My Van, Substituting, FHE and a Project

We just got our van back! It ended up being the starter motor. Our friend and neighbor who is a mechanic came home from work tonight and fixed it. Yeah! So...I'm back in business and can go where I need to. It's amazing the plans I made in my head to go here or there and then had to remind myself that my car was broke. The things we take for granted...

Today I substituted for a 3rd grade class. They kids were really good. In fact, when I asked a question they answered in a whisper. I had to encourage them to speak up. Here's a bit of the life of a 3rd Grade student with a substitute:

*We talked about recognizing the subject and predicate in a sentence. I don't think I ever knew the basics of this as a child. I always heard the terms but never realized what the "predicate" was. So, the subject is the thing the sentence is talking about (the noun) and the predicate is what that subject is doing.

*We talked about capitalizing Days and Months and City and State in a sentence and where the commas go.

*We had social skills lessons on listening, following directions and getting the teachers attention. The steps to listening are 1) Look at the person talking, 2) let them finish 3) restate or acknowledge you heard and 4) ask questions if you need clarification. The steps to following directions are 1) look at the person 2) signal you heard the direction (nod, say okay, etc.) 3) do it right away and 4) ask questions for clarification if it doesn't work the way you think it is supposed to be done. I wish I could teach my kids these skills. I'll have to make a point to talk to them about it!!!! Oh, the resources I can get from substituting!

*We had teacher reading time where we read out of "A Hundred Dresses" (finished the book).

*We had Computer/Prep time (the kids were gone for 45 minutes).

*We had a math pretest.

*Practiced handwriting.

*Worked on a fire safetly booklet.

It was a full day but no problems whatsoever. I am really enjoying this job!!! It is so great to be recognized by the kids around the school. It's great for my psychie (is that how you spell that?)!!!

Family Home Evening went great tonight. We talked about peace in our home. This is something we struggle with lots around here. I shared the scriptures Mosiah 4: 13-15:

"And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due.
And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness.
But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another."

We talked about making this our family scripture for a while. We've had our old one (Helaman 5: 12) for quite a while. This one just seems to fit the needs in our family at this time.

We talked about having a "Work it Out, Sit it Out" place where the people involved in quarrelling will go to work out their issues.

We will also have a "Peace Offering Goodie Jar" filled with candy. If someone has offended someone and they feel bad about it they can take a piece of candy from the jar and put it on that person's pillow. It can either be done anonymously or they can write a note of apology. This is what we will work on this week.

Hopefully we will follow up next week and talk a bit more about this subject. I didn't come up with this stuff myself. I got these lesson booklets from the company "Once Upon a Family". Each booklet has a value for each month with games or other activities to do that will reinforce the value. This company was formed with ideas from the movie "The Ultimate Gift". If you haven't seen this movie, it's a must-see, life-changing...highly-recommended by the Barnes Family.

I always have projects to be working on. My latest is to clean up my recipe box. A few years ago my neighbor, another friend and I put together monthly menus and typed up tried and true recipes to go along with the menus. When we typed the recipes we copied and laminated them. I love the size of them and the fact that they are laminated and can't be ruined in the kitchen. The problem is I have lots of little pieces of paper with recipes from people that are not this standard size or laminated. So...I decided to type these up so all of them will be the same size, etc. The other perk of doing this is that I can save them on my computer and refer to them if, by chance, one gets lost or someone needs a copy.

So, that's my life for Monday September 22, 2008. It's been a great day!!!

Carolyn