Making New Year's Resolutions with Your Children
By Heather Idoni
Added Thursday, December 31, 2009
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The Homeschooler's Notebook
Encouragement and Advice for Homeschool Families
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Vol. 10 No 92 December 31, 2009
ISSN: 1536-2035
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Copyright (c) 2009 - Heather Idoni, FamilyClassroom.net
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IN THIS ISSUE:
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Guest Article
-- Making Resolutions
Helpful Tip
-- Drawing/Writing Skills
Winning Website
-- Science Simulator
Reader Question
-- Animation Classes?
Additional Notes
-- Newsletter Archives
-- Sponsorship Information
-- Reprint Information
-- Subscriber Information
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Guest Article
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Making New Year's Resolutions with Your Children
by Wendy Lindsey
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I wanted to share my opinion of the tradition of drafting up a
list of things to do better in 2010. Doing so could be a great
homeschooling activity -- but it could also be a huge time waster!
We all have those things we'd like to work on and goals we wish
to achieve; goal setting *is* entirely healthy and should be
praised! I don't take issue with this in the slightest. I think
the problem I see with creating New Year's resolutions has more
to do with how I see adults responding to their lists weeks into
the new year.
When we don't see our dreams realized -- fighting those cravings,
surrendering to television over walking around the block, or
finding writer's block day after day when trying to compose that
masterpiece -- our usual reaction is to ditch that list and wait
until next year! What are we teaching ourselves? What are we
telling our kids?
Promise me that if you're going to sit down with your kids and
create a New Year's resolution list together that you'll follow
the following guidelines:
1. Set realistic goals... after all, you'll still be you when you
flip that calendar page.
2. Give yourself some wiggle room. Again, you aren't likely going
to change overnight. When you've been dieting for 3 days and you
crave a Twix bar, it might not be the end of your diet to have one.
I mean, so long as it's just one.
3. Don't beat yourself up if you find yourself a victim of old
habits. If I knew how to change into someone else overnight I
would have done it a long time ago. Seriously! I've changed in
huge ways over the last 20+ years and in some minor ways over the
last 5 -- never overnight.
4. Recruit a friend or an accountability partner to help you stay
on track. If you're doing this with your children, you already
have one!
5. Smile! This is all positive. You're wanting to take better
care of yourself and those around you. You should feel proud that
you're healthy enough to set the goals, and yes... you can do it!
6. If you hit a road block... DON'T WAIT UNTIL JANUARY 1, 2011 to
pick yourself back up! I can't tell you how many times I've seen
people do that with diets. Trust me, there's really nothing magical
about January. In fact, where I live it's pretty unremarkable to
say the least. :-)
Okay... are we clear? Have fun with this! If you're not feeling
ready for battle, maybe set small goals like cleaning your bedroom
closet and keeping it clean all year. Hey, that's reasonable,
isn't it? Maybe you and your children could set a goal of making
your beds everyday, tackling a difficult subject, or spending more
time with the grandparents. If you want to teach them to reach
out to others, encourage them to save a bit of their allowance
each week for Harvesters or for a toy drive in the fall. Maybe
you could all save and adopt a family for Christmas next year.
Now you're thinking!
Happy New Year!
---
Wendy Lindsey is a Christian work-from-home mom to an 8 year old
boy and a 7 year old girl. She is married to an engineer and
lives in a modest little home in Kansas. :-)
Wendy's blog: http://www.thehomeschoolingblog.com/
Wendy's WAHM business: https://www.sendoutcards.com/wendylindsey
---
Do you have comments to share? Please do!
Send your emails to: mailto:heather@familyclassroom.net
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Helpful Tip
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Drawing/Writing Skills for Young Ones
"This is probably something some of you already do with your
young children, but since I'm in the middle of it right now I
thought I'd share this idea.
When each of my boys reached the stage of where they liked to
'draw' pictures and could speak some, whenever they finished a
picture I would talk about what they drew and write down on the
picture what they said.
Each of my children reached this stage at different times. One
child could write his name at 18 months, but another still wasn't
speaking or writing at 4. It's not something I pushed on them,
but came with their natural progression. If you give a child
crayons and paper eventually they'll put them together (as opposed
to putting them in their mouth!).
This skill accomplishes many things. One, it gives them wonderful
narration practice and helps them learn to express themselves.
Two, they see what you write and learn to recognize letters and
words and their importance. Three, it makes a great record of
the child's thoughts and abilities and is a great keepsake to
look back upon in the future.
Lastly, it is hilarious to see what they say and provides a lot
of enjoyment. What looks like a scribble on the page turns into
an elaborate scene of events with a variety of people and things.
I provided each child with a binder (or several binders!). After
they are done with their pictures, we hole-punch them and stick
each in the binder. My 3-year-old loves to get his binder off
the shelf and look at his pictures. Plus, (this is always a plus)
it reduces clutter and helps keep things organized."
-- Melissa in Louisiana
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Do you have an idea, experience, or tip to share? Please write!
Send to: mailto:HN-ideas@familyclassroom.net
=====================
Winning Website
=====================
Physics Simulations and More!
http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=My_Solar_System
In this orbit simulation above, you can build your own system of
heavenly bodies and watch the gravitational ballet! Set initial
positions, velocities, and masses of 2, 3, or 4 bodies, and then
see your creations orbit each other.
There are many other cool science simulations at the PhET website,
arranged by topic or by grade level. Most you can run right on the
website -- others you can download free to your computer.
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Last Issue's Reader Question
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"I have a child who loves animation. He had a class in a program
called Scratch and he fell in love ever since. I was wondering if
there were any animation classes on-line or out there that anyone
could recommend. Thanks." -- Renee
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Our Readers' Responses
=========================
"I don't have a class online for you, but MIT has a program he
can mess around with called Scratch. It's free and since he's
creative anyway, he may not need a class as much as practice.
The home page says 'Create and share your own interactive stories,
games, music, and art.'
That's what it is! It's really cool... and free!" -- Terri
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"Hi, Renee -- My son also enjoys using Scratch. He also recommends
Alice, an animation program developed by Carnegie Mellon.
Here are some links:
http://alice.org/index.php?page=what_is_alice/what_is_alice
http://alice.org/kelleher/storytelling/download.html
Side note: You may recall hearing about Randy Pausch (The Last
Lecture). He was a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer
Interaction and Design at Carnegie Mellon, and also served as the
Director of Carnegie Mellon's Alice research group, where he oversaw
the development of Alice." -- LC
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"I haven't looked into it, but there is a program called 'I Can
Animate' available from the Homeschool Buyers Co-op."
-- Sue
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"Timberdoodle.com offers the following software: CoreFx and Stop
Motion Animation.
Academicsuperstore.com offers many programs. On their website,
search for 'Animation and Modeling' for a list of animation
software." -- Chris
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Answer our NEW Question
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"I am having trouble keeping my oldest son, who is in 5th grade,
motivated to do his school work. I have tried everything. He is
not allowed any free time until his school is done, but he just
dilly-dallies and does not care. I do not want to punish because
I do not want him to have negative associated with school; it
should be fun. Any help?"
-- Stressed and discouraged in Florida
---
Would you like to offer some help for our reader in distress?
Please send your answer to: mailto:HN-answers@familyclassroom.net
=====================
Ask YOUR Question
=====================
Do you have a question you would like our readers to answer?
Send it to mailto:HN-questions@familyclassroom.net and we'll see
if we can help you out in a future issue!
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