I received this book a while back.  I was supposed to review it, then I lost all the contact information and never did get the job done.

I figure late is better than never and since I was late, I'll make it a slower but more effective review I think.  :)   I'll going through the five elements one at a time.

The five elements as listed in this book by Burger and Starbird are as follows.
Earth - Understand deeply
Fire - Make mistakes
Air - raise questions
Water - follow the flow of ideas
The Quintessential Element - by mastering the above skills you will change.

So this first post we will focus on Earth, the skill of understanding deeply.

Part of understanding deeply is the master the basics.  To know your basic information so well that it flows effortlessly and with exquisite beauty.   Understand the basics of your field of study so well that to recall them is effortless.  

To do this you need to ask yourself
1. What do you know about the subject?   Do this without referring to any external sources.    "Can you write a coherent, accurate and comprehensive description of the foundations of the subject or does your knowledge have gaps? ....Do you fail to see the overall big picture that puts the pieces together?'   
2. Once you have that done and can see where the gaps in your education are... then go to external sources and fill those gaps in.
3. Wherever you see gaps in your knowledge of the basics of whatever you are learning, fill them in.   Be methodical about it.
4. Once you have filled in the gaps make sure you can connect them to the larger whole.   Make you knowledge complete.
5. when faced with a difficult problem that you can't solve, find another problem that you CAN solve.  Work your way up to solving the difficult problem.   You can do this by discovering what the core of the problem is.   Isolate it.  Then work on that.  When you do that you help yourself learn to ignore distractions and the non-essentials are you are getting to the heart of the matter.
6. Say what you see, and if you don't see something don't say that you do.   Be honest about what you are looking for and don't let biases or expectations or others influence that.   Just say what you see.
7. if you are saying something, make sure it's true.  Don't base your facts on what ONE person says.  Do your research and be sure of your facts.
8.  Sometimes by following an opinion divergent to your home helps you make better, more informed opinions.    Just look at your facts from a differing point of view to make yourself more well-rounded.
9. Look for what perhaps you can't see, make the invisible visible.

Have to admit, when I read through this chapter I thought of all sorts of ways to help my son and myself learn better.  Consider what I know.  Write that down.  Then figure out what I don't know.   What information do we lack in our understanding of most anything?     If we start with what we know then we have our grounding and there's no need to repeat it.    I will need to reread this chapter and consider more how i can be an more effective thinker, and then teach my son those same skills.  It will serve him well in his future education. 

It's Christmas time.
A time when it is easy to get wrapped up in presents and gifting and doing good works and the busy-ness of the season.
It is so easy to not keep ourselves focused on what we believe and why. 
And there are times I honestly think that this busy-ness is manufactured by one who truly wants to help us forget what the reason for the season is.  
That LOVE came down.

It truly did.  Love came down.

It's not the tree.  Fun and pretty as it is.  :)

it's not the presents, or the food, or the gatherings, or the whatevers.

It's the peace, the quiet, the joy, the hope of Love coming Down.

That's what Christmas is really all about.   Christ is come, Christ has come and Christ will return!   He is our hope, he is our bridge to God the Father.  He is the living embodiment of God's love poured out for us.   He is Love Come Down.

The bible tells us
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

This post is written as part of the blogging through the alphabet hosted by Marcy at Ben And Me.   This week we are doing the letter L. 

Do you have a boy?
Are you concerned about society's approach to the rearing and teaching of boys?
Do you KNOW what society is doing to our boys? 
Get educated.   Be aware.  Learn how to be proactive in protecting your sons.  Teach them how to be men.       This book helps you do all that!  

This book is written in response to how boys are treated so often in society, let's medicate them, let's expect them to act like girls, etc.  I had a bit of time getting past that mindset to actually just reading the book and learning from it.   It's not that I don't believe it, I just haven't seen or experienced such behaviour directed at me or my son. :)     I have to admit though, I have run into it a bit... A cousin who was determined that her lad could be raised exactly like her little girls.   Friends who struggled to understand why a boy or a man acts the way they do because it was a way a thinking they couldn't wrap their heads around.  When I came right down to it though  I just didn't see it as such a big issue, but since I began reading the book I did a bit of research and the concerns expressed in this book are quite valid.  :)

I actually enjoyed reading this book for the most part.  I really did!  Most books like this bore me to tears but this book kept me engaged and thinking.  By the end of it I was thinking I should get my hubby to read this, in prep for when our son is in his early teens.

One section that made me think was this:

This helped me to better understand why my son withdraws when he is upset and how he voluntarily comes to me later once he has processed things and WHY it's important for me to allow him that time.   He NEEDS that time by himself to work things through...hmm... kinda like his father that way.  :) 

The authors would present some facts, teach you what those facts meant and then provided discussion or perhaps better worded would be "thought provokers" in the form of questions you can ask yourself as you look at the boys in your life and figure out best how to help them mature into solid men.   The authors were great at showing the need to boys not only to have their dads, but emphasized the importance of having a mom in their lives.  I appreciated very much the balance that was provided.

Did I appreciate everything in this book?   To be honest, no.  I totally skimmed the section on how to help your child in a school setting.  My lad is homeschooled, my intention is to keep him home for a good few years yet.  But I can see that section as being useful for parents who are needing to advocate for their sons within the public school system.. imagine... boys not being able to play ball at recess or having games of tag banned... it would be a hard thing...how do boys run off their energy???  Parents need to know how to advocate for their children.

That's what this book strives to do.  To provide parents with ways to further their knowledge of their sons so that they can help them become the men they are supposed to be.  Heroic providers for their families.  The word HERO comes up alot!  

My advice: if you have boys... get this book, help them discover some heros, help them become heroic.  :)

I reviewed this book through Blogging for Books.   My honest review was asked for in return for receiving one copy of the book.  I received it in e-book form.

I wanted to take this moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Great New Year.  My prayer for you is that you are able to rest in the tender mercies of God and know his great love for you in the sending of his Son to pave the way back to His Father (our God).    He died so that we can live!  :)

I made this picture using Picmonkey.  It's free to use.  Check it out here. :)

When I first thought about doing up a post for the January 1 Crew Round Up.  A word to live by for 2014 I thought it was about something else.  But then I read what it was supposed to be about and said...oh.. that's easy.   We are to "choose a word to represent your goals/hopes for the new year".   All I can say is that God continues to teach me about trust.  Trusting HIM.  Not me, or my hubby, or my stuff, or my position in life, or my knowledge, or the folks about me, or my family or.... ANYTHING.  I am merely to trust in him.

Sounds easy eh?

It isn't.

God says in Jeremiah "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD."    I'm not much into being cursed...but consider what you do when you trust in something other than God in ANYTHING you do.   Trust is something we are called to do in all things.   We don't need more trust as trust isn't quantifiable.  Trust merely is or it isn't.  And if it isn't in God... then just who is is in?

Consider what Isaiah says "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."   THIS is who I am to trust in.  The one who doesn't falter or stumble or grow weary.  The one who creates (as opposed to one who is created).   Strength, power, renewer...this is the one I am to trust in.  He is SO much more than I am or that anything else is.

Should be easy eh?

Yeah.. I've been learning over this past year how it isn't always so easy.

And this year I plan to keep learning more.  :)

Perhaps we should learn together?   What say you?   Learn this trusting in God better with me??

You can discover what other crew members are doing as their word for the new year.   You can check those out here.  Thanks!  :)

I am currently reviewing a book called "Seeking Christmas".  I received this book from Bookcrash in order to give my fair and honest review.    This book is a small treasure for helping families discover their own Christmas traditions/memory makers.   I don't think it matters if you are religious or non-religious, this book will open your eyes to seeing more of Christmas and it's traditions.  :)

Product Information

Written by Renee Robinson
Pages: 41
Audience: families
Publisher: Crosslink Publishing
Currently available on Amazon for $10.57

That's all it takes to go through this book is seven days.   Or get it seven weeks before Christmas and go though the book one day a week.   Learn the roots of some the traditional Christmas things like holly, trees, gifting giving and more.   Read scripture, talk about it.  Do activities as a family from journaling to making hot chocolate to making Christmas cookies.

This book is written in an easy to read style.  The format is explained at the beginning of the book.  Discussion questions are included and vary according to age.

This book is an excellent resource for parents wishing to stop and take a good look at the Scriptural message of Christmas, while looking at WHY we do some of the things we do at Christmas.   Learning the history of caroling was quite interesting to me.  She encourages the family to journal together as a way of recording their Christmas memories.  Gives families something to look back upon over the years.

Ooh.. an added bonus.  From the afterword "When you purchase this book, you are helping to change the life of an orphan.  10% of author royalties are donated to organizations that reach out to change an orphan's life."   Neat huh? 

My son is slowly becoming more confident in his reading ability, though if he hits too many hard words in a row he tends to give up.  I'm trying to encourage him to work past that "it's too hard" part.

To that end I am picking up readers that aren't too easy and yet aren't too hard.   We recently read Mamba's and Flight of the Butterflies.

Mambas is a book about a specific type of snake.  My lad likes snakes and bugs and all things creepy so this was a good fit.  He was able to read a good portion of this book himself, and then I helped him with the rest.   He learned enough to keep him happy and enough to cause him to ask more questions.    This makes for a good book in my eyes.

Flight of the butterflies was a book we just read last night.   The lad was interested in this book since that last time we were at the ontario Science Centre he had a choice between watching this one, or watching one about sharks... and he chose the shark one but had really wanted to see this too.    He enjoyed helping me read it.  Was able to read 3/4 of it by himself.  the pictures helped him with words that were difficult.

we got these both free off kindle.

interesting side note: the lad said "can we read a real book now" when we were finished reading these books.  Made me smile.  I like my kindle, but I love holding a "real" book in my hands.  :)

Come join with us as we blog through the alphabet.  One letter a week.  Hosted by Marcy from Ben and Me.  This week the letter is K.

I chose K is for Keeping Silent.

Why? 

Because I have a boy who when he is working on something hard go "SHHHH!!!!!"

It's either because he's thinking hard, or that he's mulling over a reason why he shouldn't have to do it and doesn't want me interrupting his train of thought.

The picture above is a couple of years old now, but this was one of the first times he went SHHH! mom.   It's been a hard thing to learn.    I like to help and to be involved and sometimes I like to help too much.... and so the lad says SHHH!!!!!!

AH.. it's so hard to be forced to be quiet and let him figure it out himself.  But it is a necessary thing.   So it something that I am glad that he has learned how to do.  To tell his mom SHHH.

Now... there has been some learning involved in how to go about doing this.  He's had to learn to be kind and patient with mom as well.   To be respectful and not bossy or mean in how he asks me to be quiet, but keeping silent I am learning to do.

So now when I need to be silent... I get up and walk away.   That way I can involve myself with something else and give the lad the time he needs to just think.  I keep myself available, but if I am busy with something else it is easier to let him just figure what he needs to figure in peace.

This boy is teaching me to be a better teacher.
I am teaching him to be a better student. 
WE are both learning to respect the abilities of each other and the ways in which we learn.   He craves silence when something is hard and that's not a bad thing.   It means when we learn math or grammar we don't do it in the kitchen or living room, we go up to the book/school/everything room and he can work there.   In that room there are no distractions, no TV, no radio, no nothing to make noise and therein he is content.

It takes time to learn kindness.
It takes time to figure out the best way to learn and do things.
It takes time to teach a mom to KEEP silent and let a child figure it on his own.
And in that silence, I get a MOM, how do I do this again?   And in that silence I can show him, so he can again figure it and just learn.
And we have no anger or tears or shouting and life is good, learning happens.  :)

So tell me.... Homeschool parent.... have you needed to learn silence as well?

This  boy is SO my boy.  :)   He makes me smile - always with a story or thought in his head and willingness to go an extra mile for friends.   He's playing an on-going game with some friends, and to that end developed this costume to go with it.  Duct tape armour but cut to look like some armour that I showed him from somewhere...(it kinda all runs together for me).

And MY new skill?   I made that cape for him!!!  YES!  ME!   He chose the fabric, I made the running/gathering stitches, added the buttons and the connector and VOILA we have a cape and the armou to go with it.  :)

He made this sword, a dirk, and a scabbard for them all as well.   The scabbard took some figuring as it kept sticking, but sometimes mom lets a lad bounce ideas off her and together they come up with an idea that works better.  :)  (this is a new skill for him).

One of the things I did with the lad last week was some practical math with him.   We needed some nestboxes built for the rabbits.  So I chose to use this as a learning time for him.

We needed to find the wood.  (go to Rona, talk to the sales people).

We needed to get the wood precut since our saw is buried somewhere in the garage and in this cold weather we chose not to dig it out.   More expensive this way, but you gotta do what you gotta do.  :)   In order to get it precut the lad needed to measure the nestboxes to find out how big they are and then write those measurements down.   Why do we do that "x" mom?   Oh.. that shows how this nestbox is 9 inches wide by (that's the 'x') 12 inches long. 

We cut out the sizes we needed.  I have to admit we did cheat a bit since they are only nestboxes.  We cut measured one piece and then used that piece as our measurement.   Rather then measuring each and every time.
 
We then nailed or glued them all together.

I have to admit, this part was difficult as we got 1/4 inch wood instead of 1/2 inch wood.  Should have gotten the wider wood, but the 1/4 inch will work, just hard to get nails into well.

So the lad's responsibility was to put drainage hole for baby bunny urine  in the bottom of the nextboxes.  The first coupld I needed to put "x's on so he knew where to drill, but the rest he managed on his own.

Here are two of the nestboxes that we completed.  Nice clean nestboxes.  Over time our goal is to build enough nestboxes that the does won't have to share.

and just because I can, here's an image of some of the bunnies they will serve.  :)  All snuggly warm.  :)