On Tuesday Patrick turned 5!  We had a party in Huntsville with his cousins on Sunday.

My sister-in-law, Ayumi, taught me to make Miso soup when she and Steve's brother, Tim, came to visit.     I made it Friday and then again last night to go with our sushi we made.  We made it using eggplant instead of tofu because that is what we had and also she said that was her favorite kind.  It was delicious!  Here is a picture of Ayumi and Tim when they came to visit in August.  It was their 1st anniversary!Here is a link to a miso soup recipe if you want to try it:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Miso-Soup

Here are some photos of summer history projects.  These hands on activities really reinforce the day's lesson so well and the kids enjoy them so much!!.  These are all based on ancient history, although now we are studying the Middle Ages.

Model of a Roman aquaduct.

Togas!

Great Wall of China (This still stands through 4-5 days of rain!)

...As it has always done, somehow Government, like some monster from the past, has again outwitted the freedom-loving masses and has convinced them that they don’t need protection from Government, but from everything else. And so the age-old beast our founding fathers had tamed is once more banging at our door. —

Here are most of our books for this year- all except Grace's First Language Lessons. She did the 1st half of that in 1st grade.    Hopefully, we'll begin next week!  

History for both will be Biblioplan's medival period.  http://www.biblioplan.net/

Grammar is First Language Lessons. Spelling is spellingcity.com.  Bible is Explorer's Bible Study.

Science is earth science and astronomy, and math is Singapore, grade 2.  Art and Music will be Ambleside online:

http://amblesideonline.org/ComposerSch.shtml#anchor_thisterm

Also, hopefully, Grace will begin piano lessons.  This summer we began teaching Patrick to read using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching your Child to Read.   It will probably take us all year to work through that with him.

Grace is so excited about starting 2nd grade.  We just have one more chapter left in Biblioplan Ancients and we'll be done.  We got behind in history last year and spent this summer catching up.  We LOVE history though, so it has been a joy to stretch it out and take our time with it. 

Hopefully tomorrow I will post some photos of some of our history projects from this summer.

I read the following idea in this month's "Mom's corner" on Titus2.com.  We have tried various methods of scripture memory as a family, but nothing that lasted.  Since we will always eat, maybe this will be easier to continue with! 

How can the Word of Christ dwell in me richly if I haven't memorized it? I read my Bible personally every morning. We are also in the Word daily as a family in the evenings, and Steve reads a chapter of Scripture to me at night. I can think about the Word and meditate on it from those interactions with it, but what is dwelling in me richly is what I have memorized.

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalms 119:11). Once again, to have the Word hidden in my heart is going to mean that I have it memorized. It is accurate, and it is true, and it is continually available in my heart to direct me. This is important not only in my life but also in my children's lives. We want them to have the Word hidden in their hearts, dwelling there richly.

The simplest way our family memorizes Scripture is what I might term the whiteboard-mealtime-grace method. After we say grace before lunch and dinner, we recite a portion of Scripture together before we begin to eat. We have a whiteboard hanging in the dining room where the current Scripture is written down for us to read until it is memorized. The verses on our board now are Matthew 5:3-12. A couple of the previous passages were 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and Galatians 5:22-24.

Just by reading the verses two times a day as our family sits down to meals, we memorize them usually in a few days to weeks. The children learn them before Steve and I do. There is no pressure on anyone, and everyone—even the youngest—will eventually know all the verses on the whiteboard. We leave the set of verses up even after everyone knows them well so they become very ingrained. At that point, the Lord will put a new section of Scripture on Steve's heart to put on the whiteboard on which we will begin to work.

The following is from My Utmost for His Highest, July 30.   Lord, help me to be disillusioned by all but you!

  "The refusal to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life.  It works in theis way- if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot give.  There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why Our Lord is apparently so severe regarding every human relationship is because He knows that every relationship not based on loyalty to Himself will end in disaster.  "

The following is a quote from an interesting article "Understanding Culture" from The Home School Digest magazine:

   Popular culture, since it is designed to be replaced periodically, and since it is built on a principle of planned obsolescence,  i.e. there's always a new popular recording, or novel, or tv show- popular culture is designed to be ephemeral and fleeting and , if we have a steady diet of only popular culture, I think we tend to develop a taste for the novel, that is for the new things, as opposed to those permanent things.  Parents ought to be cultivating in their children a love for those things which are of peramanent value.  Now particular artifacts of popular culture can do that, but I think that, as a system, popular culture tends to give priority and preference to new things.  It's a problem for Christians, to become thoroughly identified with popular culture because we're giving greater credence to the idea that new things, and new ideas, are always better and  old, permanent ideas are something to be suspicious of. 

"If the cross is not enough for you then nothing will ever be enough for you."

Christopher Coleman, Atlantafest 2008 (see "Sister trip" entry below)

http://www.christophercoleman.net/

Dr. Larry Arnn is president of Hillsdale College in Michigan. In a recent article published on TownHall.com, Arnn calls The Declaration of Independence "a most remarkable declaration." He says that it is remarkable to remember that all who supported the document and all who signed the document were committing acts of treason punishable by death. But perhaps most remarkable was the documents four references to God.
 
"The posture of The Declaration of Independence is an appeal to heaven. And so it's really a beautiful thing if you put the four places that God is mentioned together in the declaration. He's mentioned as the maker of the laws of nature and of nature's God – which makes him a legislator. He's mentioned as the supreme judge of the world – which makes him a judge. He's mentioned as divine providence – which makes him an executive. And he's mentioned as the creator – which is like being a founder," Arnn explains.
 
Dr. Arnn says the message of the declaration is that the powers of government could only be rightly united in the hands of God. "So the posture of the document is one of humility before God, and although it is a revolutionary document – very emphatically – it begins as a document of obedience to the laws of nature and of nature's God...," Arnn contends.

Arnn concludes that the The Declaration of Independence "...is a submission [to God] at the same time as it is an assertion [to the King of England]."

 The week after our anniversary trip, my sisters and I celebrated Kaitlin's h.s. graduation by taking a trip together to Atlanta.  We spent one day at Stone Mtn. for Atlantafest.  We really enjoyed the time together and hope to do it again next year!  At Atlantafest, we listened to lots of good concerts including Toby Mac and Shane and Shane, who are apparently pretty popular artists......I wouldn't know because we are usually listening to Victor Vito, Veggie Tales, etc.    Also, Robin and I went to a talk in the afternoon by a couple who do marriage retreats at churches.  They were excellent and  I recommend them if your church is thinking about doing something like that.  Their website is below.  Robin and I got to talk to the McElroys after they spoke and were excited about their passion which is focusing on keeping marriages intact and thriving. 

http://www.foreverfamilies.com/

Another wonderful speaker was Christopher Coleman.   Christopher was born with severe CP, but has an awesome testimony demonstrating "God's ability displayed through disablility."

http://www.christophercoleman.net/index.html

If you are still using toothpaste with fluoride, or not attempting to filter it out of your water supply, then I ask you to research this chemical!  The following quotes are from a book I am reading about cancer prevention:

"Fluoride is a cumulative toxic waste, banned in at least 13 countries.  Fluoride can cause birth defects, cancer, osteoporosis, and multiple other health problems.  "  Cancer- Step outside the box p. 351

"I am appalled at the prospect of using water as a vehicle for drugs.  Fluoride is a corrosive poison that will produce serious effects on a long range basis.  Any attempt to use water this way is deplorable."

Dr Charles Heyd, former president of the AMA.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Turkey-Burgers-with-Super-Fruit-Chutney/Detail.aspx

**I used fresh cherries, 1/4 cup of agave juice instead of sugar and splenda, and left off the cherry juice

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The following article was published 6/8/08 in the Northeast Ms. Daily Journal.  It certainly doesn't describe all homeschoolers, but definitly a large percentage.

You see them at the grocery, or in a discount store.

It's a big family by today’s standards - "just like stair steps," as the old folks say. Freshly scrubbed boys with neatly trimmed hair and girls with braids, in clean but unfashionable clothes follow mom through the store as she fills her no-frills shopping list.

There's no begging for gimcracks, no fretting, and no threats from mom. The older watch the younger, freeing mom to go peacefully about her task.

You are looking at some of the estimated 2 million children being home schooled in the U.S., and the number is growing. Their reputation for academic achievement has caused colleges to begin aggressively recruiting them. Savings to the taxpayers in instructional costs are conservatively estimated at $4 billion, and some place the figure as high as $9 billion. When you consider that these families pay taxes to support public schools, but demand nothing from them, it seems quite a deal for the public.

Home schooling parents are usually better educated than the norm, and are more likely to attend worship services. Their motives are many and varied. Some fear contagion from the anti-clericalism, coarse speech, suggestive behavior and hedonistic values that characterize secular schools. Others are concerned for their children’s safety. Some want their children to be challenged beyond the minimal competencies of the public schools. Concern for a theistic world view largely permeates the movement.

Indications are that home schooling is working well for the kids, and the parents are pleased with their choice, but the practice is coming under increasing suspicion, and even official attack, as in California.

Why do we hate (or at least distrust) these people so much?

Methinks American middle-class people are uncomfortable around the home schooled for the same reason the alcoholic is uneasy around the teetotaler.

Their very existence represents a rejection of our values, and an indictment of our lifestyles. Those families are willing to render unto Caesar the things that Caesar’s be, but they draw the line at their children. Those of us who have put our trust in the secular state (and effectively surrendered our children to it) recognize this act of defiance as a rejection of our values, and we reject them in return.

Just as the jealous Chaldeans schemed to bring the wrath of the king upon the Hebrew eunuchs, we are happy to sic the state’s bureaucrats on these “trouble makers.” Their implicit rejection of America’s most venerated idol, Materialism, (a.k.a. “Individualism”) spurs us to heat the furnace and feed the lions.

Young families must make the decision: Will junior go to day care and day school, or will mom stay home and raise him? The rationalizations begin. "A family just can't make it on one income." (Our parents did.) "It just costs so much to raise a child nowadays." (Yeah, if you buy brand-name clothing, pre-prepared food, join every club and activity, and spend half the cost of a house on the daughter’s wedding, it does.) And so, the decision is made. We give up the bulk of our waking hours with our children, as well as the formation of their minds, philosophies, and attitudes, to strangers. We compensate by getting a boat to take them to the river, a van to carry them to Little League, a 2,800-square-foot house, an ATV, a zero-turn Cub Cadet, and a fund to finance a brand-name college education. And most significantly, we claim “our right” to pursue a career for our own
"self-fulfillment."

Deep down, however, we know that our generation has eaten its seed corn. We lack the discipline and the vision to deny ourselves in the hope of something enduring and worthy for our posterity. We are tired from working extra jobs, and the looming depression threatens our 401k’s. Credit cards are nearly maxed, and it costs a $100 to fuel the Suburban. Now the kid is raising hell again, demanding the latest Play Station as his price for doing his school work … and there goes that modest young woman in the home-made dress with her four bright-eyed, well-behaved home-schooled children in tow. Wouldn’t you just love to wipe that serene look right off her smug face?

Is it any wonder we hate her so?

Sonny Scott a community columnist, lives on Sparta Road in Chickasaw County and his e-mail address is sonnyscott@yahoo.com. 

The following is Kevin Mangum's sermon outline from Hope Church this past Sunday.  Kevin  is an awesome teacher- you can hear the sermon online at  http://www.hopechurchtupelo.com/

1.  He has plans for you (and they are good)

2.  He wants you to know the plan

(Psalm 16:11)

3.  Joy is an attribute of being on the path (Joy is worship to God in unfavorable circumstances)

4.  The fruit He will produce through you will last forever

**A GPS will not work if it is not plugged in to a power source.  We will not know our path unless we are spending time seeking Him.

I just finished a book I'd like to highly recommend (to any parents),  To Train up a Child by Michael and Debbie Pearl.    I have already given it away, so can't quote any of it, but it has already changed the way we deal with issues that have come up with the kids.  You can get it at this website.

www.nogreaterjoy.org

Here is a description from their catalog:  "From successful parents, learn how to train up your children rather than discipline them up.  With humor and real-life examples, this book shows you how to train your children before the need to discipline arises.  Be done with corrective discipline; make them allies rather than adversaries.  The stress will be gone and your obedient children will praise you."