Sunday, December 13, 2009

Christmas Traditions

We really enjoy traditions in our family. Not only are they fun and help create wonderful memories, but I believe traditions pull everyone together and even when our children are grown and have families of their own, I hope that they will always remember our traditions. Even after they leave our homes, I know they will remember the things we did year after year and hopefully they'll have such fond memories that they'll want to carry on some of the traditions themselves.

I would love to know what others do for family holiday traditions. I'm going to list ours below and if you would like, please share yours as well.

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com



- During the month of December, we watch Christmas movies together as a family while drinking hot cocoa and eating snacks. We watch The Polar Express, Muppet Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, traditional Christmas classics (like Frosty), Hallmark Christmas movies, Christmas Shoes, and any other kind of movie related to Christmas!

- We used to put up our tree right after Thanksgiving, but now that we're in a tiny house, we usually put up our tree about a week before Christmas. Nonetheless, whenever the tree is put up, our tradition is to lovingly unwrap each ornament and talk about it as we put it on the tree. We have handmade ornaments, gold ornaments, and ornaments that belonged to me and Chris as children. The kids especially enjoy hearing about those. :)

- Chris makes Christmas pancakes on Christmas morning. This was a tradition carried over from his own childhood.

- On Christmas eve, we read aloud the story of Mary and Joseph from the Bible and we read about how they traveled to Bethlehem and had a baby who was born in the night and laid in a manger. The baby was to be our Savior. This is the last thing we do before bedtime and as they go to bed, the children look at our nativity that is set out each Christmas. The nativity lacks one thing - the baby Jesus.

- On Christmas morning, the children wake up to a tree and gifts (modern traditions of society), but even after all the years of doing this, they also look to see if baby Jesus is in his manger. (He has been there every year except for the one year I fell asleep and forgot to make him "born" before morning! We quickly found him and put him in his manger!)

- We normally play a lot of board and card games, but during December and actually throughout winter, we play a lot more indoor games than we do at other times of the year. The children enjoy this and it's a great way to spend time as a family! If you have young children, I would encourage you to start now and try to buy at least one family game each year as a "group gift" and PLAY IT throughout the year, especially on cold, wet days during the winter. If you have older children, it's not too late to start this tradition either. Even if you have all teens, buy the "teen and up" or "adult" games and play with them. You might be surprised how much you learn about your child by playing a game of "Taboo" or Cranium "Whoonu." :)

- One other tradition we have is that we celebrate with stockings. We use homemade stockings that my mom made for each child the year they were born. I have one from my childhood and Chris has his childhood stocking. Since we don't share a lot of big gifts, we always have great stockings! When we've asked the children one of their favorite holiday traditions, one of the things they mention is the fruit, candies, and small gifts they receive in their stockings each year. This is one of my most favorite traditions as well!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Keeping your chickens healthy during the winter months

Since there have been several posts about chickens for sale or people looking for chickens on the digest this year, I thought some of you might benefit from some tips for taking care of your flock this winter. Chickens can tolerate low temperatures, but once it gets below freezing, they are susceptible to all sorts of problems just like any other animal. I hope the tips are helpful to those of you wondering how you're going to care for your chickens this winter. :)

- First off, "winterize" your coop. Add extra covering (boards, blankets, metal sheeting, etc.) to block the wind. If necessary, fill in cracks with caulk or a similar material to reduce drafts. (We use blankets on the coops that are not in areas where they're going to get soaked if it rains.)

- Chickens need clean, fresh water at all times. If your water is freezing due to the cold weather, you'll need to change water about 3 times a day to ensure that the water isn't frozen. For the past few days, we've changed our water several times per day and each time, the water has already started freezing again. Chickens drink a LOT of water and if they get dehydrated, they can die quickly so keep that water liquid and don't let it freeze. (BTW, if your chickens ever do start to get dehydrated, you can add a little mixture of electrolytes to the drinking water and they'll usually perk up within 12 hours unless they are too far gone. This is available at farm and garden stores in liquid or powder form. We use the powder.) Chickens should never go more than a couple of hours without water. (If you can afford it, some people use submersible water heaters so that you don't have to change the water several times a day to unfreeze it. We can't afford one so we just go out several times and as it starts to freeze, we give them fresh water.)

- Keep chickens together. Their body heat will help them stay a little warmer. If possible, keep larger flocks and let them stay together in the winter.

- Make sure they have plenty of food and, if possible, supplement with grass and even food scraps (NOT meat!). During the winter, we try to pull or clip a little bit of long grass that is left and give it to the chickens, which they love, and also scraps from our food such as the little pieces you pull off oranges, apple peel, etc. In other words, we try to supplement with vitamin rich foods since they aren't getting as many vitamins with the limited daylight hours.

- For younger chickens (less than four months), you'll need to use a heat lamp. If you have to, run an extension cord outside to their coop. They NEED this extra heat or they are likely to die either from the cold or diseases and problems related to being too cold.

- Research your breeds. Some breeds tolerate freezing weather a little better than other breeds. If you have a breed that doesn't tolerate winter weather well, you'll need to be extra sure that your chickens are protected for the winter months.

- Add extra bedding that could help with warmth. Chickens still perch at night if you have perches for them, but extra bedding such as wood shavings, straw or hay. (Do not use these with very young chickens. They'll eat them and the shavings are bad for their digestion at young ages. For our babies, we don't use bedding at all. We have them on plain, flat wood that we clean off regularly and we add a couple of cheap towels for them to sleep on. Once they are older, we add perches, but we prefer that our babies stay in a coop as close to the house as possible and this coop doesn't have perches in it.)

- Remember to keep their living quarters extra clean in the winter months. Since chickens are less able to roam during the winter months, this increases the risk of parasites and diseases so it's important to keep the cage extra clean. (I realize this is difficult since it's so bloomin' cold outside, but we just go out every few days and clean up the droppings and turn the bedding in the cages with bedding. So far we haven't had any difficulty with parasites and it takes only about ten minutes to clean all our cages. We just go out and do this on the "less cold" days!)

- Check bedding daily to make sure it's not wet or frozen, which can cause frostbite. (This is particularly an issue if your water gets knocked over so check this.) You should change the bedding about twice a week, but check it daily for problems.

- Check on your birds often during the winter days. If they are huddled too closely together, not moving much, or chirping loudly, then there is most likely a problem. They are probably too cold. There can be other issues as well. The other day when the wind was blowing at almost 40 miles per hour at our house, we went out to check on our pullets (they're about 4 months old) and they were literally plastered up against the side of the cage because the wind was blowing so hard that they could not move! I felt so bad for them! The board that normally protects them from this had blown away. We quickly added more boards and put up barriers to ensure that the boards wouldn't blow away. This gave the chickens added protection from the wind and they were then able to climb up in their little perch area.

- Predators are more common in the winter due to the shortage of other natural foods so make sure your cage is safe against predators. Consider caging free range chickens during the winter months.

Finally, just remember that your chickens are much more susceptible to the problems associated with cold weather than your other animals (dogs, cats, etc.) because you typically bring in your other animals during the winter, but not your "farm" animals. Please check on your flock regularly and make it part of your homeschool routine during the winter months. Share Proverbs 12:10 with your children: "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal." Train them to take care of the needs of their animals. During the winter, this will involve more work than other seasons of the year, but if you want to have eggs again in the spring, then caring for your chickens in the winter is essential. :)

Enjoy your flock!
Sonya

www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A snood

Chris is currently reading to the children the Childhood of Famous American's biography of Stephen Foster. It's a wonderful book!

Tonight he read that someone was wearing a "snood" and we were all like, "What in the world is a snood?!?" We envisioned it being something like the creatures in a Dr. Seuss book, but it was obvious it was a hair covering, not a little animal of some sort.

I looked it up online and found out that it is the net-like covering that women wear over their hair. We commonly see them in restaurants holding the hair of cooks. Here is a link to a photo of a snood: http://www.moonstruckoriginals.com/snood.JPG

Anyway, I love learning new words and thought some others of you might like to learn this word as well. And if you haven't read the Childhood of Famous American's books, I would definitely recommend them! They are absolutely fabulous. Children enjoy them, too, and don't even realize that they are learning. These are great to teach biographical and historical information more informally, yet more in depth than what students would get from a textbook.

Sonya Haskins

Homeschooling for the Rest of Us will be available in three weeks!

Capitalism is alive and well in the Haskins' household!

I'm currently finishing a curriculum for the Heritage Foundation to go with their book, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. As usual, when I'm finishing a project, the children are left to do more learning on their own - basically "unschooling" for a few weeks.

Our eight-year-old, Daniel, wants to be a writer like me. He frequently writes stories, makes little books, and tells stories to his younger sister and older siblings. I guess he has decided that it's about time to make some money from all his hard work and creativity as yesterday I heard him telling Hannah that he wouldn't tell her any more stories unless she gave him all her money.

Hannah initially agreed and went to get her money. I could see her in the bathroom counting it and I think she must have quickly figured out that she wouldn't have any money left if she gave it all to him for one story.

She came back into the kitchen and told Daniel that she would not give him all her money, but she would be willing to pay him one penny for each story. Daniel said that wasn't enough and he wanted ten cents. Hannah said that was too much and offered two. He asked for five. Finally, they settled on three cents per story.

All afternoon, I watched Daniel tell Hannah stories and, true to her word, she paid him three cents for each story he told her. (She had a large collection of pennies.)

Last night after Chris came home from work, Daniel and Hannah were sitting on our bed and he was still making up stories for her. When I explained to Chris what was going on, he said he wasn't sure if he should want to punish Daniel or be proud of him for his ingenuity. "At least they are learning how the free market system works," he said at last, finally settled on being proud.

So the next time you need to take some time off your "official" homeschool work, don't fret over the fact that your children's brain cells are going to die. Give them a chance to surprise you! They might just come up with some activities you never would have thought of ... like telling each other stories, practicing counting money, and even spending time together enjoying one another's company.

Sonya Haskins
www.thehomeschooladvocate.com

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Two Tri-Cities area homeschool families lose mothers to tragic accident

I am pasting below information about two ladies who died in a tragic accident this week in the Tri-Cities. These women were homeschool moms and they had a total of 17 children between the two of them. I can't imagine the sadness for those little ones and their spouses as they deal with this horrible loss. That's a lot of little ones to wake up without a Mommy and a husband to wake up without his wife....

Please keep these families in your prayers.

Sonya


Sudden and Powerful Storm Takes Lives of Two Bristol, Virginia Women, Members of St. Peter Presbyterian Church

Written by Don Clements
Friday, 04 December 2009 14:17
Two women, both members of St. Peter Presbyterian Church in Mendoata, Va., were killed in an accident caused by powerful storm this past Wednesday night, December 2.
The accident happened when a massive tree fell and crashed on a rural highway in southwest Virginia near the town of Mendota, located about a half-hour’s drive north of Bristol, Va. Stories like this happen many times a day throughout the U.S., but seldom do they have such a deep impact on one church.
The two women were driving in a Ford F-350 multi-passenger van along State Route 622. The Highway Patrol report indicates that 39-year-old Theresa Bullen and 44-year-old Deaun Brockmyre died instantly in the freak accident where a huge and sudden downdraft totally uprooted a large tree which came down directly on the van. Bullen was driving northbound when the tree, at least 70 feet tall and two feet in diameter, fell directly across the front of their van. Brockmyre was in the passenger seat. No one else was in the vehicle, and no other vehicles were involved. The ladies were returning home to Mendota from a shopping trip.
Mrs. Bullen leaves behind a husband and nine children; Mrs. Brockmyre a husband and eight children. Both ladies were members of St. Peter Presbyterian Church, a Confederation of Reformed and Evangelical Churches (CREC) congregation in Mendota, one of a couple of related churches in the area. The Reverend R. C. Sproul, Jr., Director of the nearby HighlandStudyCenter, serves as pastor of one of the churches.
On Thursday, pastors and members of the church were already coming together to help both families cope with their loss. “We are committed to helping these families in any possible way we can and I know both of these families have been a part of our church for a long time and they are confident that they can count on us,“ said Pastor Sproul.
Obituary notices for Mrs. Brockmyre is below, but details for Mrs. Bullen, who will be buried next Tuesday, are still pending. More details will be posted as they are received. (Please note that the Eric Dye shown as a brother to Mrs. Brockmyre is NOT the PCA minister by the same name.)
Deaun Ruth Dye Brockmyre: We mourn the loss of our treasured daughter, wife, mother and friend but give thanks in the assurance that our beloved, Deaun is rejoicing with her Lord and Savior. Deaun Ruth Dye Brockmyre, age 44, went to Heaven on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009, following an automobile accident. Deaun was loved by many for her sweet gentle spirit and generous heart. She was born in Richmond, Va., and had worked as a nurse and case manager at BristolRegionalMedicalCenter before devoting her time to raising and home schooling her children. She was a member of St. Peter Presbyterian Church and a shining example of faith and devotion. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Andrew Brockmyre, MD; five daughters, Heather Bailey and husband Ryan of Lexington, Va., Isabel, Bliss, Maeve and Ellianna Brockmyre; three sons, Calvin, Christopher and Benjamin Brockmyre; her parents, Dr. Daniel and Phyllis Compton Dye of Bristol Tennessee; one brother, Eric Daniel Dye and wife Mandy Mink Dye of Knoxville, Tenn.; and several nieces and nephews. The funeral service will be conducted at 2 p.m.Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009, at FirstBaptistChurch, BristolVirginia, with R.C. Sproul Jr., Laurence Windham, Wayne Hays and Mark Dewey officiating. The committal service and interment will be at 4 p.m. Sunday in RussellMemorialCemetery in Lebanon, Va. The family will receive friends from 6 8 p.m. Saturday at Akard Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Samaritan's Purse, P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC28607 E-mail condolences may be sent to the family at akardfh@akardfuneralhome.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Akard Funeral Home, 1912 W. State St., Bristol, TN (423) 989-4800, is serving the family of Mrs. Brockmyre.