Jesus is king and I will extol Him
Give Him the glory, and honour His name
He reigns on high, enthroned in the heavens
Word of the Father, exalted for us
We have a hope that is steadfast and certain
Gone through the curtain and touching the throne
We have a Priest who is there interceding
Pouring His grace on our lives day by day
We come to Him, our Priest and Apostle
Clothed in His glory and bearing His name
Laying our lives with gladness before Him
Filled with His Spirit we worship the King
O Holy One, our hearts do adore You
Thrilled with Your goodness we give You our praise
Angels in light with worship surround Him
Jesus, our Saviour, forever the same
Today was Zach's birthday. It is hard to imagine how time flies, but here we are 6 years later. He is still the very spirited, outside the box thinker, happy, crazy boy that he was as a baby. He is just smarter now and knows better. We love him and are very proud of him. Our hearts are full of hopes for him.
He still had his violin group this morning, then had a playdate with some friends and then off to an hour of bowling. We all had fun.
Then back home for more play, presents, dinner and B-day cake.
We are so thankful to the Lord for our son and pray that the Lord will take hold of him and made a servant of Him for His glory.
We covered Math, Reading, English, Geography and Science this week.
Wednesday, I declared a no school day and of course no one had any objection. I do not even know what I ended up doing that day. We had someone over that evening but that is all I can recall.
Violin went much smoother this week. Prayer does help! He has moved on this week to his next song: Lighty Row in the Suzuki repertoire.
Thursday, we went skating, or should I say I took the boys skating. They had a blast. Still in the learning stages from last winter, but improving well.
Today we went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) with our homeschool group, for a guided tour of the Dead Sea Scroll Exhibit here in Toronto. My hubby and I certainly enjoyed it, I do not know about the boys, but at least they behaved (it was geared toward 4th graders and up).
Tomorrow is Zach's birthday, the big 6. So, tonight is cake time for me . . .
Posted By Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
It's really no surprise to anyone ever that the NEA was more interested in protecting its power than educating children. What is surprising is that they actually feel confident enough in their power to admit it. Here's the NEA's General Counseladmitting as much in his retirement speech this past summer.
"Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power....
This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.
If you're a parent with children in the public schools you can voice your objections here. But the best way to object is by removing your children from their schools. Without your children they have no real power.
In a related story, future teachers in Minnesota are being "reducated" and become "culturally competent"
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin in order to obtain a teacher certificate.
Last year we started a new family tradition for Advent. We count down the days to Christmas by unwrapping one of our Christmas books and reading it for bedtime. We also do a small activity or something small that is related to the book. This year's line up is as follows.
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey - Put up our Nativity.
An Ellis Island Christmas - Bring one favorite stuffed animal/doll to storytime.
Christmas Tapestry - Look at and do some repair of my childhood quilt with kids.
Grandfather's Christmas Camp - We will have hot chocolate with crackers.
The Crippled Lamb - We will talk about what makes each of us special and unique.
Christmas in the Trenches - Listen to songs by John McCutcheon.
Too Many Tamales - Eat Mexican food, maybe some Tamales?
The Animals' Christmas Carol - Put out some birdseed treats for wild animals.
The Biggest Snowman Ever - Make snowmen out of marshmallows and eat them.
One Winter's Night - Attend the live performance of Return to Bethlehem at a local church.
The Chanakkah Guest - Have a Jewish meal and play a Jewish game.
Gingerbread Baby - Have gluten-free gingerbread while Daddy reads.
Jingle the Christmas Clown - Make star cookies for the neighbors.
The Christmas Day Kitten - Wrap up cat treats for Grandma's cat.
The Dog Who Found Christmas - Wrap up dog treats for our dog.
The Legend of the Poinsettia - Make Poinsettia ornament.
All Is Well - Collect a box of give-away for Goodwill.
Woodland Christmas - Sing the 12 days of Christmas.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier - Eat biscuits with a small toy baked into them.
Merry Christmas Strega Nona - Have late night pizza.
Silver Packages - Wrap sibling gifts.
Drummer Boy - Play music together.
The Christmas Candle - Read the story by candle light.
The Christmas Story - Go to church.
We place the advent books under the tree. The kids will have fun taking them out each day and then doing the little activity.
Wow! Time is going so fast. I can't believe it is almost December!!! I don't know about you, but I usually start adding Christmas into our homeschool right after Thanksgiving is over. I am hoping to do an interactive notebook this year of Christmas Around the World, but I will have to see if my printer is fixed in time. Unfortunately, it started leaking. Ugh!!! Well, I wanted to share some resources that I have put together for Christmas.
The room is done! There is even some furniture moved in already. It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less... The whole experience was great! The contractor was super GREAT! The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done. Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals. He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn ~ the leftovers of a business that had gone under. We got them for $1 a linear foot ... they retailed for over $5 a linear foot. They are perfect!! He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost. Let's put it this way. Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam. He did the job for $76 ~ the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper. The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be .... So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?
Yay! Well, this is all you are getting right now. The big reveal will be just after Christmas. This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the children's bedrooms. I'll show you all the rooms once we have curtains up and such.
In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room. We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it. My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project, and they have not held up as well as we would have expected. So for now we will paint this floor instead. We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week.
Here is a chorus that I really like. It is short but very uplifting (Romans 11:30-32).
How Great is Your Love
by Mark Altrogge
No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
No mind has ever conceived
The glorious things that You have prepared
For everyone who has believed
You brought us near and You called us Your own
And made us joint heirs with Your Son.
Chorus:
How high and how wide,
How deep and how long,
How sweet and how strong is Your love.
How lavish Your grace,
How faithful Your ways,
How great is Your love, oh Lord.
Objects of mercy who should have known wrath
We’re filled with unspeakable joy.
Riches of wisdom, unsearchable wealth,
And the wonder of knowing Your voice.
You are our treasure and our great reward,
Our hope and our glorious King.
My name is Niki. I am married to a wonderful man (Bob). We live in Indiana and have 3 children, all boys. Dillon (14), Taran (10), and Logan (8). Dillon is will be a freshman this year at our public High School. Taran and Logan are both Homeschooled. Taran is starting 5th grade and loves history and science. This will be our first year using Abeka Academy. Logan is starting 2nd grade. He enjoys science, bugs, dinosaurs and playing games. He will continue with Abeka books.
