He's known as the meanest gunslinger in the west...

He took our family by surprise that day he rolled into town.

My husband tried to save his girls...

But it was no use.  That outlaw was too fast for us.

It will never be safe in Dry Gulch until this fast handed desperado has been apprehended...

Have you ever asked, "Why me?  I don't deserve this."  God is molding you into the person He wants you to be.  It is painful. His ways are not our ways.  When you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you do not all of a sudden become perfect.  Yes, when you ask God to forgive you, He will. That is guaranteed.  And no we don't deserve that. 

But many people view Christians as "holier than thou" as though we are supposed to be perfect.  We are not.  We struggle with all the same things the rest of the world struggles with.  And it is painful.  When we ask God to take away our imperfections, it often hurts to let go of those things.  The difference is, that we have God to lean on while He does the work.  We can call on Him to help us through the hard times and He will be there because He loves each and every one of us. 

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28 

Yes, He loves YOU too.  Wherever you are right now, you too can receive His forgiveness and become born again.  Jesus said in John 3:3  ..."I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "  It is really quite simple, but it is a matter of the heart.  Accept Jesus Christ, as your Lord and savior.  And believe it.  He came to this earth and gave his life in a bloody, painful death so that you could do this.  He loves you.  Confess your sins to God and know that He will forgive you. 

If you don't know what to do next, I humbly suggest you pick up a Bible.  Don't know where to start?  I didn't either.  Try Romans or John.  They are both good books (among many) for a new Christian or an unbeliever to start.

The following video was played for us in church today.  Our study was on Ephesians 4:17-24  It was an awesome video and I wanted to share it with you today.  Humorous and so true.  May you be blessed. 

 FOR YOUR TOMORROW WE GAVE OUR TODAY

 "In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields."

Welcome to the 14th edition of The Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival. 

This month we had several submissions relating to preschool and young child activities.  We can learn so much from seasoned homeschoolers and the many young families starting out in their homeschool journey.  Sometimes when I'm surfing along and I see these wonderful posts for activities to do with the young children I glance by and keep going because I think the preschool activities are just for new homeschoolers.  But I can't forget the little ones in our multi-child families.  I have a five year old at home and I often have to remind myself to not only include her in our lessons for the older kids, but to also include lessons that are just for her at her level.  Just because I have done something before doesn't mean she has! 

I'm going to start this edition with our preschool submissions so we don't forget these young ones and how fun their school time can be!  If you have only older children at home, don't worry!  We have lots of hands on ideas for you too!

~ For Our Littles~

Amida presents Journey Into Unschooling: Bead People posted at Journey Into Unschooling.

You'll get to see an adorable video of A Picture of "One" posted at Baby Steps.  

Rachel says this is a "great way to incorporate masterpiece artworks into a learning activity, that doubles as emergency entertainment when out-and-about. I love this, DIY I Spy Board!"  Mini-Whiteboard becomes Animal ?I Spy? posted at quirkymomma.com.

Martha presents The Chef-a-nator Working on Fractions posted at Sunrise to Sunset.

~ Moving on to those "older" kids... ~

This month I wanted to share something in the math department.  This is Hands On Geometry with my 7yo posted at Talking to Myself.

Five in a Row is generally for younger ones but I gotta say my older daughter enjoyed many of our lessons when we did FIAR a few years ago.  So don't let this next post fool you, it is a field trip for kids of all ages especially those boys at heart...

Dawn presents FIAR Field Trip posted at my4sweetums - Homeschool Blogger.

Kris and friends held a Mesopotamia Party and she shared some pics at her blog Science of Relations. 

Brenda presents Rocks in My Dryer posted at The Tie That Binds Us.

There seems to be a rock thing going on this fall. Kris is studying geology too and submits her Saturday Science Challenge #12 on At Home Science.  And if you like science, you'll love the new At Home Science Yahoo group.

Rachel presents Try a Shoe Box Journal posted at Minds in Bloom.

Barb and her kids do a fabulous artist study and she shares her son's artwork here on her post Jean-Francois Millet Project-Oil Pastels found at Harmony Art Mom.

Writing...How do you make writing hands on?  Well you could argue that writing is in fact hands on just because of the nature of holding a pencil in your hand.  But I'm looking for something more than that.  Something that make writing more tangible, something that brings writing out of the mundane and into the extraordinary.  This next entry just might get us started in that direction.  There's nothing like a contest with funny rules to make writing interesting.

Pamela presents It's Almost NaNo Time! posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.

Another family with preschoolers running about, this final post doesn't really meet all of the guidelines for our carnival but it was such a great post that I hope will inspire us all in a way of life that will help us to meet our goal of doing more hands on projects with our kids. 

Adam presents Still No TV? posted at The Faughn Family of Four.

Thank you all for sharing your hands on projects here with us at The Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival.  I look forward to seeing you next month.  If you are reading this and you have never submitted an article of your own, I encourage you to blog about your next educational, hands-on project and share with us here. 

Submit your blog article to the next edition of hands on homeschool blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

If you are interested in hosting an upcoming edition of The Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival or you'd like to be on our monthly reminder email list, please send me an email.

My 5yo told me she wanted to paint fall pictures.  She wanted to paint colorful leaves and trees and scenes from nature.  After a bit it seemed best that I draw a few simple pencil sketches for her to paint because she was having a hard time getting the paint to do what she wanted and was getting quickly frustrated.  So we started with some leaves.

Next I drew a tree for her and showed her how she could make the tree have many leaves by just using dots and dabs of paint.  First I did up an example and while she painted I pulled out print cards I have of van Gogh's self portrait and a variety of impressionist paintings that use many small strokes like those of Monet and Sisley.  We were able to talk a bit about the different types of painting and what started as an innocent child asking to paint turned into a brief introduction to impressionism and pointillism.  I love it when lessons come out of nowhere!  Here is her finished tree.

My 7yo son loves to play with pattern blocks.  So today we focused on geometry using the pattern blocks and a book called 20 Thinking Questions for Pattern Blocks (that I'm embarassed to say, was gifted to me when I started homeschooling a few years ago and I have only just begun to use it this year.)

Each question or lesson gives a list of materials needed, a section on how to introduce the question, a box of possible problems that might come up and how to handle them, some examples of what you might see in your student's work, what to look for, discussion questions and then a journal reflection.  This book is geared towards 6-8 graders and I could easily see myself doing this with my 8th grader once a week.  For now, I have just pulled out the bits that I can do with my younger son.  We can't get into the deep detail that the book does, especially in relation to decimals and percents and I don't bother with the journal entries because I don't want to slow him down with tedious writing.

Question #2 asks:  How many different triangles can you make?

We started by reviewing the names of the shapes and then I made a simple triangle and asked ds to make a few of his own.  Once he saw that he could make triangles out of other shapes beside triangles I urged him to make larger, more complex triangles consisting more varied shapes.

Question #11 asks:  What patterns do you see?

This particular activity requires the child to only use one shape to recreate that shape in a larger size.  Once the student can make it using only a few blocks he is challenged to make the next larger size.   It took my son a few tries to get the blue parrallelograms right but he figured it out and found it even easier after that to manage the other shapes. 

After class he had some free time so I let him free play with the hexabits which as is customary with anything ds plays with, he made wheels out of so he could race them and later to play war with.

It's been awhile since I've posted what we're doing in school.

Currently, we're working on a medieval unit. This is a unit that I've looked forward to starting since Aubrey first began school in the more formal sense.

As a child, I always enjoyed the stories of knights and damsels in distress.

But, of course the children and I are finding out that this time in history was far from romantic. In fact, it was a harsh time and many people suffered from poverty, plague, and ignorance (hence the Dark Ages).

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis are our selected read-alouds while working on this unit.

The third book in the series, "The Horse and His Boy" is the one we're currently reading. Lewis is very clear in explaining that his books are not an allegory of Christ such as John Bunyans' "Pilgrim's Progress." 

As for the movies that Disney has made based on "The Chronicles of Narnia", the children haven't watched them as they are too loosely based on the books and a bit too instense for my liking. We have watched the BBC versions which are nearly word for word. 

Recently, we attended our 4H Achievement Banquet where Samuel and Lillie received awards for giving both a demonstration speech and a "talks" speech last year.

Lillie receiving her award while Samuel (blue shirt) is walking up to receive his.

We have a very active Cloverbud group (ages 5-8) and a wonderful group of adult volunteers that make it possible for readying these young kiddos for the responsibilities and work that 4H entails.

Our family is very similar to yours as we are busy about "training our children in the way they should go." Although, it seems that from now until late spring things will pick up a bit more for us.Due to the large amounts of rain we received this past spring and summer, our fall has been remarkably more beautiful than those I can remember in the past.We have seen so much more variations in color and the intensity of the reds, yellows, and oranges has made it so much more alluring.

Quite honestly it's rather difficult to stay inside when so much beauty is waiting for us outside!

Our house is nestled in amongst Post Oaks and Blackjack Oaks. So this means lots or raking and burning leaves in our future, but that's okay because it makes for great exercise!

Before signing off, I just wanted to mention a fellow Homeschoolblogger's blog that I just happened onto a couple of months ago. Mica at The Child's Paper Academy has a gorgeous blog that is both beautiful to the eyes (due to her obvious photography skills) and informative where crafts and recipes are concerned. One of my favorite posts is found here , entitled, A Club Cottage. Her blog is a real treat. Thanks, Mica, for sharing your talents and love for learning!

I hope your week has been going smoothly and productively. 

Blessings to you and yours as we seek and strive to glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in all that we say and do!

Julie  

We had company this weekend.  A wild dog came tearing through the house like an out of control whirlwind.

Oh right, dh's aunt came too.

She was a little tamer so we let her play with the kids.

;)

We had a special treat today when our church welcomed Brothers Forever to take over our Sunday morning service.  These guys have awesome vocals and moving testimonies.  I was so impressed with their level of professionalism and thankful for their unashamed love and service to our Lord.  Now I can't wait to go listen to them again on cd!