool journey as a child.  Whenever I would be tempted to give up or frustrated, she would start reciting this little poem until I found myself doing it without her prompting.

That habit still remains.  Thanks mom, although back then I never imagined I would be saying it...

I've found it more than applicable during these motherhood years which makes me wonder if she spoke that poem as much to herself as she did trying to help us embrace that mindset.  Because much of motherhood, for me at least, is trying to wrap my brain around each of my beautifully unique children.  Which boils down to a whole lot of try, try agains... It would be far easier if they were all the same.  But I guess it is a lot more exciting this way, right?

Today, I thought about this poem as it applies to the area of shaping our children's tastes for good, nourishing food.

Last year, my sister shared this A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Kale/Butternut Squash/Pomegranate salad.  It quickly vaulted to the top of my most favorite salads.  It tastes like candy - except in a good for you, salad kind of way.  It makes a huge batch (partially because I triple the amount of kale and double the dressing).  The true beauty of this salad is that it is tasty with the warm, roasted butternut, but it also is great eaten as leftovers over the next several days. A salad that gets better with age? Why yes, it does!  This is perfect for my busy mom life because oftentimes, I tend to take care of myself last.

My boys aren't crazy about kale, or butternut squash.  They eat it because we expect them to.  But although the pomegranate really weirded them out the first couple of times I offered it to them, they grew to love it! I have a hard time keeping little fingers out of the bowl as I get it ready!

Which reminds me of the poem.  If at first you don't succeed; try, try again.   It is a great mantra to use when introducing and re-introducing new foods to our kids.  Just as in marketing where it takes, on average, 7 contacts between a buyer and seller before the buyer feels comfortable enough to do business with the seller {The Rule of 7}, we need to be offering good food to our kids over and over and over again.  Low and behold, chances are they might just learn to like it.  And even if they don't learn to like it during childhood, there's still a good chance they'll grow into it come adulthood.  My mom told me that would happen with bell peppers, mushrooms and onions.  Despite my vehement childhood denials, her predictions came true.  Now beets.  blech.  still.

So take heart and be sure to try, try again!

 

How to hide a mullet.

Word on the street is that adorable {tiny} pigtails are the best way to hide a baby mullet.  Being new to all things girly, I took that piece of advice to heart and have been anxiously awaiting the moment when there was just enough hair to tuck into little piggies!

I'm smitten.  Now I just need to practice some more, because in the short car trip afterwards, much of it proceeded to fall out.  I love being a girl mom.  I'm hoping that the tiny pigtails {eeek} will finally clue people in as to her gender. Last week, we had inquiries at the grocery store as to whether or not I had four boys or if the baby might possibly be a girl.  A married couple were having a debate about it. {10-1 says the husband was thinking boy}  Mind you, she was wearing this purple polka dot shirt with ruffles on the front and cute silver boots. :sigh: