A Melodious Sonnet

Midweek Mix-Up — Pride and Prejudice and a Free High School Biology Curriculum

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Welcome to another round of midweek mix-up! I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past week, beyond a few breaks to do other necessary work and spending some quality sibling time.

Books I’ve been reading this week:

 

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea
Progress: 45% (last week: 24%)

This story has grown more interesting, and the romance thread has grown stronger, too. I’m taking the opportunity to study how romance books work, and will find it interesting to see how the story ends.

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by David M. Shapard

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by David M. Shapard
Progress: Finished.

I’m not a big fan of romance, but I loved reading Pride and Prejudice. Probably part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was because it’s an older book—I’m finding that classical literature has a glory all its own, even though it is hard to get into. I’ve also watched a movie based on the book before, and listened to a version of the story on LibriVox, as well, so it was interesting to compare the original story with my memories of the audiobook and the differences with the movie. The annotations for the story were very in-depth, providing a lots of interesting tidbits from Jane Austen’s life and letters, explanations of the social structure of the times, and many other fascinating facts and quotes about the story and the time period it was set in.

This isn’t a book for the faint of heart, though. At close to 800 pages long (the spine is just over 1 ½ in. thick), I highly doubt I ever would have gotten through it but for the fact that I had to read it as part of my school curriculum. In the end it was highly interesting, and all the notes make a study of the time period very informative.

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet & Geoff Benge

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet & Geoff Benge
Progress: 89% (last week: 55%)

I am loving Amy Carmichael. We have a Trailblazer book about her, but that only tells about her time in India. I’m really enjoying this glimpse into her life as a whole, and seeing how God worked through her to touch so many lives. Her life story is certainly a challenge to me!

Useful posts this week:

  • 24 Ways to Develop Your Muse — I’ve used a lot of these methods before—most of them unconsciously. But they are some of the best methods out there for ideas. I especially like #3—something that has proved very true for me!
  • Writing Out of an Era — So many tips in here for learning more about the historical period you are writing about! I am definitely going to try some of these next time I’m writing a historical novel—they sound so fun!
  • Discovering rare and interesting instruments — I’ve only heard of one of these six rare instruments before, so I found this post fascinating. This post would be very useful in teaching your children about different musical instruments, especially if they enjoy music. I think my favorite one here would be the Nyckelharpa—it has a beautiful sound!
  • Goal Setting for Beginners [Podcast] — This podcast (This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt) is always inspiring to me whenever I take time to listen to it. I enjoyed this quick refresh on Michael Hyatt’s goal-setting principles, and immediately after listening, I typed up this year’s goals into Evernote. I’m now planning to add a few “due-by” dates to some of them.

Resource of the week:

Otter’s Christian High School Biology Curriculum

Otter’s Christian High School Biology Curriculum

From the website:

Otter’s Biology is a FREE Christian biology curriculum that incorporates a free high-quality textbook, videos, tons of labs to choose from with a multitude of budget and interest options, living books, a free workbook & answer key, incorporated Greek & Latin roots vocabulary, an independent study schedule, and more! If you are a secular family or a family that believes in evolution, the schedule and labs will still work for you, too (more instructions concerning that are included below)!

This looks like a wonderful (free!) resource for high schoolers who want to study biology! The woman who put this together has a daughter who is a RN student, and she has consulted with her quite a bit as to what was helpful for her prep work, and what wasn’t so helpful. I will be looking into this further, because I believe it could be helpful to me in pursuing nursing as well, but you might find it useful too.

Midweek Mix-Up: 2 Books I’m Reading Right Now, and Tools for Writers

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How has your week gone so far? In this week’s version of midweek mix-up, I’m sharing a couple fascinating books I’m currently reading, and several useful resources for writers and homeschoolers.

Books I’m reading this week:

The Eagle, by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Eagle (previously Eagle of the Ninth), by Rosemary Sutcliff
Progress: 6% (page 18 of 192)

The story hasn’t really picked up yet, but I know it will get interesting, so I’m doing my best to persevere! I’m hoping to get through this one soon, so I can read its sequel—The Silver Branch—before we have to send it back to the library.

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet & Geoff Benge

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet & Geoff Benge
Progress: 55%

Mom bought this in audio form a while ago, and yesterday when I was uploading the review she wrote of the Christian Heroes: Then and Now Series, I was reminded of the fact that we have it. Since I hadn’t listened to it yet, and since I was doing work that could be done while listening to a story, I was delighted to do double-purpose here.

I’m loving Amy Carmichael’s story! I knew she was from Ireland, but hearing the different little tidbits of her early life—first, the family went from a life of upper-class richness to being too poor to go to finishing school. Then she had a call to do work for the Lord, and began working with the “shawlies”—young women who worked long hours in the factories. Later, she went for a brief stint of missionary work in Japan, and then became too sick to continue there. After that, she had to return to England to help an old friend, and had to recuperate from sickness herself. I never realized before how much sickness hindered her work—but despite that disability, she had an amazing drive and a beautiful vision to bless all those she met with Jesus’ love.

Useful posts this week:

  • Make the Best of How You Collide Into Others — Fascinating story of a car crash, and also a wonderful example of how fleeting and precious life is.
  • Christian Historical Fiction Books for PreTeens — This is a beautiful book list! I’ve read some of these books, and some of the others are ones I’d love to read.
  • The Write Life: Beat Writer’s Block, Increase Productivity and Maximize Your Word Count Every Day — A free ebook, in exchange for your honest review. I’m hoping to read this soon.
  • National Film Board of Canada: How to Build an Igloo (1949) — We watched this video over lunch time today, and loved it. I’ve always wondered how igloos were built, and this explained it—complete with cutting yourself out of your house once it was built! Even though the film is old, it was incredibly interesting.

Resource of the week:

30 Ultimately Effective Social Media Tools For Writers

Not only social media tools, though, but grammatical helpers, apps for helping you write better, and much, much more! Check it out—I think you’ll find it useful, just as I have!

Midweek Mix-Up: A Full Week, and Scripture Memorization

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Hello everyone! Welcome to this week’s version of midweek mix-up! I’ve had several full days of work this past week, so I haven’t had as much time to read as I had last week. That’s okay, though, because it’s good to learn that sometimes life just happens. This way, I have the chance to really appreciate the time I do have to work and read—even if it is less than I would ideally like.

Books I’m reading this week:

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea
Progress: 24% (last week: 15%)

The tension is rising. There is definitely going to be a romantic element in the story, but what proportion it takes is yet to be determined. So far, Gwyn has narrowly escaped death, had her worst fear realized, and is now hoping that a lie will get her across the channel to a semi-safe country.

Winterdance, by Gary Paulsen

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, by Gary Paulsen
Progress: Just finished.

Grandma read this onto mp3 for my brothers, and I just finished listening to it today. Technically, no, I didn’t read it—but it was close enough I think I can count it as actually having read it.

Winterdance is very well written. The story is about a man who ran the Iditarod—the huge dog race in Alaska. It tells of him starting with hardly any knowledge at all about dogs, or the race, or anything—and how he somehow blundered his way to Alaska and ran the race. Fascinating adventures, and apparently it actually is a true account.

There were a few words I wouldn’t use through the story, and Grandma said she did leave one paragraph out because of its content—the story was fine without it.

If I can get this book in print, I’ll definitely be reviewing it—it is a beautiful story of dogs, the relationships you can have with them, and a very humorous account of a rookie running the Iditarod for the first time.

Useful posts this week:

  • Conflict Vs. Tension – A Guest Post by Melissa Tagg! — Very encouraging! I love how she explained conflict vs. tension, and applied that to life as well as to writing. That note at the end was also very encouraging—somehow, involving God in everything we do really does add a lot of depth to our lives.
  • Submission – a Heart Matter — I especially loved this note near the end of the post: “…Personally, I know that my father doesn’t like us to wear the color black. He has never said ‘thou shalt not wear black’ but because that is his desire, we try to honor him in that.” I love seeing some of the small ways I, as a young woman, can learn to submit!
  • The Go Teen Writers Summer Writing Challenge and a Giveaway — This is partly a guest post, partly a challenge. The guest post part is pretty interesting—Lydia Howe (aka Aidyl Ewoh) is telling how she wrote 100 words every day for 1,000 days, and how we can do the same. In that time, she traveled to three different continents, published three books, and fought Lyme’s disease, along with other adventures. The challenge is designed to help you get some work done in the next three months. I’m seriously considering joining—I always find the Go Teen Writers challenges extremely helpful.

Resource of the week:

Ever wanted an easier way to teach your child memory verses? Say hello to FreeBibleMusic.com! The songs on here are free to download and use. There are three different artists that helped create this “Scripture song bank”—Abigail Miller (I love her music!), Buddy Davis, and Kirk Gable/the Kirk Gable Band.

FreeBibleMusic_screenshot

Out of the sixty-six books of the Bible, there are only twelve books that there are no scripture songs for: Ruth, 2 Kings, Ezra, Esther, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Haggai, Philemon, and 2 John.

Also of interest—there is a small section of stories for children on this site. These stories were apparently written and then acted out by Lydia Howe—the same girl who just passed the 1,000 day mark above—and her family. The twelve stories are roughly five minutes long each, and are fun adventures your children will enjoy.

Writers: What was the last writing challenge you participated in?

(For me, this would be Camp NaNoWriMo in April—I failed horribly.)

Midweek Mix-Up: Two Books I’m Currently Reading, and Queen’s Birthday

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Books I’ve read this week:

Completed books:

Here We Come, by Chautona Havig

Here We Come, by Chautona Havig

This book turned out to be just as exciting as the synopsis promised. For a while—probably getting close to half-way through—I was wondering if the story would ever deliver on the promise that “she’s faced with her worst nightmare”, when suddenly BANG it happened. I had been mulling over all the possible ways the worst could happen, and had come up with this scenario (except with a different person) so it wasn’t entirely a surprise. Even so, it was quite shocking and really made the story fun—although full of tension for a while there!

I also found it interesting to see how Chautona crafted the ending of the story, bringing the whole plot together in the end. It was also interesting to think about the fact that the first two books would have acted as the first and second acts, while this last would be the third act, which means in the end that this last book would be kind of like one HUGE climax. That would take some work to write, because having a several-chapter climax is one thing, whereas in this case it would be a one-book climax.

It was also fun to try to figure out the three acts in the individual books—and seeing how they fit into the overall plot. For me, this reinforced the fact that no matter what you write, no matter what part of the story it is—whether it’s a scene, a couple of chapters, or a whole act—everything can have three acts to it (set up, confrontation, resolution). Now, to apply that to my writings….

Books I’m currently reading:

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea
Progress: 15%

This story has proved to be very interesting so far! So far, I’ve met Lady Gwyneth, a short-sighted eighteen-year-old who’s trying to hide from the man who killed her parents. Then there’s Dirk, the man she knows killed her parents—although he says he didn’t. Add in an Iconoclastic raid on the small Catholic convent where she’s been hiding—the year is 1566—and Dirk trying to convince her to trust him enough to help her get out of the building alive, and that’s basically the premise of the story so far. I’ve really enjoyed the story so far, and look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by David M. Shapard

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by David M. Shapard
Progress: 224 pages read out of 755 (roughly 30%)

I started reading this as part of my school work—one aspect of my school is a literature course, and I’ve been reading some old classics through that. The book I read before this was a semi-annotated version of Oliver Twist that I loved!

I’ve heard a “dramatic” audio version of this story before from LibriVox, and possibly also a dramatized version we got somewhere for free, so this isn’t all new to me. Which is rather fun, because since I know the general direction of where the plot is headed it’s fun to see all the foreshadowing. This annotated version is also pretty helpful in that respect.

I have had lots of fun laughing at the bumbling, pompous Mr. Collins—who always seems to be talking about humility and money. It’s also interesting to see how Mr. Wickham tells Elizabeth of his past, skirting around some points that will be revealed later in the story. All in all, I’m enjoying the story again, and am looking forward to reading more.

Happening of the week:

Last Monday, Dad had the day off because of Queen’s Birthday—a public holiday here. Part of the work he tackled was to fix up a huge set of shelves Mom found, and get it into our garage so we can store our squash and pumpkins in a dry place—hopefully they’ll stay good longer this way.

Midweek Mix-Up Picture #1

“Before” picture—as things were being cleaned up. (Note to self: Do not attempt to take pictures while holding a wriggly baby. The result does not look very good.)

Before he could put the shelves in the garage, though, he had to clean out all the rubbish that somehow tends to collect there. We also had quite a few totes full of clothing being stored there, and those had to be taken out to the shipping container to make room.

Midweek Mix-Up Picture #3

The shelves must be around nine feet tall, and they’re HEAVY! Thankfully, Dad and my brothers were able to get them in without much trouble. I was babysitting little sis, and she wanted to eat my camera, so I had a hard time getting pictures as things happened.

Midweek Mix-Up Picture #2

Sadly, I didn’t get a picture of her with her mouth open.

The finished product, after the pumpkins were transferred onto the shelves.

Midweek Mix-Up Picture #4

“After” picture.

Useful posts this week:

  • The Free Planners for June 2015 Are Available — I’ve been using these planners for over three months now, and they’ve proved to be very helpful. With them, I can see my time blocks—how much time I have, how much I want to get done in that time, and how long I expect each task to take. I don’t use one of these every day, but I definitely use them 3 – 4 days a week.
  • Midweek Music XIV: To celebrate summer — I’ve been following this series for quite a while now, and I always enjoy seeing what Rebekah comes up with. This week was no exception. I love the classical style this piece has, even though it was written so recently. I think my favorite of the two videos would be the first, and I love the little part there at the end where the young man’s helpers pull out the stops—I’ve been curious to see how that’s done, ever since reading about it in A Murder for Her Majesty.
  • Season 4, Episode 2: Setting Up Camp in the Discomfort Zone [Podcast] — I enjoy listening to helpful podcasts when I can, and Michael Hyatt’s is always at the top of the list in the order of what I listen to first. His are the most helpful that I’ve come across so far. I especially found this episode encouraging—because I’m often in the position of the “discomfort zone”, and learning to enjoy it is a challenge.
  • A Year of Reading Challenges for Kids — Since I don’t have many articles this week, Mom sent this to me to include. Looks interesting—something I’d like to try one year!

Resource of the week:

Smallpdf

Smallpdf Screenshot

Smallpdf Screenshot

I use this free online tool a LOT. Most of the time, I use it to merge files, but I also have used the PDF to Word tool—which worked very well. This is very fast as far as upload time, and also converts quickly. I also like the fact that I don’t have to enter my email address in order to get my things converted. Overall, this is a very nifty tool, one that I highly recommend for all your PDF needs.

New book reviews this week:

What books have you been reading lately? Have you read Pride and Prejudice before?

Have a great week!
Esther

Your Three-Year-Old Can Write, part 2: Examples

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We’ve established the fact that teaching writing to your children from an early age is important. Today, I’d like to give you a few examples of what my young brothers write about, and how your youngsters can write too.

Your Three-Year-Old Can Write, part 2: Examples

Photo courtesy of Pixabay/Efraimstochter | License: CC0 1.0

Tip #1: Ask Them to Tell You About a Recent Experience

Sometimes, a story can spring from a simple life experience. In the following story, my brother was telling what he saw when we went to visit a local zoo called Willowbank.

We going to Willowbank and we go into the office. We see eels at Willowbank. I see ducks. I feed ducks bread. They ate it all gone. The monkey was going up to the branch and up to another one branch, one, two branches. That long branch! There were chickens in the chicken pen. —J, two and a half years old

Tip #2: Write Down Their Imagined Stories

Sometimes, my brother will come through with a story to tell to whoever will listen to him. This was a product of one of those occasions—when Mom was able to write it down. Obviously, she did not edit—she just wrote it as he told her. Right now, it may not make a whole lot of sense—but it will definitely be fun to read in years to come!

A man was taking a walk with his dog and he was walking on the road with his dog and he was going to motels and he was going into motels watching motel clean the living room up with the vacuum and vacuum his garden up and taking a walk with his dog and the daddy dog died and humongous bushes and there was a lion in the bushes. —N, three years old

Just for fun, here’s another example:

I was walking through the woods one day. A bear jumped out of the forest, and I speared it. I had flint and steel in my pocket, and I started a fire. I had forked sticks up on top so I could dry the meat and the skin. I made metal forked sticks out of flat sticks of steel. And I had that bear for my tea. It tasted like cow meat.

I went out diving one day, and speared a shark. I had a string so I could tie it onto the tail. I pulled it to shore. Then I speared a seal. I chucked it into the sea, and the other sharks ate it. I washed my hands, and I went back to the forest.

Another bear jumped out at me. I was dragging the whale still. I speared the bear, and I put it in my small freezer. It wasn’t very small. I chopped off feet. I was close to a sea. I chucked them in the sea, and the sharks ate them. —J, four and a half years old

Tip #3: Let Them Tell About Their Daily Life!

In this next example, my brother reiterated his daily life. Obviously, this was how he said it then–fun to compare with how he talks now.

… Sheep is going in paddocks when I chase them. I chase your cow, Mom. I chase Mom’s cows when they go in cow’s water. I go home. I am sweating over the place. I go in the house. Daddy is coming home after lunch. When I come I eat glue. … I can taste really good. I not taste it. I go to the pen and wait for the boys to get done getting the cows. When they come they go running. They go running lot of times. They scream. —J, two and a half years old

Tip #4: Ask Them What They’d Like to Write About

In the following example, my brother asked to watch a video about lions. Mom found one on Youtube for him, and he based this piece on that.

I want to write about lions. They jump. And they jump onto the rocks. They eat animals. They save baby lions. They play with little lions. They sleep a lot and baby lions sleep a lot. They eat giraffes and zebras. And kill animals. —N, three years old

Tip #5: Encourage the Different Forms of Writing They May Choose

This poem was not an assignment at all—my brother just decided to make his story into a poem of sorts. Definitely something you want to encourage if you see your child wants to do something like this!

Pick up trash.
Pick up trash.
Pick up trash.
On the beach.
Rolling, rolling sea.
With the picked-up trash go on the rolling, rolling sea.
With the hat on the rolling, rolling sea.
Pick up trash.
Pick up trash.
Pick up trash on the rocks.
—J, three and a half years old

Tip #6: When They’re Ready, Give Them Assignments

The following was an assignment that came from our science course. After several years of writing, he was ready to do something a bit more intensive than just retelling his life or telling a story. For this particular assignment, he had to pick a bird, do a bit of research about it (with some help, of course), and then write a few sentences about the bird.

Bald eagles go high up in trees to have a nest. They migrate from north to south in North America. Their favorite food is fish. They are big. They are a meter long. They are two meters wide, from one tip of the wing to the other one. They live in North America, close to the sea. They aren’t actually bald. They are black and white. Their beaks are yellow. —J, five and a half years old

One of the beauties of starting early is that you get to watch them slowly get better at turning their thoughts into coherent words, sentences, and eventually, paragraphs. While it may be hard to start your youngsters writing at an early age—especially if you have a baby or toddler to watch at the same time!—don’t despair. If you can do it, wonderful! If not, they’ll learn later. Either way, you’re doing great—have fun!