Homeschooling for His Glory

It's back again. You can get The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for $7.95. This is a great deal. Make sure to get your subscriptions in before the 15 of September. Plus have you checked the new Student Plan ners. They look really great. Make sure you go have a look!

For The Sake of His Name by  Chris Anderson (Church Works Media) Go to the world for the sake of His name; To every nation His glory proclaim. Pray that the Spirit wise Will open darkened eyes, Granting new life to display Jesus’ fame. Refrain: In Jesus’ power, preach Christ to the lost; For Jesus’ glory, count all else but loss. Gather from every place Trophies of sov’reign grace. Lest life be wasted, exalt Jesus’ cross. Love the unloved for the sake of His name; Like Christ, befriend those whose heads hang in shame. Jesus did not condemn, But was condemned for them. Trust gospel pow’r, for we once were the same. Rescue the lost for the sake of His name; As Christ commands, snatch them out of the flame. Tell that when Jesus died God’s wrath was satisfied. Urge them to flee to the Lamb who was slain. Look to the Throne for the sake of His name; Think of the throng who will share in His reign. Some for whose souls we pray Will share our joy that day, Joining our song for the sake of Hi...

Here is my selection of treasure links for this week: 10 Pieces of Good advice from Experienced Homeschooling Moms Notes from Courtney @ Women Living Well on Sally's Clarckson session at HOTM Online conference on Parenting An excellent article on Knowing your Student , (learning styles). Giving Children your Full Attenti on A great list of Reference Books . An excellent article on  A Preschool Education at Home . Amy @ Raising Arrows shares her definition of  Creating a Lifestyle of Learning ; worth a read. At It's a Boy's life you will find a set of recipes to make different  kinds of dough for  your kids to play with. For more Saturday Treasures, go over at It's Come 2 Th is.

This week was a typical homeschooling week where we got to experience what homeschooling means, and the freedom it gives. First we had a nice evening at the EX on Monday. Why only evening you may ask, well it is $5 instead of $12. Plus on Mondays the kids are $2. So we got in for $14, not a bad deal. The only problem is that you pay for most things inside, so I call it a money trap, but that's another topic. Joho had a blast with the rides. But not Zach. He does not like and does not do rides!! Good things there were other things to see. Here is a sample in pictures. Then, Tuesday turned into a disciplining day. Instead of doing school, Zach spent his day in his bedroom. You can read about that here . Since then, I decided that his train track will stay packed away until Monday, with his behaviour the rest of the week affecting that decicion towards a longer or shorter time. Wednesday, we did school as usual with some more cooperation. Thursday, we covered the planned subjects, bu...

This week at the Homeschool Villag e we are sharing about how we get involve in our community, in other words about outreach. I have to admit we do not do much here, but when an occasion rises we go. For example, last Christmas we were more than happy to have the kids go along with other kids in our homeschool group to sing carols at a nursing home. It was a great experience for the kids and we are hoping to do it again this year. When we were in Jamaica, my husband used to go every week to a nursing home to bring the Word, and we would bring our kids to cheer them up. They really loved seeing the little ones. Our church might get involved with another nursing home in the fall and I will try to take them there as well. Also, we do have a food bank at our church and I guess it would be a good idea to have my kids aware of it and understand why we have it. This link up really inspired me to do more, and I really enjoyed reading about the different ideas. Make sure you go have a look.

This year I am hoping to have more field trips with the boys. The plan is to do one at least once a month. Here is a list of places I will try to take them to: Ice Cream parlor Fire Station/Police Station Recycling Plant Post office Courthouse Bakery Grocery store Restaurant Arboretum 911 Emergency call center Manufacturing plant Local Newspaper or magazine Rock Quarry (that one is going to be difficult in Toronto,  but I'll look into it anyway)

This post is late in the week, but I had a pretty busy week. So we are at week 4 of the Maximize Your Morning Challenge . How is everyone doing? On my part, I am still trying to keep pushing myself. I am still waking up in the 7ish time slot (still not quite the 6:30 I had aimed for), but that's because I have not mastered the going to sleep earlier part. The Bible reading is going fine. The prayer calendar is not quite up but definitely in the cogitating stages. Hopefully it will be up next week. The exercise, well, let's not talk about that one. I will try to work on that one the rest of this week. This week is about  Creating a Planning Routine. Create a Master Calendar with all your events and responsibilities : I have a couple of these. One around the desk area, and one around the dining area. Make a Master To Do List - get your to do list out of your brain and onto paper (or pixel): I am a list doer but I never follow them. This is another area where I need to fol...

This is week 4 of the Not back-to School blog hop over at Heart of the Matter Online , and it's all about A day in the Life . In an attempt to keep it true to life I waited until Tuesday so as to record how our day goes in real time, since our school week starts on Tuesday. Unfortunately ,Tuesday did not go as planned. Instead of a normal regular school day, it ended up being a disciplining day. It all started when I agreed with Zach that he would watch 3 videos of his Thomas stuff on you tube (that's his new thing these days), and then we would start school. The plan was to give him an opportunity to show himself t rustworthy and responsible , well, suffice to say he failed. When it was done, instead of moving to the table where I was waiting for him, he Headed straight to the bedroom. BAD CHOICE. I called his attention, he came and was not too pleased with what was happening. I gave him a nice talking to about responsibility, keeping one's word, obedience, etc. . ., and ...

Psalm 40:5

Your Grace Still Amazes Me by Phillips, Craig & Dean lyric My faithfull Father, enduring friend, Your tender mercy is like a river with no wind; It overwhelms me, covers my sin; Each time I come into your presence I stand in wonder once again. (chorus) Your grace still amazes me, Your love is still a mystery; Each day i fall on my knees, 'Cause your grace still amazes me, Your grace still amazes me. Oh patient savior, you make me whole, You are the author and the healer of my soul; What can I give you lord what can I say, I know there's no way to repay you, only to offer you my praise . (chorus) Your grace still amazes me , Your love is still a mystery, Each day i fall on my knees, Cause your grace still amazes me, Your grace still amazes me. Its deeper, its wider, its stronger, its higher ; Its deeper, its wider, its stronger, its higher ; Than anything my eyes can see . Your grace still amazes me Your love is still a mystery Each day i fall on my kness Cause your grace st...

Yesterday our Science books, which got to a family relative in The States one day to late for it to be be brought back to me in time, finally got here (courtesy of my hubby's auntie). Thank you so much! So, guess what, one more subject to add on the schedule next week. I do not think the boys will like adding another subject, but it's a good thing it's science; they love science and the books really look exciting. I am looking forward to it myself.

It's Saturday, time to share the link finds: The True Test of Homemaking: Ask a Child On Your Marks, Get Set K eep Tracks of Library Books and Avoid Fines A great list of 10 Things to Teach Your Children Before They Leave Home . Children: Our Most Precious Bloom Are You Exhausted of Teaching the Same Lessons Over and Over to Your Children And a couple posts from the Homeschool Classroom: 7 Steps You Can use When Choosing Your Homeschool Materia ls and Preparing for a new School Year. A Squidoo page on  Timelines. : very appropriate for us TOG users.

2 weeks of school down. Wow, I have to say our school days are going way smoother than last year. This is so encouraging. This week went overall well. In case you do not know we only school from Tuesday to Friday. On Monday we went to a friends' birthday party and the kids had a nice playdate. Otherwise our school week was uneventful. We covered Bible, History, Geography, Math, English and Handwriting. I pulled some money manipulative to help us in our place value understanding. They liked that it was money. There we are reviewing our geographical terms: We got to finish our map of Egypt which turned out quite nicely.   We tried to make some pyramids, which I do not think came out as nice. But they got the idea, I think. I am really loving TOG. I love the way it allows the boys to reads scripture in context. I like the way it gets them thinking. Zach is quite proud of himself. There they are working on a Super Mind project together ( that's usually Joho's thing): There we...

Since this week at the homeschool village was about reading and books I thought I would write about my boys' relationship with books Both my boys love to read, but they rather read at night, and play during the day. What we have done when the kids were very young was reading to them from different kinds of books. As they were growing up and showing interests in different topics, I made a point of getting books on those topics (which they would read over and over), while still trying to read other stuff to them. That really set them up for being early reader. They both read at age 4. My eldest only reads for information. He will not pick up a fiction book, unless he really gets intrigued. So, what I have come up with was audiobook . Once I introduced him to audiobook, he started to enjoy fiction.  He still would only read it with the cd or tape player, but I am ok with that. His vocabulary increases, so does his exposure and appreciation of literature and the classics. He has since ...

So this week The homeschool Village is asking what is your child's favourite boo k. I was surprised when I asked my 6 year old what his favorite book was, to hear him say Charlotte's Web . I believe it is because he is reading it now and really enjoying it. When I ask him why he said because he likes it. Can't beat that! Now, I expected him to say Thomas the Tank Engine , or Thomas and Friends . So, when I asked him how come he did not answer that, he said: "well, it is both.". I still think it is Thomas' books his favourite, considering that, if given the choice, that is what we would read every nights. Since we gave Zach a little train set when he was 3 (which was not even a Thomas thing) he has been obsessed with trains, and then came Thomas the Tank Engine into the picture, and they fell in love. Look at his own collection. He's read these over and over, and probably also read  more that 90% of the Library's own collection. I did ask him why he lo...