Guitar Lessons for FREE: Great for Home Schoolers!

Our twelve year old son loves playing the guitar. Ever since my mom bought him a student acoustic guitar when he was eight, his dad has been teaching him what he knows.

He learned quite a bit from my husband, but about six to eight months ago our son began getting a little bored and needed some outside instruction. I gave him a guitar book that offered instruction on reading tabs. That helped a bit because he could play a few songs in the book like "Yankee Doodle," and "When the Saints Come Marching In."

He was excited, but that didn't last long. He needed more music to learn. In order to help excite him we gave him an electric guitar for his birthday last month. But that didn't solve the problem of not having music, even though the electric guitar livened up what he already new.

Fortunately, we figured out that there are pieces of music in tab form, as well as in chords, available for free on the Internet. He began printing some of those off. He was able to learn some songs that way, but that wasn't always easy. Then he recently figured out that there are many instructional videos on YouTube! Boy that has been so exciting! Just in the past couple of days he has spent hours studying how to play many of his favorite Beatles songs.

It is great watching his enthusiasm as he studies, then practices, then performs. His performances consist of playing for his family first, then picking up the phone and calling his best buddy to see if he could figure out what was being played.

My son thinks it's awesome that he can learn how to play his guitar for FREE. That there are people out there willing to share their talents. He says that you can learn just about anything on YouTube, even how to tie your shoe. If you or your child want to learn how to play lots of rock songs, and even get basic guitar playing instructions check out http://www.justinguitar.com

Justin offers free instruction without any strings or schemes. He is a really down-to-earth guy who operates on the honor system. If you can afford to donate great! If not, that's great, too! That's why he has his site, he wants to teach anyone who wants to learn. Justin is a very good teacher and he also is a very caring, respectable person who does a lot of charity work and wants to raise awareness about suffering around the world.

Another fellow offers ten free instructional videos on YouTube. He is very good and my son really likes what a great teacher he is. He was able to learn some of the songs taught in just 15 minutes or less. This teacher also has a website called Guitar-in-a-nut-shell where he offers instruction for $14.99.

When my son only new a few songs he was bored and wanted to give up playing the guitar, even though he loves that instrument. Learning new songs has ignited a real fire in him that is great to see. It's even tempting me to start learning too!

Preparing Deer Meat

I have a top 10 list of ways you know that you are not in the city, you're in the country. I keep adding things to the list. Today I realized there's one more thing to add to it. Here it is:

You know you're not in the city, you're in the country, when you drive around town and see deer hanging from the trees.

You see, out here it's deer hunting season. Not only can you find deer hanging around, but you see lots of men, and some women, dressed up in camouflage and neon orange vests, hats, beanies, etc.

Three men dressed like this pulled up to our house on Sunday. One of them is the telephone service technician who set us up with our Internet last fall. He'd asked if we'd be interested in a deer last year. He finally was able to bring us two buck. They were older, with antler big enough that they cut the heads off so that they could have them taxidermied.

They showed up unannounced and my husband wasn't home. So they hung the younger one in a tree for me and the other one I decided the best place for it was out back so the dogs could eat it.

Now that is kind of funny because when we first moved here I saw several carcasses lying about some neighbor's yard (by their dog's house) and I thought that to be the oddest thing. (I'm surprised I didn't include that on my original top 10 list of ways you know you're in the country!) So now, a few years later we'll have some carcasses around our yard too. Ha! Ha!

Apparently, buck meat isn't as tender as a doe, and it's more "gamey." So the hunters didn't want the meat as they can pick and choose. They said the oldest buck wouldn't make very good eating so I figured our dogs, especially our mama dog who just delivered 10 pups, could use some protein to fatten them up. We are certainly grateful to save on dog food which costs us about $3 every two days.

Now, these were the first deer given to us since we've been here. Last winter some friends gave us some young doe meet which was the most savory meat I ever have eaten. It was just delicious. But a whole deer we'd never had before. So another friend happened to call me Sunday night to see if I wanted a deer. She ended up loaning us her son today and he came over and showed us how to skin it and what the best meat was.

His family processes deer quite often and I wish I had attended the demonstration that his mother put on last week at church. I guess she can make some delicious deer jerky and fried tenderloin. She cans deer meat, too.

So I brought our meat in and I washed it, cut it in strips and ground most of it. I took the loins, dipped it in egg with soy sauce,
then coated 'em with flour (spiced with garlic salt, onion powder,
salt and pepper) then fried it for about 20 minutes. It turned out scrumptious and all of my family devoured it!

Parents Must Protect Their Children From Viewing Sexual Innuendo

In our house our children are not allowed to watch any TV show unless it has met certain criteria. First of all, they can only watch shows that have been prerecorded on the DVR. This enables them to skip the commercials, which are often worse in sexual innuendo than the shows they are watching.

Second, they cannot watch anything that my husband and I do not approve of. Most of the time this means that we have previewed it (yes, I take the time to preview about 98% of everything they watch.) Although we are most concerned about innuendo, we are also concerned about violence, potty humor, bad language, dark themes, and other things.

Third, each show may have certain instructions to go with it. Take Spiderman 1 for instance. They are allowed to watch it only if they skip the scenes where the father is berating Mary Jane. Also the most violent scenes must be skipped.

Even shows that are rated G must be previewed by me. Many G rated movies are totally inappropriate. For instance, Barnyard is about the stupidest movie on the planet. This show depicts male cows (which are supposed to be bulls) having udders. Now, we only recently moved to the country, but I have yet to see such a cow. Females have udders, not males. When I saw this show I was beyond blown away. You know how sometimes things in life are so bad that you're beyond crying, so you have to laugh? Well, with this movie I was beyond blown away. I don't know what you'd call that though.

Tell, me why would Hollywood produce a movie with male cows walking upright with udders dangling between their legs?

It shouldn't be a surprise that this movie is banned from our home.

As I have stated on many occasions, home schooling keeps kids innocent. We have worked hard to protect our children from violence and sexual innuendo that is portrayed on TV as well as in books, and home schooling facilitates this. In addition to previewing movies I also have spent many hours prereading books. And although some of our children's schooled friends have occasionally spoken of things that are inappropriate, we are generally in close proximity and involved with our children when they have company.

I know a mother who believes that it is important to show your children that you trust them. She believes that allowing them freedom to be with their friends unsupervised, as well as use the computer and watch TV unsupervised is acceptable and a healthy display of your trust in them and that this will keep them from making bad choices.

I totally disagree. I think it is our job as parents to protect our kids and to help them avoid tempting situations and violent or sexually charged content, no matter how socially unacceptable it may be to do so.

On November 10, 2008, Townhall.com ran an article entitled, Sexual content on television linked to teen pregnancy .

I was flabbergasted by the following fact:

...we know there's a sexual scene in content every 10 minutes...

Every 10 minutes TV producers are trying to indoctrinate our children, robbing them of their innocence and tempting them to lust!!! How maddening! The study proves that sitcoms are the worst, (which we figured out long ago.) This is the reason that our family does not watch sitcoms, The Cosby show being the exception. And even though this sitcom is generally wholesome, there are many Cosby episodes that I have deleted after previewing or after simply reading the episode's description.

The following statement was not surprising:

Teenagers who have a high level of exposure to sexual content on television are twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy compared to those teens who have limited exposure to such content...

Though Hollywood is guilty of purposefully creating shows and commercials that expose our children to a variety of worldy values, we can limit our children's exposure to such through our diligent efforts and example.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, made a statement in the article cited above that supports our beliefs. He said:

"While it's easy to become enraged with Hollywood, the burden of protecting our children falls on us," ....."We cannot be complacent about what our kids are watching and expect them to take our values seriously.

I encourage you to be involved with your kids, view what they watch, and even if it means you are peculiar, don't be afraid to avoid what's popular (like watching High school musical.) Instead nurture character and values in your children by watch something meaningful like the movies Radio, or Duma.

Free Public School Internet Classes are Available for Homeschooled Kids

Last year we found out that our state had launched a Virtual Instruction Program. These are public school classes that are provided for free to those who sign up before a certain number of students is reached.

We decided to enter our eldest daughter, who would have been a freshman. The internet program provides some flexibility for home schoolers that want to be involved on a limited basis with public schools. This program made it a possibility for our daughter to have taken just a couple of classes at the high school, while taking the rest of her classes at home, in order to earn a diploma.

This has also made it possible for her to be involved in extra-curricular activities like sports. Although we have not yet involved her with the campus, she has taken the Internet classes with great success. (She may take a class or two at the high school next year despite not being eligible to earn a diploma because she would not have sufficient credits since she was not enrolled on campus last year.)

Though she will not be earning a diploma from our local high school (she will earn a diploma through Penn Foster, a correspondence school,) she is taking the public school Internet classes in order to amend her education. I did not feel like I was able to provide her challenging enough work without great expense and much effort, so the free Internet classes have really been a boon to her education. She is able to work on her own most of the time, with little contribution from me. She has teachers available via phone, email, IM and class live sessions.

She has been able to take Algebra as well as Spanish, Science, and English. Despite my concerns that she would be have difficulty in Math and English, she has maintained scores of 90%+. Since she has done so well, and the classes have been educational and fun for her, we decided to enroll our 6th and 8th grade sons in the program also. They are taking Math and Composition classes as well as Science. Because we want our boys to be involved in sports our plan is that they will be partially home schooled throughout high school, while attending the campus also.

We found out about the program through the high school counselor. I considered enrolling my younger elementary age children for Internet classes, but the enrollment process was overwhelming, requiring pages and pages of paperwork and accountability to the school. With the middle and high school Internet classes I have simply had to fax proof of birth and residency (via a utility bill) and sign a vaccination waiver. There has been no other paper work or tests required.

Internet

Harvesting Flower Seeds: Marigolds, Zinnias, Cosmos

It's November now, and my cosmos, zinnias and marigolds have just died off due to the frost. They really hung in there though, giving color all through October.

This photo on the left shows bright marigolds at the bottom, then zinnias in the center (a bit dulled this time of year) and cosmos, (most of which were spent and nearly ready to pick the heads for seeds.)





This photo on the right is of cosmos growing in another spot, by the front of our house, seemingly oblivious to the season, they are just as bright as can be.

The following photos are very poor in quality (I should have taken the pictures outside so as to eliminate glare.) But maybe they will help you in the future to gather the heads of these flowers and save their seeds.

This photo is of a zinnia bloom and two dried out heads.
If you look deep into the heads you will find the seeds. They
are very thin, flat, a bit curved, oval shaped and tan colored. In the head of zinnias there are also lots of bits of non-seed material. You have to sift through it to find the seeds.



The photo below shows a cosmos flower in bloom as well as three heads. You'll notice that two of the dead heads are closed and full of green seeds.

Once the seeds have darkened and dried up enough, the head will open and the seeds will be splayed, ready for the wind to carry them away. Cosmos seeds are much easier to find than zinnias.




This last photo shows marigold blooms and several dead heads. Marigold seeds are sooo easy to locate. Just pull the dried up flower petals away from the seed pod. Behind the petals you'll find the straight, black, seeds waiting for you. There will be about 20 seeds all side by side.

Once the seeds are gathered, put them in baggies or envelopes with labels and store in a cool, dry place.


Helpful links:
"Seed Harvesting" from the Garden Grapevine
"Harvesting Flower Seeds" Zinnias, from Prairie Thistle
"Harvesting Seeds from Your Garden," from the Garden Path
"Cosmos" from Swapseeds
"Growing Cosmos"