Asking the Lord to Direct Your Home/School

Earlier this week I asked my children to go into their rooms and pray and ask God what He wants them to focus on. My 15 yo dd came back with her journal and impressed me quite a bit with what she wrote. I thought she might come back with a few ideas for school but hers had more to do with character and she is the one that pointed that out to me. She feels God wants her to take the initiative more and to keep an open mind when doing math and science and not “shut down” at the first sign of difficulty.

I was in fact awed with the Lord.It sounds silly. Didn’t I expect Him to speak to her? Yes I did, but it’s just cool when He truly does and you get to be a part of it!

My 8 yo ds wanted me to pray with him. So I did. His reading is beginning to click and so that is one of the main things we need to continue working on. His second issue is asking for the same thing over and over after I’ve already given him an answer – just not the one he wanted.

We are going to spend more time in the Word and notebooking during our school lessons. I've let that fall by the wayside too many times. If we aren't learning for the glory of God what is the point?

These scriptures come to mind:

Psalm 111:10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.
Proverbs 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs 9:10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

1 Corinthians 10:31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Isaiah 42:20You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.

Ezekiel 12:2Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

Matthew 11:15He who has ears, let him hear.
Lord,
Thank you for speaking to us. Give us ears to hear. My soul finds rest in you alone, my salvation comes from You.
Help me to be still and know that you are God.

Spring Fever

We've been struggling a bit the past few weeks with spring fever. It makes our minds wander, our routine is stretched and we just can't seem to get going some days. Today we tweaked our routine a bit and lightened our day somewhat. We still want to continue with our books we've been doing, but some are just on the back burner for a while.

Our school week Feb 13-17

This week went rather smoothly. We’ve adopted our new more flexible schedule. Just getting everything done, but no particular time or order. I guess you could call it assignment based rather than time based.

I made just a very simple weekly grid and included everything to be done for the day and we just work until it’s all done.

This week together we did:
Spanish
Art – Masterpieces From Turkey
Composer – Gershwin
Shakespeare – Othello
Plutarch - Poplicola

Year 2 ds:
Monday:
The Bible – We’re finishing up reading the Exodus from Egypt, now were near Moses’ death
Story of the World Volume II chapter 3 Christianity Comes to Britain
Poetry of Eugene Field
Phonics/Reading/ Copywork
Science – Magic School Bus
Math-U-See Alpha lesson 9
Oral Narration

Tuesday:
The Bible
Wind in the Willows ½ of chapter 3
Phonics/Reading/ Copywork
Science – Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Math- Living book: 12 Ways to Get to 11
Oral Narration

Wednesday:
Pilgrim’s Progress
Burgess Animal Book: Two Unlike Little Cousins
Poetry of Eugene Field
Phonics/Reading/ Copywork
Science – Exploring Creation with Astronomy
Math-U-See Alpha lesson 9
Oral Narration

Thursday:
The Bible
Story of the World Volume II chapter 3 Christianity Comes to Britain
Wind in the Willows ½ of chapter 3
Phonics/Reading/ Copywork
Science – Magic Schoolbus
Math-U-See Alpha lesson 9
Oral Narration

Friday:
The Bible
Marco Polo ch 2
Poetry of Eugene Field
Phonics/Reading/ Copywork
Science – Magic Schoolbus
Math- Living book: Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?
Oral Narration




Year 9 dd:
Daily:
Bible reading – Joshua
Apologia Biology ½ of Module 1 What is Life?
Grammar and Copywork
3 Written Narrations
Oral Narration
Math U See Algebra 1 Lesson 10
Piano practice and lessons

Monday:
The Age of Revolution: The House of Hanover
The English Constitution
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 16 pages
Tuesday:
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 16 pages
Common Sense by Thomas Paine – Introduction
Simond’s History of American Literature II Benjamin Franklin
Wednesday:
Mere Christianity – Book I, chapters 1 & 2
Letters to His Son by Lord Chesterfield 1 letter
History of Rasselas ch 1-3
Poetry of Phyllis Wheatley
Thursday:
The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide – Ch. 14 North America
Life of the Fly ch 1
Poetry of Phyllis Wheatley
Friday:
CM’s Ourselves
Poetry of Phyllis Wheatley
Life of the Fly ch 2

Our Second School Term

We've had a wobbly school year so far. Our first term lasted FIVE MONTHS and we still didn't finish everything, but we've decided to press forward, and not look back. DS in year 2 isn't too far behind although I made the decision to drop An Island Story and just read STOW for him. We also put aside Parables From Nature for now, so his schedule is just right for him at this time.

DD age 15 doing year 9 is also beginning to get into her groove. She is a bright girl, but doesn't read terribly fast, but if she's comprehending and enjoying something I can tell right away, she can't help but tell me all about it.

We started term 2 officially this week and we'll have to do school every chance we get through July, but that's okay, we took a lot of days off for various reasons this fall and winter, so we can do school in the summer when it's too hot to do anything else.

I plan on posting a weekly or bi-weekly update. Just to keep ME accountable! Even if no one reads it but me, I need to see it.

8 is the magic number...

For my ds anyway. He's going to be 8 on February 28th.

He has struggled with reading, and hasn't really gotten past sounding out words like "cat" "rug" and other basic C/V/C words, and even those not fluently.
He's decided however that he should read when he's 8 or someone will make fun of him. I'm not sure where this ridicule will occur but he's sure of it none the less.

The difference in our reading lessons has been phenomenol. I'm trying Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt and I really like it. However, the other programs we tried were just as sufficient. I think the "timing" is just right. He's finally ready to read. I had downloaded Study Dog in the past for extra practice, and for some reason it got taken off the pc(can't remember why) he's been asking for it back so I re-downloaded it and began with level 2. He's flying through it and even requesting it over TV time! YAY!

There are other changes too. I'll blog about those soon.

The Whole World in His Hands

We missed our co-op class yesterday and 7yo ds "Dash" was dissapointed to miss making a model of the earth out of dough in our Astronomy class. So we got out the electric skillet and supplies and made our own dough in different colors and made this model. Here's what he made. This is the outside...

Here is the inside depicting the inner core- pink; the outer core - yellow; the mantle - white and the crust - blue and green.

I think he did a great job and now he knows the layers of the earth!