-
Ten Things I Learned During My First Semester as an Art Teacher
Have you ever been an art teacher before? Me, either! Well, up until this year, that is. I taught art for a few months at the end of the last school year, but really began teaching in earnest this fall. Over the summer, one of my very talented students gave me drawing lessons and I also read both of Mona Brookes’s excellent “Drawing…” books. Here’s what I’ve learned during my first official semester of being an art teacher. Some of these lessons come directly from the classroom, and some of them come as a combination of classwork, drawing lessons, and Mona Brookes’s guidance. (Note: Illustrations to follow.) First, art is…
-
The King of Love My Shepherd Is {New Music Monday}
This is going to be a quick New Music Monday introduction! Today is our last day before school starts, and I’m enjoying my last few moments with the kids, just us together. Brian and I are helping lead the hymns at school this year. We made this video to help the other teachers lead as well, and for families to use to practice at home. This is Brian’s video debut here at Teacher by Nature. How exciting! I hope you enjoy our recording of The King of Love My Shepherd Is, based on Psalm 23.
-
Planting Seeds with “The Sower,” a New Book by Scott James
We have a small collection of books on our kitchen table, held up with an old bookend from my sister and a pot overflowing with African Violets. Some of the books in our kitchen table collection include Everything a Child Should Know about God by Kenneth N. Taylor, My ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt, The Biggest Story ABC by Kevin DeYoung, a few of R.C. Sproul’s children’s books, and a children’s Bible. The kids and I use these books to do devotions together in the evening and we also used them as part of our bygone homeschool days. All of these books do an excellent job of taking biblical…
-
Bonding Through Work Instead of Play
Maremmas are incredible dogs. They’re smart, funny, and affectionate. They know their herd (in our case, our family, our cat Rex, and a growing flock of chickens) and they know how to guard their herd. They won’t do anything they don’t want to do, or rather, anything they don’t see as their job to do. They can be stubborn and sweet, obedient and obnoxious. In short, we love our Maremma, our “little” Luna. I noticed something different about training Luna from what I could remember about training the dog my family owned growing up, a Springer Spaniel named Daisy. Daisy lived a full and happy life, digging up rocks in…
-
My 2022 Book List & My Top Ten Songs
Happy New Year, friends and family! As I did in 2021, this past year I kept track of all the books I read, either as family read-alouds or on my own. (This list doesn’t include the books the kids asked me to read out loud to them–that would be a very long list!) As a family, we especially enjoyed Brave Ollie Possum by Ethan Nicolle, the Green Ember and Archer series by S.D. Smith, and the Nnewts series by Doug TenNapel. My favortie books on the list this year are The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald. The book that held my attention for…