Archive for the My Children Category

On Code Writing

Posted in Guests, My Children with tags , , on Friday, June 18, 2010 by Becky

When he came to me early this week saying, “Mom, may I post something on your blog?” I was super excited! So today, my Son, who loves to draw, and keep treasures and notebooks,the one who is always trying to learn something new, is my guest blogger.

Enjoy.


This is one of my son's drawings.

Codes can not only be used in Wars or Top Secret documents, but also in having fun. Even though codes are fun when using them, it is not that fun when you write them out for the first time. It will take a while, thinking of all the little symbols, and it also will take patience, because code writing is not exactly what some people would call “fun.”

There are easy, simple codes, difficult codes, and the third type, which I like to call “insane” codes. The first type, the G rated codes, are simple, easy to memorize, symbols. No upper or lower case; only one symbol per letter. This kind of code, of course, is the best one to start with when you are a rookie in code writing. It is painless but entertaining at the same time. The PG-13 rated codes are not easy; not at all. You have to write an upper and lower case for every single letter and use more crazy symbols. You think that’s all? No, there’s more “fun”! You also have to make a symbol for every single preposition, conjunction, and subordinating conjunction. If you just fainted, that’s a normal symptom. And finally, for the grand finale, I present you, the Beast; the R rated code; the dark side of code writing. Darth Vader. Not Luke Skywalker, not Obi Kenobi; Darth Vader. This code is vicious. The description can be resumed in thirteen words: make a symbol for every single word ever invented in the whole planet. If you have reached the doors of heaven, that’s a normal symptom.

To memorize your code, you can do it the boring, cheap way, or the fun, awesome way. The boring one is to sit on an old stool with your code in front of you and write the same letter or word over and over until you have memorized it. Then you move to the next one. Write, write, write, write, write. Memorize. Change to a different word or letter. Write, write, write, write, write. Memorize. Change to a different word or letter and so on! See? It is boring. The fun, awesome, party, cake-fight way is way better. You take a piece of paper and start writing with the code. If you don’t know a symbol, look for it in your code guide. The trick is to just keep writing and writing with your code. Eventually, you will have looked up the same word so many times, that you already will have it in your brain, memorized.

So code writing is always fun, no matter what type you use. So far, I have just used the PG-13 code, and have written 4 of them. But when you write a code and have memorized it, make sure you keep using it! At least once a day, just to always have it fresh; otherwise you’ll forget it. I say that from personal experience. And one last thing, if you ever do a VILE, R RATED code, let me know how it goes; I’m not doing one.

If you’re wondering how my “love” for codes started, ask my mom*, or memorize the Greek Alphabet.

*Mom here:
Just to let you know (in case you were wondering)
my son's love for codes started the year we studied
Greek!
And, of course, he is not displaying pictures of his
codes, because those are "top-secret"!

Summers are for Visiting Museums

Posted in Art, Friends, My Children, Traveling with tags , , , , on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 by Becky

My children know it, summers are the perfect time to visit our big city museums. Living in a big city has many inconveniences, but one of the great things about the big city is all the museums you can visit.

Visiting a  museum, for me, is a gift. I love to see and imagine the story behind the paintings, behind the objects. What was the painter thinking when he brushed each stroke of painting, sometimes so smoothly, others so thickly? Just standing in front of it and watching carefully the masterpiece, is a unique experience.

We have visited museums since my children were very little; every trip to a big city, they know, includes at least one visit to the major art museum. And this summer, we opened the vault with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

And it was a joy to see our little one, holding hands with her best friend, and walking with such an enthusiasm through it. We just studied this past school year, the Ancient World, and she was so excited to walk from one room to the other discovering what she had learned at home. Both girls loved the visit, enjoyed the walk, talked about the art exhibited, and all this holding hands, just as best friends do!

This summer, won’t be the exception, today we are heading to a new temporary exhibit entitled Moana, Cultures from the Pacific Islands; some of our friends are coming along and we are excited.

We will, again, discover things together.

Just an idea:
What we have done in past summers is visit one of the many galleries
of a big museum every week. When we finish with hat museum we
start with another. This has worked out great, because little children,
and those not so little, have benefited the most, and truly enjoy the
visit.
If you have little ones, do not be intimidated, take them too!
Short visits, and lots of talking afterwards will be great for them.
They will learn to love it!
And finally, I have this saying "A visit to the Museum is
never complete until you visit the shop and the café"

Enjoy your little ones, enjoy your journey; remember that all goodness comes from our Heavenly Father!

Books and Bikes

Posted in Learning at Home, My Children, My Thoughts with tags , , , , on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 by Becky

When the heavy load of school time is over, then he goes and takes out his calligraphy kit, his notebook and spends hours drawing, writing, inventing.

He goes to the bookshelf and takes out two books, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci  ,who will be (I can already tell), his best friend this summer and a huge one full of Leonardo’s paintings and drawings, and he enjoys this time;  and I see the fruit of a Classical Education at hand. He is following the masters, he has been exposed to them, he knows he can find the best teachers in the books around our home, and he enjoys doing so.

But his best teacher is his Dad, and  now his little sister comes and asks him to  ride her bike with him, he agrees, he has learned this from Dad. He always comes to him.

So Big-brother comes and teaches her to ride her pink bike without the little training wheels, and she smiles, and he does too. And behind the scenes, my older daughter captures the moment, she loves to do so. She comes out from the living room where she has been, behind the piano trying to play by ear a new favorite piece, and grabs the camera and follows the wheels, the smiles, the feet, the joy.

I smile, I have learned by God’s grace to love the simple things that happen in our daily lives. I am grateful, for there could be no other better place for me than this, my home, and God has given me grace to understand that.

I am excited that our summer is here; summer in our home is not meant to put the books away, but to take out our favorite ones again; summer is here and it is about enjoying our children’s play and capturing the moments and keeping them in our hearts.

A Mom’s Prayer

Posted in A Song to Sing, My Children, Prayer with tags , , , on Sunday, May 9, 2010 by Becky

Today I want to raise my voice to you O Lord,

I want to sing a new song before you. A gratitude song.

How can I thank you for allowing me the privilege to be called “Mom”?

Mom, the first word they said.

How can I thank you?

How can I thank you for making my body the place where your hands would knit beautiful beings on your own image?

Keep on reading here….

A Lie We Don’t Believe

Posted in My Children with tags , , , on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 by Becky

We haven’t ever believed this lie which people around us yell, defend, and hold as their banner:

“As soon as your children turn into teenagers, expect the worse, expect rebellion, expect un-respectful attitudes, expect unloving attitudes, expect big problems”

And this big lie has gained more and more followers, fans, advocates. We see how parents around us start believing this lie as early as those days when their children turn two years old. They just stop disciplining their children, because the “terrible two’s are here…and no one can do anything about that”.

By God’s grace my Beloved and I have never believed that lie. We have never expected from our children the “typical teenage attitude”. We have always expected a godly attitude from them, and please, do not take me wrong, we are not expecting perfectionism, we know they are as sinful as mom and dad. We know they are in the flesh, and have battles of their own, but that is part of what we do expect. Sanctification in our home is a word that is over the table.

We have, instead, believed God’s Word.

He has promised that our work will not be in vain, He is faithful to raise a godly generation for Him. We have disciplined our children, listening to His word, and godly advice from God-fearing men and women, not  to those who claim that the rebellion in those precious years is normal, is just what we should expect.

It just breaks my heart to see how some of the friends (from Church) that my children had when they were little, are not living in God’s Covenant, they are serving other gods, far from their home, from the Church… but sadly to say I heard their parents say long ago… “They are starting to act as teenagers,we knew this time had to come but one day it will all be  OK again”


Meanwhile, we are starting to reap the harvest, a beautiful lady and two young men sit at our table; they love each other, they hug and kiss mom and dad, they have godly friends, and most of all they fear the Lord.

May God give us the grace to believe Him, to believe and act upon His Word, and do not swallow those dreadful lies that the world wants us to believe.

Grace Upon Grace, a great blog entry on parenting by Douglas Wilson.

A Little Girl’s Saying

Posted in My Children, My Thoughts with tags , , on Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Becky

It happened again around the family table; the older ones had already finished their breakfast and were logging in their online classes.

I drank from my cup of coffee, and started to share with her how we ought to live each day knowing that we don’t know when the Lord will call us to be with Him. I shared with her how God sometimes decides that little children must die, at a very young age, even at six years old.

Her response: “Really? Really mom?”

And she snuggled close to me.

My prayer is that she will love the Lord with all her might, and grow up to be always hungry for Him, so she will never be afraid to die.


TOMORROW: FOLLOW MY FRIEND ELIEEN LAWYER, AS SHE SHARES WITH US “HOMESCHOOLING ONE CHILD”, IN THIS BLOG. She will be sharing about The Core of all Learning, and How to Do it.

Beautiful

Posted in My Children, Noble Words with tags , , on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 by Becky

The night has come, and my children are filling the air with their conversation, their song is heard, their music is once more being played.

Beautiful, O how beautiful is to have them around the table once again; their stories and plans are heard over and over.

Memories are filling the air we breath. We laugh, we miss so dearly, we whisper thanks.

Beautiful, our daily life.

Our coming and going.

Our chores and homework.

Our classes, given and taken, all beautiful.

This is our life, the life, not that we have chosen, but the one that He has written for us.

Our routine is where we find we need Him more.

And where we find Him more.

Our God, in our every day, in our simple life.

Under the sun…O how beautiful this is.

Every gift, every color, every perfect line,

every child, every laugh,

all the beauty that embraces us in our every day life,

is only shadow of what is yet to come

A reminder that True Beauty will come when we see Jesus face to face.

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