Homeschooling for His Glory

I was happily surprised this morning to receive this award: As always there are strings attached to these awards, so here we go: 1. Write a post about the award. 2. Thank and link back to the person who gave me the award. A big thank you and hug goes to Deb  @ Living Montessori Now for thinking of me for this award. You will find her blog very inspiring when it comes to things to do with your kids. 3. Pass the award along to 12 bloggers (and let the bloggers know they have received the award by commenting on their blogs). Here comes the hard part, not because it is hard to find people to pass it on to, but because there are so many great bloggers out there. It is a sunshine award so I will try to give it to these bloggers that I follow, who always bring sunshine into my world every time I visit: 1. My Home in the Smokies 2. Planted by Stream 3. Home is Where You Start From 4. Live learn and Love Together 5. Mom Seriously 6. The Story of Us 7. The Wonder Years 8. Tolivers to Texas 9. T...

Great God of Wonders by Samuel Davies Great God of wonders! All Thy ways Are matchless, Godlike and divine; But the fair glories of Thy grace More Godlike and unrivaled shine, More Godlike and unrivaled shine. Ref: Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free? Or who has grace so rich and free? Crimes of such horror to forgive, Such guilty, daring worms to spare; This is Thy grand prerogative, And none shall in the honor share, And none shall in the honor share Angels and men, resign your claim To pity, mercy, love and grace: These glories crown Jehovah’s Name With an incomparable glaze With an incomparable glaze. In wonder lost, with trembling joy, We take the pardon of our God: Pardon for crimes of deepest dye, A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood, A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood. O may this strange, this matchless grace, This Godlike miracle of love, Fill the whole earth with grateful praise, And all th’angelic choirs above, And all th’angelic choirs above.

Another week of link sharing: Turning Those Frowns Upside-Down - Motivations Fun Free Stuff to Print Easy Piping Bag Fun fall Learning Activities for Children At Simple Homeschool: Will This House Get Cleaned Before the Kids Graduate , Deciding What To Teach Your Kids , 8 Ways to Pursue a Lifetime of Learning , Time management for Homeschoolers: making the Minutes Counts. Make sure to hop over to It's Come 2 This for more links sharing.

It's Friday and another week has passed by. We moved along in school. In Math we started addition with regrouping and Zach seems to catch on nicely. We also played some math games, namely Go Fish 1 and Go Fish 2, which idea I got from Dr. Mike Math .The kids really like it. In English we covered compound nouns and singular and plural. I started read-alouds again with Zach. We started with The Trumpet of the Swan . Zach enjoyed the first chapter I think. We also covered geography,  Handwriting and Bible. We had a field trip yesterday to St Marie among the Hurons where we learned about some of the first settlers here in Canada. Some of our regular subjects got skipped this week as I declared a no-school day today. Joho and I did make cookies today though. I finally started rehearsing for a variety show coming up in October. We decided on which chapter of Charlotte's Web Zach is going to recite, since he knows most of the chapters by heart. I am also having both of them sing a ...

There are plenty of parenting books out there, but he is a rundown of the ones I have tremendously enjoyed and found helpful, plus being biblically sound: 1. Bible 2. S hepherding a Child's Heart  and Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp 3.   Everyday Talk by John A. Younts 4. Don't let me Count to Three Ginger Plowman 5. Grace Based Parenting Tim Kimmel 6. P arenting is Heart Work (all the others in the series) by Scott Turansky and Johann Miller 7. The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson 8. T each Them Diligently by Lou Priolo 9. A Mother's Heart by Jean Fleming 10. The Faithful Parent by Martha Peace (I have not read this one but it is on my list of book that I have to get my hands on; I have really appreciated Martha Peace' s books so I am convinced that it is a must read)

Come Lor Jesus (ARBCA Publications) 1. “ Come, Lord Jesus!”: this we pray, Haste the glorious, dreadful Day, When with angels Thou shalt come, And Thy people gather home. “Come, Lord Jesus!” in the air, For  Thy saints shalt Thou appear, While the final trumpet’s sound, echoes all the world around. 2 . ”Come, Lord Jesus!” every tomb Open, Bid the dead to  come Stand before Thy great white throne, Give account for all deeds done. “Come, Lord Jesus!” On Thy right, Set the children of the light; Set the sons of sin, bereft  Of Thy mercy, to the left! 3 . ”Come, Lord Jesus!”Shepherd good, Separate the flock of God For  Thine own eternal fold, In  the City paved  with  gold. “Come, Lord Jesus!” Thy decree Now proclaim,“Depart from Me, All ye sinners doing ill --- Enter now the flames of Hell!” 4 . “Come, Lord Jesus!” This we pray With each new, returning day; Still we watch, and work and wait, Trim our lamps before the gate: “Come Lord Jesus!” Every knee At Thy Name shall bow to Thee: Every...

And there goes another week of great posts find: Time Saving Tips for doing lapbook 10 Tips to simplify Meal Planning How To: Inquiry A Guide for parents of Gifted Children Making a Lesson out of an Apple Raising sons: What Not to Do For more treasure link, hop on over @ It's Come 2 This.

This was our first week back from our break last week. We had an overall good week. We had some attitude issues that were quickly resolved. We covered Math, English, reading (from TOG), Geography, Bible and handwriting. Zach had a cold earlier this week so one day this week I had this (he actually fell asleep): After looking into Susan Wise Bauer's Writing with Ease curriculum, I decided to start doing some narration and copywork with Zach using the classic he will be enjoying at the moment. Since these days it is Charlotte's Web , we did copywork from Charlotte's Web today. In TOG this week we went over the story of creation and the flood, and I had fun exploring the tectonic plates and drifting of the continents theory. I briefly talked about it with the kids but I do not think they are quite into it yet. Thomas is much more interesting! Here is a link that I found very helpful in understanding the whole matter: Continental Drift and Plate Tectonic . We also explore what ...

Here are some educational websites I recently came across: Magic School Bu s How to play chess video Instructor Web Learning Planet IXL math Dr. Math Math Cats SnagLearning I also  wanted to share some very useful resources I recently found in attempting to understand the gifted child. I have been having the hardest time to get my son writing. He just hates holding a pencil. So, I have made some research and found this article which I found very helpful: Tips to parents: The Reluctant Writer. A book called Guiding the Gifted Child: A Practical Source for Parents and Teachers . It is very to the point.

This wek at the Homeschooling Village we are talking about discipline . I do not have a set of specific rules in our homeschool, but discipline and correction are certainly an intregal part of our homeschool. There are certain things I expect of the boys, and they know it (although maybe I should write them down and review them everyday);  and when I see that they are not cooperating and acting ritghly I stop and correct. I love the concept of correcting and disciplining in "the milieu". I do have house rules (which I adapted from the Duggar's house rules), that contains things like loving God first, then others, then yourself and things like no hitting etc.... But I find school time is a great time to emphasize those character traits that we need to develop. Often time privileges are taken away as consequences. Here is a the list of attitudes and behaviours that get corrected: Not working hard -dilligence Whining and complaining: loving work sloppiness - doing your...

Put aside the TV debate, here are the shows that I let my kids watch (in no particular order): 1. Super Why (language) 2. Curious George (math and science) 3. Dinosaur Train (it teaches evolution but we just have to teach them what is right. I do not believe in keeping the kids ignorant of what's out there. They need to know the truth and it is our job to teach it to them). (science) 4. Sid the Science Kid (science) 5. The Cat in the Hat Knows all About That (science) 6. The Magic Schoolbus (science) 7. Busytown Mystery (thinking skills) 8. Puppets Town (thinking skills) 9. Blue's clues (not necessary Blue's Room): you can still get them on DVDs and videotapes (preschool-kindergarden, multiple) 10. World World (language)

291-300 A husband that cooks Audiobooks Clean bathtub Re-arranged (short of remodelling) kitchen, living room and  dinning room Freshly baked french bread Breaks Bills paid Kids growing well (physically) New, improved learning center Color printer

How Awesome is Your Name by  Joe Tyrpak (Church Works Media) 1 —Psalm 8:1-2; 1 Corinthians 1:26–29 O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is Your name in all the earth. The skies display Your majesty; Your fame from them pours forth. You choose the weak and foolish things to shame the strong and wise, And silence boasting enemies with nursing babies’ cries. 2—Psalm 8:3–4 When I behold the midnight sky—the work Your fingers made— The moon holds fast my marv’ling eyes; the stars arrest my gaze. I question why You care for man; I cannot comprehend Why You who formed this vast expanse would humbly condescend. 3—Psalm 8:5–8 Yet man is crowned with majesty—with lofty honor graced. You stationed him just underneath the high angelic race. Appointed by Your sovereign hand, he reigns as nature’s prince O’er every beast that roams the land or in the ocean swims. 4—Hebrews 2:5–9; Matthew 21:15–16 Our Lord and Maker, Jesus Christ, took on Him human flesh; Below the angels for a time, in lowliness He dressed...

It's time for another round of great link treasures from around the web: Household Time Savers So That You Can Do Less Do Not Provoke Your Children to Anger Road Trip Entertainment for Children At Simple Homeschool:  How to Homeschool with a Baby or Toddler and The Case for Memorization . Manners Touches the Heart M.O.M Mailbox: Do You ever get Discouraged ? Service Opportunities for Homeschoolers Check over at I t's Come 2This for more Saturday Stumbles.

This week was a break week. The kids and I absolutely did nothing. Zach got to play with his train set all week long, with  occasional you tube watch of others making stories with their tracks. Joho played on the computer, played games, watched videos and let me not forget played Wii. They did do some reading and painting as well. Monday we had guests over. Tuesday we had a not back-to school picnic. Thursday evening I was babysitting some of the boys' friends (just 2 of them). The rest of the time was free play. On my part: I caught up on some of my google reader reading. Did some research and preparation for the coming weeks of TOG, as well as the coming topics in math (regrouping and renaming), namely how to teach it in a productive way to Zach. I  explored some curriculum online. I read some threads on education and homeschooling the gifted child. You will notice that I added a link category on my right sidebar for gifted child education. Replenished the library's...

Today at the Homeschool Village we are sharing about dads: how is dad part of your homeschooling? Homeschooling was a joint decision, so we are on the same page and he always backs me up and trusts me on curriculum and discipline decisions. That said, if he sees an issue or a problem that needs attention or that I personally have, you can be sure he will address it. In our Homeschool dad is certainly an important person and element. He is a real stronghold, after God, of course. He is my adviser, encourager,  and my cheerer . He is always there to spur me on when I am discouraged and ready to give up. He always has words of wisdom when I do not know what to think of things. He is the one to whom I go when I do not understand concepts and philosophies. He is also the one that pushed me to work harder and better. He is always motivating me to be more disciplined and intentional in what I do. I cannot begin to list all the things that dad does around here: He is the spiritual leader (m...

A few months back, I wrote a post about why parenting was such hard work, Basically what I said, was that it is hard work because it is heart work and we cannot change hearts. We do have to persevere in pointing our kids to Christ , whose concern is to change  hearts. It demands perseverance, repeated discipline and instructions. It is plainly laborious. Today I would like to expand on these thoughts. I find that even though we know all these things, it still gets quite frustrating to train our kids in godliness and character. They often time just do n't get it , or so it seems. We do not see rapid improvements. It seems to be the same ,day in and day out, often times. And that can be rather discouraging at best or irritating at worst. The fact is, c hristian discipleship and training is not about immediate results, but long term results. We are not in the business of changing surface behaviours (although it will be affected), but affecting hearts for eternity .That often mean...

Psalm 119:33-40 33 . Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I will keep it to the end. 34. Give me understanding, that I may keep thy law and observe it with my whole heart. 35. Lead me in the path of thy commandments, for I delight in it. 36. Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to gain! 37 . Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; and give me life in thy ways. 38 . Confirm to thy servant thy promise, which is for those who fear thee. 39 . Turn away the reproach which I dread; for thy ordinances are good. 40. Behold, I long for thy precepts; in thy righteousness give me life!

Indescribable By Chris Tomlin From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea Creation's revealing Your majesty From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring Every creature unique in the song that it sings All exclaiming Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night None can fathom Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God To listen to it, click here.

I realized I forgot to mention about our blueberry picking on Monday, in my wrap-up yesterday, so here is a glance of it in pictures. You will notice that Joho worked hard while Zach spent his time sitting, playing around and complaining about how tedious and long the whole thing was and about the heat. He managed to pick a handful of blueberries though. We had a little stop on our 1 hour drive away home for lunch: They were worn out