Time Management (part 3)

In my previous articles about time management we have talked about Timers, Time maps and 80/20% principles. Today I want to talk about managing your space as a V/S (Visual/Spacial) or right brain thinker.

Managing space as a V/S mom can be a challenge. Our natural tendencies toward space can be our friend or our greatest enemy. We are visual and we tend to use our space to its maximum until the clutter drives us crazy, then we put it all away and then can’t remember where we put it!

There is hope! By using some strategies we can learn to manage our piles!

First ,we need Gathering Places. These are places to put items that tend to get lost. We have a gathering place for all the car keys. It is simple, just a small basket on the shelf as you come in the house. Everyone knows that is the only place in the house where keys go. We have multiple drivers and we have had teens leave the house in one car with the keys to another car in their pocket! Not a good thing!

We also have one place where the school books go. All the music books go in the living room. When you come home from lessons, your book bag of music goes on the floor beside the piano. Every time! All other music goes on the shelf beside the piano.

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Gathering places can also work with small children’s toys.  Putting toys into a basket throughout the day and then before bed putting them away helps keep the stray toys under control. Other things that might need gathering places are bills, mail, shoes, coats, hats and gloves. When there is a purposeful place to put things, they are easy to find again.

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Next, we have to use the right type of storage. Open shelving can help because you can see where things are. One of the reasons V/S don’t put things away is they are afraid they won’t be able to find it again. With open shelves you can see immediately where things are so you can find them. It also helps you visualize what you have. You won’t need to buy the materials for that project again, because you can see exactly where it is right now. That also leads to less clutter, because you are not repeatedly buying what you already have.

Clear plastic storage follows this same concept.  You can easily see what you have without having to drag everything out, so you are creating less mess and you are more likely to put things back where they go.

Do you forget to read your magazines? A vertical magazine rack can help!

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Does this sign belong by your desk?

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Are you a vertical or horizontal piler? Use these for vertical storage if you like to stack things deep on your desk.

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Or if you are a horizontal piler with piles covering the entire top of your desk, a desk with drawers can help you get a handle on those piles. Not deep drawers! You will never again see the bottom of the drawer. The huge pile will be too discouraging to sort through.

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I asked Don Aslett this summer what he recommended for paper control. He laughed and said it is a constant battle. We have an overwhelming amount of paper we need to keep track of today that didn’t exist 30 or 40 years ago. If you really need help with this, Don's book “The Office Clutter Cure” can help.

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Another huge help to controlling clutter is color! Since V/S’s are visual, color coding things can help our brains remember where things go, so we can find them again.

As V/S we need to learn about what types of  space management that works for us. This summer I gave up on using dressers and closets for my 2 very right brain teen boys. Their older sister sent me this picture and we decided it was perfect for the boys room. Whatever works, right?

You can see an interesting computer model  here, that might help you decide if you are right brain, left brain, or whole brain. If the model spins clock-wise you are right brain; counter clock-wise, left brain, and if it switches back and forth as you blink, you are whole brain and use both sides, but will typically lean one way or the other.

If you have enjoyed these articles on time management , you might want to listen to the class on Time Management I taught at the 2012 LDS Home Educators Conference. I taught one for youth at the 2011 conference as well. The LDSHE Audio Library is now live and you can find my classes as well as over 600 other classes from conferences for 2005- 2012. The 2013 classes will be up soon!

My Favorite Things

I have a confession to make. I spent most of the week before public school started fantasizing about sending my kids back to public school. I was feeling tired and worn out after a busy summer, and the lure of spending my days alone, in my clean, quiet house was almost more than I could take. Of course, once I took a moment to really think about how I feel about public education, I knew there was no sending them back. Unfortunately, that knowledge didn’t do much to change my attitude. In the midst of all my self-pity, I managed to drag our family to homeschool park day. I sat there and visited, discussed up-coming plans, new curriculums and books while the kids ran and played. Enjoying a beautiful summer day with friends helped clear away my bad attitude and reminded me of how much I love this lifestyle: the freedom, the love of learning, the joy of new discoveries and the incredible blessing of time with my children.

I went home with renewed commitment and a grateful heart. Over the next few days I started noticing all the amazing things that are part of our lives because of homeschooling. I knew there would be more hard days ahead (there always are!) so I made a list of my favorite things about homeschooling. That way I will be ready the next time my commitment wavers.

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1.  Time to pursue passions and develop talents. People look at me funny when I say one of the hardest things about homeschooling is dealing with all the creative energy. However, sometimes being peppered with questions about everything from chemistry to robotics while fielding requests for assistance with writing, art, math, the piano, guitar and the sewing machine (all at the same time) can be a little overwhelming! Really though, I love seeing their enthusiasm for life and their intense interests in so many different things.  I love the sound of music and eager voices that fills our home. 2.  Family closeness. I’ve had so many mothers tell me they could never homeschool because their kids would kill each other. That always makes me sad. I wish they could see how tight-knit homeschooling families are. My children truly love to be together. We spend hours and hours working and playing together, which has created relationships in our home that are better than any relationships outside the home. What a blessing to be best friends with the people we will spend eternity with!

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3.  Time to explore. Last week we spent a Tuesday morning exploring some caves near our home. As we climbed over boulders and shimmied down chutes I thought of all those children sitting in school. I was so gratefully to literally be able to learn “outside the box”.

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4.  Greater opportunities to study the gospel. Last week I found my 8 year old daughter asleep, long after bedtime, in the chair in her room. Her scriptures lay open on her lap. My children love to study the scriptures, hold devotional and family home evening, and memorize Articles of Faith. There are many wonderful parents outside the homeschool community who do these things, but I know it is much easier to instill a love of the gospel when children are not pressed for time and sleep. 5.  Freedom to develop a sense of self. When my children were young I worried that they would have a hard time developing their own personalities. I feared that spending so much time together would make them all alike. Boy was I wrong! Rather than encouraging conformity, homeschooling has allowed them the freedom to be whoever they want to be. My oldest loves art, science, and swimming. His younger brother loves computers, biking, cooking and the electric guitar. I really have never seen two siblings with more diverse interests.

6.  Opportunities to learn real life skills. Reading, math and history are all important things to know, but every homeschool mom knows that some of the greatest lessons are learned “outside of the classroom”. Taking care of a home and garden, caring for young children, shopping smart, and knowing how to access resources in the community – these are all incredibly valuable skills that blossom when we educate our children at home.

It’s true that homeschooling is not for the faint of heart. It can be a lot of hard work. Fortunately, even the hard days are full of amazing blessings!

Another Back-to-School Breakfast

It’s time again for another tool in the “I’m-Not-a-Morning-Person-Toolkit!”  I love the following recipe because it is hearty and wholesome but can be mostly made ahead, saving me time in the morning.  My kids love it because it’s tasty.

"Pancakes from the Pantry" (originally from Margaret Scoresby in Mount Vernon, OH)

• 4 cups quick cooking oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup dry milk
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 5 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar

Combine all ingredients together, mixing well.  Store dry mix in an airtight container or quart-sized canning jars.

When ready to use the dry mix, add the following in a large mixing bowl:

•  2 eggs, beat well
• 1/3 cup oil, gradually beating in
• 1 cup water, added alternately with 2 cups of dry mix

Blend well.  Cook pancakes on a lightly oiled griddle.  Makes 10 pancakes.

To see previous years’ recipes, go here and here.

Learning With Traditions

One of our family’s favorite Fourth of July traditions is to get up SUPER early, and drive to a nearby town to watch a hot air balloon launch. They spread out the balloons on a large grassy area, while spectators pile in, filling up the spaces in between. It’s cool because you can get right up close and see all the action. My kids love it.

This year, (being the obsessive unit-study guru that I sometimes am) I decided to put together some activities for the kids, to get us all prepared for our big day.

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First we headed to the library, and checked out a few books on hot air balloons. Our favorites were The Big Balloon Race by Eleanor Coerr, The Amazing Air Balloon by Jean Van Leeuwen, and Hot Air: The (mostly) True Story of the First Balloon Ride by Marjorie Priceman. In these books we learned some great vocabulary words, a little bit about how hot air balloons work, and some cool historical facts.

We made sun-catchers; a simple craft, but one that is always a big hit because it’s doable for kids of all ages. We usually do these in the fall, with apples or pumpkins, but this craft is easily adaptable to whatever your needs are. This time we made hot air balloon sun-catchers.

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• Find a black and white template of a hot air balloon that you like. Doing a Google search for “hot air balloon template” will give you some good options. Print it on card stock.
• Use a thick black magic marker to make the outlines about half an inch thick.
• Cut out around the outside and inside of your template, so that all you’re left with is the black out line.

• Place the outline, black side down, onto a piece of clear contact paper. (You can find contact paper at WalMart in the kitchen section by the shelving paper.)
• Use colored tissue paper of your choice, rip it into small pieces, and press it down onto the contact paper to fill in the clear spots of your template. It’s ok if the tissue paper pieces overlap each other.

• Take a second piece of contact paper and press it down on top of the tissue paper layer. Then use scissors to cut out the outside edge of your template.

• Hang your template up in the window where lots of sun can shine through.

My husband got into it too, and helped the kids construct a mini hot air balloon out of trash bags, tape, string, and a plastic cup. He used a hair dryer to inflate it, and taught the kids about how hot air rises and that’s why balloons go up.

Over all, I’d say the unit was a success. The kids had a good time, and maybe even learned a little bit too. It made our hot air balloon launch tradition all the more exciting.

Trusting the Process

Ahh - summer, nothing to do but relax and enjoy vacation, unless of course, you’re a homeschooler. Then it’s time to attend homeschool conferences, study up on the latest homeschool books, clean out your schoolroom and plan, plan, plan for the next school year! In the midst of all this educational flurry I think it’s important to review the history of homeschooling. Many homeschoolers don’t realize that the modern homeschooling movement started in the 1970s, fueled primarily by the work of John Holt. Holt was a disillusioned educator who felt that the public education system was damaged beyond repair and that children stood a far better chance of success at home. He was quick to point out that recreating school at home was unlikely to be any more successful. He said that, “children, without being coerced or manipulated, or being put in exotic, specially prepared environments, or having their thinking planned and ordered for them, can, will, and do pick up from the world around them important information about what we call the Basics. “

This belief - that children who are placed in an enriching and supportive environment will learn everything they need - inspired an entire generation of homeschoolers. They proved that children could go on to lead successful and enriching lives, without the restraints of formal education. Unfortunately, the homeschool movement became so successful that many companies started to see it as a prime business opportunity. As the years went by, homeschool curriculums multiplied exponentially.  (I could use my Rainbow Resource catalog for weight lifting).

As more and more children left public school, the charter schools saw the opportunity to capitalize on the movement by offering online programs. While there is good to be found in all of these options, it’s important to remember the philosophy that homeschooling was founded on: that children don’t need a fancy environment or “special” books or programs, they don’t need specialists or professionals to teach them. What they need is an environment rich in educational opportunities and love. I have a friend who calls it creating a vacuum. When our homes are full of books, games, conversation, and ideas, our children can’t help but be sucked in. As hard as it is, we have to “trust the process”. Not only trust that children will learn when given the opportunity, but also that the Lord will provide the ideas, people and resources we need to help them in their journey.

I will be the first to admit that at times the responsibility of educating my children seems mind boggling and overwhelming. But, as the years go by I am constantly amazed by the small miracles that seem to flow through our lives and how the Lord provides for my children’s needs. The examples are too numerous to list, but one blessing stands out in my mind. Last year I attended a homeschool parent meeting held at a local private school. While I was there I had a conversation with the school’s director. She is a former homeschooler and an inspiring teacher. She mentioned that she was starting a dyslexia tutoring program at her school. When I told her about the work I’d done with my profoundly dyslexic son, she offered me a job working for her as a tutor. That offer provided me with numerous hours of training that have greatly improved my ability to work with my son’s learning disabilities. She taught me so much about the gift of dyslexia. Another unexpected blessing came over the course of the year, as her voice of wisdom and encouragement gave me the courage to keep homeschooling my teenager through high school.

This is only one example of the many ways the Lord has blessed our homeschool. He knows our family’s needs and He knows how much I love my children. I have to remember that He loves my children too and that He has a plan for each of them. As I put my trust in Him, rather than the commercial interests of the homeschool movement, He will provide for our family’s every need.

The Read-a-thon

Whether your readers are ravenous or reluctant, an occasional read-a-thon is a great tool.  Read-a-thons can bridge the gap between summer vacation and the beginning of autumn’s new schedule; they can buy an overwhelmed mom some time during a particularly busy stretch of time; they can constructively get a family through illness; they can be used effectively in a unit study or as a way to “break” in between unit studies while Mom regroups.  A read-a-thon can motivate all types of readers with varying levels of dedication to step up and read more, even if only for the duration of the contest.

There are many ways to run a read-a-thon and to adapt one for your family’s needs.  I’ll describe one of ours from a couple of years ago, when my youngest was still little and just beginning reading so as to cover more of an age range.

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I announced the read-a-thon first thing the Tuesday after Labor Day.  We had kicked off our new school year the week before, which had the theme “Everyone Has a Story,” with a field trip to the fabulous Treehouse Museum in Ogden, Utah, and with learning about types and genres of books.  The children had from Tuesday morning until the midnight between the following Sunday/ Monday to log their reading.  Then, other than regular chores and a daily math assignment, nothing was expected of them from me during that week, leaving them free to read (and me free to finish preparing for our upcoming studies and schedule).

I had some children who didn’t want to put in much effort because they assumed they’d lose no matter what to their always-reading-and-maniacal-about-books brother.  I told them that they’d be surprised how it all worked out in the end and that no effort would be a waste.  On Monday morning I awarded the prizes.  I had a big bowl of favorite candy treats.  For every different genre a child read, he got to choose a treat.  For every book he read in its entirety, he chose a treat.  For every full 5 hours of reading time logged, he got a dollar bill.  If a child logged scripture reading, I doubled the value of the time.  For reading over 200 pages, the child got a treat.  And the child who read the most overall, taking all the numbers of pages, books, and time into account, got a $5 gift card to a book store.

It is important to reward EVERYTHING in a read-a-thon, and here is why.  When your children range in age and reading ability, it’s not quite fair otherwise.

My youngest child was reading beginning readers.  There was no way she could have matched page for page, or time, because she read little books to me and then she was “done.”  She needed to be rewarded for the number of books she read, but if that were the only way to be rewarded, it would have been a rip for a kid tackling just one 500-page book.

My oldest child was very involved in many outside activities and didn’t have the same amount of time to devote to reading.  ANY reading he could get in needed to be noticed.  If it weren’t for the genre category, he’d have earned nothing.

My smack middle child is a crazy fast reader, devouring 500-page books in a single day.  He would have easily won all categories if I hadn’t done something to level the playing field.

My other two children fit into their own niches.  The variety of ways to earn rewards kept everyone trying hard and motivated.  Once they saw how it worked, they began to strategize for the next read-a-thon.

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As I mentioned earlier, you can make several read-a-thon adaptations.  If you’re worried about academics, a read-a- thon can play into your current studies.  You could have an “Ancient History Read-a-thon” and/or narrow it to a subject, breaking the genre category into things such as reference, non-fiction, picture book, historical, fiction, magazine (e.g. National Geographic, Kids Discover), etc.  If you can’t/won’t spare a whole week, you can make your read-a-thon last just one or two days, and let everyone wear pajamas and make comfy reading places anywhere in the house they’d like, with popcorn or other favorite snacks readily available. You can even enjoy the great outdoors while participating in a read-a-thon by reading outside in hammocks, on hillsides, under umbrellas, and on trampolines.  However they work best for you, your children will love having a few read-a-thons in their year.

Summer Honors Program

Our online classes ended the first part of May as well as our home school co-op. My kids were thrilled thinking they were done for the year! I explained that we still had lots of learning to do before we officially ended the second week in June with all of their public schooled friends.

A few days later at breakfast devotional  I introduced the Brimhall University Honor Society. I gave them each a copy to hang in their cubby and to check things off. It is based in BYU's Honors Program, that our daughter is pursuing with gusto!

It was a little ambitious but I thought, if we only do half of it, it will give us something to shoot for!

Today is June 15th, our last day, and I am pleased to say we've done it all! Each of the topics kept us moving forward in exposing us to great things, reading and asking questions.

Some highlights:

• Going to the play: Meet Mark Twain, where we came face to face with Ryan Clemens, an actual relative to Samuel Clemens! He gave a wonderful one man show and we all came home and each picked up a book by Mark Twain (without my asking or assigning!).
• For Science we watched a documentary called "Tales from the Hive." Then went to a friend and he opened up his hive for us to see. It was great and our 17 year old son even put on a bee suit to get a closer look!
• We read classic books and discussed them in our American lit class with a wonderful mentor.
• We put together a money class and learned all about finances. The kids did projects and planned out our summer vacation and learned how important compound interest is - especially when you are earning it rather than paying it!
• We loved watching the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy plus "The Hobbit", and even watched "Gone With the Wind". We gained a new perspective as we watched a Japanese film, in Japanese!
• We worked on personal progress and painted our daughters room, after having painter's tape up for six months awaiting painted stripes.

We had to search for some things but others were easy. End of the year recitals filled our requirements for music. Service hours were easy too; helping someone move, volunteering at the library, typing up girls camp schedules.

We talked about the activities as a family and dad was included in many of our adventures! One of our favorites, visiting a local art gallery and visiting with the artist for 45 minutes!

This was a great way to spend our last month of school, even though we had lots of other things going on as well!

It was a wonderful way to spend time with each other and could easily be done over the summer!

Enjoy!

A Blast From the Past - Family Time Line

Originally published in the Sentinel on 6 June 2005...

I love timelines. Looking at timelines can broaden our perspective, help us see new relationships between events and give us a sense of order. Making a family timeline is a great family project. Here is one way:

Start by brainstorming events that have happened in your lifetime. On a piece of paper, list births, marriages, graduations, family vacations, moves, accidents, or dramatic events that have happened in your lifetime. (You may want to browse through your scrapbooks to help jog your memory!)

Take pieces of paper and tape them together horizontally. Draw a long black line through the middle. Determine your furthest date back in time, and start there. Decide how many years you want to cover, and mark the years proportionately. (JJ's timeline of his life so far was 8 pages, and he is only 8).

Write the events and where the event happened on your timeline in the appropriate year. Post your timeline, because you will remember more events. You will also find that some years were busier than others! This is your "Sloppy Copy" so don't worry if it gets a little messy, or if you have to add another piece of paper in the middle of your timeline.

Photos can be added to help highlight some of the events on your timeline.

After you have added all your events in the correct time and place - you can make your final copy.

Variations:

We made a timeline of my husband's great-grandmother, highlighting the service she gave over the last century. We added when she was born, was married, and died, and also when she gave birth to all 13 children. We then added military service, marriages and births of children and grandchildren, etc.

For fun, we added a timeline of world events, church events, and famous inventions. The timeline was 44 feet long and covered a whole side of a room! (We also noted that the washing machine was not invented until her 13 children were out of diapers!) It was very fun to put life into perspective and see what a single family could accomplish in a century's time!

Moon Mania

The kids and I have been loving a new science series called “Let’s Read and Find Out Science”. The series covers all kinds of science topics; weather, space, animals, human body, dinosaurs, physics concepts, and more. They are so fun! So far, I am thoroughly impressed with how much information they provide in a simple way for kids to understand. Most every book comes with some sort of experiment, or further learning activity that you can do at home with things you already have. It’s genius! And I feel like I learn a lot too.

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We’ve been on a space kick lately…more specifically a moon kick. We’ve used two of the Let’s Read and Find Out books for our study. The first book is called What the Moon is Like.  It taught us about how the surface of the moon is covered in dust, and how meteors hit the moon to make big craters. Then we filled a Tupperware container with two inches of flour and sprinkled it with a thin layer of cocoa powder, to represent the moon’s surface. Next we took marbles and dropped them into the container from about five inches up. The marble hitting the flour is supposed to look similar to a meteor hitting the surface of the moon. I've never seen a meteor hit the moon, but our marbles definitely made craters in our flour. It was fun.

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The second book we used was called The Moon Seems to Change. It taught us all about the phases of the moon. Inside it gives you the step by step directions (with pictures!) on how to make all the phases of the moon using an orange, a pencil, and a flashlight. We took turns being the sun (person holding the flashlight) and the earth (person holding the orange). After that, we had a little snack to go along with our lesson. We did phases of the moon a second time, using Oreo cookies. I had a rough go of it, trying to keep our moons from being gobbled up before I could snap a picture. :)

My kids enjoyed these activities. I can tell because while I was putting the boys to bed, my five-year-old told me he wanted to set his watch for 12:00am so he could get up and check on the moon, to see which phase it was in. I love it! We'll see if he follows through. I hope he does.

Knowing the Cheats... by Tresta Neil

A few of my children are part of a charter school that assists homeschoolers by providing them with elective options that are not easy to do at home.  We meet once a week and attend fun classes.  The catch is they have to take the state exam each year.  This year they focused on the importance of having the children do well on this test and so they sent out tips or “cheats” on how to increase your score on the test.  I was shocked at some of the tips; they had nothing to do with how much the child knew or how well they wrote.  The test was to be checked by a computer on the number of key words used and what keys you used to create a paragraph.  Our youth are extremely busy satisfying the state and now the nation’s requirements and very little time on the Lord's requirements.

Today, there is a huge focus on "passing the test", worrying about the child being "at level"; and getting "good grades".  When did we stop focusing on "laying hold of every good thing"?  How much time are we devoting to teaching our children to increase their "spiritual level"?  Can we "pass the Lord's test"?  Do we know the Lord's requirements?  How does He test us?  What kind of grades does He give us?

There was a study conducted concerning the effectiveness of the missionaries in the field.  They wanted to know what the largest factor was, in helping them become effective.  The results were surprising!  They had expected church attendance, family prayer and family home evening to be the highest, but it was actually not.  The highest result for helping them become the most effective was personal study (Russell Ballard, “Making of a Missionary”, Oct. 1976).  Do we find quiet time and are we comfortable with being alone with God to receive individual inspiration and spiritual answers to physical problems.

Do our youth know how to be quiet?  Do they know how to be comfortable by being alone with God?  Do they know how the spirit speaks to them as an individual?  If so, how much time do they spend quietly with the Lord?  The scriptures tell us to "let ALL thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord." (Alma 37:36)  What are our youth spending the majority of time thinking about? What are we thinking about?

Satan tries to get us to stop thinking in one or more ways.  First, by filling our time with distractions, busy work, addictions, entertainment, appointments, etc.  Second, by decreasing our desire to read, write, and communicate well. Third, instilling in us the belief that we do not need to increase our learning or continue our education (the brethren say we should be life long learners).  Fourth, by introducing slang and keeping us away from the true meaning of words.  And Fifth, taking away symbolism.  In our language we use many words to describe very little, in God's language He used few words and taught at many different levels.  Is Satan working in any of these levels with you, your youth, your family, your school, or your community?

We use five principles that help our family know where we are with the Lord's requirements or laws (D&C 130:21) and how to combat Satan's plan (Alma 12:17).  We call them The 5 Key Principles on the Learning Spiral:

1. I AM: This principle is about knowing who I am and teaching my children who they are.  We are all children of God; we each have divinity within us.  We are a complete whole within a complete whole.  We teach this by telling stories, playing games, spending time, acting out, and prompting them to do what is right.
2. I LISTEN:  This principle is about becoming spiritually fluent.  Knowing how the spirit speaks to me as an individual.  Teaching my children to listen to the spirit and follow its promptings.  We teach this by letting them make decisions on their own and seeing the consequences, also by example and sharing our own stories of triumph.
3. I UNDERSTAND:  This is the principle of learning.  Bringing what we have been taught in our minds (knowledge) and bringing it down into our hearts (understanding).  This is when our learning becomes part of us, not just something we bring in and then forget.  We teach this step by asking good questions, and teaching etymology and symbolism (combating Satan's plan).
4. I ACT:  This is the application principle.  Now that I understand what I know, how will I make this part of my life?  Faith is action.  We teach this by giving them opportunities to share, teach and serve.  Also, by encouraging them to write down their plans and keep them accountable to the things they ask to have help with.
5. I BECOME:  This is the new level, the celebration principle.  At this step we are able to help others and share with them our success.  At this level of achievement we often find rest.  But not for long, we get bored and want to create again or find something that challenges us beyond.  Thus, it becomes a spiral and we find ourselves again at step one, remembering who we are, listening to the spirit telling us what our next adventure, project, person, or challenge will be.  Then we study, learn all we can about it and go to work, take action and once again arrive at a new level.

These principles allow us to find and follow the Lord's requirements.  My oldest son, who said he would never teach with geometry, came to me a few days back and drew out a shape and began teaching me what he had learned about God through a few shapes.  He testified of Christ and His role as the first-born son through simple shapes.  My son had taken simple principles and used them to think, and think deeply.  We know this by the Principle Effect, how a simple principle stemmed from doctrine, affects our life when we learn its many meanings and it leads us to righteous action.  I testify that when we teach our children true principles, allow them to think on their own and to create what comes naturally and from God, they will become the men and women God wants them to be without having to have “cheats.”