Month: August 2009

I thought I would share how BSG has been working for us after using it daily for 3 weeks. I purchased the kid worksheets — one set for each kid. I have one using Beginner, one Intermediate, and one Advanced. I did not buy the main binder or other supplemental things.

I like that after breakfast we can sit down at the table and each kid has a sheet to work from. Before trying BSG I did read alouds from Catherine Vos’ Child’s Story Bible and our chronological Bible. That system was fine, but there was a lot more squirming and climbing on me (the youngest still climbs on me and squirms during our FIAR lesson, so although getting older has helped, it’s not the entire solution.) The climbing on me made me cranky and I didn’t like all the interruptions. Using the worksheets has been enjoyable for all of us, especially because everyone is sitting in their own seat.

Each kid’s sheet has map and review work on one day, and digs deeper into a particular scripture passage on the next day. We do one side of a sheet each day. Each kid has their own pack of colored pencils or crayons. One of us reads the passage aloud, then we work our way down the sheet answering questions like: Name the 12 sons of Jacob, or what are the 4 divisions of the New Testament? There are also instructions to find and mark places on the map and to find people on the timeline.

The second side of the sheet is divided into boxes. We reread the scripture from the day before piece by piece, then do the associated work in each box. Depending on the level, they color in the items that pharoah gave to Joseph, draw lines to the correct items or write them down in the blanks provided. I really like that they are all working using the same information, but at different skill levels.

I’m able to sit at the table with them and share in the reading and read the instructions to the youngest and assist the older 2 as needed. We talk about what we’re looking at and learning as we move box by box through the story. I’m finding that the boys are enjoying the process and retaining a lot.

I thought the summary cards for the books of the Bible looked really interesting, but I haven’t branched out and purchased anything else yet. We are still using this scripture memory system as part of our Bible Study time.

Here are the highlights, the breakdown is below:
Basically TV has given up the 10pm hour so there’s much less to get excited about this fall.
New shows I’m excited to try:
Glee, Modern Family, Community, CougarTown. Where are the dramas? Blech.

Returning shows I’m happy to have back:
NCIS, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, The Office (even though it let me down last season). . .

And here’s the workout I have designed for my DVR:
Monday 8: How I Met Your Mother and House
9: Gossip Girl
9:30: Big Bang Theory

Tuesday 8: NCIS and SYTYCD
9: NCIS-LA (giving it a shot even though I didn’t like the NCIS goes to LA episode last year)
10: The Forgotten (it gets one shot)

(this is a rough night)
Wednesday 8: ANTM and SYTYCD results show — IF I like Hank or The Middle (2 ABC sitcoms) I’ll just grab the SYTYCD results off the internet.
9: AKK! I have Modern Family/Cougartown, Glee, and Law and Order: SVU all during this hour. I might have to sacrifice SVU since I know I’ll be able to catch them in reruns. If the sitcoms don’t pan out, I’ll switch over to taping SVU
10: CSI: NY probably — not my fav though

Thursday 8: I have a conflict at this hour too. I will watch Bones, but then I have to decide between Survivor: Samoa and Flashforward. I heard intriguing things about FF, so I have to at least watch the first episode. Especially since it was described as a Lost type show. I also am having to skip Parks and Recreation, oh well.
9: The only shows that interest me are The Office and Community. HEY! Where is 30 Rock? OK, just found out that 30 Rock will follow The Office, but not until Oct 15th.

Friday 8: Law and Order. Still a fan, even if it annoys me a lot.
10: Numbers — I think this is the first show that I have on my schedule at 10. This Jay Leno thing has totally killed 10pm TV.

Sat 10: Ooh, I just figured out I can watch SVU repeats on Saturday night. That solves my Wednesday night crisis.

Sunday 8: Amazing Race, of course!
10: Maybe Cold Case — I still have 6 epis on the box from last spring that I haven’t watched yet.

So to sum up, there really aren’t that many shows I’m excited about. Cable shows I’m loving right now: Drop Dead Diva, Psyche, 10 Things I Hate About You, Greek (starting in 2 weeks!) and that’s all I can think of off the top of my head. This doesn’t count the home improvement genre like Bang for Your Buck, Renovation Realities, etc.

It’s that time of year! When I compose my list of must see vs. must miss TV. So far there are three sitcoms I have high hopes for:
Community, Modern Family, and Cougartown. Now when I first heard about Cougartown, I swore I would never watch it, base on the horrible title. But after seeing Courtney Cox in the previews, it looks hilarious.

Modern Family is also winning me over with the previews of Al Bundy as the over the hill husband of a much younger woman, the gay couple with a kid, and the couple with the dad doing the High School Musical choreography. Since I don’t watch commercials as a rule (DVR’s 30 second skip is the best invention ever) I haven’t seen too much of them, but when I land on them they always catch my attention and I skip back to watch them.

I don’t know much about Community, but the fact that it’s by the people who made 30 means I’m in.

Another new show I’m excited about coming back: Glee. I loved the premiere back in May and loved its blend of comedy and music. I can’t even recall what other new shows are out there, I’m going to have to get my grid together and figure out how it lines up night by night.

Fall starts early this week though with Project Runway. The first time that I’ve been able to watch it as it comes on instead of catching a marathon when we get a free month of Bravo. Thursday night — make it work!

ETA: On an unrelated TV note, as intrigued as I am by Octomom’s 8 babies, I refuse to watch the show tomorrow night on principle. I hope it gets horrible ratings so no one else tries to pump out babies in an attempt to get their own reality show. Poor babies.

I saw on my Egypt friend’s blog that they just got back from a 2 week trip to Morocco so now I have the travel bug. I checked out travel guides on Jordan, Egypt, traveling the Middle East on a Shoestring, and the 2009 Eurail guide. Oh, and I ordered the brand new Lonely Planet guide to the Middle East on Amazon that will arrive tomorrow.

I always have just as much fun planning a trip than I do taking it (probably more!). And especially since I can’t fathom being able to fly overseas and take crazy buses and trains all over Europe and the Middle East, for now reading is safe entertainment.
I finished the Eurail guide and realized we have to save mucho bucks if we decide to travel at all in Europe. Limited access train passes will cost 2k and that doesn’t include lodging. Yikes! Good thing we’re starting to save already.

It was funny reading the guide about the Middle East: “you may not want to visit during Ramadan because people aren’t allowed to eat or drink during the day and it makes them cranky.” Other facts of interest: people of Jewish faith aren’t allowed visas to travel to Saudi Arabia, there are a few countries that require Western women to cover completely (except for hands and faces), and lots of tipping is expected in every country except Yemen.
And this warning regarding traveling with children: “As for hotels, you are going to want something with a private bathroom and hot water, which will normally preclude most budget accommodations.” Um, yeah. I think private bathrooms and hot water are a must.

I need to write about 2 fantastic books I read recently: Kathryn Stockett’s The Help and Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. I also just finished So You Don’t Want to go to Church Anymore which I have mixed feelings about.
BUT, it’s dinnertime and I’m going to go eat pizza. Yum!