Posted By momto4beauties
Tonight was the opening night of Awanas for the year. My girls were more than excited; they were ecstatic! Before we left, they were outside playing with their neighbor friends. Next thing I knew, my girls were inside begging me to take them as well. Since my hubby was staying at home, I figured I had enough room to put them in the van. So, I agreed so long as it was okay with their folks. A few minutes later I had added two children to my troop. Awanas went great. My second grader was in Sparks with her friend and the other two were in T&T with their friends. My youngest was in Cubbies, which was where I began the evening. I sat in for the first few minutes, to make sure she would be good-tempered for them (she's kind of unpredictable when in 'non home' settings). She seemed to be fine, so I headed out in the hall to the sign-in table to sit and do some lesson planning for school tomorrow. It wasn't long before I heard her familiar cries. Ugh. I went inside and sat with her the rest of the time, to keep her calm. I was able to sneak out during 'instrument time' for about five minutes. I was then back in there having her sit on my lap since she refused to participate. On a good note, I got to sing some songs that I haven't sung since I was in VBS as a kid! ha! ha! At the last segment of classtime, she sat in her chair and colored so long as I was sitting within sight of her. I just did the rest of my lesson planning while sitting in there. The rest of my girls LOVED their Awanas time tonight. The older two got their new Awanas books and have stashed them in their school cubbies at my desk. My second grader will need a little more help in getting her book, since she cannot read sufficiently enough yet to read the verses on her own to memorize and recite. So, I will have to work with her a lot until next week so she can obtain this goal. Nonetheless, she had a wonderful time too! All in all, it was a good evening back in Awanas. I am so happy that they love going so much! |
Posted By momto4beauties
Our new school year officially began yesterday! It didn't go quite as smoothly as I had planned, since the girls had to share books for the reading segment, among other inconveniences. The library still hasn't gotten the books in that I need for my second grader. Ugh. This evening I picked up the double copies of two of the other books we are using, so the older two will each have a book to read from. Despite the little hit or misses with the smoothness of our day, the girls are really enjoying it. They even got to use their new Encyclopedia Brittanica Home Edition. It's awesome! I put it in 'elementary' mode and it was very easy for the girls to navigate. We did our map study and dictionary work on there too. Lovin' it! Afterwards, the girls were looking up all kinds of information, videos, games on there to learn. I've never seen a bunch of kids so excited to learn ANYTHING on a computer. They can even do math, science, and social studies with it. Pretty nifty! Great investment! Our day yesterday and today took approx. 4 hours each. So I'm thinking that will be our norm for school...depending if we have science or art projects to complete. This Thursday will be our challenge day to see how well we can integrate co-op and our own homeschool schedule. |
I've also given our four year old a couple of preschool pages to do each day...just some coloring stuff. She also wants to keep practicing her letters, so we've done that. She's doing good. Posted By servingtheKingofkings in Living by the Book
30-Days International asks Christians to pray for Muslims during Ramadan each year. This year, Ramadan takes place from Sept. 1 to Sept. 30. You can view a video about this international prayer network here. You may want to sign up for their free e-newsletter. During the 30 days of Ramadan, they will email you daily prayer articles. They also provide several free downloads which include prayer guides/booklets (one designed especially just for kids).
"Pray continually" 1Thessalonians 5:17 Let's pray! |
Posted By servingtheKingofkings
Posted By servingtheKingofkings
All three kids - Bible study/Prayer Time: Bible, Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ, Remembering God's Awesome Acts, and Bible Atlas - Classical music and composers: Christian Kids Experience Composers (online study) by Maggie Hogan and Melissa Craig, Lives of the Musicians by Kathleen Krull, tons of CDs - Read-aloud: Luther: Biography of a Reformer, Saint Patrick (Christian Liberty Press), Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends, etc.
My daughter (14) - Math: BJU Consumer math - Science: Apologia Physical Science - Health: ABeka Health in Christian Perspective - Literature: ABeka Themes in Literature, Exploring Christian Literature (Christian Liberty Press) - Geography: ABeka World Geography in Christian Perspective - Government/Civics: The Land of Fair Play (Christian Liberty Press) - Speech: Defending the Faith (online) by JoJo Tabares - Drama: co-op - P.E. (basketball, badminton, volleyball): co-op - Writing: Wordsmith (co-op) - Art: drawing using various books - Music: piano - Language: Thai
My 9 yo son - Math: Singapore Math 5A & 5B - Science: ABeka Investigating God's World, - Health: ABeka Enjoying Good Health - History and Geography: ABeka Old World History and Geography, 50 States (co-op) - Language Arts: ABeka Language B, LLATL-The Purple Book - Spelling: ABeka Spelling, Vocabulary, Poetry 5 - Reading: ABeka readers and various books including Mr. Popper's Penguins, Trumpet of the Swan, Noah Webster - Cursive Handwriting: ABeka Penmanship Mastery II - P.E. (Basketball, Badminton, volleyball): co-op - Music: piano
My 6 yo son - Math: ABeka Arithmetic 1, Singapore Math 1B - Phonics: Letters and Sounds 1 - Reading: ABeka readers and various books - Vocabulary: Explode the Code - Penmanship: Words of Jesus (A Reason for Writing) - Science: ABeka Discovering God's World, BJU Science1 - Health: ABeka Health, Safety, Manners 1 - History: ABeka My America and My World, BJU Heritage Studies1 - Art: drawing using various books - Music: piano |
Posted By servingtheKingofkings
Welcome, everybody, to Children of Light Christian Academy! "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord." Ephesians 5:8-10
Who are we? We're Christ-centered, Bible-based, mission-minded, family-bonding, character-building, & life-long learning homeschoolers. We cherish our togetherness; we enjoy learning and growing together as the Lord leads us. We homeschool our three precious blessings: 15 year old daughter, 9 year old son, and 6 year old son. We have been homeschooling for almost 10 years now. We mix and match our resources to meet our kids' individual learning styles and interests. Grade level is not emphasized. Their skills and abilities are taken into consideration more than their ages. We have flexible structure/routine. We take time to dig deeper when there's an interest. We read (a lot), research, create, experiment, write, memorize, analyze, apply, explore, investigate, practice, work, sing, and play all sorts of sports & games. Hopefully, we also learn and retain some knowledge, wisdom, & valuable/useful skills along the way :). I already have another HSB blog, "Living for God," however, I want to set aside this blog here for mainly homeschooling stuff :).
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Posted By servingtheKingofkings in Wordless Wednesday
Note: A couple people asked where it was taken. I took this picture a few days ago from my front yard. |
Posted By momto4beauties
Today, I read an article on the HSLDA website about a recent poll taken of the American public regarding homeschooling. It was called "Americans' Attitude Toward Home Schooling". This was a poll just to get the general opinions of people regarding the topic. Overall, it was a very good outcome, in favor of homeschooling. However, there was a 54% concesus that " agreed with the statement that children who are home schooled often lack social skills". Holy cow! How many times does this subject need to be addressed?! I mean really. Are the general public that naive as to think that a PUBLIC SCHOOL is the ONLY place to get socialization skills? Do they even know the meaning of the word 'socialization'? I'm thinking not. Everywhere a person goes and interacts with other people they are 'socializing'...showing proper social skills to converse and interact with other people. Gee...I socialize when I go to the store, when I go to the park, when I pay for the gas for our minivan, out walking with my kids, when I go to church, when I talk with friends in person or on the phone. Does this mean that because I no longer attend a public school that I can no longer socialize?!! Oh no! I didn't know! I'm socially crippled! ha! ha! My kids get plenty of socialization everywhere they go. As a matter of fact, it's hard to shut them up sometimes. They'll start talking to adults at the store checkout that we don't even know. Adults that just ask a small question and not expecting a 'conversation' in return because they are used to the normal 'socialized' public schooled kids that don't want or know how to talk to ADULTS. I've had astonished looks from these people and then one comment inevitably follows..." Wow. You're kids are quite sociable for children." Does that sound like they are 'unsocialized' to you? Me neither. Usually, when you talk to non-homeschooled kids these days, they just look at you with a blank stare, mumble and shrug their shoulders or, with smaller kids, they just hide behind mom. My own kids have gotten this same reaction out of fellow children while trying to strike up a conversation with them. It's usually a kid that is a year or two younger or older than one of my kids. The child has a look that seems to be wondering why my child would be attempting to talk with them since they aren't the SAME AGE. One of my children have actually had a child not talk to them for this very reason! Our neighbor girls try and pair off by ages and not let the others play with them also. Isn't that ridiculous?! But that's what they are trained to think in schools today since that is how they are constantly grouped. An ability to interact with ALL ages is needed in day to day life, not just peers of the same age. Conventional school is just that...kids of all the same age packed into a classroom together. Public & private schooled kids today, a lot of times, don't fully grasp the skill of socializing with ALL ages until their college years, due to the diversity of the typical college campus. Sometimes even then they are grouped with peers their own age as well so it's a toss-up. So, I'd say my kids are coming out way ahead in this subject. |
What about private school kids? Or kids in very rural schools with such small amounts of students that it's equal to the tiny co-op I have my kids involved in? Aren't these kids 'unsocialized' too? Of course not! They go to a PUBLIC school! (You know...that little golden school building down the street from you.) So they must be properly socialized....right?? Honestly...I've seen some pretty unsocialized behavior out of some public schooled and even private schooled kids...or rather 'uncivilized' behavior. If that's how the general public wants their kids to be 'socialized', then by all means they can have it. Posted By momto4beauties
The other day I made a HUGE list of supplies that I will be needing for this upcoming school year. At the beginning of each week in our primers there's a list of 'supplies needed for the week'. I wrote them ALL down....for the whole year. Yep...I have a three page list (both sides) of what we'll be needing. Most of the items are regular household items...but there are quite a few things that are not or that I don't own. So, I checked off all the things that I already possess. Next, I headed to the store to get what we don't already have. My first stop was the local Goodwill store. You'd be surprised at how nice this Goodwill store is. It has a ton of stuff..not just clothing. It has a lot of overstock items from local businesses. The items are brand new, never used, and marked outrageously low...less than a dollar a lot of times. I had read off my list to my mother and she told me about a bunch of things that she had seen at Goodwill that were on my list. So, that was my first destination. As I perused the store looking for various items that my mother had pointed out on my list, I turned a corner to find an item from my list sitting all by itself on the shelf. Now this was an item that I hadn't even remotely planned on finding at Goodwill. This item is usually expensive and I never would have thought to look at this place for it or even at Walmart. I would have to order it if I wanted one. Honestly, we don't HAVE to have it for this year...it was marked 'optional'. So, I pretty much gave up from the get go of even having one for this year and would do whatever project it's needed for without it since it was 'optional'. But here it was...all by its lonesome, in all it's red and black glory. A microscope! I couldn't believe my eyes! It wasn't an electric microscope or anything...but it was a microscope! It was marked as having 100X, 200X, & 300X power. It came with one prepared slide and three blank ones, along with a solution bottle and cover slips! Woohoo! Talk about an answer to prayer. You see...I kind of made one of those half-hearted prayers about God helping me to find a cheapy microscope to use. And sure enough...He dropped it right in front of my face, dirt cheap and ready to use. Ha! Ha! He even answers the prayers that we don't think He will...those lil half-hearted ones we think we already know the answer to. I took the microscope over to my mom's to show her what I found. Or rather, was GIVEN. She too was amazed! I opened the box to check out the microscope...to make sure it was indeed usable. Sure enough...so long as there is good lighting, it is usable. It uses a mirror beneath the slide to reflect light onto it. I put the prepared slide under the microscope and could see it just fine. Wow! God is good! I also purchased some crocheting cord, pipe cleaners, a small planting pot (for a drum project...still need 3 more, but I'm on my way!), two HUGE bags of christmas bows and some beautiful glass tree ornaments for $.99! I also got some more books for the girls to read! They have TONS of books there in good condition! (personally, if we keep getting more books I'm not going to have anyplace to put them all! We're already cramming them onto the bookshelf! And our bookshelf has five shelfs reaching almost 7ft high!) To top off my day of shopping, I went to the Dollar General. It's a cheapy dollar store near us. Actually, there are three of these stores in our town. I went to the one closest to my daughter's soccer field after dropping her off for practice yesterday. While in there I struck another gold mine of items. I found the twine I needed, the rope, sponges, pocket folders, notebooks, clothespins, poster board, multi-colored tissue paper, masking tape, electrical tape, scotch tape, watercolors (16 colors!), balloons, magnifying glass, stickers, preschool workbook, and binoculars (nice ones too)! Woohoo! I made out like a bandit! Well, today I still have some things to get and will be visiting more stores today to finish off my list...hopefully. I am awaiting more possible surprises, as I know God loves to make me smile at the least expected moment lately. |
Posted By servingtheKingofkings in Living by the Book
I am grieved to see a lack of reverence for our Almighty God more and more in the world, especially in America. People use God's name in vain left and right.
"You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name." Exodus 20:7
This is very serious! It is sad that even some Christians including pastors use God's name in vain. I believe (hope) most of them do so without realizing it. I came across several blogs where Christian bloggers misuse God's name in their writing. When you interject "g_sh" or "g_e" (add o in the first blank and e in the second blank), you use God's name in vain because the former is a euphemistic variation of God and the latter is a euphemistic shortening of Jesus (see dictionary).
Another sad thing is that many foreigners desire to act and speak like Americans so they adopt American interjections including those two mentioned above. Next time you are about to either exclaim with delight or express surprise, please avoid the forewarned "interjection woe." |