November Memorization

This month, we have two different poems: one for the guys to memorize, and one for the gals. (after you've memorized yours, feel free to memorize the other one if you want :))

(Young Men) IF BY RUDYARD KIPLING
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
 
(Young Women) Mother's Prayer
Oh give me patience when wee hands
Tug at me with their small demands.
And give me gentle and smiling eyes.
Keep my lips from hasty replies. And let not weariness, confusion or noise
Obscure my vision of life's fleeting joys.
So when, in years to come my house is still
No bitter memories its rooms may fill.


(All) 1 Corinthians 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

November Week 1: Leadership Academy

WEEK 1: Leadership Academy

A look at STEWARDSHIP and how it relates to our ability to work well and maintain our property, both as individuals and as a society.

*Each week, you need to meet with your parents or a mentor and review the material for the week so you can individually tailor it to your studies: powerful and necessary :).

"Starting Point":
1. Review our Poem and Scripture for the month
2. Do a word study on "stewardship"--make sure to include scriptures!
3. Print off and read "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and highlight any sections that refer to stewardships.
4. Look through "Our Constitution Rocks" and pick a section that you feel defends your right to property or outlines the stewardship of a particular groups of people or branch of government.  Come prepared to share with us what you learned.

5. Review the  "Sharpen the Saw" chapter in "7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" and come prepared to share a favorite part or quote.

"Bunny Trails":
Find something from what you read this week that you feel inspired to study further. Feel free to select from the following or pick your own--
-Go on a date with your parents and ask them what they feel the roles of men and women are, both in society and in your family.
-From your word study of "stewardship," find interesting words that stick out to you and do word studies on those as well.  Or, you can do a word study on "work" or "property" and see if you can make any connections between "stewardship," "work" or "property."
-Do a more in-depth study of a section of your choice of "Our Constitution Rocks." Come up with a fun way to teach it and then teach us or a group of other kids what you learned.
-Create a family home evening lesson tying in what you learned about stewardship this week.
-Watch, read or listen to the talk from the recent conference: "Finding lasting peace and building eternal families" by Elder Perry.  Compare it to "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" and highlight favorite quotes or sections that connect.
-Make a creative display of the scripture and poem for the month to put on your wall or in your tome to help you memorize it.

"Project Time"
Start a project this week that you feel inspired to as you start your study of Stewardship and how it relates to you, your work, and your property.  What stewardship do you have in your life: calling at church, responsibilities in Vanguard, work in the home or somewhere else?  Consider prayerfully how you can improve and show better stewardship in one or more areas.  It can be a week-project or a month-project.  Report to us in class how it is going.

November Week 2: Geo-Conquest

WEEK 2: Geo-Conquest

Look at examples of Stewardship and how living it helps preserve our property  in the lives of people in history & around the world--and then learn from them!

 

*Each week, you need to meet with your parents or a mentor and review the material for the week so you can individually tailor it to your studies: powerful and necessary :).

 "Starting Point"
1. Review the scripture and the poem for the month.

2. Read chapter 5 on Leadership" in Be The Change  and bring your favorite quotes or ideas to share.

3. This month we are focusing on North America, the land of our personal heritage!  Find a story from the time of the Revolutionary War or from your family history where people showed good stewardship or bad and bring it to share.

4. It is important for us to improve our knowledge of geography to increase our understanding of events and cultures we hear about around the world. However, we are all at different levels of understanding of the world around us. For our map study for this month, I want you to take a section or category of North America (you can also include Central America) and make a map of it, labeling 20 places or features that you didn't know before.  Here are some ideas!
--draw a picture of the state of Utah and label counties and landmarks you didn't know about before
--get a blank map of Canada and label 20 places on it you didn't know before: provinces, major cities, rivers, etc.
--identify 20 major rivers or mountain ranges of North America that you didn't know their location before on a blank map of North America
--label 20 different places (cities, states or physical features) of Mexico on a blank map
Bring it to class to share!

5. Come prepared to help put on our "Family Heritage Festival," starring your families! Please do both of the following:
-Bring one food item that is a family tradition: main dish, snack, etc.
-Bring an activity or presentation on a personal family tradition you have: games, holiday traditions, etc.  Try to make this more of a presentation, rather than a simple retelling if you can.  For instance, we celebrate St. Lucia's Day at our house, so one of my kids could come in dressed up as St. Lucia and what she brings, reinacting how we do it as a family with the class, and the distributing the goody that goes with it in the same fashion.  

Bunny Trails
We are incorporating the "Bunny Trails" part with the maps, family history story  and the Family Heritage Festival, as you seek to find your own needs and interests to satisfy those three requirements...have fun!

Project Time!
Continue your project from last week or take on a new project that applies the principles you are learning about stewardship to your life and your personal areas of property.  Remember our discussion last week!  Property is not always something you can touch, but can be ideas or relationships.  Come prepared to share!

November Week 3: Eureka!

WEEK 3: Eureka! 

Seek and ask for explosions of light and truth  as we penetrate deception in order to help us maintain the Title of Liberty
 

*Each week, you need to meet with your parents or a mentor and review the material for the week so you can individually tailor it to your studies: powerful and necessary :).

"Starting Point": Do all the following--
1. Read Ch.  in "Lead Like Jesus." Record or share your thoughts or favorite quotes.
2. Read "Puss in Boots" in its more original form here: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault04.html  (so we all read the same version) and look for true and untrue messages in that fairy tale.

3. Scientific Principle for this month: Classification. Scientists try to look at the world and make sense of it. One way they do this is to try and come up with systems of classifying things. Scientists believe that there are over 10 million different kinds of lifeforms, or species, on Earth. Imagine trying to study and understand the lives, patterns, behaviors and relationships of so many different kinds of organisms! In order to make their job easier, scientists classify living things into groups based on how they are the same and how they are different.

We find evidence of "classifying" things in the scriptures as well: Adam did so, when he started naming the animals. Moses did it while organizing the 12 tribes after leaving Egypt. 
-Quickly skim through the information at this kid's website: http://www.kidsbiology.com/biology_basics/classification/classification1.php where they compare the classification of the animal kingdom to someone separating out their Halloween candy.
-Now, identify a system of classifying that you would like to learn more about (the calendar, time, periodic table and the elements, Dewey decimal system, relationship of different languages, plants, animals, political systems, rankings of teams in the NFL) study it and then come and teach us what you found!


"Bunny Trails":
Select from the following or pick your own to take your studies further.  You can explore a couple things in minor depth or one in more depth. Come prepared to teach us more about what you learned :)!
--Take the chapter from Lead Like Jesus, make connections, find quotes, articles and videos that go with it, and present it to us or as a family home evening or devotional in your home.  Report to your parent or us how it went.  You can also write a paper or do a powerpoint/prezi on your findings.


--Take the principles you learned about classification and apply it in your life:
-organize the books on the shelves or your personal or your family's library (with your parent's permission, of course :)!);
-organize your drawers, closet and shoes according to some scheme of classification
-take an area of interest (beading, art, sports, historical ideas) and come up with a way that you could classify and organize that study into something that will not only help you organize what you already have but give you an easy place to categorize future material or information you may receive.
-look at your music and organize it into some different playlists based upon a classification scheme that supports your needs!
Come and share what you did and how you did it!

--Make a budget and discuss it with a parent about how you can better organize your finances.

--Draw your own version of the taxonomical chart from the kid's website or a biology book you have at home, using your own illustrations. 

--Come up with a song that helps someone learn a classification system

-- Take something you learned about this week and teach it to one or more younger children. Come and tell us what you did and how it went.

"Project Time"
Time to report back on the progress of your month long project, your weekly one, or your currently adapted one!  Look at your life: how can applying stewardship in some way improve your studies, your relationships with others, family, or God?  How can stewardship change your life?  Prayerfully find a way and apply it.  Inspire us by sharing with us what and how you are doing!

We will be going on a field trip for the last part, after lunch, so please be prepared for that!

November Week 4: Imaginative Arts

WEEK 4: Imaginative Arts 

The week when we get to CREATE and EXPRESS OURSELVES using the arts of the beautiful lens, making what we learned a part of our lives forever….

*Each week, you need to meet with your parents or a mentor and review the material for the week so you can individually tailor it to your studies: powerful and necessary :).

MONTHLY FOCUS:  

 A look at Stewardship in our Work through the Imaginative Arts Lens

"Starting Point":
1. Come ready to pass off our poem and scripture for the month!

2. BOYS: read "Little Britches"; GIRLS: read "Lantern in her Hand" (or "Little Women" or "Through still Waters").  Try to record your thoughts or favorite quotes as you read by sharing them with others or writing them down.

3.

4. Read Chapter 3 in "Aspire" and record your thoughts in your journal.

"Bunny Trails":
Select from the following or pick your own--



"Project Time"
Get ready to present what you have done this month for your project with us!  It can be either the more recent one(s) you haven't shared yet or a main one that you have been working on all month.

October Memorization

YOUR INNER DRUMMER
Listen to your inner drummer, step to its quiet beat.
The world beats another rhythm, a rhythm of defeat.
Let us become a holy people, peculiar and divine.
Living in the world but walking out of time.
--Shirley Greene

D&C 121: 45 

 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, 

and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; 

then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God;

and the doctrine of the priesthood 

shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. 

October Week 1: Leadership Academy

WEEK 1: Leadership Academy

A look at VIRTUE and how it relates to our Freedom, both as individuals and as a society.

*Each week, you need to meet with your parents or a mentor and review the material for the week so you can individually tailor it to your studies: powerful and necessary :).

"Starting Point":
1. Review our Poem and Scripture for the month
2. Consider the following quote:

"Elders Maxwell, Holland, and President Hinckley remind us forcefully that constitutional freedom cannot endure without personal virtue."                                             Just and Holy Principles, pg xiii

3. Do a word study on "Virtue"--make sure to include scriptures!
4. Read this:

Many years ago I heard the story of the son of King Louis XVI of France. King Louis had been taken from his throne and imprisoned. His young son, the prince, was taken by those who dethroned the king. They thought that inasmuch as the king’s son was heir to the throne, if they could destroy him morally, he would never realize the great and grand destiny that life had bestowed upon him.

They took him to a community far away, and there they exposed the lad to every filthy and vile thing that life could offer. They exposed him to foods the richness of which would quickly make him a slave to appetite. They used vile language around him constantly. They exposed him to lewd and lusting women. They exposed him to dishonor and distrust. He was surrounded 24 hours a day by everything that could drag the soul of a man as low as one could slip. For over six months he had this treatment—but not once did the young lad buckle under pressure. Finally, after intensive temptation, they questioned him. Why had he not submitted himself to these things—why had he not partaken? These things would provide pleasure, satisfy his lusts, and were desirable; they were all his. The boy said, “I cannot do what you ask for I was born to be a king.”

4. Read "The Freedom Factor" by Gerald Lund.  Read at least pages 97-end after reading the synposis below to get the feeling we are looking for. Pay attention to behaviors, quotes, or feelings you notice or feel while reading.

5. Review the "Be Pro-Active" Chapter in "The 7 Habits for Highly-effective Teens."  Choose a baby step (or create your own) and practice it. Share in class how you are applying this principle in your studies. Consider the following questions: How can being pro-active help us preserve our liberty?  Does being pro-active increase our liberty?  How about our ability to live virtuous lives? 

"Bunny Trails":
Select from the following or pick your own--
-Write a paper based upon the Freedom Factor or persuasive essay.  Possible topics:

Was the book convincing that we should not have communism.  Why or why not?

Different people had different approaches to how to govern.  Compare and contrast two of them, using quotes and examples.  

-Watch this video about modesty and sexual purity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31aK2Y9yvZc 
...then ask yourself how does their choice to be pure and virtuous give them freedom, freedom to be themselves, freedom from guilt, and freedom to feel God’s love and freedom to feel the Holy Ghost?  Do some more study and research on this and tell us what you find.

-Read pages 8-9 or 19-23 of "Our Constition Rocks" and relate it to "The Freedom Factor."  You can either share with someone verbally or in writing your thoughts. Reconsider the quote about the relationship between freedom and virtue when thinking about this.  What principles are there?  What is the messages they share?  Are they true?  Can you find scriptures or words of the prophets to validate or discredit them?

-Read the whole article in "The King's Son" story quoted above and act out the story for someone.  Share your favorite quotes and any thoughts you have about it.  Find other videos or thoughts that help inspire people to remain virtuous and share them!

-Review "What would the Founding Father's Think?" after reading "The Freedom Factor" and notice any connections you may have.  Bring them to share in a presentation type of your choosing.

-What other things did the readings above make you think of?  What stood out as interesting to you?  Do a brain cloud, pick a topic that you feel interested in or inspired to do.  Research it in depth and bring it to class to share!

-Do a more in-depth study of "Be Pro-Active" complete with conference talks, scriptures, videos or examples and share them in a FHE or with us in class.

More Bunny Trail ideas!
-  Read, watch or listen to Elder Hales talk from the April 2014 conference about obedience and being obedient as a society to God's laws.  Sing, play or listen to "Do What Is Right!" and then think of any connections or ah-hahs you have.  Share the quotes, connections and thoughts you have in any way you would like: skit, powerpoing, speech, etc.  You could also learn the song "Do What Is Right!" in sign language here, perform it for us, and share why it is important to do what is right.

"Project Time"
Start a project this week that you feel inspired to as you start your study of Virtue and how it relates to you and your freedom.  It can be a week-project or a month-project.  Report to us in class how it is going.

**********************************************************************
Synopsis of first 97 pages of "The Freedom Factor" by Gerald Lund:
Nathaniel Gorham, an original Founding Father, visits young Bryce Sherwood, a rising aide to a Washington senator and a key player in an attempt to pass an amendment that would eliminate the checks and balances built into the Constitution. Bryce refuses to change his position.

Meanwhile, Bryce is falling in love with Leslie Adams, a spirited young history teacher who is passionate about defending the Constitution.  While they enjoy each other greatly, their different feelings about the Constitution keep getting in their way.

Bryce is also being enticed to join Elliot Mannington, the passionate, charismatic leader of the new ammendment.  Bryce feels special and selected by Mannington's attention.  Mannington, hearing of Bryce's growing attachment to Leslie, demands that Bryce sever the relationship.

Read pages 62-65 which covers one of the key conversations between Gorham and Bryce.

Then you can start reading at page 97 to cover the key section of the book that I want read for CORE class.

There is a lot of character building during the first section, but if you are pressured on time, I would prefer you focused on finishing up the book from 97-294.  You can still come to CORE class if you only read these parts along with the synopsis.  We will be doing a simulation based upon this book, so get ready!