2008 Christmas Letter

Christmas Shopping

Jaden asleep in the van while we wait for everyone to come out of Pennys.

We left home after lunch to finish up our last Christmas Shopping. Waiting on paychecks had caused us to wait longer than usual to finish up our Christmas shopping.

Normally, I begin buying things here and there beginning in about September, so that I don't spend a lot all at once. This didn't happen since Rod has been unemployed.
I feel oddly unprepared for Christmas. Then we have had this nutty winter weather. I have always wanted a white Christmas. A couple of times we have gotten white thanksgivings, but not a white Christmas. Not that I can remember anyway.

Since today is the first really driveable day since all of this has begun, we thought we would go finish things up. Needless to say, its been a headache. Stores are out of things we should be able to buy. Traffic is almost intolerable. It took us over a half of an hour just to get to the mall in Burlington. Normally its just over five minutes!

Cranky kids. Julia won't follow or listen in the store. In the cart she goes. Crying ensues. Jaden wasn't being his noisy self. I asked if he was feeling ok. He says yes. Then I felt his forehead, the boy has a fever!

We finished at target. Went to cold stone for a treat. We all just needed something.... I had an old gift card for cold stone, so it meant good treat at no cost. The heater was broken in the store. Cold outside, cold inside and cold ice cream.

Home next to the real fireplace soundsHood about now!

Got us all loaded up after cookies and oreo and chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Rod loves peanut butter and ice cream. Good thing they are a good combo! Got Jaden tylenol for his fever.

One more stop at pennys. Need a couple of things for my dad. I didn't really want to take everyone in after target. Jaden didn't want to go in either. I have rod my list. So we are sitting in the car, and I'm texting in a blog on my blackberry. Technology has come so far....

Jaden has my coat, heater is on high and the poor little guy is sound asleep.

Well I guess that's all for now. I'm thinking rod and the other kids should soon be done. And then we will be headed home! Tonight we put up the fake tree, normally we do real ones. And I guess ill wrap a couple of presents.

Happy Shopping to you!

South Family Adoption

This morning rod and I and the kids ventured out in the snow, with chains, to go to the Mount Vernon courthouse!

Bobby and Cindy south were officially adopted today! We all had tears in our eyes...

We were there, the Souths, the Dahls, Grandma and Grandpa. I felt priviledged to witness a real adoption, of kids I have grown to love.

How the lord must feel seeing children adopted into a good home. It must be something like when we are adopted into Gods family!

Congratulations Bobby & Cindy SOUTH!

Zindra

Trying out blogging by phone

Times Tales Review

Teaching my kids times tables is something that up until now I have left to text books.

Recently, I introduced Times Tales by Trigger Memory Systems into our homeschool curriculum.

Previously, Josiah, my 10 year old, could do multiplication, but it was not easy or quickly for him. He also has very little experience with division. Jedediah, my 7 year old, has had little or no exposure to multiplication or division.


Times Tales is a program that uses a mnemonic method, or memory triggers (like stories & pictures), to help students remember the seemingly unrelated information of Multiplication and Division.

It comes with an instruction manual, flash cards, a game, worksheets and a flip chart. The flip chart is a series of little stories that each go with a drawing, consisting of memory triggers. The instruction manual is a companion to the flip chart that is easy to use.

I followed the instructions from the manual. They each did a pretest (wanted to compare before and after results). We read through the stories a couple of times, and the boys then retold the stories with the picture prompts. Then, we practiced with the flashcards and later had them take the test.

Josiah, the older, who has had plenty of exposure to multiplication went from 13/16 pretest to 16/16 post test.

What I was really quite surprised by was how my 7 year old son Jedediah responded to the Times Tales system. Before Times Tales he had little or no exposure to multiplication. Jedediah went from from 3/16 on the pretest to 13/16 on the posttest. Now that's quite an improvement!

For Jedediah the memory triggers really worked for him. While working on his test, when he was stuck, instead of helping him with the answers, I asked him to think about the stories that we have read and told him that that would help him answer the questions. It really works!

For $29.95 I would recommend Times Tales to a friend who is looking for a painless way to introduce multiplication and division to their children. The pictures are fun and the stories are simple, and easy to remember, which I think is the key. Even a young elementary student could remember the stories.

What I really like about this system is that the students are learning without realizing that they are learning!

I would recommend this to homeschoolers or families with children with learning disabilities. It is a program that I will use with all four of my children!

Click HERE to see a sample lesson at the Times Tales/Trigger Memory Systems website.