Author Archives: Betty Jo

About Betty Jo

I'm Betty Jo, a wife to my knight in (not so) shinning armor for nearly 22 years. We have 5 kids and another one that currently lives with us. We have been Christian home educators for 18 years with 8 more (at least) to go.

Fixing My Gaze

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I’m distracted and tired. I am over-committed. Our house is a mess. I have one of the longest to-do lists I’ve ever had. We have more than our usual amount of extra activities on the calendar. We only have five weeks left in our homeschool year and much more I still need to teach. I am beginning to feel overwhelmed. That is not a good feeling.

I talk to my Father about it all. I ask Him for wisdom. I ask Him for peace. I ask Him for help. He answers me. Proverbs 4:25, “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.”

Looking straight ahead I see overload. What is in front of me that I’m gazing at is simply too much for me hand handle. I need a new plan of action.

This means I’ll have to say “no” to some activities, and saying “no” is very hard for me. I’ll have to make two new to-do-lists, one of only priorities, and one to-do-someday. We will take a few days off from our school work next week so I can get that priority list taken care of and get the house in better order. This will add another week to our school year, but we’re homeschoolers, so it’s ok to do that. It’s not going to be easy or fun, but I know it will be what is best.

How do you handle overload? I am open to suggestions.

betty jo

Autism – I Am Aware

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His head was a little bigger than my other babies. His grip on my finger wasn’t tight. As he reached the ages for certain milestone developments,(holding his head up without support, sitting, crawling, walking, speaking, etc), he wasn’t doing what baby experts said he should be doing. He had digestive issues. He would rarely make eye contact. He did not seem to feel pain to the degree that others did. Sometimes, he would get so frustrated he would bang his head. Sometimes he would drift away as if he wasn’t even aware of whatever was going on around him.

You’re reading about my J9. He is somewhere on that rather large autism spectrum. He has no middle ground. He is either joyful or mournful, hyper or asleep, loud or silent, all for something or completely against it. If he is interested in something it is obsessive, and if he is not interested in something he will pay it no attention whatsoever.

I saw this posted on a social media site today:

This describes my J9. He does not care what anyone thinks of him. He does not ever try to be popular or win approval. J9 is mentally free.

J9 is quite charismatic, and others, even strangers are drawn to him. He gets more hugs from his siblings, father, and me than the rest of us put together. His touch melts the heart. His laughter brightens the darkest of days.

I read an article a couple of years ago in which the author said her autistic son “thought so far outside of the box that he wasn’t even aware of a box to begin with”. That too describes my J9. For example, he sometimes cheers the sunset with the enthusiasm of a sports fan during a championship game.

J9 is smart. Really smart. His computer skills are amazing and natural. He learned phonics rules on his own and taught himself to read. His memory is outstanding. With homeschooling, he prefers to work independently. When he includes himself in a discussion he wants to know what the Bible says about it, or what my mother would think about it (she passed away before he was born). He is very interested in times and dates and is the most scheduled one in our home.

My J9 can also be funny though sometimes shocking. E17 had some girlfriends over to spend the weekend. J9 does not like to have company and was not happy about them staying with us, but we assured him that they would be spending most of their time in his sister’s room and would sleep in there. In fact he was still a little upset about that visit even after they left. A co-worker, a young man, came home one evening with A21. As he walked through the door, J9 started screaming, “You are not going to sleep with my sister!” We were laughing so hard we couldn’t even explain the situation to this young man.

As people all around the world become more aware of autism today, I hope someone will make sure they understand more than the disabilities and strangeness, I want others to be aware of the blessings of autism, too. There are many.

betty jo

April – More Than Showers

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Acts 14:17 “Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Many homeschoolers will be studying earth sciences this month. Ours included. We will be making a backyard weather station, planting some flowers, and doing some special projects and going on field trips for Earth Day.

April is more than a month for rain showers it is Autism Awareness month (around here, J9 makes sure we’re aware of the blessings of Autism every day). It is also Children’s Book, Jazz Appreciation, Global Child Nutrition, Poetry, and Frog Month.

As if these are not enough special themes to work into our monthly homeschooling plans, the April calendar contains many more special days, observances, activities, and historical remembrances. Here’s the complete list of what April offers for learning:

April 1-7: Explore Career Options Week

1 April Fools Day (posted links here: https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/03/31/foolish-studies/), 1st photo of the sun (1845)

2 Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, Hans Christian Anderson born (1805)

3. Washington Irving born (1783), 1st Pony Express (1860), Jane Goodall’s birthday (1860)

4 School Librarians Day

5 Read a Road Map Day, Booker T. Washington born (1856)

6 North Pole discovered (Peary 1908), Raphael born (1483)

7 No Housework Day, World Health Day, National Dare Day, Metric System Day

8 Ponce de Leon born (1460), Dick Turpin born (1739), International Roma Day

10 National Sibling Day

11 National Submarine Day

12 Holocaust Remembrance Day, Drop Everything and Read Day, Paul Revere Day, Anniversary of 1st Space Shuttle launch

13 Guy Fawkes born (1570), Thomas Jefferson born (1743)

14-20 National Library, Astronomy, and International Whistlers Week

14 Titanic crash (1912)

15 Leonardo da Vinci born (1452), Jackie Robinson Day, Death of Abraham Lincoln

16 Wilbur Wright born (1867)

17 Ellis Island Family History Day

18 San Francisco Earthquake (1906)

20 National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day

21-27 National Coin Week, Safe Kids Week

21 Henry VIII became king of England

22 Earth Day, Jelly Bean Day

23 St. George Day, William Shakespeare born (1564), James Buchanan born

24 International Astronomy Day

25 World Penguin Day, Anzac Day

26 James Audubon born (1785), Pretzel Day

27 Freedom Day (So. Africa), Johannes Kepler born (1571), Ulysses Grant born (1822), Samuel Morse born (1791), Arbor Day

28 Poetry Reading Day, James Monroe born (1758)

29 Duke Ellington born (1899)

30 Vietnam War ended (1975)

There is absolutely no way we can participate in all that April offers, but if it has anything to do with Earth Sciences or Middle Ages history, I’ll be adding it in with our homeschooling studies.

April blessings,

betty jo

Foolish Studies

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Being Easter weekend, I’m a bit behind on working on our homeschool’s April activities and special days calendar. However, with tomorrow being April Fools Day, I wanted to go ahead and share these fun links.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/ (be careful with this link, not everything is “child appropriate”)

http://spoonful.com/april-fools-day

Easy April Fools Pranks for Family to do at Home

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/aprilfool/

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/april-fools-day/

http://www.education.com/results/?q=april+fools+day

http://www.sheknows.com/holidays-and-seasons/articles/827335/best-april-fools-day-pranks-for-kids (be careful on this site, it only has this one blog that is for kids the rest is not child appropriate)

Be on the lookout for more April study ideas coming tomorrow! No fooling!

betty jo

Silly Rabbit

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Speaking of silly rabbits…Z7 loves jokes. He reads joke books and writes them for for his homeschool language arts lessons whenever I will allow it. He loves to tell his jokes to his family, friends, neighbors, pastor, cashiers, and sometimes random strangers. Z7 performed a “stand up” comedy routine at our homeschool support group/co-op’s talent show, and was a hit!

This past week, Z7 has entertained us with cute Easter jokes. His favorites came from Activity Village. http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter_jokes.htm. We printed these and he put them in plastic eggs for his friends at today’s egg hunt.

Z7’s top 3 favorite jokes for Easter:

How does the Easter Bunny keep his fur neat? With a HARE brush!

Why did the Easter egg hide? He was a little chicken!

What of kind books do bunnies like? Ones with hoppy endings!

~~Hoppy~~ Happy Easter,

betty jo

“Good” Friday?

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1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.”

This is what is good about “Good Friday”.

betty jo

15 Today

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B14, (my middle child) is now B15. He celebrated his 15th birthday today. Wow, 15 years old! He and I skipped out on homeschooling today. We went shopping for a new tablet, out to lunch, then later stopped by our house to pick up the others to join our homeschool group for bowling (PE). Tonight we partied on with his favorite home cooked meal, chicken and dumplings, and chocolate cream cake with mini M&Ms.

Though all of that has been fun, my mind has been elsewhere. My thoughts have drifted back 15 years. I was pregnant with B when our family decided we were going to quit public school, (the oldest was in kindergarten). My pregnancy was our homeschool’s first science unit study, and his homebirth was our first science experiment. Though the kindergartener slept through all the excitement, my two year old daughter did not. She learned about design and empowerment, I learned trust, my husband learned to be a true “hands on” kind of dad, and B learned that he was safe, loved, and protected outside my womb. When we woke the oldest, he learned that babies make both families and hearts grow. We all learned about miracles. Miracles make the most awesome homeschooling lessons, don’t they?

On B’s birth announcement we quoted James 1:17a, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights”. You know his name really isn’t B, it’s Boone. Boone means “gift”. Yes, without a doubt, this boy, I mean young man, is a gift from God.

betty jo

Teaching Hope

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(Click on the image to enlarge)

Our homeschool is finishing up our Holy Week studies and getting ready for Easter Celebrations. But in the midst of our studies we are reminded of that sweet baby’s birth we celebrated just a few months ago. And we are reminded of the “whys” He came down from Heaven. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth”, John 1:29

We made our own Resurrection Eggs from these free printables from http://www.lapbooklessons.com/ResurrectionLapbook.html.

And we are ready to put the final touches on our Life of Jesus timeline. The last days and hours of our LORD’s life are difficult for me to teach. And I think that these lessons are difficult for the kids to learn about, too, especially for my older kids. I’m not going to “sugar coat” or skip over anything with them.

Of course Jesus’ timeline doesn’t end on the cross, or even in the sealed tomb. In fact, His timeline doesn’t end at all.

This Holy Week, I’m teaching HOPE!

Here’s a video of a song we’ve been listening to.

betty jo

Blogging On Sunshine

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I had a “comment” notification on my blog dashboard. It was from Especially Made. She wanted to tell me that she has nominated Still Learning Something New for this:

The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The recipients of the Sunshine Award are: “Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogsphere”. The way the award works is this: Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. Answer questions about yourself. Select 10 of your favorite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they have been awarded the Sunshine Award!

Cue the music while you read the rest:

“The way the award works is this: Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them. Answer questions about yourself. Select 10 of your favorite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they have been awarded the Sunshine Award!”

THANK YOU, Especially Made, you have no idea how much your nomination encouraged me. Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds”. I’m still feeling nervous and insecure about this new “bloggy thingy”, and I struggle with my recovery from a rather bad case of computerphobia. You strengthened me.

Here are the questions and my answers:

1. What inspired you to start blogging? I blog in a response to sermon challenges of getting out of my “comfort zone”, “casting nets in deeper waters”, “not forsaking the teachings of my youth”. The list is long.

2. How did you come up with the name to your blog? I really am learning something new every day.

3. What is your favorite blog to read? I’ve thought about this, and I honestly cannot choose a favorite.

4. Tell about your dream job. My dream job is exactly what I do now. However, I would add another baby or two, and it would pay a 6 figure yearly income!

5. Is your glass half empty or half full? My glass is empty. I drank it to avoid any debate.

6. If you could go anywhere for a week’s vacation, where would you go? I would love to see the Amazon Rain Forest!

7. What food can you absolutely not eat? Ramen noodles. My boys like them but I can’t stand them.

8. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate? Milk chocolate.

9. How much time do you spend blogging? I’d have to guess 2 – 3 hours. I work on my blogs a little here and there all day.

10, Do you watch TV and if so, what are some of your favorite shows? I like Psych, Swamp People, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, and Blue’s Clues.

And here’s 10 of my favorite blogs which I am nominating for their own Sunshine Award.

http://especiallymade.wordpress.com/about/

About

http://jonlilley.com/about/

Who We Are

http://parentingandstuff.wordpress.com/

http://seven2heaven.wordpress.com/about/

http://kingcohl.com/about/

Bio

http://beccascottage.wordpress.com/about/

101 Things about Us

And now, my acceptance speech. I would like to thank the little people, J9 and Z7, and thanks also to the not so little people A22, A21, E17, and B14 for giving me things to blog about.

betty jo