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An explanation... I've found a lovely website that has totally inspired me. I want to spend hours and hours reading it. I'm not inspired to try to mimic her. I doubt seriously that would be real inspirational to me. Her poetic way with words and her deep thoughts have drawn me to my Savior. Her words have inspired me to do... Her blog reads more like a devotional really. As I read her words this morning, I was deeply moved...to tears! How I've neglected my communion with God recently...the communion that we can only get through prayer. I read my Bible daily and pray. But the worshipful, communing prayer, I've negelcted. On her website, she does what she calls Walking With God Wednesdays, and she invites other's to do so, also. Walking With God is prayer. It is communing with Him. I love it! So I too will be trying to Walk With God, every Wednesday. Well, all week actually, but I'll try to post it on Wednesdays.
Dear Heavenly Father, My Abba and my Savior... I thank you this day for all that you have given me. I am humbled that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would even look my way, much less know my name. Who am I that you would consider me? Who am I that you would allow me to commune with You in prayer? How can I worship You enough? How can I adequately express my love for You...the Maker of the universe...the Seer of hearts....the Giver of life? May my life be a sweet fragrance rising up to you. Help me to be pleasing unto You... that is to be wholly submitted to You. Oh, God, I cry out to You...for You! I beg for more of You. I ask that You fill me with more of You. Show me how, Abba, to be closer. Reveal to me the wicked ways that are in me. Cleanse me from all unrighteousness...for Your sake. So I can be nearer to You...for my sake. Make me to know Your ways. Fill me with your Words...your precious Words. I pray Lord that you will continue to revive me. Father, I need to be revived. I want the flames of You burning within my heart...within my life. May I live to serve You, breathe You, and exalt You. I love you, Lord, my strength. In Jesus name, Amen.
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I thought I had researched this enough. I checked with homeschool reviews. I bought Cathy Duffy's book and read her review of it. But apparently, I didn't research it enough. AFTER I've bought it, I've found that LOTS of people have a problem with this curriculum. In my 11 years of homeschooling, I've never...and I do mean, never, had a more confusing curriculum. It is very poorly laid out. The curriculum wants you to read the first 11 steps before you ever even try to teach the curriculum. The curriculum itself reads sort of like, "If your child is already reading skip to step such-in-such, if not you need to complete this step and such-in-such step before you start the Wise Guide." Then when you look up the other step it will say, "You first need to do such-in-such and then complete this step...and you should begin your Learning Log now. See step 12 for more instructions on the learning log." On and on it goes throughout the book telling you complete different lessons. Half the time, I forget whether *I'm* supposed to be completing the step or if my child is supposed to complete the step first. It also seems to be somewhat deceptive (not necessarily on purpose, but I've not ruled that one out yet) in how it is presented. The curriculum claims that 95% (or something like that) of our most common English words can be explained with phonics rules. Yet, it constantly has exceptions. Constantly. And instead of admitting that the English word in question is NOT following the established rule, they simply deny it. I'm on a yahoo list for SWR that is supposed to be a support. They've tried. They really have. When I ask a question, their inevitably seems to be NO answer. Or they will give an answer but it really doesn't apply. For intance, it has been quite confusing that they teach that the letter y says /y/ /i/ /I/...but not /E/. So when we have words like "baby" or "lazily", they are told to THINK ba bi (with long i). Why? Because /y/ does not make the /E/ sound in proper English. The problem with this is.... WE'RE NOT SPEAKING "PROPER ENGLISH"! WE SPEAK AMERICAN ENGLISH! Still there are some things that I like about this curriculum. I like that some of their rules give some explanation for the spelling of certain words. And I think the idea that you should learn to spell in order to learn to read is a good one. I can "see" how this is very beneficial. But is it worth the confusion, frustration and extra time that it's taking to learn how to use this program? I don't think so. I wouldn't buy it again if I had it to do over and I may wind up abandoning it all together.
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