Farmers on Maui: a blog

I’m scared of centipede encounters (which can be very painful but non-venomous)…. perspective giver… a new friend telling me about living in Ethiopia with a yard in which they had to worry about green mamba snakes biting their children and killing them. within 30 seconds.

I seriously love these animals. My eyes were actually starting to tear up as I was looking at this picture and thinking about manatees. I swam with them in 2009, and it was an amazing experience for me. I kissed one on the scratchy cheek/ snout and scratched it under its flipper as it rolled over on its tummy for me. This all happened in the wild! They are so gentle and cute (to me). I want to save them all! It actually makes me sad that there are no manatees in Hawaii.

A sneak peek inside the packaging for the Road to Hana CD guide! (Click the arrows to scroll through the photos.)

(via pfarm)

This will be our history/geography/science curriculum for this coming school year. I am so excited! Amanda has a desire to point to Jesus through her unit studies. We will be doing the week-long studies. The kids have already picked out 2 each to start our year. We will also be learning about dinosaurs and the creationism view that our world is just over 6000 years old (not millions). That is part of the Answers in Genesis website.

Maybe some manatees could be brought to Hawaii (since there aren’t any), and I could take care of them????

pfarm:

Zoe and Samuel perform “LOVE ME” by JB (Justin Bieber)!

pfarm:

Whether your fantasies of Hawaii involve frolicking in hidden waterfalls, driving through the exotic jungles of Maui in a Jeep Wrangler, hiking through a bamboo forest, or simply finding a secluded spot on the island to escape the fast pace of life, the Road to Hana will indulge all your desires.                                                                 

I read Nancy’s radio interviews often. This is a very convicting one for moms. So many great points in here that I wanted to share it…

One of my favorite quotes is…

Your kids will most likely reject your religion if it is a joyless religion.

The Mountain (by Terje Sorgjerd

)

When I watch this video, it creates worship for my Creator inside of me.

So, I’m listening to Carole Seid, an education/ homeschooling specialist I heard about from a friend. She has  great ideas… one of which is getting rid of media completely for kids (other than a t.v. specifically for watching movies once or twice a week). WHAT??!! I mean, could we do that? Actually, there are times I want to throw the computer, the Iphones, and Ipad through the window (of course those aren’t the same times as when I’m blogging or facebooking). But, wow, what great research she has to back up the positive results… check it out…

http://www.carolejoyseid.com/index.php?page=radio

“you have no control when watching television of what’s gong to come on”…. for example, my kids were watching a Scooby-Doo on the WB online the other day and a commercial for Gilmore Girls came on talking about M.I.L.F. and cookies (I won’t go into details on this, but ridiculous innuendo).

“teachers can tell a difference in kids who grow up around computers and those who don’t… “

“kids who have been in front of a media screen are less adept socially” “why let them sit in front of a screen while you’re working like a slave… teach them alongside you” (i love that reminder of teaching them life skills, esp. since I can sometimes be an “enabler”.

Such great insight! Although we have limited the kids’ media time a great deal, we haven’t taken it away. I have to say that I think a carefully limited and supervised amount is ok too. That’s MY goal. Paul and I could tell when the kids were on media too much… they would have a free minute and that’s what they go to … it’s their “go-to”… and that’s when we had to crack down and force them to actually THINK of things to do or play.

I’m definitely going to look into more of Carole Seid’s ideas b/c I love the idea of “getting our kids back”  (that’s my wording b/c I feel like the world wants to take childhood away from them). I want to learn more about the effects media has on kids b/c it totally makes sense to me that it can be negative. Buy it seems there is a wonderful, positive “movement” to grow kids more “organically” and let them be kids. That’s a huge reason I love homeschooling. Now, I don’t know how long we’ll do it; it’s one year at a time. But I am so thankful we can do it and so thankful that it’s working for us.