Hope Chest #46, part 4: A Cross-Cultural Christmas
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>
THE HOPE CHEST: Ideas and Inspiration for Home Education
Issue #46 part 4
November/December 2001
A Cross-Cultural Christmas
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WELCOME TO THE HOPE CHEST!
The Hope Chest Home School News is a free bi-monthly e-mail newsletter
with encouragement and practical teaching tips.
Web page: http://www.homestead.com/hopechest/welcome.html
Personal e-mail: [email protected]
Subscription address: [email protected]
This is part 4 of 4 for this issue. In it, you will find:
On Our Homefront: Whats New at the Knowles House?
Whats Up in the Next Issue?
Resource Ordering Information
Reprint Information
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ON OUR HOMEFRONT:
Whats New at the Knowles House?
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This past month or so, weve had some neat outings.
Thad and I had two free tickets to go to the Holy Land Experience theme
park here in Orlando. Oh, I highly recommend this! It was marvelous! I
felt such a spirit of peace and joy there that Ive not found at other
local attractions. Of course, part of this is that we didnt have any
children with us, but I think it was mainly due to the overwhelming sense
of worship and reverence that we found there. My two favorite parts were
the autumn harvest festival presentation (the music and dancing were
AWESOME in the true sense of the word) and the Jerusalem AD 66 display,
which is a room size model. A few times a day, a guide interprets this
for the guests. Unfortunately, we had been told it only took a few hours
to see everything, and we didnt allot quite enough time. Give yourself
at least five or six hours! Admission is only $17 for adults and $12 for
children. There are discounts for multi-day and annual passes, but so
far, no "whole family" tickets. They will be having special Christmas
displays and shows soon, and in February, they will be opening the
Scriptorium, a museum showing the history of the Bible, with many ancient
manuscripts on display.
As a family, we visited the Grandma Moses primitive American painting
exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art. Thad took the boys to get their
hair cut while I was at the museum with the girls. They met us there, and
we all gasped in astonishment when we saw Andrew and Micah. They have
absolutely adorable crew cuts! (Weve given the Micah a new nickname:
Buzz.) Honestly, these crew cuts are so much easier to keep clean and
neat! And it relieved me from having to hold down a very squirmy and
reluctant boy for a trim. He behaved quite nicely in the barbers chair!
Our big trip for the month -- in lieu of an extended family vacation --
was a two day jaunt to Tampa, which is about an hour and a half away. We
had purchased an annual family membership to the Florida Adventure Museum
([email protected]) in Punta Gorda, which gives us reciprocal rights to
get in free at many other science museums in the country, including our
local Orlando Science Center (OSC) and the Museum of Science and Industry
(MOSI) in Tampa. MOSI (http://www.mosi.org) is supposedly the largest
science museum in the southeastern USA. We spent several hours there over
the course of two days. They had lots of neat features, such as a high
wire bicycle to ride over the lobby. It is counterbalanced so as not to
tip, and riders are harnessed securely. We went in the hurricane room,
where you experience a wind force of 74 miles per hour. And you can ride
a motion simulator which gives you a "tour" of the inside of a computer.
Still, if we hadnt had the free passes, Im not sure if it would have
been worth paying the daily admission charge for our whole family since
there was so much overlap between MOSI and our own OSC. Also while we
were in Tampa, we visited the New Tampa YMCA. Thads old boss is the
executive director there. Its a brand new
facility, and I was drooling over it. They have two climbing walls,
lateral (side to side) and vertical, which have hand and foot holds
bolted securely to them. The girls practiced on the lateral one before
moving to the "rock wall" which is almost 30 feet high. For this latter
one, you are harnessed with a rope and pully scheme. The staff member
holds on to the end. Sometimes, you end up dangling in the air until you
catch hold of the wall again! I was amazed at the tenacity and
determination of my children to get to the top! A few of them did this
over and over again. We topped off our weekend by meeting some old family
friends for dinner. The Barons are expecting their fourth child in about
a month. Their oldest is 18 -- graduating from home school this year
while doing dual enrollment at the community college! -- and their
current youngest is 10!
Speaking of exhibits, our home school support group hosted its annual
History / Geography fair a few weeks ago. Sad to say, this year it was
another mad scramble for us to finish our display boards in time! One of
my daughters, who shall remain nameless just now, didnt choose her theme
until two days before the fair. Everyone was clamoring for immediate help
-- simultaneously! Thankfully, Julia took over assisting Lydia. We also
managed to misplace one of our display boards, which we found later
tucked behind a dresser where I had stashed it for safe keeping. The day
before the fair, I was so tired that I had to send my mother-in-law out
for last minute supplies. Then, wouldnt you know it, our printer ran out
of ink that night and I had to go to Wal-Mart to buy a refill kit... Oy!
The moral of the story is: PLAN AHEAD! We did manage to finish four
projects: Julia did the history of basketball, Rachel did the legend of
Robin Hood, Joanna did Italy and Lydia did France. Were doing a science
fair in January, and our support group leaders had the foresight to book
a guest speaker to do our November meeting on helping your children set
up science projects! They wanted us to get thinking about this ahead of
time, to avoid just that sort of last minute rush!
Last night, Thad and I celebrated our 16th anniversary! We went to
dinner at a lovely restaurant called Cooker, and then walked across the
parking lot to the Lifeway Christian store, browsed their home school
section, and bought a Christmas CD on sale! I was delighted to see that
Lifeway had a copies of some of the Beautiful Feet history study guides,
because I am seriously thinking of investing in these to preserve my
sanity. They use really good literature and the Principal Approach.
Rather than just presenting lots of "ideas" about how to study a time
period, they provide a daily lesson plan! Yes! I think that's just what
I'm looking for! Check out Beautiful Feet on-line at:
http://www.bfbooks.com/ This looks so tempting that I may even order
their Renaissance / Reformation set for our spring semester. We'll
probably do their Early American program next year.
Well, Im being booted off the computer by a daughter who needs to type
in her weekly essay!
Hasta la vista! (See you later!)
Vaya con dios! (Go with God!)
(Sorry, I couldnt figure out how to do the upside down exclamation marks
that the Spanish use at the beginning of the exclamation sentences...)
Blessings,
Virginia
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WHATS UP IN THE NEXT ISSUE?
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The next issue, which will come out sometime in January, will be on
Educating for Greatness. Send me your stuff!
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RESOURCE ORDERING INFORMATION
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I dont have the space here to describe all of these resources, so if you
want to know more about any of them, e-mail me and Ill send you
descriptions! Right here I am just going to list titles, authors, prices
and order information. Shipping (all orders) and tax (Florida residents)
must be added to the prices listed. I have limited quantities in stock
(and some of them I cant get any more of) so please e-mail me before you
send payment.
BOOKS BY VIRGINIA KNOWLES
The Real Life Home School Mom -- $14 (list price $16)
The Best of the Hope Chest Vol. 1(Issues 1-10) -- $10
The Best of the Hope Chest Vol. 2 (Issues 11-20) -- $10
The Best of the Hope Chest Vol. 3 (Issues 21-30) -- $10
The Learners Journal Lesson Planner & Resource Log -- $10
Nurturing Naomi: How to Help Yourself or Someone Else
Overcome Discouragement (audio tape) --
$3 or free with other order
BOOKS AND TAPES BY CINDY RUSHTON
Inspiring Our Children to Greatness Using Great Literature -- $12
Homeschooling... Digging in to ALL of the Options -- $10
A Charlotte Mason Primer -- $12
Ministering to the Heart of Your Child -- $12
Language Arts... The Easy Way -- $20
Nature Study... The Easy Way -- $25
The 3R'S for Moms...Well, Maybe Four! (tape set) -- $16
(I may or may not have all of these in stock, so check with me by e-mail
before you send an order)
QUANTITY DISCOUNTS! If you order any three items or more, take $1 off the
price of each item.
TO ORDER ANY OF THE RESOURCES: Send me a list of which books you want and
how many, and compute the subtotal. Shipping to USA addresses is $2.50
minimum and 10% after that. Florida residents pay 7% sales tax AFTER
computing shipping. (Contact me for foreign shipping rates, rush shipping
rates, or quantity pricing.) Mail your check, order and e-mail address
to:
Virginia Knowles / 1925 Blossom Lane / Maitland, FL 32751
If you prefer to order with a credit or debit card on the web, go to the
PayPal web site at http://www.x.com and send the payment to
[email protected]. Be sure to get the e-mail address correct! Also be
sure to include your name, address and other order information. This is
the ONLY way I can accept credit/debit card payment.
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REPRINT PERMISSION
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You may freely copy material from this newsletter in other non-profit
publications (unless otherwise marked in the article), but you MUST
include the authors name (not necessarily mine) and this entire notice:
Reprinted with permission of Virginia Knowles from the Hope Chest Home
School News. For a free subscription, send an e-mail message to
[email protected] or visit
http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html
Please send me a copy of the publication which includes the material.
Virginia Knowles / 1925 Blossom Lane / Maitland, FL 32751