Loving Him 4 Ever Web Log - Homeschool Blogger

Blogging Newbies!!

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:13:00 -0500

I am soooo excited to share with you all that we have some new Biblical Principle Approach bloggers so stop by and wish them well and encourage them in their homeschooling/blogging journey!!

Karen over at www.homeschoolblogger.com/coffee4meplease

Summer over at www.homeschoolblogger.com/onwisdomspath

Renae over at www.reflective.homeschooljournal.net

They each have precious wisdom to share on how God has been moving in their homeschool through using the Biblical Principle Approach to delve into God's word and uncover the delightful morsels of truth contained in His Biblical Principles!! Partaking of God's word in EVERY part of life, including education, is so rich and rewarding and satisfying to the soul of man...that is why God told us to 'TASTE' and see that the Lord is GOOD.

I'm telling y'all it's GOOD in God's Word...especially when u get out in the DEEP waters!!!!!!

...not always easy..He didn't promise that...but He did promise the reward of HIS WISDOM if we seek diligently for it. So give these gals a shout out!!!

Refreshed and Rejoicing

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:29:00 -0600

We have started back to homeschooling and I've begun our 2nd half of the year with a new attitude, new vision, new (or maybe I should say RE-newed) purpose. I am sooooo grateful to our Gracious God for the blessing of REST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We took from the last week in Nov to the 2nd week in Jan. off for vacation/break....and ooohhhhh was it needed and appreciated!!! There is something to be said about taking REGULAR intervals of rest and actually in my own personal studies I've come across God's principle of REST. He knew we would need rest and so He even instituted and incorporated rest into His commandments..."Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy"

Ex. 20:8-11

8Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it

In fact Moses instructed the Israelites to observe the sabbath even before God wrote it on the tablets of the 10 commandments and as we all know God established His cycle of rest in the beginning when He rested on the seventh day in Genesis. Not only did He rest and establish rest but the Word says He made it HOLY!! Our seventh day of rest is HOLY..God considers it HOLY!! How awesome is that! I still don't fully understand the import of it's holiness but if God says it is HOLY unto Him then I shall begin to look at it as HOLY and treat it as HOLY...just like the tithe is HOLY unto Him. That is one thing that I've been taught not to mess with because the tithe is not ours, it is the Lord's and it is HOLY unto Him. Therefore, I render it unto Him with respect and sobriety b/c it is HOLY....just like taking my rest when God says to take a rest.

God is just soooooo good...His very name means good(the scripture says God is good----a little bit of mathematics here, if a=b then b=a....if God is good then the definition of the word good is God and vice versa). Anyway, God has given us daily rest periods(the time where we sleep), the then weekly rests(after we've worked for 6 days we are commanded to rest on the seventh...and as far as homeschooling I would encourage every homeschooling mom to schedule regular intervals of rest(and even one prolonged period of rest) in their homeschool schedules b/c it is soooo beneficial. I've come to see the answer to burnout, any kind of burnout is rest...but isn't that what God told us to do in the beginning? I wonder why we've not seen it as important and as HOLY as God sees it? Of course it was not stressed in church about how important it is to rest...the 7th day was always spent in church and so was Wednesday night at bible study and so was Friday night prayer and then we go to work and take care of our families and try to spend time and have real relationships the remainder of the week and we are in "rest-deficits"....we don't have anything to give b/c we violate God's principle of rest and dont' take the time to rest and be renewed.
The following is for your consideration:
Isaiah 58:13-14

13 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,
and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This scripture says to me that God has promised a blessing in keeping what God has established as HOLY!

The book by Dr. Richard Heidler called The Messianic Church Arising has been such a blessing to me in pointing this principle out.

Something else that has been brewing in my heart is to study the Biblical feasts and not just study but to implement in our lives and homeschool. That is the reason I bought the book by Dr. Heidler. It has turned out to be a wonderful rsource for me (along with Chuck Pierce's book called Reordering Your Day. This one talks about establishing the prayer watches in your life.) So I'm in prayer about what principles to bring out about each feast as we observe them. I'll share what we do when we do it. My heart has also been pricked into acquiring more understanding of the Hebraic view of life, God, education, family, etc. Although man has put 'labels' on all these topics that I've mentioned I don't see it as becoming Jewish or Hebrew but this quest I'm on is about attaining to the knowledge of The One Who Loved me and Gave His Life for Me...about knowing the Eternal, Ageless One Who Created me and Gave me Life and continues to sustain and commune with me...the One who beckons to me in the night seasons when all is quiet and everyone is sleep...beckoning me to come sit in His Presence JUST because He loves me and wants to spend time with me...the One who speaks Words of comfort to my storm-tossed and weary soul...a soul that is weary from worrying about our homeschool not being up-to-par, storm-tossed with the emotions and physical fatigue of taking care of sick children and rushing my 7yog to the hospital with 103 fever b/c it would go no lower on a Sunday and then my 2 yo coming down with a fever of 102, a soul that allowed itself to be burdened down with the care of finances that are not there in abundance the way I've prayed for them to be for so long and yet we still wait, etc, on and on...yet and still I praise Him. It is in these night seasons, at 3am, 4 am sometimes 12 midnight as I respond to His call that He frees me from these cares and concerns and He sets me free to rejoice in Him

I willfully issue forth a praise and I determine to live a life of love and obedience that I pray is a pleasing fragrance unto the Lord even thru the pressure of trial, testing, and warfare.

He continues to show Himself faithful in my life and on my behalf and I shall continue to worship Him for His goodness and to kiss His nail-scarred Hands and Feet...those precious Hands and Feet, I lay tender kisses of my love, of my praise....of my very life.

On Vacation

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:15:00 -0500

Well hello world, hello blog...it's been a little while. I just wanted to pop in to say that we have finished our first quarter last week. It went very well. (I still need to post what we did for Art) So we are off for 2 weeks at least... we finished a week ahead of schedule so I just may extend our break for 3 weeks. We'll see, because the troops seem to get a little 'restless' with no school work to do...It's as if play time only satisfies for a while and then they come asking for something to do so I'm thinking to start back after 2 weeks(maybe with a good read-aloud book) and then ease back into our 'routine'. We are having a blast...at least I am...not having to think too much about lessons.

I started my own home-based business. To check it out to see if it would be something that would be right for you, click HERE!!

I'm excited about it. Working from home this way is very exciting and even fulfilling...to finally have some organization to pursuing our (financial as well as other)goals for our family has been a real blessing to us..and to be coached into taking action to work towards fulfilling those goals and dreams is yet another worthwhile and exciting journey for us to take together as a family.

So I'll check back in later...(hopefully sooner than later)!!

Catching up on our days in HisStory-august

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:51:00 -0500

Wow! I cannot believe it has been 3 weeks since I last posted. I've had a pretty busy 3 weeks so I guess I need to update....

1. We celebrated baby boy turning 2 on July 15...

read the rest here...

The Last Few Days in HisStory-7/21/06

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 18:53:00 -0500

The last few days, that I have not blogged about our educational activities, we have had some wonderful moments...at least for me...I think for my dc as well. As far as our daily schedule it does not look at all the same as what I posted our schedule would be...although I do use it to make sure we get done all that I have planned for each day; although that changes slightly, too. Overall though we've been getting thru our core studies and doing some sort/form of history or science. On Wed. we started at 11:30 and did not finish until 7:00pm. That day I had to keep giving them breaks b/c of the things I needed to finish(like cooking, laundry etc.), so we did not go straight thru from 11-7...we took many breaks in between and when it was time to come back to our lessons we would(cheerfully I might add) and most nights right before bedtime dd completed her homework assignments. Most of the time her assignments include completing a math homework assignment, handwriting, reading a book(or 2 as she desires and most of the time she wants to read more...I think to keep from going to bed:) ), doing a page in her grammar book and on days we did history unit - literature(poetry) segment she would read poems out of the Home Book of Verse for Young Folks until she got sleepy.

As far as our lessons this week in Bible Study, they have really blessed me. We are following the lessons in NP Lessons Grade 1 and this week we talked about prophets and prophecy. I spoke very strongly and reiterated and emphasized how a prophet of God will speak ONLY those words that God tells him to speak. After about 2-3 days of lessons on this I let them watch Veggie Tales JONAH. They have asked for it again and are watching it for the 2nd time this week-this is in addition to their other studies and bible for today. They gave their grandmom and grandpa an earful(as my mom told me later) about Jonah and about prophets and also about their lessons. They seemingly talked at length about what we've been studying.

Arithmetic has been going well. She has memorized all +1, -1, +0, -0, and doubles without counting her fingers or otherwise. These I tried to teach by 'principle' and reasoning that any number plus one is always the next counting number, therefore no need to count on her fingers for those. We are working on 6+6, 7+7 up to 10+10 and she shocked me by blurting out the answer to 8+8 and 9+9. We had been writing it for about 2 days and I guess she remembered it. She kept forgetting 7+7 so any of those that she forgot I would let her use the abacus and write the problem and the answer so it would 'stick'. We are also spending much time counting by 2's and getting an understanding of skip counting. We are doing much better in identifying even and odd numbers and skip counting by evens and odds. The next topics we'll do is +2, -2 combinations(which is skip counting forward and backward by 2's) and doubles +1( if 7+7=14, then 8+7=15....1 more than the double 7+7)...I don't know how well this strategy will go over but I'll give it a whirl.

Her cursive handwriting is coming along beautifully...I'm amazed. She really likes doing this and asks me for her handwriting homework if I 'forget'.

Phonics/Spelling we have not done yet. I'll probably work that in next week somehow. Dd is reading on a 3rd to 4th grade level so I have not been too sure as to where to start. She reads pretty fluently but has no idea why u pronounce the word NOT with the short O sound. I have the Abeka phonics and I also have WRR. I think I'll start off dictating the word list from section I in WRR and covering the spelling/phonics rules. I like Abeka's approach so I've been trying to combine both but I keep getting bogged down in my thinking when I try to do that...so I'll have to play it by ear.

Reading is done everyday, sometimes several times a day. I eventually want to get to the point of writing some BAR lessons(from NP Reading Guide) to insure comprehension.

Art is covered is history or science lessons or bible study. As I read the science book dd drew a flower garden on the chalkboard. Last Friday ended up being art day. I let them take their huge art pads out in the garage and paint to their hearts content. We talked briefly about primary colors.

Another blessing of a book is their science book , Dr. Hooker's A CHILD'S BOOK OF NATURE. I still have not come up with any 'lesson' , per se, for this book so we just do science in 'read-aloud' style. Our first 2 lessons were on Flowers and Our Love For Flowers. Today was so amazing. First off my ds(5) asked could I read to them about flowers today. That was not on my scheduled plan for today but I said yes. As we read, Dr. Hooker was talking about how mostly everyone likes flowers and how we can find prints/pictures of flowers on our clothes, carpets/rugs, sheets, furniture. I decided to point out to my children that we have flowers on a table ornament in ourl living room. Well, that science session turned into a flower hunt as I continued to read and with excitement my dc skipped and jumped around the house finding flowers on our picture frames, our clothes, our sheets, our carpets, framed artwork on the wall, etc., all over the place. I could feel the Spirit of the Lord in this and in this lesson...(this book is wonderful!!!). My children were so excited(you should have seen their smiles and their eyes get big as they began to recognize what God had given us in flowers). I talked and reasoned that flowers are beautiful and they come from God therefore God is beautiful...piggybacking on our history lesson this week about how God shows us HImself thru the things He has created...we can see His beauty and love for us as we look at/for His flowers. We talked about how flowers make us feel and inquired as to why we thought God would give us flowers. DD reasoned that God gave us flowers to make us feel good(b/c when we look at flowers we feel happy and not sad), to make us happy(as they were this afternoon)

How awesome it is to let the Lord lead in how to give/teach/minister His truth(s) to these precious children.

As I closed the book(b/c that lesson was over) both of my dc said very emphatically "MOM WE WANT YOU TO READ MORE"!!!

...so I did...I was soooo inspired that I decided to take the lesson outside so we could see real flowers as we read the next lesson on sap and how the sap runs thru the stem. I wanted them to touch and see a real stem while I read how the rose bud turns into a rose b/c of the sap running thru the stem. We then answered the questions at th end of the chapter and there concluded our science for the day.

It was absolutely wonderful!! I thank God for being able to take and have the time to explore His wonderful world with my children by my side as we both learn to observe closely and appreciate God and all that He has done/provided for us.

Teacher Appreciation Events!!!!

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 18:36:01 -0500

received this in my email from Crayola.com...I'm going to check into some of these myself...just wanted to share this with any who drop by my blog......

TEACHER APPRECIATIONS EVENTS OCCURING
ACROSS THE NATION

Each new school year brings promises of colorful learning, and Crayola� is always proud to be a part of teachers' and families' back-to-school traditions.

Many of our retail partners are sharing in the excitement by hosting Teacher Appreciation events. We welcome you to take part in the following events, coming to retailers near you.

Participants will receive free gifts—as well as some much-deserved
recognition. (Free gifts are available while supplies last.)

Enjoy these events and have a wonderful new school year!

OFFICE DEPOT�

Office Depot� is hosting the 13th Annual Teacher Appreciation

Breakfast. Stop in for free breakfast, a free tote bag

(while supplies last) and 10%* off everything all day. Visit

www.school.com and click on "Star Teacher Program" to find the
breakfast
near you. Not a Star Teacher yet? Visit your local

Office Depot� store to sign up today!

Note:*10% instant discount is not valid for purchases from

www.techdepot.com, purchases of Gift Cards, computers, wireless,

satellite, Internet or shipping and mailing services. Quantities

limited. While supplies last.

MICHAELS�

Michaels thanks teachers for inspiring creative young minds every

day. Come to Michaels August 20th through 26th and receive a

teachers-only 10% discount off of everything in the store, including

sale items! (School ID may be required.) Also, enter online for a

chance to win a $1,000 Michaels gift card, a classroom full of cool

Crayola products, or other great prizes! Enter at Michaels.com between

August 19th and 26th. For more information about the Michaels teacher

appreciation event, visit www.michaels.com

WAL*MART�

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will be hosting Teacher Appreciation Events

throughout the country from July 21 to July 31, 2006 at more than

3,000 locations. The Wal*Mart Teacher Appreciation program, now in its

9th year, is designed to help kick off the school year by showing

appreciation to America's teachers.

Each teacher who attends the event will receive a gift package

containing samples from Crayola and other manufacturers of

school-related supplies (while supplies last). For more information,

contact your local store or visit www.wal-mart.com

STAPLES�

Teachers are invited to celebrate the new school year at Teacher

Appreciation Day events in Staples stores nationwide. The first 200

teachers at each event will receive a free canvas goody bag, teacher

planner, and valuable coupons. Find the event near you at
www.staples.com/teacherday (Teachers may be asked to
present school ID.)

OFFICEMAX�

OfficeMax is hosting Teacher Appreciation Events in the last week

of July and mid-August, depending on when school starts in your area.

Teachers can call their local OfficeMax store or 1-877-OFFICEMAX, to

find local dates and locations. Visit OfficeMax.com to find a

store near you.

THANK YOU

Throughout the school year you can rely on Crayola.com for fresh

lesson plan ideas and teaching tips. A new feature added this

back-to-school season is The Art of Childhood, which focuses on

the importance of creativity for children.

To learn about The Other IQ (Imagination Quotient) and how to

supercharge children's creativity visit The Art of Childhood.

Thank you for all you do!

Colorfully yours,

The Crayola.com Team

http://www.crayola.com

Teacher Appreciation Events!!!!

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 18:36:00 -0500

Today in HisStory(Afternoon Studies)-7/18/06

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:28:00 -0500

Come on over to my other blog(lovinghim4ever.homeschooljournal.net) and read about the rest of our day..

Today in HisStory-7/18/06

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:17:00 -0500

Oh we had a wonderful lesson today I just want to share it!! I am so blessed right now...

I decided to start with History today instead of the usual Arithmetic, Phonics/Spelling, etc. We'll get back to that (I think) but I felt that I needed to lay a foundation first this year...kind of teach things in order, so to speak. I'm beginning to see how everything we teach can fit on our HisStory timeline, since everything has a history...all things, even the subjects we study, have a beginning...all things begin in Christ, in God...so I started with the Creation link today.

Also, the schedule I had outlined had us doing our core studies first then History units in the afternoon but I kept feeling 'dis-united' in everything. It wasn't 'feeling' like our studies were "united".... core subjects here and having nothing to do with our history units...that is not what I wanted so it came to me today to first off, re-read some posts on our yahoo list about putting everything we study on the COC timeline since everything has a history. I never understood this until today...everything has a beginning and that beginning is God and starts "...in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth..."

So our day began with this:

Principle: God tells us about Himself through Creation(this is the truth that I want my children to learn in today's lesson

Leading Question(s): Why is Creation here? and/or What does Creation tells us?(this is a question or statement, for the teacher, to lead off the discussion to arrive AT the above principle)

Scripture Reference: Roman 1:20(this gives the answer (or proof) to the leading idea or question)

Now one would think that reading Romans 1:20 it would be easy to see that Creation testifies of God, tells about His qualities and attributes...what He is like but I guess to a 7 year old who has not really been 'trained' to 'reason' and cull out the meaning of the things they read, it is not that easy.

I had to keep referring her back to Romasn 1:20 to answer these 2 questions and to break the passage down into smaller segments(and break the questions down into smaller questions) in order for her to see that the answer to the questions I posed are right there in scripture. Many times she would get distracted and tell me "I don't know" but I'd tell her over and over, "the answer is right there in the scripture"...she finally got, Praise the Lord!!!

But what blessed me is that in the middle of our discussion and my explanations this became so clear and STRONG to me, that: That God wants to be known!!!!!!!!!!!!! My children have asked me in the past, "Mommy why can't we see God?" and I'd tell them "Because God is a Spirit..and we can't see Spirits" but the answer came to me just as sweetly today.... "but we can see God in what He has created"

God has created this great big world and it is like He is shouting "I want everyone to know ME!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL...BECAUSE I AM LOVE...I DON'T JUST HAVE LOVE... I AM LOVE AND I LOVE YOU!!! I WANT YOU TO KNOW ME!!!!!!!!!! AND BECAUSE I AM SPIRIT AND YOU MUST WORSHIP ME IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH I'VE MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO SEE MY QUALITIES, TO SEE MY ATTRIBUTES....THRU MY CREATION...THRU THE THINGS I HAVE CREATED!!! THRU THE SKY, THE SEAS, THE OCEAN, THE LAND, THE PRINCIPLES OF ARITHMETIC, SCIENCE, NATURE!!!! MY WORD DECLARES MY PRESENCE AND SO DOES CREATION!! MY CREATION!!

Romans 1:20 tells us in the New International Reader's Version(the version of my dd's bible)...
Ever since the world was created it has been possible to see the qualities of God that are not seen. I'm talking about his eternal power and about the fact that he is God. Those things can be seen in what he has made. So people have no excuse for what they do.

Psalm 19:1(verses 1-4 even) is for tomorrow's lesson... I like to use 2 or 3 scriptures to confirm the word given...(in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses every word will be established)

Now I don't know if I overwhelmed her or not but I felt 'the preach' come upon me and I began to tell my dd what I was receiving in my spirit at that moment...that God wants to be known...He has created this world for us to live in(she reasoned this idea) and then for us to see His attributes(she reasoned after many readings of Rom 1:20)...how much does God want us to know Him!!!! We can only 'see' things in the physical with our natural eyes so God made it possible that IN THE NATURAL THINGS/NATURE/CREATION we can see His attributes in creation....I was blessed....she got fidgety!! :-)

Anyway, she then drew a picture for her creation page/divider in her notebook and put creation on the timeline...as I explained that even in the subjects we study we can see attributes of God, in Arithmetic, reading, phonics... She remarked "I don't see God in Arithmetic"...to which I replied "but this year we will learn about God's attributes in the topics that we study"....what an awesome beginning to the beginning of our studies/year.

We then went to Arithmetic and continued with the principle that God shows Himself to us by the things He made...one of which is the principles of Arithmetic...we discussed numbers being infinte today and how God is also infinite...that is an attribute in arithmetic that we see that does testify of God...He has no beginning nor end...just like numbers...

We covered counting by 2's forward and backward and counting by 2's by even and odd numbers. We also reviewed addition facts adding 0 to any number, adding 1 to any number, commutative property (5+2=2+5), and doubles(2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, etc). She completed her workbook page...

then I let her have a swim break!!

It's in the 90's today!!

Our (Home) School Name

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:36:00 -0500

I figured I'd post the name of our (home)school and our slogan...

It is:

Wisdom's Way Providential Academy
walking in God's wisdom, being guided by His Providence to fulfill His purpose for our lives

My dd asked me last night what was the name of our school. I didn't even know she was thinking about a name...anyway, this name has been rolling around in me for about a year I just never officially used the name for anything in our homeschool. So since she asked me and after I told her and after she nodded her head vigorously in agreement I decided I'd post it. I've changed the category in the sidebar on my other blog from OUR HOMESCHOOL DAYS to WISDOM'S WAY PROVIDENTIAL ACADEMY....This category is where I'll file all posts giving a glimpse into our homeschool days, schedule, joys and progress in our studies as we endeavor to - walk in God's wisdom as He guides us by His Providence into His will for our lives.

How I arrived at this name

I was reading an article on Lisa Hodgen's website, www.me-and-my-hourse.org and she was sharing about how her children don't have 'grade-levels' they just move on thru the years thru their lives. This does away with the notion that I'm done with 8th grade and onto the 9th grade and 8th grade has been 'left-behind'....(I hope I've conveyed her intentions correctly...I can't find that article on her website anymore...Lisa H Help!!!!!) Anyway, that struck a cord in me and I began to realize that all the Christian homeschool 'methods' and approaches that I tried before PA were not a waste, they were stepping stones to help make me and mold me on the inside to even prepare me to begin to understand and desire what PA had to offer. The first strong influence upon came from Marilyn Howshall/Barb Shelton. What I took from this ministry was to really seek God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me in how to homeschool my children. The next major, major impact came when I discovered Heart of Wisdom which emphasized teaching my children (to desire) to walk to God's wisdom and then of course, the (Biblical) Principle Approach. My thinking, thus my life, has been revolutionized by the teaching in biblical principles of learning and teaching that this approach calls for. When I look at from whence I've come I see that it has been God all the while working in me and upon me to bring me to where I am now...so His Providence guided me and GOVERNS my life...it always has. I take something from each stop I've made along the way in my homeschool journey. I also refer many times back to my resource called Teaching the Trivium by the Bluedorns. I was so excited when the book came in the mail, I just KNEW this is what God wanted me implement...but there was more. I believe He is allowing me to take something from every 'good' thing that He has brought across my path and is forming something beautiful in His sight to come from my life and carried on in my children...hence welcome to

WISDOM'S WAY PROVIDENTIAL ACADEMY

where we endeavor to

walk in God's wisdom, being guided by His Providence to fulfill HIS purpose for our lives

Our Schedule-2006-2007

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:23:00 -0500

I've finally put together a 'flexible' schedule based on what I feel is the most important things to get done...they get done first....so that if something comes up in the day those 'foundational' lessons won't be too affected AND also based upon my desire to have our 'core' studies done before lunch this is how our schedule for this year looks.(is that a run-on sentence?)

Bible(includes Memory Work)
Arithmetic

<break for dd> I work with Kindergartener in Phonics

Handwriting (work with both-2nd grade cursive/Kindergarten manuscript
Spelling/Phonics/Grammar
'Morning' Read Aloud(Poetry reading/recitation)

Physical Activity Break

LUNCH

'Afternoon' Read Aloud
History Unit(MWF)/Science(T,TH)
Music

Now 'after lunch' studies are still a theory at this point seeing as how after lunch we haven't implemented anything else so far this week. I'll post on our progress once we have implemented our full schedule. I did not really plan on doing this piece meal, it sort of began 'happening' and then I decided I wouldn't overload any of us...just phase one subject in at a time so that I could be sure to be able to fit in the 'little' things and to be able to handle the 'switching' of working with each child. It has been going good and I know much of it is due to my state of mind, my learning how to relax and be patient with my children...after all they are still children. If the rooms don't get clean in 5 minutes, it's okay. I'm learning to gently remind them to get it done and it gets done. It's also okay if dd spends 10 minutes more than I planned on drawing her picture of her bible or arithmetic divider page...if we don't get to something one day...we'll do it later or tomorrow...

Like tonight she has 3 assignments for homework but I think I'll let her do it tomorrow morning before lessons-as a 'warm-up'...

...flexibility is good...as long as it doesn't make the schedule become disorganized or non-existent!!

Before I came to the PA I was using Heart of Wisdom 'approach' and writing my own unit studies. One of the things from HOW that stays with me even now is how Robin Sampson talks about Scheduling by Faith.....you can view her article here....that means have your schedule laid out but seek God each morning as to what gets done and when(and even how). He may have different plans than you do for any particular day.

For instance, yesterday I just 'felt' to do arithmetic first before bible. Now last year that would have troubled me for days and nights....But I know God is first in my heart and in my life so we did arithmetic first and bible came after. Bible got done and I had a peace about it so I went with it.

I also have to 're-arrange' my house-cleaning schedule and chores( in addition to room cleaning) to fit our lesson schedule. It seems to be much better for me if we do the house on the weekend...then I won't have to think about anything else but lessons and dinner during the week. We'll see about how it goes.

Read more about our homeschool days at lovinghim4ever.homeschooljournal.net

School Eve

Wed, 5 Jul 2006 21:55:00 -0500

I've decided that tomorrow is our official start date for our 2nd grade/Kindergarten year. We have a field trip planned for tomorrow to the Botanical Gardens with our support group. We will be attending a presentation on Bees while we are there. We are all excited.

As to "The day before .... school", or today, or "School Eve" we discussed the Principle of Stewardship(again) and applied it to how we are to keep our school supplies and notebooks and to maintain the orderly arrangement of the inside of our desks....all while we scrubbed the tops of our desks with Comet cleanser and Brillo pads :-)

We assembled our notebooks. My dd(7) has 2 notebooks, one for History which will contain all the work we do in our history units and another one that contain any 'stray' work from Reading, English, Writing, Spelling, Phonics, Arithmetic that is outside of the 'realm' of the aforementioned worktexts...we are using Abeka to reinforce/drill the basics in these areas.

My ds(5) has one notebook that contains subject dividers(which are really colored paper)-10 of them for the 10 links...as we cover each link I"ll have them draw their own version of the picture of each link on these 10 dividers) . His notebook also contains dividers for his Kindergarten Arithmetic, Phonics, and Writing. I'm not sure if I'm going to use any workbooks(Abeka) for him. I was given the lesson plans for Kindergarten but I have not ordered the student books yet...why?.... I don't know.

Anyway, we had a good day of 'preparation'. I'm off to bed now so that I won't be a zombie at 7:00am when I have to get up....

My Philosophy of Education

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 21:59:00 -0500

I just wanted to share my philosophy of education. I wrote this up in the early days of studying about this approach. I"ve added bits and pieces as my mind was renewed little by little...

MY PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

GOD

I feel that my children need to be instructed in the ways of the Lord. They need to receive instruction from the Word of God in how they are to live lives pleasing unto

the Lord.

I believe they should also be taught and led into having an intimate relationship with God as they learn line upon line, precept upon precept how to submit their will to the Holy Spirit living within them.

GOD�S WORLD

They should also be educated about the world God created for us to live in. and it�s history(His past workings and dealings in the lives of individual men/women and nations) so that they may be enabled to obey the commission given by God to ��subdue the earth��, �i.e. acquire a knowledge and mastery over his material environment to bring it�s elements into the service of the race.� P. 3 NIV Study Bible.

In studying the �academic subjects� of God�s creation my children need to be able to see it�s origins and biblical purpose in the word of God. My desire is for them to be able to research God�s Word(the origin of all things) and to be able to reason from
the scriptures and discern the governing principles that have been established
by God in each and every subject/topic that is studied FOR THE PURPOSE OF
applying what they learn of these principles to their lives so that their lives
would testify of Christ. This will form a worldview with Christ as the Alpha and Omega of all things; of all of life; whereby the child will see the Providence of God(or see the Hand of God always present and active) in ��all things pertaining to life and godliness.� This will also equip them to govern themselves in a godly manner in whatever station in life they are called to.

Any education that divorces God, His purpose, and His principles from it�s course of study(curriculum) is a DEAD education; it has no life, no inspiration, no hope-and that type of education will NOT impart any life-giving sustenance NOR a love of (excitement about) learning.

It is God�s Spirit that quickeneth or gives life to ANY and ALL things. The letter killeth

2 Cor. 3:6

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

It is the principles of the Word of God, identified and applied (to each life-being a DOER of the word and not a hearer only...) that gives life to the human spirit(internal), then eventually the whole being of man(external)

The LETTER of education is academics without God

The SPIRIT of true education has Christ ��and Him crucified..� at the beginning, middle, and end of academics�and all that God purposed in Christ realized in the life of every Christian.

...Christ being the reason FOR there being any �academics� to study at all!!

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Inundated but not drowning!!!

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:42:00 -0500

My blog has been inactive as far as my posting but I have not been. Behind the scenes here I've been in the throes of pulling together my resources for this coming year.

My plans sort of took a turn for the better, I pray(I pray that I'm hearing God right on this one). I'm still using Ray's arithmetic but I've purchased Abeka's math text for grade 2 to sure up my dd's foundation in applying the operations of arithmetic to the categories and in learning the 'rules' of the categories....those who have read the Arithmetic portion of GACE know what I'm talking about...:-)

I have finally conceded to the notion that I need help in teaching, especially the BPA approach. I don't have...

read this post in it's entirety here....

7 Principles of Christian Life-my version of the 7 Principles of America's Christian History and Government

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:39:00 -0500

One of the rudiments(foundation) of the BPA is the 7 Principles of America's Christian History and Government. I have been stumped by this for some time and I decided that the best way for me to understand the implications of these principles is to find these principles in the Bible...more specifically in the life of Jesus. Since Jesus is our example I can then more easily relate these principles to my own life (and my dc) and then we can begin to internalize these principles and hopefully it....

read more at my Homeschooljournal blog....

Unit Study Layout for Creation Link

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 07:59:00 -0500

Here is the first of several posts on my unit study layouts using the links on the Chain of ChristianityLink:

Link: Creation Unit

Governing principle: God's Principle of Individuality(this is the principle that will be referred to MOST, maybe not all the time but MOST:-)

Subjects Covered: History (of Creation)
Leading Ideas:

1. What can we learn from Creation? Gen chapter 1, 2, Rom 1:20, etc(these leading ideas develop into lessons which I've just begun writing)
2. There is diversity in Creation. Psalm 19:1(define diversity, what does this show us about God?, etc)
3. All that God made is unique and exists for His glory and purpose. Rev 4:11...highlight the creation of man as special and how God feels about us...how do we treat the creation of God(nature and us)...what can we do to help take care of God's creation(including ourselves and maintain own individuality...this can lead in Principle of Self-Govern)
4. God gets pleasure out of all He created....He is pleased with each individual thing just like He created it..can lead into many areas of discussion
5. Individuality of 'subjects'-All that God made can be 'categorized' into 'subjects' - Here is where I plan to go into each subject addressed in THIS unit and define it, present it's biblical origin(this is where the NP Lessons come in handy. I'll use the lessons in this book to present the BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS instead of writing it myself...it's already written..AND I've already spent money on it!!!!!!!!!!:-)

Subjects Covered: Literature (of Creation)
Leading Ideas/Content:

1. The Bible as Literature- (I'm using NP Lessons and use the 'foundation'...

read the rest of the post here at my new, other blog!!

Creating Unit Studies using Biblical Principle Approach Methodology and Content

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 07:54:00 -0500

As I posted in a previous entry I'm endeavoring to write some simple unit studies for each link on the Chain of Christianity. Several people on our yahoo list expressed an interest in how I was doing it so I decided to post it to my blog.

One thing I had to overcome was the feeling that every link/unit had to be structured...

read the rest of post here at my other blog!!

Update to Irritated and Infuriated post...

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 06:42:00 -0500

After talking to HSLDA the school district has said that they will NOT allow the parent to do the written assessment for the child BUT since the notice came so late in this year they will allow us to do it THIS year.

Well.. one day at a time Sweet Jesus, that's all I'm asking of You.... :-)

I am grateful that I don't have to scramble around now and get a certified teacher...that I can submit what I have...but I don't like their policy. The reg's. do say the superintendent has to give his consent and this NEW superintendent will not give his consent.

Ok...I will comply but praying all the way

Form and Shape

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 07:35:00 -0500

New post on new blog...here....

How will education look in your home using the Biblical Principle Approach?

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 07:33:00 -0500

New post on new blog...here!