On the Scouting Trail

DS, 11 received his Tenderfoot award this month and also has nearly finished his first two merit badges (Citizenship in the Community and Nation) on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout. He wore his great-grandfather's BSA beret to the board of review. He had lots of positive feedback and was very happy.

The Richest Man

The Richest Man in Babylon is a fantastic book to change your wealth paradigm. Originally published in 1926 as a series of booklets, the chapters are a little disjointed, but well worth the read. Clason espouses some very simple wealth building principles. First, save 10% for yourself. Secondly, invest 10% with the advice of knowledgeable and prudent advisers. Finally, he recommends using 20% of your income monthly as payments to get out of any debt you may have. Clason recommends distributing this debt payoff amount evenly between all outstanding debts, thus paying them simultaneously. The remaining 60% can be used for living expenses. He encourages thrift and fortitude to lift oneself to wealth and warns against gaining wealth quickly.

This book is applicable today when so much of the nation is in debt and living from one paycheck to the next. Many delightfully told stories of lifting oneself from poverty and dishonor to hard-won wealth sympathize with our situation and encourage diligent effort.

One piece is missing: the tithe. A 10% donation to God will certainly yield greater benefit than any investment. Also, after debt payoff, increasing donations and/or investments and continuing to live on 60% of your income would be a good idea.

Math Puzzles 1

Math. The very word strikes terror into the hearts of many youth (and even more adults). If this is the situation at your house, here is some hopeful news: Math skills can be learned in a fun way.

I like to use games to build the underlying math reasoning skills that are essential to higher math. Here are a couple to try:

Sudoku - also known as "Number Place" is easy to find on-line and in print. My nine-year-old does the easy ones and loves them, while the older children and I work on the difficult puzzles. Sudoku teaches a child to look for the answers in a logical fashion, step by step.
Frameworks - If the thought of doing a "number" puzzle makes you ill, try this word puzzle instead. It teaches the same logical reasoning as Sudoku, but without the numbers. Instructions are included at this Framework sample from Dell.
Logic Problems - Logic problems are a little more difficult, but a great skill builder. Many sites offer a range of puzzles from easy to challenging.

The Explosion into Reading

"Mom, I just read a book for the first time!" What wonderful rewards there are in motherhood, especially homeschooling motherhood. This is one of the most rewarding. Our son turned six less than a month ago and now, evidently, has decided that he wants to read. He has had no reading lessons, worksheets, no tears or reading homework. He has worked with the Montessori sandpaper letters and moveable alphabet off and on for the past two years, learning a few and then moving on to math - his favorite. Then all of a sudden he decides to read and does it.

Montessori described this phenomenon as the explosion into reading. Having gained all of the necessary information needed to know how to read, a child will one day put all the pieces together and begin reading. Typically a child will work with the sandpaper letters, moveable alphabet and the pink (phonetic consonant-vowel-consonant) collection of words. Due to the ability of each child to decide what he would like to accomplish with his time, he may not do all of the same steps that another child will do in order to begin reading.

The next couple of weeks will be particularly fun as he explores all of the many reading skills which he has gained over his years of "playing" with the Montessori materials.