I'm sorry the link I gave for my new blog was wrong.  The link is  Living, Learning, and Organization at SinaiThanks for pointing that out Steph....I wouldn't have known.  For some reason there is no dot between the www's and the URL.  Not sure why.

Hi to all!  As much as I love homeschoolblogger, I have decided to transport my homeschool blog over to blogspot.  I have my general family blog there, and I have just found it easier to work with, and I need to save as much time as possible.  I just don't have many techie skills, and that makes it harder for me to use this one.  I hope I don't offend the wonderful people at homeschoolblogger.

If you have been following my blog here, please continue to follow me over there!  My new address is www.livelearnorganize.blogspot.com   The new title is Living, Learning, Organizing at Sinai.  I hope you will continue to enjoy.  I put most of old posts up there too.  Thanks!! 

In Him,

Elizabeth

Sigh......It's never good to start a post that way I suppose, but I am struggling.  I feel as though I really need to renew my vision for the upcoming summer and next school year.  I've looked over our mission statements, and now I'm moving on to reading the books that have always inspired me in the past.  The personal challenges of the last year, have left me waffling a bit.  Not just with curriculum, or scheduling, but just with getting everyone's heart back to where they should be.  I am wanting to get my family even more into the Word this summer than normal.  We all need to renew our vision, remember who we belong to, and that we need to keep running the race!  I think all of us are getting a bit tired of running, and want to stop for a drink.  That's where Christ will come in.  I know that he will refresh us, if we stop and look to Him.  I know that He will guide us even in our curriculum choices, if we remember to ask.  I know he will lift us up to the sunshine, just like our little seedlings that are growing up. 

So, the Bible is definitely in order for us this summer.  But, I want to share also a few books that are on my agenda for the summer.  Most are books I have read in the past, and I look forward to reading them again, for refreshment in my vision.

Two of my favorites are:  When you Rise Up- R.C Sroul and Things I  Wish I had Known, which is a collection from many prominent homeschool authors.  I highly recommend both of these books for any homeschooler, but especially if you are feeling worn down like I am.  They are wonderful, uplifting, renew your vision kind of books.  I also have a stack of child training books to read, and I plan to scour the blogs for ideas as well.  Let's all lift up one another and help each other to renew the vision and run the race.  Let's bear each other's burdens through discussion and prayer.  I'm sure there are others out there like me who are feeling dry, and I'd be glad to lift you up, if you are willing to lift me up as well.  It is amazing what a random word of encouragement can do for us!  Curriculum is important, but it doesn't do us a whole lot of good if our vision has become distant and our well of encouragement has dried up. 

It's time for me to get one baby girl into bed, and get another one up to feed her.  More later about my vision, and encouragement.

Posted in Curriculum

I'm thinking back to the curriculum that I used in the past, and I'm ashamed to admit that there have been many.  I have always started my Kindergareners out with two things.  Horizons Kindergarten Math, and Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt.  These are the only things that I feel a Kindergartener needs in the way of formal curriculum, reading and a little Math basics!  I am still using the same curriculum for my newest student, my 5 year old Audrey.  

Now I have also used Sonlight, Student of the Word, making my own Unit Studies, Weaver, and various other curriculums for other subjects.  I have really enjoyed the Apologia books for Science, and I have also used Beautiful Feet for history. 

Now, as ashamed as I am to admit that I have been a curriculum hopper, I am glad that I have had a chance to "fine tune" my choices.  Many curriculums I have enjoyed, but simply couldn't logistically make work anymore given the number of children I have, and many other logistical factors.  We homeschool moms need to find the curriculum that not only works for our kids, but works for our styles, and abilities, and "logistics".  I would have loved to have kept up with creating my own Unit Studies, but I just couldn't make it work, so I was always stressed.  This didn't help my kids or me. 

So, as of today, I have begun using the Robinson Curriculum with my 3 oldest students.  I am not using it exactly the way that Art Robinson suggests, but am finding it to be a wonderful way to keep my kids well educated, and keep them mostly independent as well.  My kids are using Teaching Textbooks instead of Saxon, and they are all ahead of their grade in Math. 

For the summer I intend to have my kids working on Math at least 4 days a week, and a lot of reading in topics of Science and History (along with some fun reading too).  I also have my 6th grader and 5th graders using a textbook to learn to write good Book Reports.  Of course a daily bible/character study will be in order for the family as well.

Of course there are many science lessons involved in the summer time.  We are planting a garden, and the critter lessons abound already with snakes, frogs, and various other creepy crawlies.   I will be brainstorming here on my blog about exactly what the kids will be doing when the "regular" school year begins.

The one thing that I do know is that I plan on spending the summer in prayer to ask God what He wants my kids to learn in the upcoming years.  This is the most important thing to keep in mind.  We may feel like we have our priorities, but remember..."His ways are not our ways".

Hi all.  I want to share a recipe that we made tonight for Pita Bread pizza.  I have the recipe and variations on my Family blog!  Check it out at www.busymama7.blogspot.com.  Hope everyone enjoys it!

Posted in Mission Statement

Hi all, on this beautiful Sunday that God has made here in Michigan!  I mentioned in my first post that I would tell everyone in a future post about how we came to decide to name our homeschool, Sinai Berea Academy.  I am going to paste our family mission page here to explain:

Slogan: Dedicated to Godliness, committed to excellence.

 

History: Established Sept. 2004 (As Sinai Homeschooling Academy), Renamed Sinai-Berea Academy August 2005

as the homeschool for the Robert Babler family.

 

Mission Statement: It is the mission of The Sinai-Berea Academy to teach our children to learn to think critically[1], to study intently[2], and to continue in humility to love to learn[3]; not for the sake of learning itself[4], but for the sake of knowing the Lord and for applying His statutes[5], thus glorifying Him[6], for this is the purpose set forth by the God of all knowledge. Education is indeed a holy pursuit if grounded and begun in fear of the Lord[7]. We know God will reward those who honestly and diligently seek to know more about Him[8], but will allow those who do not wish to pursue Him, or those who wish to superficially pursue Him, to not find Him as is their true desire[9], for His ways will seem as foolishness to them[10]. This holy pursuit of knowledge is promised to bring our children to salvation through Jesus Christ[11], and will hopefully bring others to that saving knowledge, not through the knowledge itself, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, who alone saves[12].

 

Abridged Mission Statement: It is the mission of The Sinai-Berea Academy to teach our children to learn to think critically, to study intently, and to continue in humility to love to learn, all for the sake of Christ.

 

Why Sinai-Berea? The reason is twofold: 1) We wish for our family to enter into a new, more intimate relationship with God. The Lord chose to do this with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, where He gave the basis of the law – the ten commandments – to Moses, and commanded the Israelites to “teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up (Deut. 6:7).” Therefore it was through learning the law and through teaching it to the next generations that the Israelites would develop a deeper relationship with their creator.

2) The Bereans were commendable in that they applied the mission of our school, diligently, honestly, and critically searching the scriptures to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:10-12). What they did is the essence of education in our school.

Posted in Family happenings

Yipppeeeeeeeee!!!!! I finally figured it out!  I can learn new things!!  I put a picture on here.  This is a picture of some of my kids doing the indoor planting.  We got a bit of a late start, but a start none the less.  I've got to run now, but I will have more pics and info later on.  Now if I can only figure out how to put more than one picture on one post, I'll be good!!

Posted in Family happenings

Once again, I am trying to put in a picture, and I can't seem to get it right.......I wish I could figure out  how to do this.  Sigh........I've looked at the process for doing this, and I'm using Photobucket, and it is still not working.  

Posted in Family happenings

      Today, I am trying hard to learn how to put pictures on this blog...It has been frustrating to say the least.  Every time I try, I come up against some kind of road block.  I was hoping to share pictures of the planting that the kids did last night, and a few other pics of the kids.   But, alas, I still haven't figured it out.  I am determined not to give up, and hopefully set an example to my kids that even mommy can learn something new that I previously knew nothing about!

In other current news....Owen just found a blue racer!    Add that to the list of critters that will soon be documented by my animal rescuers!!  Of course, noone here will be able to see the pictures of it, until I can figure this whole thing out.  :-)

Posted in Curriculum

Well.....I've thought about blogging for a long time, and finally got around to doing it.  I like to share life with others, and am excited about the possibility.  I call my blog the Sinai Post, because my husband Rob and I decided years ago to call our homeschool the Sinai Berea Academy.  Someday I will share how that idea was born.

I am 31 years old, and I have a wonderful husband and 7 children.  My husbands name is Rob, and he is a teacher in the public school system, always looking for new ways to talk about his faith in his classroom!  My children are as follows:  Owen, who turns 11 tomorrow, Riley is 9, Ethan is 7 (8 in June), Audrey just turned 5, Elias is 3, Lillian (Lily) is 19 mos., and our baby is Donna Jane (Janie), who is now 4 months old.  

I like to say that we have been homeschooling since the birth of our first child, as I believe you begin teaching from the moment they are born.  None of our children have been to school.  "Officially" though, this is my 6th year of doing academics, and I now have 4 students, with 3 distractions .   

Our lives, however, are much more than academics.  We are always learning, even through regular life experiences.  In future posts I will discuss the curriculum that we use, and how we use it, but for now I am reminded that my children are learning in every day life.  They are learning when they have to be diligent in our daily chores, and when they take care of their pets, and when we discuss the pastors sermons, and when they see us taking care of their granpa who was recently diagnosed with cancer.  They learn when they help take care of younger siblings, and when they write letters to their friends that live far away.  Life is learning, and God has filled all of us with an insatiable desire to take it all in.  When I pray about curriculum, and the education of my children, I always say, "don't let our academics stifle the things that you want us to know, Lord".  That can easily happen.  Academics are important, but I feel that they are merely the tool by which God uses to help us learn what is really important, His ways, and His Word, and His World!  History helps us to learn from the mistakes of others, and the courage of men who are past.   Science teaches us about the amazing world that God created, and that he is a God of order.  Reading is crucial to our ability to learn from His word, and discover this world through books.  Math is God's language (as my math teacher husband always says).  

These are the things on my mind as another year of schooling draws to an end.  This year has been more about life experiences for my kdis than about academics, so in that respect, we have some "catching up" to do.  We will be schooling to an extent through the summer.

I look forward to future posts, and getting to know many people who are on the same journey (or even if they are on a different journey).  God's blessing to all!