Empowering Kids to Run with Their Ideas

We have been working on a large-scale project for the past year. Last year our two bird-watching boys were devastated when a builder destroyed the woods beside our home to make room for a new house. They were very concerned about the birds' loss of habitat.

They decided to remedy the situation by putting in a bird garden. Their vision was to plant shrubs and trees which would restore lost habitat, giving the birds food and shelter. They also wanted to have a water feature, some seed and nectar feeders and a place to sit so they could enjoy watching their feathered friends once again.

We agreed to help them turn their vision into reality. When we began this project last March, our four boys ranged in age from 3 to 11 years old. After a few days of laborious digging just to plant some small flowers, I hired someone with a power auger to dig holes in our hard, rocky Georgia clay. They did in 5 hours what would have taken us 5 years: they dug 40 holes, many large enough for trees.

After the holes were dug, we never needed to hire another professional. This was a project the boys wanted to do, and my desire was to help them run with it. They had ownership over the project, and they were the driving force behind everything we did.

Here you can see the woods beside our home as it looked two years ago, before it was destroyed to make room for a new house.


This is our side yard today, with much habitat restored.
We began researching trees and shrubs that are attractive to birds. We wanted every plant to be attractive to songbirds for food, shelter, or both. Little by little over the course of the past year we worked to fill those 40 holes. The boys had lots of practice preparing root bound plants, mixing enriched soil and manure with our Georgia clay, and learning how to plant trees and shrubs. Having never done much gardening before, I learned right along with them.

We are finally almost finished with the Songbird Garden. Last week we dug up one more area ourselves and planted butterfly bushes, bridal wreath and lantana to make Hummingbird Hollow.

The boys enjoy watching the birds at the feeding station from this bench. Hummingbird Hollow is in the foreground. Several of the butterfly bushes were transplanted from another part of our yard.

We have two feeding stations in the garden: a seed station for songbirds (which a kind neighbor built for us) and a nectar station for hummingbirds.

The boys have spent hours upon hours digging up large rocks in our woodsy backyard and carrying them to the garden, one by one or in heavy wagon-loads, to use as edging around all the shrub and flower beds. This hard work was one of our favorite projects. They love the natural look that it gives to the garden, and I love the fact that it was all free!

We worked together as a family to lay 124 cubic feet of mulch, creating garden paths around the plantings. My oldest son taught me how to lay weed block and spread the mulch, as he has helped my husband do it in other areas around the house.

I don't think we could have pulled this project off without the help of our oldest son. Now aged 12, he provided a lot of the brawn that was needed for this undertaking. He proved himself very capable at many of the jobs I find tedious. For example, this week he proudly assembled two bird baths.

He also hung a tree face that we received as a gift. I love it!

The younger boys wanted to provide the birds with a dust bath for cleaning their feathers, and with rock and brush piles for foraging.

Working together, the 3 youngest boys dug a large pit for the dust bath and mixed sifted ash, sand and dirt together in the hole. They lined it with stones and we've already seen doves enjoying it. The rock pile and brush pile have also taken shape.

Each boy worked with his grandfather to build a birdhouse suited to a particular species.

They have also hung out nesting materials, including a feather duster and a cage with natural unprocessed cotton fibers. A clipped string mop head, meant to attract orioles, adorns one of the trees.

We recently learned about worms in our science lessons and the boys decided to begin a worm farm in order to have rich compost for the bird garden. They have been enjoying that ongoing project very much!

We have seen our bird population grow over the past year, and it has been a delight to see new species coming to our yard. We were thrilled a couple of months ago to see our first pair of Rose Breasted Grosbeaks in the yard, and this week we have been serenaded regularly by an Eastern Meadowlark.

Even more beneficial has been the time spent working together to accomplish a common goal. The boys have learned a lot about gardening, and we all feel the satisfaction of a job well done. Each boy, regardless of his age, was a valued member of the team, and each one feels the thrill of taking dominion over one little corner of the earth. The two middle boys feel encouraged and uplifted that the family helped them run with their idea. They feel loved, and excited about their next big idea!

I asked one of our sons this week if he would remember this special project for the rest of his life. He is the bird-lover, and it had been his idea in the first place. He shared with me that when he had conceived the idea for a bird garden, he imagined a hummingbird feeder, a few plants and a rock bench. The final product was beyond his wildest imagination. He said that he never could forget it, as this has been the biggest undertaking of his young life.

For more specific information about what we planted and how we did this project, please refer to my Birding Blog. Here are links to the posts about our Bird Garden project.

The first post about Phase one of this project can be found at this link:
Our Bird Garden

This post is about some of the birds we began seeing about half way through this project:
Fruits of the Bird Garden

This is the most recent post that gives specifics about some of the things we planted, construction of the dust bath, and instructions for how we did the paths:
Finishing the Bird Garden

UPDATE:  The children were thrilled when this project won first place in the Keep Our County Beautiful competition.  And we were all completely stunned when it also won second place for the state of Georgia in the Keep Georgia Beautiful competition!!  You can read details about it here!

Treasure Hunting: Geocaching and Letterboxing

Some visiting friends introduced my children to the wonderful new "sport" of Geocaching. The word "Geocaching" comes from Geo (geography) and Cache (an old pirate word that refers to a hidden treasure or stash). They followed clues which led them to different landmarks around town until they found a hidden treasure. Along the way, the clues taught them some facts about the history of our town.

Geocaching began in May 2000 when GPS technology was declassified and made available to civilian users. All of a sudden, anyone could pinpoint an exact location of anything, anywhere on the earth, using GPS. The next day, an Oregon man placed a hidden stash and posted the coordinates online. He wanted to test the accuracy of GPS. The rule was that you could only find the box using GPS coordinates, and that if you took any of the items he hid in the box, you should leave an item behind for the next person. Within a few days, two people had found his stash and posted about it on the internet. The excitement spread quickly, and other GPS enthusiasts began hiding stashes. Today there are over 750,000 active geocaches around the world.

I thought it would be fun to try geocaching on our own last week. We went to the official Geocaching site and did a search for a large nature park in our part of the state. We printed out clues for four different geocaches in that area. There were many more, but I selected ones that had easy terrain and which were marked easy on the difficulty scale.

Unfortunately, our friends are gone, and they took their GPS unit with them! Many geocaches include scrambled clues to translate, so I thought we didn't need a GPS. We set out with our clues to find the hidden stashes. How wrong I was! We found absolutely nothing that day, and our experience was basically a wild goose chase. We learned that to successfully geocache, you must have a GPS unit!

We learned that if you want to treasure hunt without a GPS unit, it is a different game entirely. This is what is known as Letterboxing.

According to Letterboxing North America, "Letterboxing is said to have started in England in 1854 when a Dartmoor National Park guide, James Perrott of Chagford, left a bottle by Cranmere Pool with his calling card in it an an invitation to those who found the bottle to add theirs. Eventually, visitors began leaving a self-addressed post card or note in the jar, hoping for them to be returned by mail by the next visitor (thus the origin of the term “letterboxing;” “letterbox” is a British term for a mailbox). This practice ended in time, however, and the current custom of using rubber stamps and visitor’s log books came into use." It caught on in 1998 after an article in Smithsonian magazine, and there are now over 20,000 letterboxes in North America alone.

Letterboxing is older than geocaching, and not as technically sophisticated. All you need for letterboxing is your list of clues and a compass to point you in the right direction. You'll also need a log book of your own and a rubber stamp and ink pad. Most stashes have a log book and a rubber stamp in them. You place an imprint of your stamp in the letterbox logbook, and place an imprint of the stamp contained in the box on a page in your own log. Letterboxing North America has a search engine where you can look for boxes. We found out there is one hidden in our own town, and many others around our state!

In God's gracious providence, the day we got home from our unsuccessful geocaching, there was an email in my inbox. A friend had organized a field trip to go to an area state park this week to learn how to geocache! I immediately signed up. The ranger would teach us what we needed to know, and loan our group some GPS units for the afternoon. Our group was able to find one geocache, and the ranger offered my boys the chance to stay longer and search out another cache. We happily programmed in the GPS coordinates and traipsed along a nearby trail until we came to the right coordinates.

The clue gave us some ideas about where to look and soon we had found another geocache!

The boys were excited to open it up and see what was inside. There was a bag of fake pirates gold, some dollar store necklaces, stickers, rubber balls and other little toys. We didn't take anything, because we didn't have anything to leave behind. Next time, we'll know to be more prepared. We did sign the log book, and when we got home, we logged onto the geocache site and marked that we had found this cache.


We still don't have our own GPS unit, but the boys are talking about saving some money to buy one. We are all excited about the potential to add a new, exciting element of treasure hunting to our normal out-of-town field trips and to our vacations. There are even several caches hidden in and around our own town. I'm excited that this activity is something we can all enjoy together, outdoors. The opportunity to choose caches that teach some history through the clues is appealing to me, as well! We live in the south, and I noticed on the geocache site that there are many Civil War related caches hidden in our area.

Once we get a handheld GSP unit and get some experience finding caches, we are excited to begin hiding our own caches. It will be fun to plan some educational treasure hunts of our own and post them on the site for others to find!

Whatever is Admirable: The Classics

A classic is a book which has stood the test of time, captivating generations of readers. It often touches on topics which have universal appeal, such as love, friendship, betrayal or loss. Many classics are referenced in other works, allowing the well-read person to make connections between the two. For example, my son and I were recently watching the movie August Rush (not a classic!) and he immediately recognized several elements from Oliver Twist in the movie.

Although many classics are admirable, for these reasons and more, not every Classic is worth reading. Just as I would never watch every movie that wins an Oscar from the critics, there are many so-called “classics” which our Christian children should not be reading, such as books containing sensuality. I don't give my younger children books with serious moral dilemmas which they are unprepared for. I look for books where the hero is a positive role model and avoid books which cause the reader to feel love and sympathy for someone who is disrespectful or immoral.

I still some schedule read-aloud time with my 7th grader, because there are many books that are profitable for him to read with me, though they would not be good for him to read alone.

Last year, for example, my son and I read C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce. Lewis paints an intriguing picture of heaven and hell in this allegorical story. Although I trust Lewis as an author, and would allow my son to read the entire Narnia series alone, it was important to discuss this particular book together, in light of its spiritual content. As we read we often paused to discuss passages that were difficult to understand or where we might disagree with Lewis. The book also raised questions in my son’s mind about spiritual matters, and it was important to be there as the questions arose.

Choosing books for strong readers
The books our children read will have a great impact on who they become, for good or for ill. Just as we would not allow them to play with fools and mockers, so we must protect their minds and hearts from authors who would seek to lead them astray. I would not allow my young child to spend hours alone, talking to a stranger. Do I allow him to read books I know nothing about?

Early in this Home Library Builders series I addressed some of the concerns faced by parents of reluctant readers. But what about those voracious readers, who can never get enough? How do we choose books for them? Long ago I realized I would never have time to keep up with my oldest son. The days of pre-reading all his books are long gone, as he has more time and opportunity to read than I do these days.

Often my son has already read the books his curriculum suggests. Occasionally he re-reads a particularly excellent book, and I trust he will read with more understanding now than he did four years ago. Usually, however, I like to offer him new choices in his reading material.

In choosing books for him, I often rely on authors with whom we have experience, those whom I already have grown to trust. I also lean heavily on certain Christian curriculum providers, drawing new titles from their reading lists. Of course I draw from the curriculum I use, Tapestry of Grace. I also look through the Veritas Press, Beautiful Feet Books and Sonlight catalogs when looking for new books. I trust the screening they have done for me. Books that appear on more than one of my lists deserve definite consideration when I choose what we'll read. It is also helpful to search extensive booklists like All Through the Ages by Christine Miller or Let the Authors Speak by Carolyn Hatcher when looking for new titles.

I am careful to consider age appropriateness when drawing from lists like these, particularly when choosing literature titles. Although my 7th grader reads at a high school level, that doesn’t mean he is mature enough to discern worldview on his own as he reads. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 appears on many high school reading lists, but a quick read-through of that book showed me that although my son would understand it, he was not old enough for it.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Excellence in Blogcasting

I don't often participate in award nominations, as I don't have time to read many blogs! But this one was an honor to receive, and one which I gladly pass on. Debbie at Debbie's Digest gave me this Excellence in Blogcasting award for my recent Home Library Builders series (watch for the next installment forthcoming soon!) It has been so much fun to write a series about one of my favorite topics: books!

The rules for this award are rather loose, and I am making them even more blogger-friendly. If you want to pass the award on, to as few or many people as you choose, go for it! If not, that's fine, too. I hope my readers will check out a few of my favorite blogs.

Brenda at The Tie That Binds Us is a blogger after my own heart. Her excellent, informative blog often gives me food for thought in my homeschool. She is dedicated to making your homeschool stronger, and I love her for that. Her new blog carnival, Homeschool History Buffs, is great. It's fun to get some fresh ideas about what others are doing for history.

Dawn at Olive Plants is another homeschooler who has a passion to make us better teachers. A former teacher herself, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her homeschool classroom. Dawn is also a good friend and I can attest, she is the real deal! I admire her homeschool very much.

She is probably too busy right now with her house remodel to blog about school, much less pass this award to anyone, but please check out her blog, especially the posts from January 2009 and before. You'll be so glad you took the time! Her post about the job jar is great for getting kids enthused about chores. For links to several of her best posts from 2008, click here.

Another blog I prioritize reading is the Homeschool Blog Awards blog. Several ladies take turns writing this blog. I enjoy reading the different ideas and perspectives about a single topic in their regular memes and blog carnivals.

Also, please visit the Mentoring Moments blog. I try to post there once a week, on topics that relate to our monthly theme, and several other Christian women blog there weekly, as well. There is a give-away on the MMCW blog right now for free Bible verse post it notes, so head over and enter to win!

The Mentoring Moments for Christian Women e-zine was just updated with a brand new look for spring. I wrote three articles this month about The Lie of Feminism, an article about how we use our Jesse Tree for Easter Season devotions, and one about raising strong boys. You'll find lots of inspirational articles, practical homemaking tips and recipes, book reviews, free podcasts, encouraging video clips and much more!

Great books on sale!

Behemoth is offering another free audio book for a few more days. For years I've wanted the book Ten Peas in a Pod, and thanks to Behemoth, we've finally got it! Click on over and download this free audio book while there is still time.

Vision Forum is having a big sale right now, through March 18th. They are clearing out some of the resources they stocked up on during their busy winter season. It's a great opportunity for me to highlight some of our favorite books and resources, for there are many things that I just love available at a fantastic savings!

Books and Audio for Mom

Some of my top reads for the year are on sale. One of my favorites for this year is
To Have and to Hold. I wrote a review of this book in my Library Builders post on Hero Stories. If you like historical fiction, I highly recommend this title set during the early days of our nation.

Mother is another book I enjoyed last year. This simple book tells the story of a girl who despised the thought of becoming just a mother. She goes off to make her way in the world, but through a series of providential events the Lord causes her to see the true beauty she had always overlooked in her own mother. Her plans for the future change, as well.

Beloved Bride tells the love story of Stonewall Jackson and his wife through their beautiful letters, written while he was away serving his country. This encouraging book gave me a different perspective on Jackson.

If you haven't read Passionate Housewives, Desperate for God, I highly recommend it. At only $6.40, this is the best price I've seen on this excellent book. This book is a breath of fresh air for the woman who wants to embrace her calling to serve God with zeal in her home. Every day the media and our culture bombard us with lies, telling us that a woman can only find true happiness when she lives to please herself. God calls His daughters to a different standard, and blesses them abundantly as they die to self for His glory.

Several CDs that I've benefited from are on sale for $3 apiece, including A Homeschool Vision of Victory (for encouragement), The Influence of Older Children on Younger Children (my oldest son and I found this very helpful) and How to Think like a Christian (challenges us to think biblically about all of life), and many more.

There are some double CD albums on sale, too, for $6.40. The Wise Woman's Guide to Blessing Her Husband's Vision is one that I listen to at least once a year. I know that I have grown in Christian maturity through this message, and that my marriage has greatly benefited from it. Highly recommended.

Books and Audio for Kids
As I was scanning the sale I saw two of the Jonathan Park creation science radio dramas for children on sale for $10! Snap up
Jonathan Park Winds of Change cassettes and No Looking Back before they are gone. This is one of my kids' favorite audio programs to listen to. They have learned so much creation science through these tapes that I am planning to incorporate some of the material into our science lessons next year. Each tape series comes with a study guide to facilitate discussion and learning.

Thoughts for Young Men is on my must-read list for my son as he begins the teen years soon. On sale for just $4!


Books for School


The Sinking of the Titanic is a reprint of a vintage classic, telling the true story of men who sacrificed their lives for women and children because they believed in the Christian family value of "women and children first".

My oldest son has begun reading R. M. Ballantyne books lately. I've begun reading them, too! If you like G. A. Henty, these are similar in genre. Excellent writing, boy heroism, Christian worldview, adventurous plots and rich character development make these reprinted classics great reading for older boys. The Pirate City and several others are 50% off right now.

Every year at Thanksgiving we read an excerpt from
Of Plymouth Plantation, a reprint of William Bradford's original diary. This fascinating book details the persecutions that the pilgrims endured, what led them first to Holland and then to America, the trials and blessings of their new life and much more. I've read the book in its entirety myself, and look forward to my oldest son reading it next year for school when we study Jamestown.

You know how much we love feasts in this family! Incorporating elements of a historical Thanksgiving is meaningful and fun.
That's why we use The Thanksgiving Primer
each year. This guide was prepared by the Plymouth Plantation museum staff, and includes accurate information about the First Thanksgiving: menus, prayers, music and historical anecdotes.

We'll also be reading Stories of the Old Dominion for school next year. This book tells the story of the true heroes of America's War for Independence, including Washington, Henry, Captain John Smith, and several others. The book was written to inspire character in the hearts of children who would one day grow up to fight their own battles.


For the whole Family

I am currently reading Missionary Patriarch: The True Story of John G Patton and it is everything a missionary biography should be. The Lord is exalted, the reader is encouraged, touched and challenged, and the story is fascinating. As soon as I'm done reading it myself I plan to re-read it with the kids. It is that good.

This year for our devotions we've been reading through the Bible. Often we have turned to Balancing the Sword, a two volume study tool designed to enhance time in the Word. All the questions in each volume can be answered directly from the text, and we've found this a helpful way to keep the kids focused during the reading. Each volume contains several questions (with answer key) for every single chapter in the Bible. There is also a CD-Rom with a customizable Bible reading plan included.

If you've been waiting to get your hands on a copy of the video The League of Grateful Sons, here is your chance! It's on sale for just $3, 85% off! I've been wanting this video for years, and plan to buy it as soon as I finish writing this post!


Other products we love that are currently on sale

My children love to play with these knights! There are several on sale, including this blue one with the mace and this red one on a horse. My four year old gets out a bin of plastic knights virtually every day, and my older boys like to collect and display them.

One of our favorite toys is the
Three man slingshot. We have a big backyard, and we love to fill a bucket of water balloons and see how far they'll fly.

During our sons' ninth year we present them with an engraved sword, in a special family ceremony honoring them as half way grown. We purchase the swords through Vision Forum, which sells very high quality swords at reasonable prices. This English Adventurers Sword is currently on sale.

These are just a few of the items on sale, and some of the prices are truly rock bottom.

Composer Study

A friend recently sent me a link to Classics for Kids, a site which produces free radio programs and podcasts about composers and classical music. This is an awesome site!

We had the opportunity to see the childrens opera Mozart and the Magic Flute last night. Before we left, I went to the Classics for Kids site and did a search for Magic Flute. We were able to listen to this brief, 6-minute long podcast produced for kids. The children had a good idea of the story line, as well as some ideas about how Mozart crafted the score so that the musical voice for each character was unique.

This site has games, lesson plans, activity sheets and recordings of past shows. You can also subscribe to the weekly podcast and download recent shows as MP3 files.

We've only just scratched the surface of this site, but I know we'll be using it a lot more next year when we are studying the Renaissance.

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

For the past couple of months I've been participating in a Charlotte Mason blog carnival. It has truly been a joy to read about what others are doing for art, music appreciation, poetry, nature study and more.

I found out about Charlotte Mason when I was just beginning my homeschool journey, and her philosophies continue to shape much of what we are doing now, almost 10 years later. She was an advocate of using Living Books to teach subjects like history, literature and science, and her views have forever changed how I choose our reading material.

If you are looking for lots of fresh insight and encouragement, check out this latest edition of the Charlotte Mason blog carnival, hosted this week by Harmony Art Mom. While you're there, I encourage you to browse Barb's site, as she has a whole host of information about including the fine arts in your homeschool. Harmony Art Mom is one of my favorite sites to browse!

To find out more about contributing a post to this twice-monthly carnival, click here.