Here is another EXCELLENT article from Marilyn Howshall.  This just echoes my heartbeat about God and what He is showing me about gentle, loving education.  I seek His aid in helping me to accomplish the 'gentle' and 'loving' part of the education :-)

I'm sharing these articles b/c these thoughts are where God has me right now and are my heartbeat...His Way of doing things...

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_the_heart_of_true_educ_and_lol.htm 

I believe I am in a time of refreshing and even re-focusing in our homeschool journey.  This article written by Barb Shelton was like a breath of fresh air and it encouraged my heart.  Many of the things she discusses were a re-confirmation and just made me want to jump up and down and holler AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_refreshing_and_re-focusing_the_hrt_of_the_hser.htm

I believe this article serves as a word to me from the Lord especially the part about being liberated from what public schools do and even think about homeschool(ers)(ing).  I would find myself comparing our day with the public school and we would come up short each time-in my mind that is...how discouraging.  But thru this season of burnout and much discouragement that I felt God allowed me to go that far down so that I could really see what HE defined as education and what was really happening was that He was taking me on a road that was yes different from what public school was about-we did things different and think differently therefore that is why everytime I compared us with them we looked different.  Well, that is how we are supposed to look-that is how God was taking our homeschool.  After I came to the 'end' of myself(I had no idea what was wrong with me and had no idea how to make it better or how to get out of this 'stupor' I was in) did the Lord begin to show me that His definition of education is different than what the world says...that is echoed in this article. 

In her 7 Pillars of Education Barb points out in item #6 she did not find that in the Word but I say it is in there...The 'dominion mandate' that God gave Adam and Eve(and to us) to have dominion, subdue, master our environment all to the glory of God will fit in with item #6 and #7.

I encourage you to take the time to read this article.  Barb has many, many articles on her website that just bless me and I'm sure will bless you too. :-D

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_refreshing_and_re-focusing_the_hrt_of_the_hser.htm

I bought the NP Lesson Plans for First Grade.  It was supposed to be used as a guide to assist me in writing my own curriculum.  Well it looks like I've decided to use it for History, Literature, and even Bible.

I could use it for Science also but I think I want to do animals and plants in science first rather than oceanography and meteorology so I'm gonna use the magazines we get called Your Big Backyard and just put together some assignments for her from those.  Since she reads very well for a 6 year old I've been trying to steer her more towards doing some of her assignments on own.  She'll curl up on her bed and read a page here and there.  I find if I'm not sitting next to her she won't read long.  So I am working on having her read the short story about the Panda bear, for example, and answer questions about it.  They have a book you can cut out in each issue and make a story with the pages you cut out...and it has other things to read and observe.  I think that is sufficient for right now for science.

So back to the NP Lesson Plans...my plan is to use it for the remainder of this year.  That will free me up to continue writing(and giving me more ideas to write about) for next year's history/lit/bible lessons.  I already have my Literacy and Math ready to go(I've posted those lesson plans previously on this blog).

The only thing I have left to do is to get their notebooks together but I think I'll let them set their notebooks up.  That could be part of our class time.  Which reminds me I need to put some scriptures together that talk about stewardship and such which could lead me into introducing Self-Government, Christian Character, Conscience and Property(paraphrased). 

All my children are enrolled in gymnastics for the spring semester-Feb to June.  Today we went to our 2nd class.  The payment for these classes was offered by my mom.  What a blessing her and my father have been to us.  These classes are not cheap for little people just wanting to have fun jumping around and doing flips and such. 

Anyway, when u enroll 2 the 3rd child(if u have one) is free.  So my 18month old goes free.  Well I had the older 2 on the same day but the teacher came to me today and said my 6yod has good upper body strength, more than the average 6 yo and they want to put her in a more advanced class.  I was pleased with that and so that means her class is on a different day than her brother's...so I'll take one on Thursdays, one on Fridays and one on Sat. mornings.  Whew!!  I did not want to be out of the house that much.  It seems when we go out it kind of disrupts our sit-down-at-the-desk schooltime mentality.  It's hard to get back into that once we come home.  But I'm happy overall.  I think we'll look forward to being out that much once the weather breaks and gets warm. 

So I'm pleased with this fulfilling her physical education requirement for this state.

They seem to love it and I'm glad.

1.Though I speak with all learnedness and clarity of thought, but have not love, then I’m not worthy to be called a disciple of Christ.

2.And though I have many gifts, useful for teaching, and much insight concerning the various learning styles, and an abundance of book knowledge, if I have not love, then I’m just another talking head. (or worse, yet, a humanist)

3.And though I create curriculum, and offer much food for thought to my children, and invest hours of my time with them, if I have not love, then it counts for nothing.

4. For love suffers long and is kind.  Love does the school record keeping even when one doesn’t feel inclined to do so.  Love speaks with consideration to the child who needs help.  Love does not envy other homeschool moms, or their children; and Love does not parade itself when her children do well on mandated tests. 

5.Love does not behave rudely, even if others behave rudely.  Love does not seek its own, is not provoked, and thinks no evil, even in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation who would think ill towards Love.

6. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, nay, not even when the public schools do poorly. But rather, Love rejoices in the truth.

7. Love bears all things, even lost lesson plans.  Loves believes all things, as it knows that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Love hopes all things, as it serves a big God. Love endures all things, as it knows that everything here and now is only temporary.

8. Love never fails, even when our lesson plans do.  And even curriculums will fail, scope and sequences will pass away, and one day book publishers too will vanish.

9. For we know so little, 10. but one day the Lord will remedy our situations.

11. At one time, I was a not a homeschooler, and my children were in public school.  I thought, almost the same as a secular humanist; but I became a homeschool mom, and slowly, I learned to think with a Biblical worldview.   

12. And now, even as a Christian homeschooler, I only see part of Christ’s reflection, but one day I will see him face to face, and without any lesson plans in hand.  Now I know only in part, but I desire that one day my children also see him face to face.

13. And I can impart to my children faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.

written by Yvonne Mutch

My children spent the evening with their grandparents tonight.  My dad brought them back home around 8:30pm.  After everyone was in their pajamas they all(even the baby) came into my room and we lounged on my bed.  My children took the notebook I was going to write my lessons in and started writing letters.  And lo and behold my 4 year old starts writing the capital letter E and A.  He was doing such a good job that I wrote out the letters of his name and told him to copy them.  He did such a fine job with every letter in his name(with a little instruction from me.  He refused to let me hold his hand with the pencil in it.  He is a VERY independent type and gets frustrated very easily when he cannot do something so I had to give him VERBAL instruction so he would not make certain letters backwards).  Granted the letters were all over the paper but he wrote each and every one of them from his name.  Then I started dictating other letters from the alphabet for him to write and he wrote them with only a little instruction from me. 

I am so amazed and overjoyed at this b/c I focus so much on doing my daughter's lessons that I really don't spend the time that I feel like I should with him.  He has never had consistent, intensive lessons(like my daughter did) on how to make the strokes for each letter. But this 4yo has picked up(from watching his sister and looking at the letters I guess) how to form the letters of the alphabet.  He used to make the letters with crayons...not WRITE the letters with crayons but make the letter A with 3 crayons; the letter T with 2 crayons and the letter H with 3 crayons, etc.  He could only do the letters that had no curves in them with the crayons.  So I see he is very hands-on.

I used to feel very bad and guilty at the fact that I don't spend the time on him that I do her but I see that he is learning.  He is picking things up.  When I read the bible during bible study or any other book and I ask them questions I find he comes up with the right answer at times when she doesn't. 

I'm just so proud of my little guy!!!!  And I am grateful to God for "giving the increase"...as the word says, some water and others plant but it is God that gives the increase.  We can teach, explain, instruct, direct, etc. but it is the Holy Spirit that brings that knowledge they have received together into UNDERSTANDING and then eventually WISDOM.  The bible says that UNDERSTANDING AND WISDOM come from the Lord.  So as I sow the seeds of information and principles into those little hearts and minds I'll continue to trust God to formulate it all inside of them and to give them the understanding and wisdom they will need into the knowledge of God Himself and the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom they'll need to live this physical life.

I'm tired.  It is 10:39pm and no one is in bed yet.  I allow for late bedtime so dh can get some sleep.  He gets in a little after 12am.  He gets up a 6am to go to the 2nd job and comes back home to sleep so he can go to the 1st job at 3:pm-12am.  Plus the baby took a VERY late nap.  I put him down at 7:30pm  I meant to get him up at 8:30pm..  I woke him up at 9:00pm( I know I'm crazy!!) But I'd rather him go to sleep at 11:00pm and get up at 9:30 or 10am than getting up at 5:00am WIDE AWAKE.   I know, getting up late allows for a short day though.  Big Sigh!

We are praying that this is just a season of dh working 2 jobs. 

Today was harrowing for me mainly b/c I got shaken in my faith.  Our utility company has kindly informed us that they are charging us for the next 6 months an excess of $400/mo!!!  They say they are estimating that we will use that much gas and electricity and costs of heating fuel is supposed to go up 80%.  That puts us way over our budget.  I spent 2 hours at least on the phone with them asking them what was wrong with them :-)  I called dh.  He came home for lunch and he told me we were going to lay hands on the bill, pray and believe and trust God and called our heating bill for this winter paid!! And we did!

So we started our lessons today at 11:00am and we were doing ok until the mail came and I opened up the utility bill around 3:00pm.  The next 2 hours were shot. 

But we managed to get lessons done. 

Bible Study:

We read the story this morning of how Joseph's brothers came to Egypt on thru to when they told Jacob that Joseph was still alive and his whole family came to Egypt.    Then we continued on to a poetry lesson. 

Literature:

(After a tense few moments when I got impatient and upset that all my questions of review of the long O sound  were met with a bunch of "I don't know's" right after I kept giving her the answer AND after she burst out in tears and I had to calm myself down we were able to accomplish the following:)

Big Sigh Number 1!

We read a poem about snow called FRED'S SLED by Kenn Nesbitt and talked about the imagery-what pictures come to mind when u read it.  We discussed how some poems rhyme and I encouraged her to write her own poem that rhymes.  I explained poems can be silly or serious and can be about anything whe wanted.  She chose to write about a favorite book. This is what she wrote:

My Silly Dilly Book

My favorite book is Look

It is blue and it is in my shoe.

It looks silly.

It's name is Dilly.

made by Alexis Roberson

We made a little book out of construction paper where she made a cover page.  She wrote 1 line of the poem on each page of the book and drew a picture about what that line of the poem is talking about.  The last page was her closing page-"Made by Alexis Roberson".

I thought that was wonderful.  So we got over that hurdle but I believe that set a kind of bad tone for the day.

We broke for lunch and physical activity. 

Math:

We did a very brief math lesson on the dime and how a dime is worth 10 cents.  I asked her to show me 10 cents in pennies(she did), in nickels(she did) and in dimes(she did).  Tomorrow we will work on putting combinations of coins together and adding up their value.  And also we need to cover quarters and how 4 quarters= $1 and 2 quarters=$.50.  We also reviewed pennies and nickels and how much they each are worth.

So I  opened up the mail and I got frazzled....$438.00 a month!!!

Big Sigh Number 2!

  The children were strangely quiet while I was trying to find some relief from the bill.  They all came downstairs with me after  I got off the phone and I was able to see that my 4 year old had taken scissors to his hair, his sister's hair(all of her hair WAS long...he cut a little chunk out AT THE ROOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I did not discover until this evening that he also cut the baby's(1 year old...his hair is just starting to cover his head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) hair.   He also cut his sister's barbie's hair.  His 6 yo sister was not upset at all about her hair being cut nor her barbie's and that upset me even more!!!!  I sent them to their rooms.  6yo dd later wrote me a letter asking me why I'm so mean.  4 yo ds stated on 2 different occasions today "mom, I'm glad you did not yell at me"

Can we say CALGON!!!!!!!!!!! TAKE ME AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big Sigh Number 3 !

Dh came home at 6:00pm for dinner/lunch.  After he left we finished our unit study on health/dental hygiene.  I finished reading the book to them entitled TOOTH DECAY AND CAVITIES and we talked at length about brushing teeth GOOD and how too much sugar is bad for your teeth.

The only thing I did not do is read Heidi which I determined to do earlier today.  I'm too tired to read and not in the mood.  The mood here has improved...so much so that while I'm typing this in my blog 6yo dd wrote me a letter.  It states: (with original spelling and mistakes and all)

To my frend Mom.  Mom is a grat mother of all.

And she drew a picture of me and her standing side by side.

I hugged her and kissed her and thanked her and told my children to pray for me when they see mommy having a rough day...that mommy makes mistakes too and that I need them to pray for me.  DD says "mommy u made me cry today" .  I apologized to her and she replies with "mommy I forgive you" .  The 4yo barber chimes in and says "yeah, I forgive you too".  They both give me a hug and that I kissed them both and told them I loved them.  The video is done now and I'm sending everyone to bed.

I did not even get a chance to read my Principle Approach and to create my lesson plans on God's Principle of Individuality.  Oh well, another day.  Stay tuned for it though. 

Good night from one tired but victorious in Jesus, mama!!!

I had planned on taking this week off since dh was off Monday and we spent the day doing NOTHING but as Tuesday came we found ourselves studying our lessons.  We are taking it very, very relaxed but it seems as if doing lessons is becoming what we do and how we live; how we spend time together which I'm pleased to see happening.

 Tuesday we did Bible study and read the story of how Joseph went to Egypt. We talked about Joseph and his brothers and how they hated Joseph b/c of his dreams and how they threw him in a pit and sold him.  We discussed how hatred is not a good thing and we should not hate our brother/sister.  We recalled how Cain was jealous of Abel and killed him and how we are to stay away from emotions and even words of hatred toward people in general and family in particular.

They watched a schoolhouse rock video that discussed(sang about actually) the human body, math, American history, etc.

that was about it for Tuesday.

Today we had Bible study and discussed how God had a plan for Joseph and how God has a plan for everyone of us; how God created us unique and as individuals(from 4R the Prinicple of Individuality-I threw in a little of that) and how God used Joseph's gift to promote him to be a ruler in Egypt under Pharoah.

They watched a video of fire safety and dh and I took them thru the house and showed them the smoke detectors and pushed the button to let them hear how it sounds and discussed our fire safety plan of escape.

Then they watched another video called TIMMY THE TOOTH as an introduction into our dental health lessons.  I read a portion of the book TOOTH DECAY AND CAVITIES by Dr. Alvin Silverstein.  We then went upstairs to make a model of a set of teeth and discovered to my dismay that DH and DC had eaten BOTH BAGS OF LARGE MARSHMALLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!  

 So we just worked on a rhyming poem about the tooth fairy.

dd settled down to play with her Polly Pockets and db played resuce hero quietly while  I read a chapter from Heidi.  My plan is to read another chapter or 2 tonight before they go to bed.

Tomorrow we have a field trip scheduled with the support group to go to the fire house in town so they can see first hand and up close the big fire trucks and firemen and equipment.  That will conclude our little mini-lesson on fire saftey for this week.

Maybe, while we are out tomorrow, I'll buy another bag of large marshmallows...

We took Tuesday(10-4) off since dh was off for Rosh Hashannah.  He was also off on Wed. but I couldn't stand not doing lessons so we studied:

Bible-Jacob had a dream-didn't go into too much detail just gave some definitions of the words 'dream' and 'journey'

Phonics-long e sound with 'ie' vowel pairs with words such as 'believe,field,chief, etc'

Math-learning about money; coins in particular;  we spent a lot of time going over how to count by 5's and counting nickels and how that differs from using pennies and counting by 1's; played 'Store'

                                ----------------------------

On today(Thursday) we covered:

Bible-skipped to Jacob had 12 sons and one of them was Joseph.(Skimmed over the fact that Jacob married 2 wives.  It was commented to me by 6yo 'but Mommy you are only supposed to have 1 wife!'.  I nodded yes that is correct and left it at that.  I guess I need to explain a little that was the custom back then and that you should only have 1 wife AT A TIME!)

Phonics - quick review and worksheet on long e words with vowel pairs ee,ie,ea.  Had to complete the words in the sentences with the correct vowel pair. 

Math - quick and short review of counting by 5's (and 1's.) will start dimes(counting by 10's) next week Monday.

Unit on Health - FINALLY finished Albert the Running Bear's Exercise Book.  I NEVER thought this unit would take this long.  I feel like it is ddddrrrrrrraaaaaaaaagggggggggiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnggggggggggg!  Maybe that is indication I need to move on to something else..although the children do not balk at doing this unit...they participate in the exercises and listen attentively.  So the last lesson is on Dental Hygiene.  We'll start that on next Monday also.

We were finally able to get back to Heidi.  I did not read to them over the last 2 days so were wanted to have quick lessons today so we could spend some time reading Heidi.  I read, the dc played and listened and understood what they could.  They would stop me and ask questions about what I just read so they were listening. YEAH!!  I read 2 chapters.  We are up to when Heidi is living with Clara now and is supposed to be sitting in on her lessons but she ran out of the house in her desire to want to hear the fir trees and came back with 2 kittens in her apron and b/c of all that she was scolded by Fraulien Rottenmeir. Clara asked Sebastian to keep the kittens because she liked them and she likes Heidi too.  I believe I am falling in love with this book all over again.  I think I'm enjoying it more than my children!!  Looking forward to tonight when we read more....