Our Journey

We Love Homeschooling!

2011-10-07T13:47:00.000-05:00

Just a few pictures of those moments that make me glad that I homeschool!

Grain Free French Toast Sticks and Homemade Coconut Milk

2011-09-07T10:27:00.000-05:00

I just posted two new recipes on my food allergy blog.

Sunflower Seed Bread French Toast Sticks

Homemade Coconut Milk

Cooking up a storm and homeschooling in between!

Edie

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

2011-09-02T13:59:00.003-05:00

You can find my newest recipe post Homemade Breakfast Sausage at my other blog.

Hmmmm Sausage!

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Day in the Life

2011-08-25T20:09:00.001-05:00

This is the last week of the Not Back to School Blog Hop hosted by Heart of the Matter. This week is Day-in-the-Life

This is our first week back into schooling, so there is no real normal yet. This is my schedule for Squirt who is using Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory.

Squirt's Week Day Schedule

⁭ Quiet Time (30 Minutes)

⁭ Independent History Study (30 Minutes)

⁭ History Project (20 Minutes)

Breakfast

⁭ Brush Teeth & Wash Up

⁭ Math (30 minutes)

⁭ Science Exploration (30 Minutes)

⁭ Rod & Staff English (15 Minutes)

⁭ Dictation with Mom (5 Minutes)

⁭ Poetry with Mom (5 Minutes)

Lunch

During lunch, if possible, Mom will do Reading About History

⁭ Bible Study with Mom (after Bubba is down for nap)

⁭ Reading About History with Mom (if not read at lunch)

⁭ Geography/ Research/ Timeline (15 Minutes)

⁭ DITHOR with Mom/ Poetry Creative Writing/ Project (30 minutes)

⁭ Save one page to read out loud to Mom every day.

If you finish early and have had Mom check everything then you may play.

We are finishing up the 36 week course we started last January. She is an early riser, so I scheduled her day to start when she is fresh on her own (and Mom is NOT). I am not a morning person no matter how many children I have and how early they wake me. Coffee would be my friend IF I drank it, but since I don't, I simply don't speak much until breakfast begins. My kids learn to stay out of the kitchen until Mom has fully woken up, brutally honest as that is.

Squirt works in her room at her desk for independent work and then moves to the school room for work with me.

Buddy is a later riser than the rest of the kiddos. So he is fresher later in the day. I try to work with him in the afternoon while Bubba is napping. We don't have a schedule yet for that. I am trying some things out and still have yet to figure out the best way to do things with him. I probably will do Little Hands to Heaven reading, bible and music with him and Bubba after breakfast while Squirt works independently. Then in the afternoon (while little Bubba sleeps) do the seat work that would have to exclude Bubba.

I work with the boys in Buddy's room or in the school room at the little table or on the futon.

I have also been trying to include more regular chores in our day. I have instituted some of Jessica's ideas of Our Family For His Glory for having "helpers" doing Mom's chores. Bubba and Buddy have been helping me with the laundry. Each one gets to take a turn for the day. Buddy (5yrs) brings the kids laundry basket to me and separates out the clothes into the laundry bins. Bubba (2 yrs) helps put the clothes in the washing machine and into the dryer. Buddy does a great job folding his and little brothers clothes and putting them away in the drawers. They often help me do the laundry first thing in the morning. I try and get a load in the washer and in the dryer first thing. That way I can keep ahead of it.

The other thing that takes more time from my over sight of homeschooling is meal prep. Right now we are instituting a new special diet for Buddy and it is very time consuming to create meals for him (imagine lots of complicated multi-ingredient dishes, multiple pot dishes, and lots of dirty dishes to then wash). BUT it is worth it because we ARE seeing improvement in his health and that is really what matters!!! (Even though Mom is falling over from fatigue and brain fried)

Special Birthday cake

2011-08-19T14:27:00.001-05:00

I made a special Coconut Flour Orange Birthday cake for Buddy this weekend. If you want to know more about it go to my other blog here. Being on a special diet doesn't mean it is impossible to still have special food on those special days!

Buddy has multiple food allergies. We have started him on a new diet protocol called Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet aka GAPS Diet. You can read further about what we are doing with him here.

Buddy's Doorway Puppet Theater

2011-08-18T20:06:00.000-05:00

I just had to post a few more pictures of the kids enjoying the puppet theater. Squirt welcomed her brother into his room with our surprise. She sang Happy Birthday to him as the puppet from behind his new Puppet Theater.

Here is his sweet giggly smile as he watches.

Squirt gave him the sock puppets she made and then they did a show together! Best 20 bucks we spent in a long time. (That is what it costs for the materials for me to make the theater.)

Isn't it great having kids!

Doorway Puppet Theater

2011-08-18T15:31:00.001-05:00

This is Buddy's Birthday Present- a doorway puppet theater!

I used the project idea and instructions from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. I loved the ideas, and the projects are super cute. The instructions were horrible and I hate the elementary pencil line drawings that are in this book. This took me way longer than I expected due to the badly written instructions.

I made the case to go with it and that was the only easy part of the project.

But here it is!! I am really pleased with it and can't wait to see Buddy's reaction tonight when we give it to him. Squirt also made some handmade puppets to give him along side it. Happy 5th Birthday Buddy!!!!

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Student Photo Week

2011-08-17T19:49:00.000-05:00

It is the 3rd week of the Not Back to School Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter. Here is our family:

Squirt our 5th Grader (I can't believe I'm even saying that!! Time flies!)

Buddy the preschooler soon to be Kindergartner

Bubba the effervescent 2 year old.

Not Back to School Blog Hop- School Room Week

2011-08-09T21:04:00.000-05:00

This week is School Room Week in the Not Back to School Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter. Here are pictures of our School Room.

We are blessed to have an extra bedroom which we use as a School Room. It does also double as our guest room. So we have this futon in there which is lovely for reading together on.

Squirt works at her desk or on her bed in her room. We were given this secretary desk and it works so wonderfully in that little spot. She can close it when she is not working and keep the little guys hands out of her stuff. And when it is open she has lots of space to work.

Buddy and Bubba work at this little table.

All our school books and supplies are kept on the shelves or in the closet.

Of course you never seem to have enough shelf space when you homeschool!

These are the main bulk of Squirt's school books and supplies for 2011-2012

The closet also houses other items for Hubby and I's use such as sewing supplies etc. But we have a visitor so I am not taking a picture of that. Just in vision messy organization (oxymoron that it is).

We have a couple of computers and about three more desks in the school room.

This wooden one was Squirt's since her 1st grade year. It is waiting to be used next by Buddy.

We use every inch of wall space in our school room! Display everything we can and build our timeline.

And there it is in all it's humbleness.

Blessings,

Edie

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Curriculum Week

2011-08-01T21:53:00.001-05:00

So it is once again time for the Not Back to School Blog Hop at Heart of the Matter. This week is Curriculum Week, so I get to share with you what we will be using for the 2011-2012 school year.

We will be picking up where we left off in May with the same curriculum. We started a new curriculum midyear last year, so we will continue on with it until finished (probably around January also) and then go to the next Program in their series.

I will be using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven for my almost five year old and then continue on with their next Program- Little Hearts for His Glory using the Kindergarten package in the new year of 2012.

You can read about the specifics of Little Hands to Heaven in my post here.

For this year we will be using Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory program for Squirt, my 5th grader. It includes everything I need to teach her. Here is my original post with the specs for what is known in Heart of Dakota shorthand as PHFHG.

or Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory.
This is a program designed for students ages 8-10 with other added books which can extend that up to 11 or 12 (we are doing the expected 8-10 age group books). This year's study will give a broad overview of world history starting with Creation and ending in the late 1900's. (We stopped in May at Christ's Resurrection.)

Preparing Hearts for His Glory Guide (PHFHG) is not just a Teacher's Manual. It is designed to be shared between the student and the teacher. It has Independent Work instructions written directly to the student as well as instructions to the teacher.

This guide includes History, Poetry, Dictation, Spelling, Literature, Bible Study, & Science. It has schedules for recommended Language and Math which are Rod & Staff English, Heart of Dakota's Drawn Into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR) & Singapore Math.

The full list of all the books that come in the program you can find in my post here. Squirt has completed about 19 weeks already of the 36 week program of PHFHG. She will use Rod and Staff English 2 and 3 this year and Singapore Math 4A & 4B.

You can read about our experiences with Heart of Dakota in my posts tagged HOD, PHFHG, or LHTH.

Blessings!

Edie

Newest Happenings in My House

2011-07-31T22:20:00.002-05:00

This summer is flying by! I can't believe August is almost here!!!

If you have been wondering about what we have been doing (other than sewing), here is a little update.

I have been spending my summer learning about cooking and implementing a new diet protocol for our middle son. He has multiple complex food and environmental allergies. I posted about it on my other blog here.

So for now, because of how much time, money, and learning it is requiring me (and it is ALLLOTT!), we will probably be starting our school year after Labor Day this year. This has been the first year in about two years that I have not schooled through the summer. But after having such a challenging year emotionally, spiritually, and physically, Mom (ME!) needed a break. I have been making my brain hurt learning about this new diet. But I trust that it is where the Lord is directing our family next. And I pray that it might be part of the path that the Lord uses to bring complete healing of our little Buddy.

So if you don't see me around much... just know I am off learning a whole lot, cooking long hours in my kitchen, sewing an occasional project, and whole heartedly crying out to God for direction and assistance.

Until later,

Edie

Nursing Covers now for sale!

2011-07-29T14:29:00.002-05:00

I am now offering handmade nursing covers for sale.

To read about the details go to my newest page Purchase One of My Handmade Nursing Covers.

Below is a reprint of the page.

(But I will not be updating this post in the future. For updates see the actual page link listed above.)

These nursing covers are easy to tuck into a diaper bag; made out of cute easy-to-clean cotton and mean no more tugging down blankets and fighting with little fingers trying to flip the blanket off. Easy privacy and coverage for feeding your little one! They have an adjustable cloth strap and boning at the neck that holds away from your throat to allow air flow and visibility of your baby for you, while providing privacy. I know I wish I had found these back when my little ones were still infants!

I've had a number of friends and family members who liked these nursing covers enough that they suggested I offer them for sale to others. More pictures to come, as I update this page.

I am gathering a stock of fabric and now have enough supplies to offer these nursing covers for sale. Fabric swatches are listed below and I will continue to update this page as my cloth stock changes. I will be making them to order. They are 20 U.S. dollars each plus shipping. Shipping first class mail in the continental U.S. is usually around three dollars. If you are interested in purchasing one from me drop me an email at quietlyrunningtherace@gmail.com. I will be accepting paypal dollars, check or money order. All covers are made out of 100% cotton and are machine washable on delicate.

Fabric currently available-

Brown Striped Nursing Cover

Blue flower on brown background (Robert Kaufman Fabric)

Purple Batik (has a slight washed crumpled look similar to a light tie-dye or acid wash)

Red Print

Black and White Three Stooges Print

I will be updating this as my fabrics change in the future.

For an additional cost: You may also go to your local Hancock Fabrics or their website http://www.hancockfabrics.com/ and choose a cotton fabric. I will check my local Hancock Fabrics and let you know if it is available for purchase in my local store. The additional fee will vary depending on the fabric that you choose.

Newest Sewing Project

2011-07-01T23:22:00.001-05:00

Today I spent some time making two nursing cover ups. I found the tutorial here. For one cover up, it took a yard of nice cotton fabric, one package of D rings, 16" of boning and matching thread. Here is what I came up with. I love this fabric! (Kind of wish I had bought more than two yards of it.) I can't believe they sell these things for around 40 dollars! It cost one fourth that to make. It was not very hard, even for a beginner like me.

Here is a close up of the fabric.

Here are a couple other projects I completed this week.

And this one that I did Chicken Scratch embroidery on the bottom. I used these stitch ideas and created my own design. I embroidered on cotton gingham cloth with embroidery floss, employing the use of an embroidery hoop.

Here is a close up of the bottom of the apron.

Squirt also embroidered an apron. I made the apron and she embroidered the hem and the waistband.

Here is a close up of her waistband.

And a close up of her hem.

Now off to try my hand at baby bibs and burp cloths! (Can you tell many of my friends are having or just had babies?)

My first successful sewing project!

2011-06-27T19:36:00.001-05:00

This past week I was blessed with five whole days to spend away at my dear friends home along with my dear daughter. My sweet husband held down the fort with the boys while Squirt and I drove 4 1/2 hours south to stay with friends. She had a great week of worship dance camp and playing with friends; while I was blessed by great fellowship, encouragement, prayer, sharing, and sewing lessons! I learned so much this week and my friend V is a great teacher and encourager!! Here is one of the two items of clothing I completed this past week. And as she encouraged me to say "I am well pleased!"

I learned that next to a sewing machine and good scissors the iron is a seamstress' best friend. I learned about finishing seams, ironing everything (including the pattern), pinning fabric, copying patterns, reading patterns, gathering, topstitching, darts, and so much more. I am so thankful for all that I learned and so excited to do more in the future. I also made a cute pair of flat front shorts for Squirt, but no picture yet.

I was given The Complete Photo Guide to Sewing. It is incredibly helpful for this visual learner. This is a great resource but I am learning to use it more as an encyclopedia to reference, otherwise you can get overwhelmed by the information in it. There is so much terminology in sewing that I felt incredibly daunting at first. But you have to learn everything one step at a time. So I am eating my elephant one bite at a time and starting to really enjoy it, thanks to many sweet friends and much encouragement.

I am enjoying my summer projects and a little break from homeschooling. We will start again before I know it!

Happy Summer!!!

Blessings

2011-06-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

This songs speaks volumes

Adventures in Sewing

2011-06-09T00:26:00.000-05:00

For one of my summer projects I have decided to embark on learning to sew. I spent Memorial Day weekend with our sweet friends in another city and had fun hanging at the local Hancock's Fabric buying patterns, material and scissors. Got home and pulled out the 1 Hour Easy Pattern from McCall's. Now mind you, I had bought 8 yards of 3 Stooges fabric for 50 cents a yard to practice on. Of course, it is appropriate for my first project; because when I was done with the so-called shorts this is what they looked like!

Anyone else the see the problems? They were wide enough to fit me, and long enough for me, but the rear could have fit my 4 1/2 year old, and the pattern that I was following was suppose to be for a children's 7-8!!

I felt ready to thrown in the towel and say I was not meant to sew. I felt dejected and overwhelmed. But I picked up the phone and called my sweet friend for advice. She wisely told me to look at a pair of my favorite shorts, turn them inside out and look at how they fit together. So I did that and still felt dumbfounded! Then I prayed. I said, "God show me!" And all of a sudden I could see what I had done wrong. I had put the pieces together upside down. I had sown the legs together for the body and the body for the legs.

My point in all this is, God cares about even the little details of our lives and wants to be involved. All we have to do is ask. The Bible says that all wisdom comes from Him. So if I need wisdom, then it makes sense to ask the one who has ALL Wisdom.

So here is the finished project. And guess what? It looks like a pair of shorts should.

Remember

2011-06-05T23:38:00.002-05:00

I am remembering our sweet Chloe Marie our first child and first daughter born September 7 many years ago. She was born with ARPKD and lived for an hour. The videos below are 3 parts of a video that shares Todd & Angie Smith's story of their Audrey Caroline born and died April 7, 2008. She was born with the same kidney disease that our daughter was born with.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

In all things God will orchestrate so He will get the glory!

Dancing With Joy

2011-06-04T21:11:00.000-05:00

Our daughter has been dancing since she could move her little feet. This is her fifth year of ballet and each year is a new experience for her and for us. Here is our dear sweet girl in her most recent ballet production- Snow White. She was a Squirrel. We are very proud of you Squirt!!

PHFHG Timeline

2011-06-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to post these pictures but I keep having problems with glare. I have a very sunny school room; and we covered each timeline piece with contact paper (for future preservation) and then taped it to the wall. But because of the sunny room and the contact paper, I have found it almost impossible to get a picture I was fully happy with. But better than no documentation, I guess not so great pictures will suffice. Squirt has done a wonderful job on her timeline pieces. Here is her work thus far

Creation to Ancient Egypt

Hammurabi to Trojan War

King David to Assyria Conquers Israel

Babylon Conquers Judah to Alexander the Great

And a few close ups of her most recent timeline pieces (not pictured on the wall above yet)

Hannibal Crosses the Alps & Julius Caesar

Birth of Christ & Caesar Augustus

Death and Resurrection of Christ

Oatmeal Cookie Granola

2011-05-27T14:19:00.001-05:00

I have a new recipe at my other blog. Go check it out! Soooooo yummy. Aand you don't have to make it gluten free if you don't need too.

My Little Joys

2011-05-15T00:02:00.001-05:00

A Crisis of Faith

2011-05-12T00:08:00.000-05:00

This past ten days have been the hardest days I have ever walked through in my Christian walk. I had a life changing encounter with the Lord at 18 and plunged forward to never look back. But for the first time in all those years I really began to struggle with doubt and found myself questioning God and His power.

Over the past ten years whenever we have faced the loss of a child, up until now, I was always able to have faith and trust that God's answer "No" to our prayers was His will and that I could trust that He knew best. But this time facing that "No" for the fifth time was almost more than I could take. I found myself standing in prayer, reading the Bible, seeking His Presence, and coming up with a hollow empty sound gonging back at me. And in the echo of silence I began to question my faith and my God. To the point that I was hurting so greatly from the loss of another sweet baby and another answer of "No" to our requests. I was angry and hurting- aching with pain and loss. But most of all I felt that God had failed me. That I had believed in faith. I had asked and believed that He could heal and would return to life our little child, and He didn't. I spent about three days just consumed by pain and hurt and wanting to shake my fist at the Lord and say WHY!!! IT'S NOT FAIR!! But thankfully three days of pain and a huge pity-party was all it took.

I found myself standing in the shower one morning and asking myself IF I felt He had let me down; then why didn't I just say I was done trusting and believing in Him. And then be ready to walk away and just live my life, considering that He wasn't worthy of my trust and service. But then I took that a step further and realized that would really be IMPOSSIBLE for me to do that. Because I have felt His Presence, I have heard His Voice, I have been washed in His Love, and I have rested my head in His Lap. I can not deny that HE IS REAL and that in reality I could NEVER live my life apart from Jesus. So I admitted my hurt, I prayed and repented and told Jesus all that I felt, including that I was angry with Him and I felt that He had let me down and I felt that His answer was unfair. Then, I finally felt a peace I hadn't had in almost a week. And I sat down that night and read my Bible and these are some of the scriptures that I read.

Isaiah 43:1b-3a "Don't be afraid, for I have ransomed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up- the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, Your Savior, the Holy One of Israel."

And I began to realize, God did not leave me. He did not let me down. His answer was not the answer that I wanted, but He did not let me down. He kept His word to always be with me.

And then last night in answer to my declaration that He was not fair I read this-
Psalm 145:17-18 " The Lord is fair in everything He does and full of kindness. He is close to all who call on Him."

And He reminded me that all that He is doing in my life is according to His plan. And it is a preparation and not a punishment. So I can hold on to God's unfailing hand when the times of pressure come and know that He is preparing me for His purposes and they are for good. (Jeremiah 29:11).

I know that He will heal my heart in time, just as He has in the past. I know that He is worthy of my trust. And when I see Him face to face in heaven, I will understand all the reasons why. Until that day, I will walk in obedience and trust that the answer to why is- "because He loves me and has a good plan for my life."

Homemade Granola

2011-05-10T19:41:00.001-05:00

We love granola in our house but buying gluten free granola is a challenge. So here is my basic recipe. The beauty of making granola is that there is no wrong way to do it. You can add whatever you like within certain ratios and, viola!, personalized to your taste.

3 cups gluten free rolled oats (I buy mine here in bulk.) or regular old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raw pecan halves
1/8 cup golden flax seeds
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 large pinch of salt

Mix dry ingredients together. Then add in wet ingredients-
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup oil of choice (I like coconut oil or safflower oil. Choose a neutral oil.)
1 tsp vanilla (I buy alcohol free here)

Mix wet with dry ingredients and spread out onto large cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir after fifteen minute intervals. Take out of oven and let cool on cooling rack. At this point add any dried fruit you desire. I add 1/2 cup of raisins. I don't like my raisins baked with the granola, I think they get a weird off-taste to them. Let mixture cool completely and store in an airtight container or zip-top bag. Makes 9 servings (1/2 cup size).

You can add whatever kind of raw unsalted nuts you like and whatever dried fruits you choose. You can also exchange the maple syrup for honey or another sweetener like rice syrup if you like. I plan to try out some other derivations in the future and I can post my results later.

Asking Why

2011-05-09T00:14:00.000-05:00

Once again the Lord has called us to walk through the valley of loss. Just weeks ago I was looking forward to sharing our news when I passed the end of the first trimester. But it was not God's plan for it to be that way. Yesterday, we buried yet another baby, our little Faith Jordan. She joins her siblings Chloe Marie and Nathaniel James and one other little one we never saw. Mother's Day has been bittersweet today, as I look at the three blessings the Lord has allowed us to raise, I am thankful. But my heart aches for the four little ones that the Lord chose to take home to be with Him. Other times it has seemed easier to accept His will. This time it feels harder. I know that He is a God that loves me and chooses best, according to His plan. I know He sees the big picture and He knows the reasons why. But sometimes I just wish He would let me in on that. Yet each time I ask Him, the answer I get is "Be still and know that I am God". So I walk in faith, with my heart aching and my eyes filled with tears, trusting that the God who made the universe is worthy of my trust, that He knows exactly what He is doing, and that it is for good.

Preparing Highlights Unit 16-17

2011-04-28T21:41:00.002-05:00

Here is my final Unit Highlights, for now.

Unit 16

Poetry

Science Experiment

Answering the question "Why do stars look like they are twinkling?"

History Project

Amphora

Unit 17

History Project

Pouch with coins in it.

This denarius was suppose to be made with a bread and glue dough. But the dough didn't work well for us, so Squirt made hers simply out of brown construction paper.

Preparing Highlights from Unit 14-15

2011-04-28T21:31:00.000-05:00

I'm working on getting caught up on documenting Squirt's progress through PHFHG. These are not complete by any means, but just (as usual) give a glimpse into our day and some of the things she does using HOD.

Unit 14

Science

Science Experiment

Asking "How does the body design of a dinosaur effect its balance?"

History

Silk Moth

Poetry

Illustrating Robert Lewis Stevenson's poem My Kingdom

Unit 15

Science

History Project

(research and build a trireme, then see if it floats)

Poetry

Preparing Highlights Unit 10-13

2011-04-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

More Highlights from Squirt's work in PHFHG. These are from Units 10-13.

Unit 10

Science

History

Poetry

Unit 11

History

Narration

Unit 12

History

Unit 13

History

(revealing the hidden writing)

Science Experiment

Answering the question "what would a dinosaur egg look like & feel like?"

Soaked a chicken egg over night in vinegar. (She loved it!)

Poetry

Preparing Unit 9 Highlights

2011-04-28T20:57:00.000-05:00

Here are highlights from Unit 9 of PHFHG.

Poetry-

Original Poem- (Autumn Fires writing activity)

History

Science Experiment (to see why water disappears so quickly in the desert.)

Preparing Highlights Units 5-8

2011-04-28T20:47:00.002-05:00

Here are simply pictures that highlight some of Squirt's work from PHFHG Units 5, 6, 7, & 8. I didn't always remember to take pictures, but hopefully this gives a little glimpse into some of the things she gets to do.

Science- She worked on this drawing from Unit 5 through to Unit 9.

And the Narration

Drawings from Unit 7 History

Plague of Frogs

Moses in the Red Sea

Quail

The Ark of the Covenant

Her Written Narration for Unit 7

Unit 8 History

Map of Canaan Divided Between the Tribes

David

Resurrection Cookies

2011-04-20T20:05:00.001-05:00

This is a favorite in our house. When you ask my kids what they do for Easter they say "make Resurrection Cookies!!" It is a beautiful way to go through His death on the cross and to celebrate His return to life. They look forward to it every year.

I wanted to post this early so if you have never done this and would like to here is the recipe. (We usually read more scriptures than what is listed.)

Resurrection Cookies

To be made the evening before Easter

	1cup whole pecans
	1 tsp vinegar
	3 egg whites
	pinch salt
	1 cup sugar
	zipper baggie
	wooden spoon
	tape
	Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important, don't wait till you're half done with the recipe!)

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was Beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1tsp vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar.

Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matthew 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matthew 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.

Rice Lasagna

2011-04-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

I posted a new recipe that I thought would be useful to many. Check it out at my other blog.

Make Your Own Yummy Whole Wheat Bread

2011-03-24T17:17:00.002-05:00

I have probably made this recipe hundreds of times now. If you ever wanted to make your own homemade bread now is the time. I am blessed with a Bosch Nutrimill which makes amazing finely ground whole wheat flour. This is much finer than any whole wheat flour you can find in the store and contains the bran and germ as well. So all the healthiest stuff is still there. I made four loaves of wheat bread for years with my Bosch Compact Mixer. Then when my Compact broke, the company sent me a replacement which was a 750 watt Bosch Universal Mixer. I now can make six loaves at one time rather than four. (With a growing family, that is always a nice option.)

So here is my recipe with as much visuals as I could provide for six loaves of whole wheat bread. If you already have a strong mixer, then you can try the four loaf recipe first. You can find that recipe here. I found in the past that my Kitchenaid Mixer with dough hook did not have the motor strength to knead such a heavy bread dough. I wouldn't recommend using a regular Kitchenaid, but possibly a mixer that is considered "professional grade" or something like it might hold up.

I will say that you will not achieve the same texture and softness I get if you try and use simply store-bought whole wheat flour. Store-bought whole wheat flour is a larger grind and has the germ and the bran removed. If you are serious about wanting to make excellent 100% whole wheat flour bread for your family and save money in the long run then buy a Bosch Nutrimill and mill your own wheat. You will be glad that you did. My bread costs a little over a dollar a loaf to make and that is because I use as much organic ingredients as I can. I have been making my own bread for about four years now and the money that we have saved on pizza and bread has more than paid for the mixer and Nutrimill many times over.

So here is the way I make bread.

Whole Wheat Bread (Six Loaves)

5 1/2 cups of very warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees)

2 Tbsp Salt

2/3 cup Olive Oil (I use Braggs Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

2/3 cup honey (buy local in bulk if you can, I do)

7 cups freshly ground red winter wheat flour

3 Tbsp Saf Instant Yeast

7-8 more cups of flour (for second half of mixing)

Add 5 1/2 cups of warm water into bowl of your mixer. Add in salt, olive oil, and honey. If you measure oil first in your measuring cup and then measure out the honey in the same cup, then the honey will not stick to the sides of the measuring cup. Pour in 7 cups of flour and on top of the flour add your yeast. It will look like this-

Pulse the machine to combine the ingredients. It should look something like this afterwards.

Cover and let rise for 20 minutes. (Set your timer and walk away.)

After 20 minutes your mixture should look something like this-

Replace the cover and stir down by just pulsing your machine one or two times. Then turn the machine on low (On my Bosch it is setting 1) and gradually add in more flour. Add one cup of flour at a time and allow it to fully incorporate before adding the next cup. You should add flour one cup at a time until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl, somewhere about 6-8 cups. How much flour you add depends on the temperature and humidity of the day. Don't think of this part so much as measuring but simply adding enough flour to get to the consistency you need the dough to be. If you add too little your dough will be very sticky. If you add too much your dough will be very dense and your bread will not rise well and the finished product will be dense and dry.

The finished dough should look something like this-

(I added 7 1/4 cups of flour this time)

Put the lid on the mixer and turn on to setting 1 (low). Let knead for 4 minutes.

Should look like this when the four minutes is up. (if you over knead it, the dough will start to kind of look more like the picture before this.)

Pour out onto to OILED surface. I pour about 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil onto my counter top and spread it around with my hand into a large circle. I then use my oiled hands to pull the dough out of the mixer bowl and off of the dough hook. I then pull the corners of the dough lump to form a large ball. It will look like this-

Cut the dough into six equal portions.

Turn the sections oily side up and

in your hands push the corners toward the center

of the ball to form balls of equal size and weight.

Working each ball individually, flip the dough ball over and press out.

Then roll the pizza shaped dough into a cylinder starting from the back.

Place it seam side down and tuck in the right and left edges to form rounded sides.

Place into greased bread pan. (I use Pam Olive Oil Spray)

Cover and let rise until double in size (about 30 minutes depending on the temperature of the day).

I use tea towels.

Here is a side view before they rose

And AFTER they rose.

Place in 350 degree preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes. Bake until golden brown and sounds hollow when thumped. (If you have problems with your bread cooking too fast on the outside but are still gooey in the middle then start with a cold oven. Place the bread in the oven and turn it to 350 and bake for about 20 minutes or until brown and sounds hollow when thumped.)

I can only fit four loaves, so I cover the other two with plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator until the first batch is done.

Turn out of pans onto cooling racks and let cool until just warm to the touch. If you like soft crust then bag them while slightly warm or for firm crust let cool completely and then bag.

We save one to eat right away and then freeze the rest for later use. I take out a loaf when we are ready for it and let it sit at room temperature to defrost. Will be almost just as fresh as when it came out of the oven!

ENJOY!!!

Notes- These are ingredients I use and places I buy from:

I buy all of these items from here.

Wheat Montana Hard Red Winter Wheat 50 Lbs bags known at Bronze Chief from here. You need to buy Hard Winter Wheat, Soft Wheat will not make good bread. I store my grain in 5 gallon buckets with Gamma Seal Lids.

Braggs Organic Olive Oil

Red Saf Instant yeast (the red star and other brands I have tried just don't have as nice a flavor in the bread and don't seem to be as reliable in their leavening power)

More February Highlights

2011-03-13T20:16:00.000-05:00

Here are more pictures from our February and last week of January. There are more still to come! Buddy had a lovely time with LHTH. He enjoyed acting out being Abraham and feeding the "Visitors" heading to Sodom and Gomorrah.

He made his tent with a towel. (You can see it in the background). And he got to feed his visitors play and real food (dried apricots). But since they could not really eat them, he said he would eat them for them (too cute!).

Buddy also enjoyed practicing his letter writing. Writing in salt was a big hit! He was able to replicate it later with a marker on paper. We will be practicing more letters this way!!!

I wrote about Unit 6 of PHFHG here. But I wanted to post pictures of the Honey Cakes and also share what we did to make one batch gluten free.

My kiddos loved making and eating the Egyptian Honey Cakes.

Squirt mixing in butter with flour mixture (we used my home-ground red wheat flour)

Rolling out Honey Cake

Finished cakes waiting to be baked

Baked Wheat Honey Cake

I also used the same recipe from my PHFHG Guide and substituted my Rice Flour Mix instead of wheat flour. Here are pictures of those. It was painful to me to use so much honey between the two batches. But I chalked it up to educational expenses and tried not to think about it.

Gluten Free Honey Cakes ready to bake. (The dough was very soft and not easy to really roll well)

Baked Gluten Free Honey Cakes (I think I baked them a little too long.)

February Highlights

2011-03-12T11:45:00.000-06:00

I took a hiatus from blogging in February. So these are pictures of some of the things my kiddos did in LHTH and PHFHG (plus Bubba just joining in wherever). I will add another post when I get a chance to scan some of Squirt's work. I realized I didn't take many pictures after all.....

Bubba loves all the preschool toys!

Unit 7 History Project

Unit 9 Science Experiment

Letter D project

Chocolate Cake

2011-03-10T17:36:00.001-06:00

I have been very busy and trying to manage my time a little better. We have had colds and viruses running through our house for weeks, my local homeschool convention last week and many other things. I plan to put a very long highlights post when I get a chance. In the mean time, go check out my newest discovery of a delicious Chocolate Cake Recipe that anyone can make and you can even make it gluten free. You will find it at my other blog.

http://quietlyrunningtherace.blogspot.com/2011/03/gluten-free-chocolate-cake.html

PHFHG Week In Review

2011-01-29T20:04:00.001-06:00

Highlights from our week!

We started (finally) Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. For the first genre I chose Adventure and the book The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla. Squirt was very excited. We started DITHOR on Friday and she read the first chapter in the book. She can't wait to read more next week. I plan on only doing DITHOR 2-3 times a week (as suggested in my Teaching Manual aka "Guide").

Squirt basically finished Unit 6 of Preparing Hearts for His Glory. She also completed her experiment from Unit 5. We will do the experiment and cooking project from Unit 6 next week. I hope to make two batches of the Egyptian pastries, one with wheat flour and one with my rice flour mix, that way everyone can enjoy them that day.

We've continued to enjoy reading Grandpa's Box. She's getting better with written narration, thanks to great guidance from the HOD Guide.

Tirzah has been laid aside for night-time reading with Dad. (The chapters were longer and I was having a hard time getting through it before the little boys were interrupting.) It is a great book though! Not to be missed.

Squirt did the experiment from Unit 5 which asked "How does the waxy covering of the desert cactus help it store water?" Here she is with the finished project. The cactus on the left dried out completely while the cactus in the "waxy covering" on the right stayed moist.

She studied Robert Lewis Stevenson's poem "Summer Sun" and learned about personification this week. She wrote her own poem using that poem as a guide and created a poem about the moon with the elements of personification. It was titled "Winter Moon". (hmmm spelling to be corrected next time)

She created a crook for her History Project. (And reminded me that I need to watch that she follows directions completely. She was suppose to leave the aluminum foil top of the crook plain shiny foil, but she failed to pay attention to the directions and painted the whole thing.)

Here are samples from her Independent History Study. (If you can't read it well click on it to see it bigger.)

Sphinx

Joseph

No pictures for Science Exploration this week. More to come next week.

Little Hands Week in Review

2011-01-29T19:04:00.000-06:00

We have completed the last day of Unit 2 and Days 1-3 of Unit 3 of Little Hands to Heaven. Buddy is really enjoying his preschool. I asked him if he wanted to include little brother, and of course he wanted his special time all to himself. So we wait to do preschool (LHTH) until Bubba is down for his nap. Buddy has just recently stopped napping, so we let our afternoons be a little bit more relaxed than before.

I just love how sweet and gentle Heart of Dakota is and how much my little guy is learning at the same time. It is just the right amount right now for him. I am letting him guide me in the speed and we are both having a lovely time.

Buddy learned the letter C and the number 3 this week. We read about the Tower of Babel and made towers and counted blocks (I forgot to take out the camera that day). We read about Abraham leaving his homeland with his family; and he and Lot parting ways and Lot choosing the best for himself. And then we learned about God's promises to Abraham.

Buddy cut out 3 suitcases for his number 3 page.

He enjoyed cutting out C-C-Cloth to put on
his letter C. And no bed-head! I gave him that haircut that is as close to a crew-cut as I could get with the scissors. ( He will not allow the shears aka "buzzers" anywhere near his head.)

My little ham! (Love that one eyebrow look.)

And He reeeeeally enjoyed driving his cars around the letter C.

PHFHG Week In Review

2011-01-22T00:24:00.003-06:00

This week we finished up the science experiment from Unit 4 and the rest of Unit 5. We are continuing on in Rod and Staff 2 and Singapore Math 3B. We will begin Drawn Into the Heart of Reading this week.

We are continuning to read together from A Child's History of the World. (Vocabulary & Research topics have been drawn from this as well as Geography and timeline work)

We are continuing reading in Grandpa's Box.

And have begun reading Tirzah.

Below are samples from Squirt's Independent work.

She's done creative writing through poetry and written her own poem based on "A Good Play" by Robert Lewis Stevenson. She's memorized "A Good Play" for Poetry. And I recorded a video of her saying it from memory.

She's memorized Psalm 127:3-4 using the Lead Me to the Rock CD
And copied it into her Common Place Book.

She made three more timeline pieces. (Pictures to come)

Squirt did an experiment (completely on her own) to figure out how cactus spines help cacti to stay cooler in the desert heat. Here is her cactus.

She is reading the 5,000 Year Old Puzzle for Independent History Study. She drew a sarcophagus and pyramid. Here are samples of her work from that with Draw and Write Through History.

And her completed mammoth from a while back

And she made a cartouche for her History Project out of air dry clay and wrote Hatshepsut on it. Then she rubbed paint into the etching to make it stand out.

And finally one of her Science Exploration sheets.

She will do the experiment from Unit 5 next week and move on to Unit 6.

LHTH Week in Review

2011-01-21T23:57:00.000-06:00

This week we did more of Unit 2 of LHTH with Buddy. He enjoyed working on writing the letter B and counting to five while placing blocks on his letter B.

He learned about Noah's Ark and the rainbow and enjoyed cutting color paper and making a rainbow collage.

The Guide said to tear the paper, but I thought this would be another great time for Buddy to practice using scissors. Please ignore the terrible bed head. (he got a haircut last night).

Finished work of art!!

HOD PHFHG Week in Review

2011-01-15T14:08:00.001-06:00

We had fun this week with HOD!!! I am posting the kids weeks separately since Squirt's is so long.

Squirt finished Unit 3 and almost all of Unit 4 of Preparing this week. She will do the experiment from Unit 4 on Monday, as she completed the experiment for Unit 3 this week. Here are the highlights of her week.

She made a clay Great Ice Age map complete with labeling flags, great ice walls, and painted water. We were short on playdough, so she made it flat. Then she used acrylic paint to paint the bodies of water and then added white paper to represent the ice walls. Here is her project in two stages. She took three days to complete it.

She also did an experiment with water. She had to answer the question "Why do caterpillars and insects not freeze during the winter in the Arctic Tundra?" She put a 1/2 tsp salt in one compartment of water and a 1/2 tsp of sugar in another. The third she left plain water. The guide said to use an ice cube tray, but we don't own any. This was my closest substitution- a mini-muffin tin. Here are pictures of what she did and her lab sheet.

She did label the tray in her picture differently than the real tray, but the labels were all there just in a different order.

Here is her work from her Classifying Living Things. The picture doesn't do it justice as the page was bigger than what my scanner could scan. The top of the page says Revelation 4:11. (I noticed I need to work on proofing her spelling and correct copying of things more in her Independent work.) I thought her drawings were lovely!

Here is her work for her Independent History Study in Draw and Write Through History.

And here is her illustration for Poetry this week.

Just one more to tack on that I didn't scan from Unit 3. Here is one of her Sceince Exploration pages from last week.

LHTH Week In Review

2011-01-15T13:57:00.000-06:00

We had fun this week with HOD!!!

Buddy enjoyed his time in Little Hands. We are in Unit 2. We finished Days 1-3 this week. We have not done LHTH every day. But here is what Buddy did do this week.

He giggled his way through the Noah's Big Boat fingerplay. He loved making the animal sounds, especially the Bison that says "snort".

He glued cottonballs to the letter B and then painted them with B-B- Blue and B-B-Brown.

He also got to do his first science experiment! He loved every minute of it! He had to guess what things would float or sink. Here is his hypothesis.

Then he did the experiment.

And here was his conclusion after he placed each item in the bowl to see if it did float or sank. He chose to leave the cottonball in the sink category because, even though it floated initially, once it go water logged it sank.

Buddy learned the letter B and worked to identify it in his Hide And Seek B page. He also learned about the number two and cut out 2 hands to place on his Number Two page for his Number Book.

HOD PHFHG Week in Review

2011-01-10T22:28:00.000-06:00

We've had a busy but productive week last week. Buddy didn't do any formal school this week. We were busy with doctor appointments, chiropractor appointments and staying afloat in the world of life.

Squirt finished Unit 3 of Preparing Hearts for His Glory. Here are the highlights.

Squirt with her cave paintings- (mammoth and buffalo)

Buddy and his cave painting. He wouldn't stand still so I took a still picture of just the painting too. He was having a very wiggly-silly day (thus the silly face).

And Bubba joined in the school room too! He has discovered the Lauri peg board and pegs.

Squirt worked on drawing a mammoth for her Independent History Study one day.
She plans to complete the background this week. But I thought it was really good.

And finally here is Squirt's illustration of Unit 3's poem "Rain" by Robert Louis Stevenson

Week in Review

2010-12-21T15:18:00.001-06:00

Well, I am a little behind in posting things from our school week. Last Tuesday night, while making dinner, I cut off a good chunk of my left index finger. So I had to do the rest of the school week rather differently. I spent most of Wednesday on pain meds and trying to sleep off the worst of it, while my sweet hubby held down the fort.

But despite all that, here is our week from Unit 2 of HOD PHFHG. We got one day of LHTH finished.

Finishing up LHTH Unit 1- Buddy learned about Cain and Abel. He practiced drawing capital A and lowercase a. He drew caterpillars in boxes and we counted to five. He learned how to write the number one and identify it by sight. And found the letter a in his Hide and Seek A page.

He enjoyed listening (as always) to the selection from the Singing Bible.

He cut out a tree and glued it to his Number One page to start his number book. He is just learning to use scissors and to hold a pencil or crayon. I drew a big black square around the tree and he cut it out and pasted to his page.

While his sister worked on painting her rainbow for her History Project he enjoyed painting as well and articulated he was working on "mixing colors" too.

Here is what Squirt did in Unit 2 of HOD PHFHG.

We are continuing on with memorizing Psalm 1 using Lead Me to the Rock

We did another Robert Lewis Stevenson poem for poetry- "Bed in Summer."
Here is Squirt's illustration of the poem.

Reading Through History and Storytime have been a pleasure. We are reading Life in the Great Ice Age and The True Story of Noah's Ark.

Squirt had a great time with her History Project. She learned about cool and warm colors and color mixing. And then painted a background for a rainbow which she then completed using only red, green and blue paints to create the colors she needed.

We are all loving reading Life in the Great Ice Age.
Squirt is learning to do more thorough Charlotte Mason style oral narrations. She struggled a little the first week but kind of got the hang of it by the end of the second week. She did a great job on her written summary this week too.

Each week she learns geography skills, researches a topic and learns new vocabulary all tied in with the books we read in our Reading Through History time and Storytime. This week she researched flood stories; made a timeline piece; learned about the words- barge, ancestor and ancient; and reviewed geography information.

Here's a page from her Independent Science Exploration using primarily One Small Square: Arctic Tundra

For Independent History Study Squirt is mainly using Draw and Write Through History.

Here are her drawings from this week.

Squirt did two people. The drawing on the right was her first attempt. But she was unhappy with the product from her color blending for the skin, so she asked if she could start again. The one on the left is her second try. (I think they are both great!)

Noah's Ark

And then of course Squirt continued her work in Singapore Math, Rod and Staff English 2, dictation work, spelling, and creative writing exercises using her given poem for the week.

Little Joys

2010-12-10T20:42:00.000-06:00

We got to do a good portion of Unit 1 in Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven (LHTH). Buddy has listened in on his sister's reading and enjoyed listening to Bible readings from The Beginners Bible and The New Bible In Pictures for Little Eyes. He has done great answering and asking questions!

Buddy is learning about the letter A, the days of Creation, Adam & Eve, and the Fall.

Buddy really loves the Singing Bible CD and so do I.

We have just done the Letter Activities, Bible Reading, & Music this week. I hope to finish the rest of Unit 1 next week.

Buddy enjoyed walking a stuffed animal around the letter A. And then his sister joined him in tiptoeing, dancing, etc around the letter A.

One of the letter activities suggested gluing pasta or beans to the letter. Well, Buddy is allergic to legumes and gluten free rice pasta is EXPENSIVE. So I was not willing to use food. I thought about colored puffballs but didn't have any. (I need to restock my preschool art supplies.) But I did have lots of cotton balls. So that is what Buddy used. Then I thought it would be fun for him to make them colorful by painting them with his watercolors. Here are pictures from what he did.

The finished work!

A Breath of Fresh Air

2010-12-10T20:11:00.001-06:00

So I have heard more than one family who is using Heart of Dakota (HOD) say what a "breath of fresh air" it was in there homeschool. I thought they were just saying that. But HOD this week HAS been truly a breath of fresh air in our homeschool!!!! Here are the highlights from this week. We completed all of Unit 1 in Preparing Hearts for His Glory (PHFHG), but only did some of Unit 1 in Little Hands to Heaven (LHTH). I will post separately about Buddy's LHTH. We did take five days to complete the Unit (which is designed as a 4 day week). But I intend to continue keeping our weeks as 5 day weeks with a lighter work load on Fridays.

We have read from Grandpa's Box which teaches about so many bible truths, bible stories & is very sweetly written. Today at lunch I decided to try Carrie's scheduling idea and read during lunch from our Reading About History section (Grandpa's Box) and our Storytime reading (the Bible for today). It worked so well!!! The kids happily ate quietly while I read and then quickly chimed in when it was time to answer questions. The only issue for me is that I don't eat and read at the same time. So that would be an interesting question for those who do read during lunch- When does Mom eat?!

Squirt's History project has gone along with the readings from Grandpa's Box. She has learned about coats of arms. She got to see some samples of our family coats of arms and learned how to use our printed set of Encyclopedias. We went on Wikipedia and looked at a whole library of country coat of arms. Here is her completed Coat of Arms/ Shield of Faith. She chose not to add backing to it or a handle but to leave it so that it would still fit in her Notebook in a page protector.

Vocabulary words were also taken from the readings from Grandpa's Box and Squirt has been learning new words from the list, while continuing to strengthen her dictionary and research skills.

Bible memory work has been such a blessing! Squirt is memorizing Psalm 1. This week she worked on the first two verses using one of the best things HOD recommends- this CD by Kelly Crawford called Lead Me to the Rock. It was such a blessing to hear my daughter singing Psalm 1 Monday night as she got ready for dinner. (The only thing I wish is that the lyrics were in the NKJV or NIV. The music is sung in the KJV and it is usually not our family's choice of translations. That being said, God's Word is still His Word and is powerful in any translation!)

Science has been out of One Small Square: ArcticTundra.
I love how all her science is Independent. She gets the Teaching Guide and reads the instructions and completes her work. She has read a number of pages from this book, orally narrated to me about them and drawn a map and labeled it.

Then she followed instructions for a science experiment to discover "How Layers Help to Keep Animals Warm." She was so proud of herself that she did everything without my help and she had a great science lab sheet completed when she was done.

In Poetry we have been studying Robert Lewis Stevenson's The Swing. Squirt already knew this by heart but still really enjoyed the poetry writing exercise and then the opportunity to do something special with her poem at the end of the Unit. She chose to have me print it out and she illustrated it. Here is her work-

For this Unit Squirt has been using Draw and Write Through History (Creation through Jonah) for her Independent History Study. She reads the instructions and does all of the work by herself. Here are some samples of her drawings using this book.

Finally, we have continued on in Singapore 3B books and are working on chopping away at a condensed trip through Rod and Staff English 2. We hope to start English 3 in January, as well as Drawn into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR).

The Hour of Isolation

2010-12-07T09:47:00.003-06:00

I just had to share this timely word from David Wilkerson's email devotionals.
This so describes much of what I have been battling and I believe that it may encourage others too. I especially like what he says when he says "Isn’t it possible he lifts his hand for a short while to teach us trust and dependence?". May it encourage you as it has me this day that you are still in His will and are still His and your time of turmoil is part of His plan.

From David Wilkerson Today

THE HOUR OF ISOLATION

"I know what it is like to face divine silence, not to hear God’s voice for a season. I have walked through periods of total confusion with no apparent guidance, the still small voice behind me completely silent. There were times when I had no friend nearby to satisfy my heart with a word of advice. All my patterns of guidance from before had gone awry, and I was left in total darkness. I could not see my way, and I made mistake after mistake. I wanted to say, “O God, what has happened? I don’t know which way to go!”

Does God really hide his face from those he loves? Isn’t it possible he lifts his hand for a short while to teach us trust and dependence? The Bible answers
clearly: “God left him [Hezekiah], to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart” (2 Chronicles 32:31).

You may be going through a flood of trials right now. You know what I’m talking about when I say the heavens are as brass. You know all about repeated failures. You’ve waited and waited for answers to prayer. You’ve been served a cup of affliction. Nothing and nobody can touch that need in your heart!

That’s the time to take your stand! You don’t have to be able to laugh or rejoice, because you may not have any happiness at the moment. In fact, you may have nothing but turmoil in your soul. But you can know God is still with you, because Scripture says, “The Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever” (Psalm 29:10).

Soon you will hear His voice: Don’t get excited, don’t panic. Just keep your eyes on me. Commit all things to me. And you will know that you remain the object of his incredible love."

All Time Favorite Children's Books (First Post)

2010-12-05T22:20:00.000-06:00

I want to share with you one of my favorite children's books. It is called Good Morning Sweetie Pie: and Other Poems for Little Children by Cynthia Rylant. This book is a lovely collection of poems all written to the child and illustrated with beautiful watercolor pictures. My middle guy used to call it "Oatie O's" because the very first poem talks about a little guy being woken up from his dreams by his "dear-one" and eating "Oatie-O's". Cynthia is more well known for her Henry and Mudge series or Poppelton series. I have enjoyed so many of Cynthia Rylant's books over the years with my children, but this has to be my all time favorite. Lovely meter and sweet personal wording with sweet and gentle watercolors makes this book a joy to share over and over again.

The New Plan- Part 2 (Curriculum)

2010-12-02T16:25:00.000-06:00

So here are the new books we will be using in January. These should take our study all the way through to next December with our usual breaks (we school year round). It is a full year's program. This is just the rough overview of everything. I hope to post further about individual elements or books in the program.

For Squirt we will be using Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory.
This is a program designed for students ages 8-10 with other added books which can extend that up to 11 or 12 (we are doing the expected 8-10 age group books). This year's study will give a broad overview of world history starting with Creation and ending in the late 1900's.

Preparing Hearts for His Glory Guide (PHFHG) is not just a Teacher's Manual. It is designed to be shared between the student and the teacher. It has Independent Work instructions written directly to the student.

PHFHG Guide-

This guide includes History, Poetry, Dictation, Spelling, Literature, Bible Study, & Science. It also has schedules for recommended Language and Math which are Rod & Staff English, HOD DITHOR & Singapore Math.

For Literature Squirt will use Heart of Dakota's Drawn into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR) along with accompanying literature books

For Math we will continue with Singapore Math US Edition. She is currently in 3B and will move on to Level 4 after that.

For Grammar and Language we will use Intermediate Language Lessons and be transitioning into Rod & Staff's English 3.

Bible Study: The Bible along with Lead Me to the Rock CD (memory work will be from the Book of Psalms)

For Poetry, Squirt will be learning Robert Louis Stevenson Poems (which I just love!)

Science, History & Literature will include these books-

A Child's History of the World

Grandpa's Box

Life in the Great Ice Age

Hero Tales Vol. 1

One Small Square-Arctic Tundra

One Small Square- Cactus Desert

The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible

Find the Constellations

One Small Square-Coral Reef

Columbus by D'Aulaire

Who Was Leonardo da Vinci?

Pasteur's Fight Against Microbes

Albert Einstein-Young Thinker

Read Alouds for Storytime include-

The True Story of Noah's Ark

Tirzah

Classic Treasury of Aesop's Fables

Triumph for Flavius

Fountain of Life

Raiders of the Sea

Door in the Wall

The Wonderful Winter

The Family Under the Bridge

Twenty and Ten

Finally for Squirt's Independent History Study, she will use:
Noah's Ark, Noah's Flood

The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt

Draw and Write Through History- Creation through Jonah

The Young Christian's Introduction to the Bible by Charles Ryrie

Little Miriam of Galilee

Leif the Lucky by D'Aulaire

Pedro's Journal

William Shakespeare and the Globe

Mozart the Wonder Boy with Companion CD

The Little Riders

The Minstrel in the Tower

The New Plan- Part 1

2010-12-02T15:43:00.000-06:00

So here are the new books we will be using in January. These should take our study all the way through to next December with our usual breaks (we school year round). It is a full year's program.

For Buddy we will be using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven program which includes the books and CD below-

LHTH Guide

The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes

My ABC Bible Verses

The Singing Bible CD

Winds of Change

2010-11-21T15:28:00.000-06:00

Well, we have made a decision. We will no longer be using MFW come January. We will begin using Heart of Dakota for everyone starting after the holidays. It is something I never thought that I would say, but I am leaving My Father's World Curricula.

It has been a journey to get to this point, but I feel like it is where God is leading us right now. I first found Heart of Dakota through Jessica's blog and fell in love with what I saw going on in Kindergarten and Preschool. MFW doesn't have a formal preschool curriculum and I really felt like I needed something more open and go. I bought Little Hands to Heaven for my 4 year old son. Then decided just to check out, for curiosity's sake, what else Heart of Dakota offered.

I recieved a catalog, and found myself engrossed in it for over an hour. Everything I read was speaking to me and inside I was starting to feel excited and loving everything I was reading and discovering. I spent the past month reading up everything about HOD. I asked questions on the phone and via forums and boards. One of the main things I liked is how much more God's Word is woven through this curriculum. I love that each year builds on the next in skill level and encourages independence while providing a structure that guides independent work. I love that one of the goals is to teach our children how to have their own internal filter using God's Word as the base. I love so many things about what I saw I don't think I can put it all together yet in words. And then I prayed that the Lord would provide the funds and give me a peace if it was His will.

The funds came and I ordered the Teacher's Manual for Preparing Hearts For His Glory. I got the Manual this week and dug through it for hours looking at everything. I prayed hard and asked the Lord to give me a peace. And He did!!!

So starting in January, Squirt will be using Preparing Hearts For His Glory along with Singapore Math US Edition, Intermediate Language Lesson, Rod and Staff English 2 (beefing up on grammar), and Heart of Dakota's Drawn Into the Heart of Reading; while Buddy will be using Little Hands to Heaven; and Bubba will be listening in and participating where he can. I look forward to blogging about our new adventures!

The Wilderness

2010-11-20T00:27:00.002-06:00

I have been reading for over a year now Elisabeth Elliot's devotional A Lamp Unto My Feet (The Bible's Light for Your Daily Path). It is amazing to me how many times the Lord has used these writings to encourage, refresh or even challenge me. Right now I feel like I am walking through a wilderness- a wilderness of the physical, emotional and spiritual. But even today God used this to encourage my heart and remind me that His Plan is always perfect.

Wastelands
by Elisabeth Elliot

   "There are dry, fruitless, lonely places in each of our lives, where we seem to travel alone, sometimes feeling as though we must surely have lost our way. What am I doing here? How did this happen? Lord, get me out of this!
   He does not get us out. Not when we ask for it, at any rate, because it was He all along who brought us to this place. He has been here before-it is no wilderness to Him, and He walks with us. There are things to be seen and learned in these apparent wastelands that cannot be seen and learned in the city-in places of comfort, convenience and company.
   God does not intend to make it no wasteland. He intends, rather, to keep us-to hold us with His strength, to sustain us with His sure words-in a place where there is nothing else we can count on.

God did not guide them by the road towards the Philistines, although that was the shortest;... God made them go round by way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea. (Exodus 13:17-18)

Imagine what Israel, and all of us who worship Israel's God, would have missed if they had gone by the short route-the thrilling story of the deliverance from Egypt's chariots when the sea rolled back. Let's not ask for shortcuts. Let's keep alert for the wonders our Guide will show us in the wilderness."

A Splendid Purpose

2010-11-18T00:25:00.002-06:00

"Long-suffering is sometimes the only means by which the greater glory of God will be served, and this is, for the moment, invisible. We must persist in faith. God has a splendid purpose. Believe in order to see it." -Elisabeth Elliot

He is our hope

2010-11-15T22:54:00.001-06:00

As I hear of another sister-in-Christ going through yet another deep loss and mourning, my heart is heavy. So many things have weighed it down these days, there has been so much loss, sorrow and even rejection and my heart feels heavier with each one. But yet I know that His burden is light; which means that if my burden is heavy then it must belong at my Jesus' feet. It is there that I lay down my heavy burdens of hurts and heartaches and pick up His burden which IS light; for "He lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads" (Psalm146:8)

So I will share with you a sweet encouragement that was given to me, literally in my midnight hour, it gave me encouragement, reminded me that I was not alone, and got my focus back where it needed to be- on Him.

Zechariah 9:12- Come to the place of safety, all you prisoners, for there is yet HOPE. I promise right now, I will repay you two mercies for each of your woes."

So in the words of my sweet friend (who has gone through more than I can ever imagine or comprehend in terms of pain, heartache, and trials)-

"The Lord is our stronghold. He is our hope. Choose to be a prisoner of hope- not a prisoner of darkness."

Sing!

2010-11-13T19:26:00.004-06:00

Music has been such a huge way to allow God to heal my heart. Any time I come before Him and praise Him, I always come away refreshed. These are two songs that have been going through my heart and mind the past week or so.

The first is a song with Nichole Nordeman and Selah called Glory. You can hear it here.

The second are the lyrics to a new favorite song of mine, ~~unfortunately I can't figure out how to load music on my blog.~~ So here are the lyrics and a video to hear this beautiful song from Selah.

"The cruelest word, the coldest heart
The deepest wound, the endless dark
The lonely ache, the burning tears
The bitter nights, the wasted years

Life breaks and falls apart
But we know these are

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
They may be unfulfilled, they may be unrestored
But when anything that’s shattered is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see it will not be
Unredeemed

For every choice that led to shame
And all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke
And every life that gave up hope

We live in the shadow of the fall
But the cross says these are all …

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
They may be unfulfilled, they may be unrestored
But when anything that’s shattered is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see it will not be
Unredeemed

No.....

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
They may be unfulfilled, they may be unrestored
But you never know the miracles the Father has in store
Just watch and see it will not be
Just watch and see it will not be....
Unreedemed"

The Lord Gives And The Lord Takes Away

2010-11-03T01:10:00.004-05:00

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Job 1:21

Once again I find myself saying these words. I have said these words as we lost our daughter Chloe in the first hour of her life. I have said these again as I lost our son Nathaniel when he was delivered stillborn. I said these words as I cried over a miscarriage between Nathaniel and our now four year old son. And once again I find myself saying these words here and now as I mourn over another miscarriage. But do I really mean them as Job did? Do I expect to receive only good things from my God and never anything difficult or painful, or even what seems in my finite mind to be unjust? If I claim to serve a God who creates all things, is All Powerful, All Knowing, and All Loving then I must be willing to say that I WILL see things given me or taken away from me by My Heavenly Father. So, yes, Blessed is His Name.

As I thought about writing or not writing this post I struggled with the transparency that would be required, the honest and even painful things that I might write; but yet if I serve a God who is so real and near to me, then how can I not share that with others? So I share with you my heart and the journey that Jesus has taken me through in the past eight weeks.

In the beginning of September I went in for a routine ultrasound. Everything looked normal that day, but it simply appeared that what was seen on the scan was not as far developed as the Doctor had estimated. No one was surprised by that, and they simply scheduled me for another scan the following week.

I returned the following week for my second scan. Now having been through five pregnancies before and being considered high risk after the first one, I have had a lot of ultrasounds often a dozen per pregnancy or more. So when I saw the second scan on the screen I knew that something was not normal. The tech wasn't allowed to tell me anything, but I could see that the gestational sac that the fetus should rest in was empty. They bundled me off to the next examining room and told me to wait for the doctor to talk with me. I sat in chair wrestling with my emotions and silently praying that whatever the Lord had planned for this pregnancy that He would give me the strength to endure. The doctor came in and confirmed what I could see, there was no fetus just an empty sac. He then told me that I could wait and allow my body to go its natural course, which could take up to a month.

So I left the doctors office heart broken and called my husband to share the news. We cried and prayed together in the parking lot. I went home needing to get before the Lord. I lay on the floor of my bedroom and cried out to God. Now I serve a God who I am not afraid to tell every emotion to. He is not too small to hear my anger or my frustrations or my tears declaring Him unfair. And that is what I did I cried out to Him and told Him everything that was on my heart. And He showed me in His Word a verse to hang on to that day and filled me with His peace that passes all understanding.

Now the thing is that in some ways if I had miscarried that week life would have been so much simpler; but instead I remained pregnant for another six weeks. I remained incredibly nauseated, where medication could give no relief. And I still had three children to take care of and a house to run. Not to mention homeschooling.

All that time my husband and I prayed and asked God to intervene. We asked Him to place life where there was seen to be no life. And each new ultrasound I went in believing that God could do it and that I would see it with my eyes. But each time there was still nothing but an empty sac. But yet each week God spoke to my heart and gave me peace, He led me to scripture that reminded me of His promises to me, and He taught me of His love and faithfulness. Each night I would struggle to hold on to His peace and often found myself back on my knees crying out to Him for strength and peace. And each time I cried to Him, He was quick to come to me and wrap me in His love and His peace and remind me that I could trust Him.

So in the end after six weeks I went into labor for miscarriage and went through the most excruciating pain of my life. I ended up in the ER, after I couldn't stop bleeding and bled non-stop for over an hour. I came home the next day from the hospital and faced complete bed rest and a long recovery from such extensive blood loss.

And you ask me, why would you believe in a God who didn't give you the answer to your prayers and still call Him good and bless His Name?

I would tell you, it is because I serve a God who sees the whole picture. He tells me that He wrote down every moment of my life in His book before I was even born (Psalm 139). He is a God who is always just, always good, always loving, all powerful, and Holy. He sees something in all this that I can't right now. But I can say this, His word says these things to me:

"Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by His power, everything is for His glory. To Him be glory forevermore." (Romans 11:36) and "His loved ones are very precious to Him and He does not lightly let them die." (Psalm 116:15. And if He says these things to me in His word, then I can trust that He chose to withhold life or even take life because He loves me and those that will be affected by that choice of His. So then I must say, if that is so, then I can say just as in 2 Timothy 2:10 "I am more willing to suffer if that will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ to Jesus to those God has chosen."

So where is the victory here? The victory will be in the eternal. I may not see or understand why in this life, but I will see all things clearly when I am with Him in eternity.

So I write this all for this one purpose, I only hope that my life and what I experience will be a testimony to the Real and Living God whom I serve. It is not by any strength that I have in myself that I could have endured all of the heartache and loss that I have and not ended up in deep depression or even suicidal. I have come out from each of these losses a victor because of the work that Christ does in me and strength that He gives me by His Holy Spirit.

I serve a God who understands my heart ache and He doesn't begrudge me when I yell at Him and tell Him He is unfair and that I'm angry and don't understand. But He also shows me that He is always fair and that I will understand one day. But for now that all I need is to be enfolded in His Presence and His love and that all that happens to me is because He loves me and every other person on this planet. And that what He allows to happen to me that is painful is to refine me into the image of Christ and to give Him glory and draw others to Him through His work in me.

I will end with this. This is not the end of the story. I will see each of my children again and I have the assurance of joy eternal with my God at the end of my life. Because He loved me enough to come as a man (Jesus) and die for my sins and all the sins of mankind on a cross so that I could be with Him for eternity and walk forgiven. If you don't have that assurance and you want to meet the Mighty God that I serve. Simply ask Him to show Himself to you. (He promises that He will if you seek Him earnestly). If you want to know more or have questions I would love to talk with you about Him. And if you seek Him you will find, just as I have, a God who is more than able to see you through every moment of your life and give you a peace in the midst of the most difficult circumstances and you will be able to say as I can this day- "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD!!!!"

Missing in Action

2010-10-15T18:53:00.000-05:00

I haven't been blogging recently. We are really struggling to just get the basics done in school right now. I am trying to keep from being green and chasing after my almost 2yr old and breaking up fights between him and the 4 yr old. So I probably won't be posting any updates for a while. We have taken about three weeks to complete week 16. We are going through a pretty major trial that started about six weeks ago. But God is good and I look forward to sharing the story and our victory once we see what's God's final plan is in all of it!! (Yes and I say that with a smile)

I will share that I have found a wonderful preschool program. It has been purchased and I am very excited about starting it with Buddy (as soon as I get all the supplies together and can function without feeling like I will see breakfast at any moment).

It is called Little Hands to Heaven and is from Heart of Dakota. I discovered it through Jessica's blog Our Family For His Glory. I love her blog and find what she does with her kids inspiring.
Now, no, I am not jumping out of the My Father's World ship; but My Father's World does not have a formalized preschool program. I needed something more in-depth and a Teacher's Manual that would be open and go. I love that Heart of Dakota has the Bible as the spine very much like My Father's World. I am looking forward to sharing pictures and stories once we jump into it. Looks like great fun preschool stuff with lots of crafts, art, music, Bible, finger plays, dramatic play, ABCs, 1 2 3s and more. You can see some of the great stuff that is done at Jessica's blog.

ECC Mini Pinatas

2010-10-04T20:17:00.000-05:00

I have the pleasure of teaching a class of 15 other homeschool students in our Homeschool Support Group's Cooperative Learning Day. I am using the ideas from ECC to do a class called "A Trip Around the World". The first country we studied was Mexico. Since I only have a 45 minute class and no place to put crafts to dry afterwards, I needed to come up with a craft for Mexico that did not require drying time. The Pinata craft in the ECC Teacher's Manual is great, but next to impossible for this situation. But what I did find was these Mini Chile Pepper Pinatas here. You can use their instructions or follow mine.

You will need:

Green tissue paper
Red streamers
white printer paper
tape
glue stick
small candies

I modified the instructions because I found that the toilet paper roll core for the paper cone was not working. I used a piece of printer paper and rolled it into a cone and taped it in place. It looked like this when I was done.

I cut two sheets of the green tissue paper in quarters. Using two layers of the cut rectangle to look like this-

Using the white paper cone, I rolled the green tissue paper around it to form a nice tight cone with a tight point at the end (no holes). (Sorry for the weird color changes, my camera has been giving me fits. I will probably be going back to my older digital. Anyway, the green should be more like the green above.)

I removed the white paper cone and filled the green tissue cone with M&Ms from a small dixie cup.

I twisted the top to seal and wrapped a small piece of tape to keep it in place.

Then using the red streamer cut into about a 25 inch strip. I accordion folded the streamer and cut 3/4 way up to create a fringe.

Starting at the point of the green chile pepper I wrapped and taped the red fringe until I reached the top of the pepper. (You could use glue from a glue stick too.) The finished product looks like this.

These would make great party favors. They are easy to make and the kiddos enjoyed eating them at their break later that day.

CTG Week 15- The Tabernacle

2010-09-26T19:59:00.002-05:00

We completed a model of the Tabernacle this week described in Exodus. I was blessed by a friend with this model to put together. It comes with everything including glue dots and here is a great book detailing the Tabernacle and all the parts.

It was really neat to see how everything in the Tabernacle showed us a foreshadowing of Jesus.

We read about the outer court and the altar of burnt offering and the bronze basin for ceremonial washing. It was cool to talk about how God is Holy and how we can't come to Him defiled by sin. But Jesus was the Living Water that by His Blood washes us clean, so that we can come before God made Holy and clean.
And that Jesus was the Lamb of God that was the final sacrifice needed to be made so God would forgive sins.

We talked about the Tabernacle building and the Holy Place and the three items that were kept there: The Table of the Bread of the Presence, the Altar of Incense, and the Golden Lampstand. The Golden Lampstand reminds us that Jesus is the Light of the World. The Table of the Bread of Presence reminds us that Jesus is the Bread of Life and that whoever comes to Him shall never die. And finally, the Altar of Incense is the prayers of the people rising to God and is a sweet smell to Him.

Between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies (the inner room) was a curtain through which only the High Priest could go once a year and only along with the blood of the sacrifice in hand. That curtain was torn in two literally in the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus died on the cross. That curtain represents the veil that separates us all from God's Presence. That veil was torn by Jesus' death and we are no longer separated from God.

Inside the Holy of Holies sat the Ark of the Covenant.

The blood of the sacrifice was to be placed on the Ark's horns to ask for forgiveness for the peoples sins.

That was completed forever by Jesus' death on the cross, so that He shed the last blood required for our forgiveness and we can enter the Holy of Holies and sit before God's Mighty Presence because we have accepted Jesus' sacrifice. Thus we are all priests before Him now and can bring our requests directly to Him in Jesus' name.

God's presence sat in between the Cherubim. That is so cool, that we can come into His Presence because Jesus tore the curtain separating man from God and shed the blood to make us Holy and able to come before God forgiven.

Finally,inside the Ark was the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments, Aaron's rod that budded and a container of Manna.

This was such a cool project for us and we both enjoyed it a lot. I think I learned as much as Squirt did. It was cool to have a visual for me after having read Exodus so many times in the past. It really helped this visual-Momma to wrap her head around how everything looked.

Now on to Week 16!

Dulce de leche, the second time around

2010-09-26T19:07:00.002-05:00

So I am teaching a coop class in our homeschool group using the wonderful resources from MFW ECC. We had made Dulce de leche last year as we studied Mexico and it was soooooo delicious. So I decided to make it again to share with my class of 15 kids. Well, before I give you all the nitty gritty, here is the original recipe.

Dulce de leche

1 quart of whole milk
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of vanilla extract (add at the very end after done cooking)

Combine milk and sugar in a sauce pan. Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add in baking soda and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to lowest setting on your stove. It will not even be boiling but barely simmer (or even less on mine). Cook until the mixture is a caramel light brown color. Stir occasionally. (about every 20-30 minutes or so). Takes 3-4 hours or more ( the lower the heat and the slower it goes but the less likely to burn). You do need to be sure you will be home the whole time you are doing this, but other than an occasional stir the active involvement is nil. When the mixture is done cooking, remove from heat and stir in your vanilla. Pour into a glass jar and let cool. Seal jar and refrigerate. (you can strain the mixture if you want it completely smooth before pouring into jar) Note- pour it into your container while still warm because it will thicken as it cools and be harder to remove from your pot. Kept in a sealed container it will keep up to a month in your refrigerator.

Now I chose to double the above recipe for such a large number of people (about 20 counting teachers) BUT it didn't thicken up like it should have and that was AFTER six hours of cooking. I pulled it from the heat at that point since I was concerned about it burning. It is more like pudding rather than the thick caramel consistency that it should be. So if you need to double the recipe make two batches in separate pots as I DIDN'T and it should turn out fine. Mine still tasted fabulous! But is was not as thick as it should be. YUM!

Here are the pics

Just mixed bringing to simmer

1 1/2 hours later

2 1/2 hours later

Finished and cooled product (six hours cooking)

CTG Timeline to Exodus

2010-09-22T14:58:00.001-05:00

I am just quickly posting some pictures of our timeline as it is up to this point. We have added Exodus of the Israelites and the Ten Commandments. We have been doing just the basic Rs of school for the past week but I will have updates from CTG week 15 next week.

This section includes Creation, Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, Noah, Tower of Babel, King Menes 3100 BC, & Pyramids in Egypt 2500 BC.

Creation to Pyramids in Egypt 2500 BC

Close ups-

This section includes Pyramids in Egypt 2500 BC; Abraham, Sarah & Isaac 2066 BC; Jacob 1929 BC; 12 Tribes of Isreal; Joseph 1915 BC; Israel in Egypt 1876 BC; Code Hammurabi 1792 BC; & Moses 1526 BC

2500 BC to Moses 1526 BC

Close ups-

This last section includes Israel in Egypt 1876 BC; Code Hammurabi 1792 BC; & Moses 1526 BC; the Exodus of the Israelites 1446 BC; and the Ten Commandments.

!876 BC to Ten Commandments 1446 BC

I will post pictures of week 15 and our Tabernacle Model next week. Very interesting stuff this week. can't wait to share it.

Preschool Bible

2010-09-03T19:33:00.000-05:00

I just have to post a quick note about this Bible.

We bought the Word & Song Bible for our dear daughter on her First Birthday. Now she has out grown it and passed it on to her brothers. In the morning, while Squirt does her Quiet Time and reads her Bible, Bubba & Buddy sit on the bed and listen to the Word & Song Bible. Bubba gets his Bible or book and Buddy holds the Word & Song Bible. I looked the other day to see if this was still available new but it looks like it is out of print. I am very sad. This is a wonderful story bible with songs. It has beautiful illustrations and the CDs that come with the Bible are beautifully narrated and complete with all the songs and different voices, sound effects etc. I know there are parts that we save for when our children are closer to five to have them listen to such as Joseph sold into slavery, etc ( the more violent description stories). I do think that it may have been replaced by the Read N See DVD Bible. By the way this is how Squirt memorized the 23rd Psalm back in Kindergarten. So great for my auditory children!!!

Here are the boys enjoying their Bible time.

Buddy always asks for more. Then when it is done goes around the house singing the songs he has just heard that morning.

Wisdom from my sister (CTG Highlights Week 11 &12)

2010-09-01T23:04:00.005-05:00

So it was suggested to me this week by a dear sweet friend and Sister in Christ that maybe so many of the issues that I have been dealing with with Buddy may be solved by spending more one on one time and pouring more of the Word and charactering building into him. Now I know that I knew that already. But still it didn't sink in until she shared her experience with her youngest with me. So I will be taking a break from blogging quite so often and work on spending more time with each one of my children.

We also got the exciting news that we are expecting our seventh child! We are looking forward to bringing home our fourth miracle baby some time in April.

I think every Mom, homeschooling or not, struggles with balancing her time. I am trusting that God will faithfully show me how I need to change in my time management and home management to better glorify Him and raise up children who love Him and desire to serve Him and others.

So I will give a few brief highlights for the past three weeks and then take a nice long break to regroup and seek God for direction.

Week 11-

Vivaldi Winter drawings by Squirt

Code of Hammurabi

Queen Hatshepsut

Moses

timeline pieces

Week 12-13
Moses and 10 plagues

We started our Apologia Zoology I book.

And of course lots of math, language, scripture memory, book reading, health, Greek root words, vocabulary etc.

I think we have finally hit our stride in this new curriculum but I keep forgetting to scan things or take pictures. So pictures to come as an edit one of these days.

Happy Schooling!

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Day in the Life Week

2010-08-23T12:02:00.011-05:00

This is the final week for the Not Back to School Blog Hop Hosted by Darcy at Heart of the Matter.

So here is a typical day for us based mostly on today's schooling. I would note that Buddy has not wanted to be very active in schoolish activities or sitting still much these days. And I have not started formal preschool activities with him yet this school year. I am letting him set the pace on that one. More on that another day.

7:45 AM
Squirt does her Quiet Time, Devotions and Bible Reading.
Buddy gets dressed and plays with Bubba .
Mom fixes breakfast & makes new loaf of Gluten Free Bread

8:15 AM
Breakfast

8:45 AM
All brush teeth and wash up from breakfast.
Squirt begins her Math Drill Multiplication Tables with flashcards and tape.

9:00 AM
Squirt starts her Independent Work.
She works in her Math Textbook and Workbook.
Bubba goes down for his morning nap.
Buddy sits down in the living room to watch Curious George.
Mom takes out bread from oven and then gets her shower.

9:30 AM
Buddy heads to room to play.
Squirt finishes her math and starts independent work for English

Mom cleans up breakfast dishes.

10 AM
Everyone does Book Basket in separate rooms.

10:15 AM
Buddy continues reading while Mom works with Squirt on Apologia Science.

Mom reads to her and Squirt narrates back the info to check for comprehension.
Squirt writes a notebook page to go into her Zoology I Notebook.

Once a week on Tuesdays Squirt and Buddy do Music. They listen to a selection, read library books about the composer and later paint or illustrate a piece of art work that is inspired by the music.

11 AM
Buddy plays.
Squirt and Mom work on Greek Root word "kinesis".

Squirt writes out the word meaning and three words
from the list that contain the root word along with the definition.
Mom checks work and Squirt moves on to write out the first seven of the
Ten Commandments in her best handwriting.
She glues the 7th Commandment to the wall poster.

11:30 AM
Recess for Buddy and Squirt.
While Mom fixes lunches.

12:00 PM
Lunch (Dad comes home and we eat as a family most days)
And more Recess
Bubba is up now and running a muck.

1 PM or 2PM -3PM
Afternoon Nap for Buddy & Bubba.
Buddy goes down first.
Mom spend time with Bubba while Squirt does

Health Lesson 13

Squirt reads and answers all question in her book.

and writes a letter to a friend.

Bubba goes down for a nap. (Yes! He is a big sleeper!)

Mom and Squirt read Exodus 3 & 4 and
Pages out of Victor's Journey Through the Bible
Squirt writes a notebook page about the Bible readings and illustrates her page.

Squirt will also do independent reading during the afternoon.

Read alouds get done at bedtime.

Some days are heavier academic days then others. This is a full day of academics. We will start a Monday Coop day with our local Homeschool Association next month. Our schedule will shift a lot and we will probably have to double up some days to stay on schedule and account for the time away from academics spending with other homeschoolers doing extra fun classes.

Other things that may get done during the afternoon time are- additional science and history reading, history or science projects, history crafts, nature or science pages, and English memorization or dictation work.

Once or twice a week Squirt works out of her Story Starters book reading the selection and completing the creative writing assignment. The following week she will correct her rough draft and Mom will type up her story. It is then placed in her notebook.