There just aren't words...
Yes, it is a toy lizard. She found it and it was promptly removed. LOL!
Scoutin' out the competition
Annual CubScout Pinewood Derby
Planning and making the cars is a lot of work and fun. We let the girls who want to participate make a car and compete "unofficially" against each other. It a great time for all. General running around and chaos breaks out after it is over when the cookies are served.
DH is cubscout leader, here with DD and DS.
DS with his green car- competed in the official cubscout "Pinewood Derby"
DD with her purple car- competed in the "Powder Puff Derby" for girls 
Bittersweet pages turning
Today I was looking at my littlest just sleeping away sweetly in my arms, when I came to the sad conclusion – yet again- that this was not going to last long.
Even though I remind myself over and over she is not gonna be tiny and so dependent on me for long. These thoughts become more and more frequent as she has finally started to take steps this last week. My other two children walked around 10 months old. This one waited until she was a year. Getting up the courage, I guess.
I always loved watching my little ones sleep.
Their soft skin and peaceful face. It is hard not to relax a bit just watching the gentle breathing and soft sighs. Their tiny chubby hands cling to you as you rock and sing.
These days will ebb away. A new season will begin.
Mondalicious
I never understood why people had such a beef with Monday. Cartoon-like images swirl my memory of some old wrinkly lady in curlers and robe, cigarette hanging from her lip, scraggly slippers and a cup of coffee in hand. What was their problem? Pull yourself together, why don't ya'? Well, that was my opinion until I had been homeschooling for a few years... when my son got to be about 6yrs old. Mondays are tough and long this last year and a half.
By now, I would call myself a seasoned Monday Hater. A closet curler infested, robe wearing, foot draggin' mama.
We have more chores on Monday to follow up after "no chore on Sunday" and it seems my son goes sloooooowwwwweerrrrrrr.
Yep. It aggravates me. Makes me cranky. Gotta work on that. A lot.
Clearly my son is going to me to teach me patience on a whole 'nother level before he becomes a man. Love that guy. A typical first day back to school means we don't get to the school part of our day until 9:30am. Or even 10am. Today was a 10-er. Yeesh.
Feelin' grouchy this morning? I'll listen! Join the club! :)
Founding fathers in the bible?
Last Sunday on the way back from church, all five of us sort of drifted off into silence and inward thoughts. After a few minutes my son asked my husband, and I, a question...
7yro son: "What's a Virginian?"
Me: "A Virginian? Where from? From our history?"
7yro son: "No, from the Bible."
Me: "There are no Virginians in the Bible!" (after a moment, light goes on in mama's head. Ohhhhh, virginian!)
Me: "You mean virgin. That is someone who has not had lovin' like from their husband or wife, yet. A Virginian is someone from Virginia, like George Washington and I think Thomas Jefferson."
Husband: "Or something from Virginia."
7yro son: (unconvinced that there are no Virginians in scripture, he stares out van window)
Too much rain makes you go gooney
Here a chick, there a chick
When I was about 8, my sister and I went to a friend's farm for a day of chicken butchering.
We had no idea what to expect. We were never around anything like that before. Worse... we also were mostly vegetarians back then.
Chickens heads were getting chopped off then the hen was immediately dunked in boiling water. If they accidentally lost their grip on that chicken, the hen flew around and tried to run with no head (blood and all). Truly where they got the saying! Ewww!
Next a group of women sat around and plucked them.
My sister and I sat staring in wide eyed shock.
Later that week we had sore throats. Our doctor said it was pschosematic. (spelling?) We had sympathy sore throats for those silly chickens. LOL!
We had no idea what to expect. We were never around anything like that before. Worse... we also were mostly vegetarians back then.
Chickens heads were getting chopped off then the hen was immediately dunked in boiling water. If they accidentally lost their grip on that chicken, the hen flew around and tried to run with no head (blood and all). Truly where they got the saying! Ewww!
Next a group of women sat around and plucked them.
My sister and I sat staring in wide eyed shock.
Later that week we had sore throats. Our doctor said it was pschosematic. (spelling?) We had sympathy sore throats for those silly chickens. LOL!
Another toad bites the dust
Yesterday we went out to my parents' farm. It was a beautiful sunshiney day. The swallows and hummingbirds had just arrived from the south and butterflies were already flying. I love when the trees begin to bud and the flowering plum trees are blooming. We dug up some strawberry plants that needed to be thinned and set them in buckets to replant at my home. After we dug up about 25-30, which was way too many (imho!) we walked to my mother's very large pond and watched the koi swim around.
The kids tried catching some of the toad polliwogs. We ended up with only one. They are huge... this one was about 3.5 inches long. The babies! So gross. My mom found a few toad egg clumps and we pulled them out and into a bucket. The toads eat the baby koi- when there are some- and that is terrible. They also eat the gambuzi fish. Gambuzis are about 1 to 2 1/2 inches and eat mosquito larvae and therfore beneficial. They are so cute! Toads actually will take over the pond if left to eat all these gambuzis and baby koi! Dilligence is the only thing to keep those nasty things at bay. Caught toad eggs and polliwogs are dumped in the bushes far away or buried. As the spring comes along more, toads get bigger or down right huge, more disgusting and more plentiful. I am sure we will have better toad hunting then.
Listening to conviction
What I have been hearing, regarding our homeschool direction, is a radical shift from what I have been doing. A few years ago I had read about a method of homeschooling that was really different. It was intriguing to me, but I was intimidated with the whole thing and I moved on to something else. Last year the Lord showed it to me again. I felt a strong leading to it. My friend had been using this method herself and graciously let me borrow from her so I could get a better idea. It was Heart Of Wisdom. Hands down it was the classiest unit study I had ever seen. The classiest homeschool anything I had ever seen, barring Apologia and Master Books. During this season, I know God was putting a bug in my ear. Ultimately He led me to use My Father’s World. After using MFW for a couple months, I was being called back to Heart Of Wisdom style- or Hebrew model. Not to use this method right away, but getting me ready for what was coming because He knew how it intimidated me.
Frankly, teaching in this method, Hebraic, is a serious departure from all homeschool curricula out there. No other company produces this type of material or promotes this kind of learning. I felt so convicted that I had not been teaching my children in the biblical method. The way Jesus taught. I had been teaching in a classical bent without knowing what damage I was really doing. I had no idea of the implications.
What further cemented this was taking this ‘test’ at http://www.restorationministries.org/pdf/hebraicArticles/HebGreekComparison.pdf
and reading Knowledge vs. Wisdom at
http://heartofwisdom.com/artman/publish/article_270.shtml
New hope
Every year come February I start to get antsy. The weather is still very rainy, the ground is still very mushy and muddy, and the trees have no leaves yet. I begin to pine away for spring time flowers and green leaves. I want to see the sunshine and at the same time I know how much we need (and love) the rain.
For me, the spring brings a new year of plans and hope for the future. I dream of better things to happen. Like my spiritual life to get even deeper with the Lord. My husband to be better rewarded in his career and to be blessed with great favor with God. My children to be really motivated to go all out for God. And for our homeschooling to finally meet my ‘unknown picture of ideal’. This unknown picture is an undefined shape I can barely make out from a place deep in my mind and heart. It is the map toward the goal of training up my children in the way they should go from Point A to Point B. The Lord, in His wisdom, has not revealed the step by step path, for my husband and I, to accomplish this monumental task.
By March I am revving up. My hopes and dreams for the new year are seeming more like a reality. The feeling that I am just around the corner from a break through in my personal walk begins to seep in. Signs start showing that my husband will finally be catapulted, via the Lord, into a new arena of blessing in his career and his spirit.
For school I am already scouring my catalogs and the internet for reviews, good deals, and hoping for a blessed new era of learning and growing in God. Most importantly, I begin fine tuning the voice of God who guides me to make the choices.
Frosting
Every year we homeschool all year long. Winter and lots of rain bring days where we get "more done" in school. Summer is our rabbit trail time. During the summer we do math and language arts, but everything else is optional at my discretion. We will do more art and that sort of thing. Less structure for sure! Summer is clearly not now and I wish school could be like that all year, but that does not work for *us* to do on a regular basis.
Now this fall and winter have been so different than others!
Why?
Because we have a baby.
That is a new way to homeschool for our family and I have not found it to be "so difficult" as all I have heard. I love the article I read in a magazine recently and found it is also on lovetolearn.com, "The Baby IS The Lesson". It is so true. There is no better present to my children than another sibling. You can read the article here: http://www.lovetolearn.net/policies/baby.lasso
Babies mess up any routine you have! Gotta go more with the flow.
Routines are important, but so is not being a slave to the routine. The key is the balance!
Last year I really learned that one. It was good one to learn while I was pregnant and before the baby! (Thank you, Lord, for preparing me!)
I have also been happy to see my children cruising along with their studies. Not fast, just smooth. We certainly have character training and life skill training that gets bumpy sometimes, but it is working for us.
As the baby is crawling faster and then on to walking, I know what is in store for us as she is not my first baby. I still do not see it being this big issue as I have read and heard about. Marilyn Boyer, at the OCEANetwork conference last August, said to enjoy the season. "Enjoy the season you're in, they don't stay small" she said. She also gave hints on keeping the little ones occupied and even learning along with older siblings. Good stuff. If you did not hear her speak on this you can get the CD on OCEAN's website now. www.OCEANetwork.org
Having a baby around has been the frosting on our family. What a joy!
Stumbling in full view
Each morning you wake up and through a series of events you have completed another day. Life, as they say, happens. Well, things may indeed happen, but it is how we respond that dictates success. We can choose to be proactive, passive or negative. If we value the Lord’s direction for our lives, then we will ideally react to ‘life’ with a godly attitude.
I failed a test from God the other day at the grocery store with a very rude busy-body. I did not react in the full measure I wanted to, but I DID react- instead of smiling sweetly and going on my way as I normally would. I was not responding to life’s happenings in a godly way. I did not praise God for the opportunity to show this woman the Lord’s love. Frankly, I was caught off guard. Apparently, this was a pop-quiz. My children, always in tow, saw it all. The good thing is I used it to teach my children. I told them that I was very angry and everything in me wanted to “express myself” that woman, but that would not be very Christian and I used some self control, however late in the game it was.
I certainly failed my test. No doubt. My children saw real life happen to their normally unflappable mama and she screwed up. They heard me confess my sin. I could see their minds recording this day. The day mom let it all get the best of her. The day that their mother had to really struggle to use self control. When mom slipped and did not keep her cool quick enough.
What an opportunity to change a failure into victory. No matter how badly I do, with God’s help I can succeed in my own life and consequently in my children’s lives, as well. I am sure to make more mistakes. Next time, I pray, I will use my defeat again to make godly winners out of my children. Hopefully next time I will put the brakes on faster!
Something to go on
We live in Oregon. I have three children ranging from 12 years and to a baby.
Homeschooling was a natural progression of events. We were already doing that after school! As a family that already had a lifestyle of learning, it just made sense. We made the decision to homeschool through highschool and beyond. No turning back.
Homeschooling was a natural progression of events. We were already doing that after school! As a family that already had a lifestyle of learning, it just made sense. We made the decision to homeschool through highschool and beyond. No turning back.
I am eclectic in approach to education. Mostly I am Charlotte Mason & Ruth Beechick. Often we go on science or history ‘rabbit trails’ in our love-of-learning adventure! As chaotic as it may sound, it really isn’t and it works for us. Often I write our curricula. We go to the library a lot. Usually, once a week.
I have used all kinds of curricula. With my children’s age ranges, structuring shared HSing can be tricky. But that is their favorite way to learn... * together *. Cool!
I have used lots of wonderful and not-so-wonderful curricula.
Some of my favorites: My Father’s World, CLP’s Studying God’s Word series, Writing Strands, Apologia’s elementary science series by Jeannie Fulbright and notebooking/lapbooking. We emphasize a deep relationship with the Lord, bible reading, modesty, and godly character.
My husband and I believe that homeschooling is really family discipleship.
My husband and I believe that homeschooling is really family discipleship.
We consider that a high calling.
We are accountable and will not trust someone else to do that job for us.
Our inheritance... warriors for Christ
Here are the little ones. They don't look like warriors, yet!
Maybe they are under-cover! LOL!
7yro boy, 8mo baby girl, 12yro girl
Delight Directed method explained
FROM: http://heartofwisdom.com/delight_directed_homeschool.html
PLEASE READ HIGHLIGHTED PINK SECTION...
Delight-Directed Study |
Delight-directed study places students in charge of their own learning, helping them find something they want to accomplish. The delight-directed method uses natural curiosity to motivate the student. The student acquires basic concepts of learning (reading, reasoning, writing, researching, etc.) during the process of examining the topic of interest. Less control can lead to more learning.
All children love to learn—at least all children love to learn before they go to school. Forced learning can destroy the natural love for learning that our children are born with. Children locked into studying something they find boring are no different from adults locked into boring, irrelevant meetings. If adults cannot see the relevance of the material covered in a meeting, they will tune out or drop out. If children do not understand how the subject will help to address the concerns of their lives, they will tune out. Would you, for example, read this page if it were titled "Basic Plumbing Concepts"? You might if you had a leak in your kitchen sink or a basement full of water. In the same way, students need to have an interest in the topic they are learning.
If we allow students a free choice, they can concentrate on learning what they might need in their lives. Freedom to choose what not to study implies freedom to learn more about what one cares about and freedom to explore new interests.
A teacher's or parent's first job is to cause children to want to read something, to motivate them to care so that the natural order of learning can kick into action. The educator's job is to provide the one item which today's education system leaves out: motivation. (Schank, 1994)
When students are given good instructional materials, they can teach themselves and they will eventually learn to locate their own resources (books, Internet sites, people, materials, classes, etc.)
For more on this subject read The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach.
The Delight-Directed Method is Biblical
The Bible instructs parents to recognize that each child is a unique individual with a way already established that needs to be recognized, acknowledged, and reckoned with by means of the truth of Scripture.
Proverbs 22:6 says Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
This verse shows us a parent’s training must be based on knowing his or her child. The Hebrew text has the personal pronoun attached to the noun "way." It reads, "his way" and not simply "in the way he should go." "Way" is the Hebrew word derek, which means "way, road, journey, manner." Parents need to recognize the way each of their children is bent by the way God has designed each of them. If parents fail to recognize this, they may also fail to help launch their children into God’s plan for their lives.
Individualized Education
Roger Schank from The Institute for the Learning Sciences explains, in Engines for Education, the importance of individualized education.
Education should have a pragmatic purpose. Education ought to be about building learners' abilities to do useful things. What is important to learn is whatever helps learners do things that they want to do or that they can be induced to want to do. Therefore, if we want to detail the knowledge students need to have, we should first detail the things students should know how to do. Then we can determine what knowledge will be useful in each case.
Depending on an individual's situation and goals, there are many things that might be worth learning. In order to give a very detailed prescription for what knowledge a student should acquire, we must take into account that not every child will need or want to do the same things. A curriculum must therefore be individualized. It must be built around an understanding of what situations a particular learner might want to be in, or might have to be in later in life, and what abilities he will require in those situations.
Nevertheless, for many people, the notion of mandating the same knowledge for every student is appealing. Building lists of facts that one claims everyone should know is relatively simple to do. Furthermore, there is the attraction of providing standards that can be easily measured. But from the perspective of the teacher and the student, this approach spells trouble. Each mandated bit of knowledge removes more local control and drives the system towards fixed curricula and standardized tests, which not only diminishes teacher flexibility but also student choice and, therefore, student interest and initiative.
In public schools from first through twelfth grade, much of the classroom routine is shaped by an emphasis on rote learning, a strict adherence to standardized textbooks and workbooks, and a curriculum that is often enforced with drill and practice. The methods and the curriculum are molded by the questions that appear on the standardized achievement tests administered to every child from the fourth grade on. Success no longer means being able to do. Success comes to mean "academic success," a matter of learning to function within the system, of learning the "correct" answer, and of doing well at multiple-choice exams. Success also means, sadly, learning not to ask difficult questions. When we ask how our children are doing in school, we usually mean, "are they measuring up to the prevailing standards?" rather than, "are they having a good time and feeling excited about learning?”
We should purpose to be flexible in the way we try to tap into our children's innate interests. When we are interacting with the student we can evaluate whether learning has taken place. If one approach doesn't work, we can drop it and try another.
Christian Romance: Set The Stage & Ignite the Spark!
Set The Stage For Romance & Ignite The SPARK!
Early in the day, send a note, text or email alluding to a night of special romance. Not too many details, just enough to make their heart beat just a bit faster.
When the time comes, light many candles of all sizes. Lower the lights and play soft music.
Make a trail of rose petals to invite them in to delight. Ask them to relax while you go prepare.
Let them wait in anticipation while you change into something more comfortable and sexy and return with a luxurious massage oil or lotion. Ask them to lie down and them give them a relaxing sensuous massage.
Enjoy the process. setting the stage and anticipation are very sexy and sure to kindle a spark!
Christian Marriage: Lifelong Romance & Passion
Christian Marriage: Lifelong Romance & Passion
Around every corner is a new challenge.
To be married and Christian brings unique issues. For example, we must keep our walk pure and righteous, we must be good parents BUT we are also commanded to be "one" with our spouses.
Obviously that can be a trial at times.
We should work all the more hard to kindle the spark and to choose to be "in Love" with our husband or wife all over again. In fact, we must choose this every day.
One way this becomes easier is through prayer. No doubt when we humble ourselves before the Lord, we experience a change in not only our own hearts but our spouse and in the family over all.
It really is miraculous.
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