Ten Commandments and Ten Fingers

Several years ago, I found this wonderful resource for teaching my children and myself The Ten Commandments. I highly recommend learning the commandments in this multi-sensory way. It's effective, and it works!

I found the following information from Carolyn's Hymns.

The Ten Commandments are important as guides for faithful daily living, yet many people cannot remember all ten when asked. Here is a way that children as well as adults can learn the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), using their ten fingers. The points made can be adapted to the age of the listeners — from children to adults.

Start with your hands together in prayer. This reminds us that God heard the prayers of the Hebrew people when they were in slavery in Egypt and freed them (Exodus 3:7, 20:2). The commandments are a way for us to show our gratitude for God's love in our lives and to further just and peaceful relationships in God's world.

1. "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me."
   Hold up one index finger for the number one. We worship one God.
2. "You shall not worship idols."
   Idols, false gods, are not only things like statues, but anything in which we place our ultimate trust and allegiance — for example, money, possessions or weapons. Hold up two fingers. Should we worship more than one God? No, two is too many! One of them must be an idol, and we should not worship it!
3. "You shall not take the Lord's name in vain."
   Use three fingers to form the letter "W" which stands for "words." Watch your words! God wants us to use his name in loving, caring ways, as we pray and as we talk about him, not in swearing or in anger.
4. "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy."
   Hold up four fingers, and fold your thumb under to let it rest. The thumb has the right idea. It's the Sabbath, and the thumb is following the commandment to take a day of rest. God does not want anyone to overwork or be stressed, so we need a day to rest, to be at peace, and to worship with others. God also gave us the Sabbath so that working people would not be taken advantage of by their employers (Deut. 5:14)
5. "Honor your father and your mother."
   Hold up all five fingers on one hand as if you are taking a pledge, to honor your parents. God wants there to be peace and love in all our family relationships.
6. "You shall not kill."
   Pretend the index finger on your second hand is a gun, shooting at the first five fingers. God's sixth commandment teaches us not to do anything that would hurt another person unfairly.
7. "You shall not commit adultery."
   Hold one hand out flat. The five fingers and hand becomes the floor of the church. Two fingers on the other hand are the man and woman to be married, standing in the church, making promises to each other. This seventh commandment calls for couples to keep the marriage promises they make.
8. "You shall not steal."
   Hold up four fingers on each hand, for the eighth commandment. If you stretch out your fingers slightly, these become the prison bars, which hold someone who was been arrested for stealing. Our Presbyterian Church (USA)'s Study Catechism says "God forbids all theft and robbery, including schemes, tricks or systems that unjustly take what belongs to someone else." (Question # 112)
9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
   Hold up all five fingers on one hand and four on the other. Fold your second thumb under and turn your hand around, so the thumb is hiding. It is secretly going around telling the other four fingers on that hand lies and rumors about the five fingers on the other hand. It is "bearing false witness," as it talks behind people's backs, spreading gossip, criticizing others without talking directly to the people involved. Again, our Study Catechism teaches us "Negative stereotyping is a form of falsehood that invites actions of humiliation, abuse, and violence as forbidden by the commandment against murder." (Question # 115)
10. "Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor."
    Hold out your hands, palms up, and wiggle all ten fingers to show that they've got the "gimmies." Your fingers are saying, "Gimmie what belongs to my neighbor. I want all those things my neighbor has." This is not the way God wants us to live.

Together may we remember the Ten Commandments' teachings in the light of Jesus' teaching — that the love of God and neighbor are the two greatest commandments (Mark 12:28-34). John Calvin encouraged Christians in his day to sing the Ten Commandments followed by "Lord, have mercy" after each commandment. End with your hands together in prayer, asking that, by God's grace, we may live out these teachings in our everyday lives and expressing thanks that the God of peace is with us all (Philippians 4:9).

This resource was prepared by Bruce and Carolyn Gillette (co-pastors of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, DE) for the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program's packet for World Communion Sunday 2002. This educational resource for remembering the Ten Commandments was adapted with permission from the March 26, 2000 issue of Homiletics; it was originally shared by David Sauer. This resource can be formatted to fit on one side of a letter size paper to give to everyone.

Biology: Plant and Animal Cell Models!

The children and I thoroughly enjoyed making these edible cell models for biology class! Basically, we used cookie dough to make the cookie cakes and then decorated them with icing and candies such as Twizzlers, Skittles, and Nerds, etc. Taking the time to do this really reinforced learning the parts of the cells. It was a fun learning experience.

Cookie Cake Plant Cell

Cookie Cake Animal Cell
 

The two cookie cakes together! Yummy! Yummy!

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All of my students were instructed to make a cell model, so I'll share a few of the extraordinary ones...

One of my students made this model on the inside of a file folder, so it was kind of like a lapbook. She used felt, cloth, buttons and puffy glitter glue. How creative is this?

And check this one out! This student sewed hers together! It's beautiful!

Another student made his cell model out of duct tape! How cool is that!?

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We studied, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology, by Jeannie Fulbright during our 2011 - 2012 school year. We had an absolutely fantastic year of science!

At the end of Lesson 1, we completed the Edible Cell Project as a class. It was a big hit! I used round plastic containers with lids, so the children could take their jello cells home and show them to their parents before they ate them.

Times Tales: Multiplication Math Facts

I first heard about Times Tales from Jeannie Fulbright, and although I completely trust her recommendations, I wasn't sold on it right away. After all, not every program works for every child, so would this program work for my children? I decided to give it a try, and I'm so glad I did!

Times Tales is a multi-sensory approach to learning the most difficult to memorize times tables:
3x6,3x7,3x8,3x9,4x6,4x7,4x8,4x9,6x6,6x7,6x8,6x9,7x7,7x8,7x9,8x8,8x9,9x9.

My children have totally different learning styles yet this program was effective for both of them. I started using it in the summer of 2010, and I still use the flashcards every week.

Here is an excerpt from the Times Tales website:
"Times Tales is a creative, innovative mnemonic-based program that makes it fun and
easy to memorize the upper multiplication and division facts.  Times Tales uses cute, simple stories to provide students with a "memory peg", allowing them to quickly recall otherwise abstract facts.

Students are introduced to each number as a "character" that makes sense in some way. For example, the number seven is Mrs. Weeks because there are seven days in a week. Once students learn the number characters, they learn short, simple stories where the numbers interact in some way. Students simply picture two number characters together to recall the story, which includes the answer to the multiplication fact. It's amazing how much easier it is for students to recall a simple story, than an abstract fact!..."

I used the big flip chart (not the DVD) to teach my children. I followed the directions in the Teacher's Manual with one exception. Instead of my children saying the two digit answers as two separate numbers such as "3, 6" I had them go ahead and say the number the proper way such as "36."

When I taught Part 1, it took about 45 minutes. As soon as we finished reading and talking about the stories, the children took the Part 1 test. Both of them scored a 100%! We continued to review the stories and take the Part 1 test again every day. Not only were the children successful, but they enjoyed the process.

I waited a month before I taught Part 2 to ensure that the children had definitely memorized Part 1. It took closer to an hour to teach Part 2. I gave them the Part 2 test and again, they both scored 100%! 

At that point, I began to give both the Part 1 and the Part 2 tests, so on Mondays and Wednesdays they took the Part 1 test and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they took the Part 2 test. Somewhere in there we managed to squeeze in the flashcards for additional review. The tests and flashcards were our supplementary math for the entire 2010 - 2011 school year.  

For the 2011 - 2012 school year, we stopped taking the tests and used the flashcards every now and then as review along with traditional flashcards. First, we go through the Times Tales flashcards (which doesn't take very long but provides a good review) and then we go through the traditional flashcards. This school year (2012-2013) we have been using this flashcard method once a week, every Monday. Although both of my children know their math facts, I want them to get faster. I have been noticing lately that they are super fast with their recall.

I'm so proud of how hard they've worked, how far they've come and how much they've accomplished. Over the last couple of months, they have even managed to memorize the 11 and 12 math facts, although I have never pushed them to memorize these. They just did that on their own as we went through the traditional cards that included these facts. So they've exceeded my expectations! Yeah!

These are the traditional Multiplication Flash Cards we use:

I bought our set years ago at Staples, but you can order them online through Hobby Lobby:
Trend Multiplication Flashcards

The Sentence Family: Introducing Grammar Through Art and Story

The Sentence Family is an extraordinary grammar program, and I'm still surprised that I didn't hear about it sooner. This is our 9th year of homeschooling, and over the years I've been consistently obsessed with researching and talking with others about different homeschool curriculum, so for me to have not heard of this FABULOUS program before is surprising to me. EVERYBODY should be talking about "The Sentence Family" when the subject of grammar comes up! It's effective! Plain and simple; it works! And for those of you that are wise with your money- It's cheap! Only $12 from CurrClick!

As the subtitle suggests, it is an "introduction" to grammar, but it is a thorough introduction that creates a good, solid foundation to build upon. Children learn about the four types of sentences, the parts of speech and how to diagram sentences in a fun and engaging way.

Someone recently asked me, "What ages or grades is it for?" Children are all so unique and ready for different things at different times, so I think it all depends on the child. It was created for a 4th grade class, but more importantly, keep in mind that it is an "introduction" and not a complete program.

The program uses story and art to teach grammar. Here are several snapshots of what we've been doing over the last few months:

The Sentence Family is one story, and each lesson is like a new chapter and introduces a new character. So every time you read, you learn about a new member of The Sentence Family. Afterwards, the children sit at the table and draw the character just as it is drawn in the book. Every detail has a purpose. For example, the king pictured above taps his staff on the ground at the end of each imperative sentence he says. This leaves a mark on the ground which represents a period. Imperative sentences end with a period, but on occasion they end with an exclamation point. You see both a period and an exclamation point represented in the picture.

By the way, the directions in the book suggest using 12" X 18", heavy paper. It's easier for the children to draw big pictures, and the heavier the paper the better because it won't tear easily.

The program is color coded! A few times throughout the program, children are asked to underline words in sentences. Each part of speech has it's own color. It starts out simple. Nouns are blue and verbs are red. As the other parts of speech are added, children will learn that adjectives are green and adverbs are orange, and this is all tied into the storyline.

Here you meet Preposition (purple) and see Noun (blue) and Verb (red). When you read the story, you will learn why Verb's hat is falling off, why Noun is leaning against the tree and why Preposition is pointing to Noun! It's all very interesting!

We did all of our diagramming on the dry erase board. I believe this was less intimidating and more fun than doing it on paper. We diagrammed the first sentence together, and then the children took turns diagramming the rest of the sentences.

The program also teaches how to diagram prepositional phrases, and ends with diagramming interjections!

I enjoyed reading the story of The Sentence Family with my children and spending time with them as they drew their fabulous pictures! It was a wonderful experience, and I'm going to miss it all. I loved it so much I even turned their collection of drawings into books as a special keepsake. We've talked a few times about how they need to come out with a Part 2!

Click on this link if you're interested in learning more about The Sentence Family from the school that created it:
St. Michael's Orthodox School

Click on this link if you'd like to purchase it as an ebook:
CurrClick