Mood:  happy

I talked to my friend Kees Boer today. Kees is the person who introduced me to Compassion International. He told me the story about a little girl from Bolivia who he was able to find a sponsor for. He told me that when this little girl found out that someone was going to sponsor her, she jumped up and down like a kangaroo because she was so happy. You see, the average family in La Paz, where this little girl and our Compassion child, Marcelo, live has a monthly income of $67. Now I know that the cost of living in Bolivia is less than in the US, but even at that rate, it is very hard for a family to live on. The parents often turn to alcoholism. Many fathers leave their families. Often a girl will become pregnant at the age of 13 or 14. They then have to leave school and try to find a job to support their new child. But, then, they must leave the child while they work 12-14 hour days to make very little. The child is then raised by the folks left behind in the slums where they live, and cycle begins all over again. When you help a child with Compassion International, you help to break that cycle. Your monthly support of $38 helps to provide them with a good food and clothing for the present and Bible teaching and a good education so that they can break the cycle that they are in. However, most importantly, your letters of encouragement and love will help to break the cycle of low self worth and low self esteem. It will show them that somebody loves them and thinks that they are worth something. It will show them that the love of God does exist.

This is Mwende Mumbe. She is from Kenya. Her birthday is July 2, 2000. Here is some information about Mwende:

• Mwende lives with her mother. Her duties at home include carrying water. There are 6 children in the family. her mother is sometimes employed as a farmer.
• As part of Compassion's ministry, Mwende participates in church activities. She is also in primary school where her performance is average. Hideandseek is her favorite activity.
• Because of your sponsorship, Mwende will have new opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thank you for your concern and prayers.
• What more could you want for Christmas than to share the joy of sponsoring Mwende and know you are helping her learn and develop physically, mentally and spiritually?

What do I want for Christmas? I want to find a sponsor for Mwende. I can tell you by experience that sponsoring a child with Compassion International is one of the greatest joys that you could ever have. Just today John Allen wrote another letter to our child, Marcelo. Would you please pray about you possibly sponsoring Mwende?

It may seem strange that I put that my mood was happy at the top of this post. I'm happy, though, because I know that someone is going to sponsor Mwende and that she and her family will get the help that they need. If you are interested in sponsoring Mwende, please leave a comment below, or contact me through Facebook or Twitter. For more information on Compassion International, please press here. I have more information on Mwende that I would be more than thrilled to send to you. Sending the information does not obligate you to sponsor her, so if you are interested in more information, please ask. You can use it to pray that someone would sponsor her soon, or perhaps God is leading you to sponsor her. At any rate, would you please pray for a sponsor for Mwende soon? Thanks for your prayers. I will keep you updated!  

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Mood:  a-ok

If you will remember, back in May, after much prayer, the Tinkel family decided to sponsor a child with Compassion International. It has been a joy. Our family loves it and we love the child that God chose for us. His name is Marcelo and he is from La Paz, Bolivia.

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Once again, Sarah has done a fantastic job in writing our missionary prayer letter. I mention some of our ministry things on our blog, but Sarah does a much better job at keeping you up to date on what's happening here at Good News Mission, and with our family. To view the newsletter, just click here or on the picture above. If you would like to receive our bi-monthly newsletter by email, our email address is at the bottom of the newsletter, just send us an email and we will put you on the list.

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Ok. I know I let the cat out of the bag that I used to be a school teacher in one of my last reviews. If you recall, I was actually an "Educational Therapist" and worked with kids who had learning difficulties.So what's the new secret? The new secret is that one of the techniques that we used to help teach reading and spelling was the Orton-Gillingham approach. The Orton-Gillingham approach believes strongly in phonics. Now, I heard recently that phonics was originally developed in the early 1900's as a way to keep people from learning how to read!  I don't know if that is true or not, but, what I do know, is that there has been tons of research done by some very intelligent people (several that I know personally) on how teaching phonics as a way to read and spell works. And, I know from experience that it works! That's why I was excited to find that All About Spelling is based on the Orton-Gillingham phonics method.

All About Spelling has broken the English language down to basic sounds. The letter or letters that make those sounds are called phonograms. The other thing that I was very excited to learn was that All About Spelling uses a multi-sensory approach. It is true that some kids are visual learners, some are auditory learners and some are hands on learners, but people learn best when they use a combination of those techniques. That's what All About Spelling does! They may have you seeing a sound on a "Phonogram Card", listening to that sound and how to spell it, then repeating it back to the teacher, then manipulating letter tiles to spell the sound all in the same lesson.

The first 26 phonograms that the student learns are the first 26 letters of the alphabet. Other phonograms - such as ch, sh, and th will be learned later. When you learn the phonograms, you learn all of the sounds that phonogram makes at the same time. For example, the letter o can make four different sounds. Since I don't know how to type the long and short sounds on the computer, let me tell you using key words. O can make one sound in the word "odd" then another in the word "open", another in the word "to" and still another in the word "oven". When you learn all of the sounds that a letter makes at once, it will help the student recall them because they were learned together and all stored in the same area of the brain.

As the student progresses, he will also be dictated words to spell and given techniques for knowing which letters to use to spell those words. He learns syllabication and basic spelling rule such as the silent e rule - you drop the silent e when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel, you keep the silent e when adding a suffix beginning with a consonant. Your student will read it, say it, hear it, manipulate it, and write it! Perhaps not all in the same lesson, but eventually all methods will be used to teach that sound or rule.

By this time you may be thinking that this sounds really hard. It's not hard at all! All About Spelling has done all the work for you. Their kits have everything you need, and their manuals have it word for word what you should say and what you should do. The lessons are short and should be able to be completed in less than 15-20 minutes. The kit even includes encouragers like a progress report so that your student can keep track of how much he has accomplished, and a certificate to keep when a level is completed. The only thing that is optional (but quite practical) that they suggest is a magnetic dry erase board that you can use the magnetic letter tiles with.

Ok, now you might be thinking that a "kit" for a very well researched program like this is probably very expensive. Wrong again! The Starter Kit that includes the sound CD (so that you can hear the proper way to say the sounds), letter tiles, and magnets (if you should choose to attach them to the tiles) is just $26.95. The materials in the Starter Kit can be used with multiple students. The Level One Materials - teachers manual, and letter cards for level one - is $29.95. You may think that you can use the cards with more than one student, but it would be difficult with the reviewing etc., so they have extra Level One student material packs for $14.95. Since the levels do not correspond with a grade anyway, they encourage all students to begin with Level One in order for them to have a firm foundation before going on to the other levels. Right now they have 5 levels with a sixth coming out soon. Although we have not used Level Two or above yet, I do know that the cost of those is a little higher, but still a reasonable $39.95 each level's manual and initial student material pack and $19.95 for extra student packs. You don't need to continue ordering the Starter Kit. It can be used for all levels.

As you can tell, I am a big fan of All About Spelling. I had been looking for a good spelling program for Joshua and I am so glad that All About Spelling sent me, as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, all of the materials needed for Levels One and Two for free in order to use and review on this blog. I'll tell you more about Level Two when we get to it. To find out more about All About Spelling, just click here, or on any one of the hi-lighted links above. To find out what the other Crew members are saying about All About Spelling, click here.  Happy homeschooling.  

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That's right it's coming! What is it?

I can't tell you yet, but I can give you a big hint!

More details will be announced soon!

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