The Biography

I think that the biography (or autobiography) is a very powerful teaching tool.  I love to read about others because of two main reasons:

1. I get to learn from their mistakes.
2. They inspire me to greatness.

I have read a lot of biographies and again and again I come away with the inspiration to be better.

Elder Maxwell's biography taught me I need to submit.
Elder Nelson's biography taught me that I need to obey.
George Washington's biography taught me I need to do hard things.
Abigail Adams biography taught me to do my duty.
Abraham Lincoln's biography taught me that greatness is achieved after a lifetime of trying.
Ralph Moody's writings taught me that my parents can teach me a lot if I'll just listen to them.
Louis L'Amour's autobiography taught me the importance of reading great books.
Karl Marx's biography taught me that Satan wants to destroy humanity.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography taught me that I can triumph over any adversity.
Ji-li Jiang's autobiography taught me that government is not always good.
Clearance Thomas's autobiography taught be that humans can rise out of any situation.
Joseph Smith's biography taught me that great people come from great families.
William Tyndale's biography taught me that we must do what we must no matter the results.
Corrie Ten Boom's autobiography taught me that faith in God can see us through anything.

These are only some examples.  Of course I knew most of these things already from scripture study, but reading about these principles in action further clarified in me the desire to do the right thing.  They inspired me to seek personal greatness and to avoid other's mistakes.

Biographies are also a great way to learn history.  For that reason we read a lot of biographies in our home.

The practical application of this may include:

• Read a biography as a family and discuss it.
• Have a child pick a biography to read on their own and then write a short essay.
• Recognize a trait that yourself or your family needs improvement on and read about someone you know who overcame it.
• After reading about someone present oral reports to the family and field questions about biographies read.
• Act out an important scene in someones life, this solidifies the heroic event in your children's lives.
• Study the history and politics of this time period in addition to the person for further understanding of the world they live in.
• Identify key traits and then set personal/family goals to acquire these traits.
• Recognize these key traits in others you know personally and thank them for their example in living this principle.
• Identify attributes, behaviors or habits, for good or bad, that the person had and discuss or write why having these traits led to success and why, or how a bad habit resulted in a negative situation.
• Compare and contrast the person's core values with yours.  Why did they believe that way? Is it truth?

I believe that biographies should play a huge role in our home education experience.  Remember many of the scriptures are the biographies and histories of our prophets.  I conclude since God used so much space in the sacred canon on reviewing people's lives it is important!

Abraham Lincoln Book Review

Abraham Lincoln, a Man of Faith and Courage: Stories of Our Most Admired President by Joe Wheeler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Why I loved this book:

1). It was well-written and engaging. I enjoyed reading it and didn't want to put down.

2). The author stays positive and doesn't delve into potentially negative issues. He deals with Mary Lincoln's depression and break downs with compassion and understanding. The author deals with Thomas Lincoln (Abraham's father) with respect due to a man who was the father of one of the greatest men who ever lived. He only eluded to the strain between father and son once or twice. When we review greatness we need to look at the greatness and not be seeking ways to tear them down.

3). Points how the mentoring process that Lincoln went through to become great. I especially enjoyed learning about his study of Plutarch.

4). The author points how how Lincoln was a man of faith instead of changing him into a non-believer. The author recounts a comment Lincoln made during the Civil War, "I made a solemn vow before God that if General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom from the slaves." Modern scholars have changed the first line to read, "I made a solemn resolve...." and this way disconnect him from a belief in God.

5). I felt this was well researched. He notes that unless he could find official documentation he didn't include it as fact. The author states that many quotes are attributed to Lincoln that may or may not be authentic. He choose to stick to the facts.

6). There were a great many historical events leading up to the Civil War that helped set the war in motion. This book lays out these events and they serve as a good first encounter. Included are the events of the Missouri Compromise, Dred Scott Decision, Whig Party, beginning of the Republican party, presidency of Buchanan and Fort Sumter for starters. Like I said this would be a good first introduction to many pivotal events in American History that youth can study.

I found this an enjoyable read that I will keep on my shelf. It will be the book I recommend to my children when they want to learn about Abraham Lincoln.

View all my reviews >>

Memorization

We are just finishing up our annual break and I have all sorts of home education thoughts going on in my mind.  I am so pleased to be able to finally think about other things (my favorite things) again!

Memorization.  To some immediate abhorrence occurs.  Others love it.  Perhaps our loving or loathing boils down to which curriculum we might ardently follow.  I don't really follow a curriculum, I guess you could say I follow sets of principles I find truth in.

Where do I stand?  Love it.  Yes, yes I know this puts me at odds with many.  Perhaps one of the reasons we do it though is that I love to memorize and I like to be quizzed. I am a facts girl you might say. I have several children, Determination (age 10) especially, who also love to memorize and be quizzed. I like The Well Trained Mind philosophy on it. The TWTM philosophy says that by memorizing children are able to more easily connect things together and later on they can learn the why behind it all.  With this process they learn the why much quicker because the facts are instantly stored and available for retrevial.  For example we memorize multiplication tables (I teach my children some why's before with these) and if we have them memorized mathmatics is much easier and quicker later on.  Another example is last year some of my children and I memorized the Presidents of the United States. Since that time whenever we learn something in American History Determination immediately connects who was president then. He slowly adds knowledge to that "hook," as the Kimber philosophy would say, and he is easily putting American History together because he has these hooks to place things in order for him. 

Maybe it is good for those of us out there who are logical learners that like things in lists and order?  At any rate it is fun for us, to other families it may be torture. We all have our quirks right?


 Another reason I like memorization is that it fills our minds will worthy thoughts and knowledge.  Five years or so ago I memorized the The Proclamation to the World on the Family, The Living Christ and The Relief Society Declaration.  It has been wonderful always having those words ring through my ears as I parent and serve others.  Not only are the words worthy that float through my mind, but as I memorized the documents I also gained a more vivid and clear understanding of what those documents meant. 

I see that with out guidance children will memorize things anyway.  It amazes me how many youth and children are expert in all pop music lyrics, they also have lines memorized from books, TV and movies.  Their heads are filled with things, but what?  I have tried to place worthy thoughts in my children's minds that their thoughts can stay focused on the good, the positive and most importantly the holy.

How do we do memorization if we don't have "school time?" It's just built into our day and various activities. We just do it has a family.


As part of our daily routine we memorize a scripture every week, we rememorize/practice an Article of Faith every week in Family Home Evening, and we also work on a paragraph or a couple of sentences from the Proclamation to the World on the Family every week in Family Home Evening also.  For years and years we have just gone over it and over it.  So we have some things built into our routine.

I should also point out that no one is required to memorize anything, and sometimes they don't.  Or some children will memorize one thing while others will memorize another.  Last year Determination memorized the Presidents as mentioned while Liberty (12) only partially memorized them, but instead she memorized the Declaration of Independence.  Usually I will say, "Do you want to memorize __________? This is why I think it would be good information to know____________.  I am going to memorize it, so if you want to do it with me you are welcome too."  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.  It's never a forced thing.  When we are walking, driving or working we will practice memorizing whatever we are interested in.  More often than not it really is in the form of oral quizzing (which is a TJEd concept).  So while some children might not consciously choose to memorize something, they are often learning it right along side of us anyway and they will pick up much of it.  Right now we are memorizing our piano pieces for our recital. 

Here are a few things some of us have memorized and why it was helpful:

• The books of all the scriptures-find scriptures faster
• Latter-day prophets-connect church history events easier
• 12 modern day apostles-easily recognize them when they speak and recognize patterns in their talks
• Christ's original 12 apostles-understand stories, personalities of 12 in the NT better
• President's of the United States-associate American History events easier with other things
• Articles of Faith-understand basic doctrines of the church
• Proclamation-Understand how important our family is
• Scriptures in general-they recognize scriptures quoted from the pulpit more easily as ones they have already learned, they know the background and can more easily understand the message the speaker is delivering (they love to catch how many Scriptures they know during Sacrament Meeting or in a Church video, there are usually two or three every time)
• Patriarchal line of the Book of Mormon (Alma, Alma, Heleman, Helaman, Nephi....)-understand exactly who is speaking/teaching when reading the Book of Mormon
• 12 Tribes of Israel-Increased understanding of most Old Testaments events
• Counties of our state-associate where things are in the state easier
• Geography locations of all types-connect historical and current events together more easily
• All the wars the United States have fought in with their dates-more association with other world events
• All major and several minor events, places and dates associated with the restoration, from the birth of Joseph Smith to the arrival of the Saints into Utah (all those things in between)-we have been able to travel to most of these places and they understand exactly what took place and why it was important. (For instance when we visited the Aaronic Priesthood Restoration site in Pennsylvania last summer they knew exactly what had happened.  When they stuck their hands in the Susquehanna River they knew who had been there and what sacred event had happened and exactly how long ago it had). They also can easily connect church events together when they learn stories.  They know if something happened for instance right after the Saints were expelled from Missouri what the Saints were probably thinking and feeling at the time.

Those are some of the things I can remember of the top of my head.  Here are some things we want to memorize next:

• The Declaration of Independence (only Liberty did it)-Liberty is continually quoting to us why something is wrong or right in government now my telling us what the Declaration says
• Address to My Children by Heber C Kimball
• Animal Kingdom
• Major Plant Species and key components of each
• Periodic Table
• Poetry
• Kings and Queens of England (we know several though)
• Constellations
• Key dates and events the occurred chronologically during each American War (We already have much of the Revolutionary War dates memorized.  Extremely beneficial!)
• Prophets and kings of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah
• Major musical movements of history
• Refined vocabulary words (thank you Misfit Cygnet)

That's a good start.  We will do many of those this year.  At least I will and some of the kids will learn some and some will learn others.  I have faith in each of them that they will be inspired to know what they need to memorize to bless their lives individually. 

If you would like to memorize things but seem overwhelmed by the ideas just start small.  The first things we memorized were what I considered core phase things.  For example the Latter-day prophets, Books of Scripture, Articles of Faith, etc.  All of these things are already put to Primary music so it'll be easy.  Time lines for Seminary provide easy access to dates, places and key events.  The seminary scripture mastery's are also easy places to start for knowing which scriptures to memorize.  I think on You Tube (I've not looked though) there would most likely be rhymes/songs for learning geography, presidents, states, etc.  It seems like they have everything on there!  Any science or history book would have dates and key events for you to study if you didn't know something.  Of course googling for a list of something is even easier.

To stop a very long post, memorizing can be a great tool that is easily incorporated into a routine.  It takes no more effort than googling a list for me.  It helps make traveling in the car easier when I distract them.  We are excited to work on new things. It has been helpful to evaluate how my children learn. I have learned that I have some that respond to lists, drills and memorization,  However, I have a very "right brained" child (Imagination age 9) has never really been interested in memorizing and has a hard time memorizing some things that my older two children have known since they were two.  Just thoughts. What are yours?

Geography Mania

If you haven't noticed this house of mine loves history and anything to do with history.  This of course includes multiple subjects which we are happy to pursue because it somehow involves history.  One of those subjects is geography.

First let me say in my house we don't have "school time."  (We have personal preparation time, work time, free time, meal time, and family time and that's about it). We learn mostly by living.  Of course that means that I have had to be creative at times in order to expose my children to things I find important. 

Now back to geography.  Geography just comes along for the ride as we learn about other topics.  We may be reading a book about World War II and as we talk about all the countries involved in the conflict we will simply look at a map/globw and familiarize ourself with the area.  Then we will go back to the story.  Pretty simple.

Another way we learn geography in our family is that we have a world map on the kitchen table with vinyl on top of it.  We have had this up since the spring and we have continued to love it.  Since there is a heavy duty vinyl covering over the top it is easy to clean up after meal times.  (The vinyl can be found in any major fabric store).  My map was free and the vinyl was less than $15 if I remember correctly.

We have many meal time discussions when Mr. Patriot is home and these mostly involve world affairs, government and history.  (Can you see why he is running for a political office?)  Having a map right at our finger tips is very helpful during these meal time conversations.  We use it a lot.

Our children also regularly ask to have "map quizzes."  They think this is the most fun game every made.  (It's easy of course to think that when you have very few toys to distract you. Thank you Headgates).  We usually play this game during lunch time, but it is also common to have them schedule a quiz during free time.  How to play? Very simple.  I ask them questions about everything and anything that can be found on a map or that has to do with a map.  I usually give a question to a child and then move on to the next one while they look or decide on their answer.  When someone answers their question I will then give them another question.  All questions are for the level of each child.

Easier questions include: Point out the 7 continents. Where is the compass rose? Find Canada, Russia, China (big countries).

Medium questions include: Where is Iraq, Chili, Italy....?, Where is the Middle East, Mediterranean Sea, Lake Superior....?

Harder questions might be: Where is the Straight of Gibraltar? What is the capital of Turkey? What mountains separate Spain and France? Where is the head of the Nile River? What is the approximate population of the capital city of Brazil? (Use the legend).

Advanced questions that have been asked include: Where did WWI start? Point out the communist countries of the world. What islands are included when you say, "Micronesia?" Explain and show the migration patterns of your ancestors on dad's side?

Our kids have loved learning geography and have begged to do this over and over.  I rarely bring up playing "map quiz," it is something they choose.  It requires no preparation on my part.  I don't have to pay lots of money for all sorts of board games to try to make it "fun" for them to learn geography (which I find painful).  Absolutely no painful workbooks required.  I think it's safe to say since they can answer those kinds of questions than they are doing just fine in geography.

If you have a husband who would rather not be inundated with "school" things 24 hours a day I would suggest placing a table cloth over your table at dinner or when company comes.  We've never done this however.  Our company is intrigued by it all and usually ends up playing and discussing right a long with us.

The Oral Story Telling Tradition

This summer I have increased my story telling to the children.  Children love to hear stories.  Today I really realized the power of the Oral Tradition of telling stories.

I shared with them the story of 9/11.  My boys were little when it happened and so they don't remember "that fateful day."  Unfortunately I have assumed that if an event happened in their their lifetime they will remember it and understand it.  Today was the day I realized they didn't know about 9/11.  So the story telling began.  I told them about my experiences that day as well as my feelings as I watched the Twin Towers crash to the ground.  I told them (as I cried) about the plane in Pennsylvania and in the Pentagon.  I then shared with them what terrorism is and how it is impacting us today.  This naturally led into a discussion about the Gadianton Robbers.  They do know what the Gadianton Robbers are and so they could make the connection.  We then went on You Tube and watched some coverage from 9/11.  It was a holy experience.

Perhaps sometimes we think that we can't tell stories because we think we need a book.  Perhaps we choose not to share stories because we are unsure that we know enough about the subject  Perhaps we simply don't think some stories matter to our children.  Perhaps we even think that story telling is what the elderly and our grandparents are suppose to do, not us.

Story Telling as been around since time began.  Tales of courage, faith, hope and love abound in every culture.  The Australian Aborigines, the Native American cultures, and Ancient Greece shared tales of the heroic with their people.  It is a way we connect with each other, a way we feel human.  We link our selves with the past as we realize that we are all really a part of a large family and those who went before us are like us.  We can began to see into the future and how our tales ought to shape those after us.

Even though the oral story telling is a wonderful link to past and present it is a declining tradition in America.  I suppose it is because we don't talk to our children as much as past generations.  (TV, radios, game boxes, sporting events, various other entertainment options compete and win our time) I think the reasons are different with in each family.  My reasons are because I'm busy, I would rather read them a great piece of literature (it is possible to do both), I don't remember too, and sadly I'm more selfish and I'd rather do something I want to do.

Oliver DeMille identifies the importance of the oral story telling tradition in Ingredient #13-Winters.    He said,

"{Winters are} the time to tell the old stories, sing the old songs, and for the younger generation to learn the wisdom of the elder."

I don't think that we need to be limited to winters in our story telling time.  I have found traveling in the car, eating meals together, snuggling in bed together, and times around the campfire to be excellent times to weave a story.  Here is a post about a tale I told one day.

Some of the things you can tell a story about include:

• American Revolutionary War tales (Paul Reverie, Patrick Henry, Valley Forge, Henry Knox, etc)
• Any other war in American History (Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner, Andrew Jackson, Joshua Chamberlain, etc)
• Family History Stories (immigration patterns and reasons, pioneer stories, conversion stories, etc)
• Bible/Scripture Stories
• Church History Stories
• Stories from your childhood
• Literature stories (you condense and share the stories of Heroism)
• Fairy Tales
• History of the founding of your town and area, also include your state
• Biographical retelling of famous people
• Faith building experiences from your life

There are limitless events that we can pull from.  Retelling these stories in your own words makes them personal to you and your children.  All of these things have shaped you, your family, your community, your country and your religious beliefs and our children deserve to hear these tales.

I believe our children will need to take all these great tales of courage, faith, hope and love in order to spiritually and emotionally arm them for their battles they were sent to Earth for.  I have made a commitment to myself to tell more stories and give of myself more.

The Gettysburg Address

Recently the boys and I read the Gettysburg Address together. Have you ever read it? Really read it? Now this is a powerful document. This gives point to the "Classics, Not Textbooks" from the 7 Keys of Great Teaching. The boys and I had a moving experience as we talked about these powerful words, line by line.

Listen to some of these masterful words.

"...The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced...we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion..."

The whole thing is brilliant and gut wrenching. By the time we were done we were all crying. Crying for what's been done for us, crying because we must carry on with where they left off, and crying because we feel so inadequate to protect this passed on freedom. We had read truth that rang into our souls.

From there a two hour long discussion ensued about the Civil War. I narrated to them the great battles and the great heroes and what they had done. I was weaving a story for them. We talked of Joshua Chamberlain, Stonewall Jackson, Harriet Tubman, The Underground Railroad, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E Lee, Jefferson Davis, Fort Sumter, abolitionism, the south and the election of 1860. Every once in a while I'd pull up a picture of someone for them to see and for it to be real. We would look into their extinguished eyes and feel a sense of purpose and a sense of gratitude.

It is in these moments, as I tell them about heroes and history, that the tears fall and the Spirit penetrates that I feel so very blessed to have them by my side all day long and every day.