Wow!

Wow! It has been awhile since I've written anything! Things have been so busy as we wrapped up our Kindergarten year and just had some family issues that needed our attention.
Brett is so happy because he is officially a Kindergarten Graduate! We made him a little diploma and did a little ceremony. Then we let him pick what he wanted to do all day. We started with a graduation gift (A Disney Car) then lunch at McDonald's, a cookie from the bakery in the mall, swimming and all this followed up with dinner at The Olive Garden. It was a wonderful way to spend the day. He can't wait to start first grade :) I am happy to know that he likes school and wants to start up again. (We can't officially start counting days for first grade until July 1.)


He also just wrapped up a week at a local day camp where we live and LOVED it! He went every day from 8:30 until 4pm. They did Bible study each morning, followed by crafts, games, canoeing, bb guns, archery, lake swimming, hiking, etc...It was a really great experience for him and he has already said he can hardly wait until next summer to go again :)

Here are some pictures of the graduation day and camp...

Kids of Courage/VOM (part 2)

This is another publication put out through Kids of Courage...the Bold Believers series. They are really neat because they focus on a country in depth. Inside you will find geography facts, history and current events facts, religion and culture facts. There are stories with activities, crossword puzzles and other activities. They are geared to a child that is a little bit older, but can easily be adapted for young learners as well.

Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter...

In Every issue you will find stories of persecution, stories of hope in spite of the way the Christians in a given country are treated, updates on missionaries, pastors and other people who have been featured in articles, etc... They are such a testament to the FAITH that these Christians live out daily! We sit so secure in our warm homes with NO FEAR, NO THREAT of danger...why exactly are we all not out there on the front lines?! Why are we not down on our knees daily pleading with the Father on behalf of these brothers and sisters of ours? I pray that you will read and that once your eyes have been opened you will not be able to pretend to not know what to do.

"...once our eyes are opened,we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." ~Proverbs 24:12

Kids Of Courage

Kids of Courage is the children's version of Voice of the Martyrs. Both are ministries near and dear to my heart. I'm going to share with you a post from a year or two ago, taken from my family blog. Then below it, I'll tell you a little more about VOM and KOC and how we use them in school.

"VOM is an amazing organization that is dedicated to bringing the Gospel to the areas of our world where Christianity is illegal. Places like China, North Korea, Egypt, India, the Middle East, Colombia etc...There are many, many ways in which one can be involved in this ministry. You can choose to send Bibles through Bibles Unbound to these countries that will be used in underground church settings or passed page by page among families and friends. You can choose to send blankets that will be given to people along with recorded salvation messages. You can send care packages and other forms of outreach. Once you make a contribution of some kind, you will receive the newsletter in the mail...the stories will make you weep. Dearest Friends, we take so much for granted...when was the last time you memorized a whole section of scripture because if you didn't commit it to memory you would never be able to "read" it again? When was the last time you had to flee from your home because you were under attack for your faith? Have you ever been beaten, kidnapped, or brutalized just because you won't deny your faith? Have you ever had to rip pages of a Bible out just so you could learn and study the Word? You can't even begin to imagine some of the horrors that these men, women and children face. These Christians risk everything for the religious freedom we have and yet we choose to hide it on a daily basis!!!! How many times have we heard someone ridicule Christians, or make an inappropriate comment and we've kept silent? How many times have we allowed ourselves to become caught up in worldly things or situations? How many times have we like Peter, denied Christ...even unintentionally...just because we have been afraid of what others might think, or we didn't want to offend someone? May I just point out that there are a LOT of people in this country that offend Christians by trying to remove God from everything our country stands for??!!! They don't care that they offend people and it is for a totally WRONG cause! Why should we care what people think!? We have the freedom to share our faith freely! Who knows how long it will last. I urge you to lift up these brothers and sisters of ours who are standing up to their governments and saying, "I worship the TRUE AND LIVING GOD!" They are giving their very lives for Him! Pray that God will flood those persecuted regions with His Word and that millions will come to know Him as their Savior. Pray that the hearts of these nations will change so drastically that persecution is nonexistent. Pray that God will supernaturally hedge in and protect those involved in proclaiming Christ in these areas. Then, check out the VOM website...get involved if you feel God leading you in that direction. Its an extremely worthwhile and meaningful ministry."

I apologize for the length of this post, but I really feel like I needed to share with you why this ministry means so much to me. Here are some pictures of the newsletter you get...VOM and KOC come together, but you must request the Kids of Courage one specifically. (due to the length of this, I'm going to share about the actual VOM newsletter in another post)

Each issue focuses on a specific persecuted country. Inside, you will find facts about the country and culture, school stories, fun facts and information about children who are persecuted because their parents are Christians or because they themselves have become Christians. We always look the country we are talking about up on the map. Then we read through the articles...usually one a day or every other day...and talk about them. We discuss differences and similarities between where we live and that country. We tend to skim the surface right now...Brett is still so young that he doesn't "get" a lot of it. But, we pray for the children and their families and the countries they live in. We haven't done this yet, but I hope to soon start implementing cooking some foods from the country we are praying for too. The great thing is that this is so easy to adapt for age. You can easily take it SO much deeper than what we are right now. I hope and pray that you will get involved in this ministry and begin learning about and praying for these countries.

I Heard the Good News!

Today in school, Brett and I were reading from a book called, I Heard The Good News Today. It is a book that has little one or two page stories about missionaries from around the world and the people they shared the Good News of Jesus with. Well, we finished reading (today's was on Karl Olson, a traveling Bible salesman) Karl Olson had been traveling in Poland and sought lodging in a home in a village he was passing through. He read the family who opened their home to him many stories from the Bible. Two days later as Karl was leaving the village, he sold the family a Bible. He was unable to sell any other Bibles while in the village though. After he left the family he stayed with began reading and sharing from the Bible with others in the village. They soon received Christ as their Lord and Savior. Many other villagers joined them in their salvation. Years later, Karl happened to be in the village again and went to the home of the family to see if he could stay with them again. They told him of all that had happened and he was overjoyed! He gathered the people together and asked if anyone could share a scripture verse. The villagers asked, "a verse or a chapter?" Karl was stunned and asked if people could recite chapters. The villagers replied that they had been so worried about losing the only Bible among them that they assigned every Christian a chapter to memorize and that between them all they could recite nearly the entire Bible! Afterwards, the villagers purchased every Bible and New Testament that Karl had with him! After reading this, I was talking with Brett about how God can take one small thing that we do and turn it into something glorious for his kingdom. And I went on to talk with him about being a missionary right where we live. In the next second, he jumped up from the table and ran upstairs. He came down carrying elephant, his pillow, his toothbrush and toothpaste, then he grabbed his Bible and said, "let's go!" I said, "go where?" And he said, "We are missionaries Mama...let's go tell the good news!"

Charlotte Mason

Charlotte Mason was an educator who believed in "the gentle art of learning". She firmly believed that children needed to be outside in nature exploring God's creation. She utilized "living books" as opposed to text books, short lessons, narration, notebooking and no grades.

We are utilizing many of her techniques in our homeschooling approach. Charlotte's ideas were to create a love of life long learning in the student. She is quoted as saying, "The more we do for a child, the less he will do for himself. If we give him watered down material, many explanations, much questioning, if we over-moralize, depend on the workbooks to work the mind, what thinking is left for the child to do? How is his mind to grow from within...?"

For those of you seeking to implement this style of teaching into your homeschool settings, I highly recommend reading this book by Karen Andreola. It breaks down the philosophies into easy to read chapters written in modern English. It is extremely helpful in guiding you as the instructor and introducing you to nature notebooking, implementing great literature, classical music and great art into your day, ways to teach reading, spelling, composition, how to use narration, etc... You will love it!

Nature Books

What the books look like inside~

The inside of The Handbook of Nature Study~

I was reading back through some of my posts and realized that I never got around to posting the pictures of the field guides we are using. I found all of them on half.com and was able to save a LOT of money that way! I'll be posting this under the Wonders of Creation link as well :)

Another good article...

To Be or Not to Be Socialized; That is the Question
By: Michelle VanMatre

Standing in line in the cafeteria.
Bubbling in circles with a number two pencil.
Raising your hand to answer a question.
Being the target in dodge-ball.
Unhealthy peer pressure.
Being exposed to sex and drugs at an early age.
Undermining biblical and parental authority.
Desensitizing children to Truth.

None of the experiences on this list stand out as skills that are necessary or valuable in order to function in the real world. Even in an office full of identical cubicles, adults aren't surrounded by same-aged peers who are working on the exact same thing at the exact same time. Success in the world, be it vocational, social or within the family, doesn't depend on whether or not you were the homecoming queen or the star quarterback. However, learning to operate in your God-given giftedness, strengths and abilities in harmony with people of all ages and backgrounds can be a great asset in living a successful and productive life.

"What about socialization?" is, perhaps, the most commonly heard question for a homeschooling family. Inquiring minds want to know how our children will manage without the benefit of being in a classroom with their same-aged peers for several months each year. Well meaning family members, friends, neighbors and cashiers at the grocery store feel the need to point out the dangers of not socializing our homeschooled children by placing them in an institutional setting. Fears that the children won't develop meaningful relationships, won't experience "normal" life, and won't have a healthy childhood because they are not in a classroom five days a week often fuel people to use the dreaded "S- word" as a passive-aggressive attempt to challenge the validity of homeschooling.

Socialization, by public school standards, is an invalid concept. Spending 180 days a year in a desk in a classroom, where conversation and freedom of expression are confined to who sits at your lunch table, is hardly a fertile environment for developing relationships and learning how to interact with people.
Socialization is defined as a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position. In spite of the assertions of the NEA, many sociologists and those opposed to homeschooling, nothing in this definition would cause us to think that a classroom setting provides the ideal environment to acquire personal identity and learn the norms and values to be able to function well in society!

Many new homeschoolers (and some veterans!) are intimidated by the question of socialization. We are faced with so many details as we start the homeschool journey that we aren't sure we can provide an appropriate social environment for our children outside of our living room.
We've been duped into believing the hype that lunch lines, school buses, gym class and the classroom have some indefinable benefits every child needs in order to live a fulfilling, healthy life.
Not so!
God is far more creative than Horace Mann, the purported Father of American Education. We are given the generous bounty of the world as our classroom, which allows us to interact with people of all ages and backgrounds. In my little, rural community, there are ample opportunities for my children to be socialized in a healthy manner.
Homeschool co-ops, church and community events abound. Volunteer and service opportunities, recreational sports leagues, community - theater and cultural festivals also provide a ready outlet to learn more about our culture and interact with people.
Mercy, patience, grace, compassion, good sportsmanship and sacrifice can be learned by serving in a soup-kitchen, visiting a nursing home, volunteering in the church nursery and playing a game of pick-up basketball.

The kind of socialization that is my goal for my children doesn't hinge on winning at all costs. It isn't characterized by dividing people into learning tracks, cliques that are defined by their popularity or the kinds of clothes they wear, or whether or not they live in the right neighborhood. My goal isn't to relive my childhood through my children, hoping that they'll gain the prize or the trophy that eluded me in my public school career.

No, my heart for socializing my children is a little more organic and free-form. My prayer is that my brood will become people who value life - their own, that of the unborn, and that of the elderly. I hope that they learn to see beauty in diversity while maintaining a firm grasp of the truth of Christ. I want them to learn to see God's fingerprints in their own interests, passions and personalities. I want them to develop the confidence to walk their lives out with conviction, while being sensitive enough to others to draw them to Christ in them, rather than bullying others into agreement.

Socialization is crucial. We are all in the process of being socialized, daily, no matter what or age or where we learn. Institutionalized classrooms do not have a corner on the market where socializing our children is concerned. We need to rest in the fact that God placed these children in our care and that He provides many opportunities to grow them into the people He created them to be!

As we walk out this homeschool journey, may we all be free from the tyranny of the "socialization myth". When well-meaning observers ask us the socialization question, let us all have the confidence to answer the question with "We're well-socialized, thank you! How about you?"

My Book of Fall Changes

My Book of Fall Changes, by: Brett Ward


The weather changes. It gets colder.

The leaves change. Some leaves fall down.

The daylight changes. It gets dark early.

My clothes change. I wear warm things.

Color Mixing

Because of the fall colors, we did some science lessons on color mixing. We fingerpainted, we blended colors with different art mediums, we played with food coloring and just had an all around good time!

Just For Fun!

I found this on another blog I read. While it's a bit blunt, it will make you smile :)

The Homeschooling Parent's Wish List

1 Please stop asking us if it’s legal. If it is — and it is — it’s insulting to imply that we are criminals.

2 Learn what the words “socialize” and “socialization” mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. If you’re standing there talking to me and my child, then its safe to assume that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet. If you truly are referring to "Socialization", I don't think I really want my child to be "socialized"...that word means 1)"to be placed under government or group ownership", 2)"to make fit for companionship with others", or 3)"to convert or adapt to the needs of society" according to Dictionary.com. Ummmm, #1...NO. #2....I think if you know my child we have that one covered. #3...I'm sorry but have you seen society lately?! Why would I want my child to conform to that?!?

3 Please quit interrupting my child at his/her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don’t assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a “reality” show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You’re probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you’ve ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don’t look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they’re in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we’re doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 We didn’t go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

9 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn’t have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don’t need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can’t teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there’s a reason I’m so reluctant to send my child to school.

10 If my child is only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he’d learn in school, please understand that you’re calling me an idiot. Don’t act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

11 Stop assuming that because the word “home” is right there in “homeschool,” we never leave the house. We’re the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it’s crowded and icky.

12 Stop assuming that because the word “school” is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your child does. Even if we’re into the “school” side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don’t have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

13 Stop asking, “But what about the Prom?” Even if the idea that my child might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don’t get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I’m one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

14 Don’t ask my child if he wouldn’t rather go to school unless you don’t mind if I ask your child if he wouldn’t rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

15 Stop saying, “Oh, I could never homeschool!” Even if you think it’s some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you’re horrified. One of these days, I won’t bother disagreeing with you any more.

16 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you’re allowed to ask how we’ll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can’t, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn’t possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

17 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child’s teacher as well as his parent. I don’t see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

18 Stop saying that my child is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he’s homeschooled. It’s not fair that all the children who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

19 Quit assuming that my child must be some kind of prodigy because he’s homeschooled.

20 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my child(ren).

21 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my child(ren).

22 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won’t get because they don’t go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

23. Quit assuming that just because we are a homeschooling family means we have 10 or more children.

24. Quit assuming that just because we are a homeschooling family means we live on a farm and that we only keep our kids home to have help around the homestead.

25 Here’s a thought: If you can’t say something nice about homeschooling, then please shut up!

From Jeannie Fulbright...

Jeannie Fulbright is the author of the Apologia Science curriculum that we will be using with Brett starting next year. I took the following message off of her page. I think that it really hits the nail on the head about why homeschooling is so important...I hope (and pray) that if you are questioning if you should homeschool or not, that you will take the time to read this and more articles like it...

A Journey Worth Taking

I've had the privilege to meet so many new homeschoolers that have just begun their homeschool journey. Most of them find homeschooling a delight. As they spend each day with their children, they begin to catch a glimpse into the little windows of their hearts and see things they didn't know were there - good things and not so good things.

What is so precious about this is that we really do come to know our children the way God intended for us to know them. God did not set up schools where children would depart for hours from the very people to whom He gave them to be reared.

Education was intended to be done at home from the very beginning, as was the training of our children's hearts. God's perfect order has been disrupted by the institution that came in to replace God's intention and design for homes and families.
That order was disrupted so long ago that now we have to read books and take classes on parenting and discipling our children because we weren't parented or discipled properly; and we weren't parented properly because our parents weren't parented properly, and on and on it goes, all the way back to the preindustrial age - when families actually spent time together and usually educated their children at home.

After industrialization, the home became second to the institution of school. Long ago, most every child was either home educated or only went to school during certain seasons. Most of a child's waking hours were spent at home with the family, where generations passed on what the generations before had been passing on for as long as anyone could remember.
If we don't have lengthy amounts of time with our children, we will likely miss the nuances that betray what is really happening in their hearts, what they really believe. If I only had a few hours every night with them, when we were both worn out from the day, I may not know what their wrong beliefs were or what their right beliefs were. If I did know, would I even have the time and energy to thoroughly correct them?

Homeschooling affords us time and energy to properly parent and educate our children. Because I spend my entire life with my kids, I know them so well. I know the exact areas where I can trust them to always make the right choice, and I know the exact areas where they need more training. I know their hearts. When I see misconceptions, we can work through them during the morning devotions, pray through them, and explore what the Bible says about them. No big hurry. We've got time.

One mom describes her experience when she brought her children home to school them. She was astonished when she realized that, because they had been in school for several years, she didn't even know - really know - her kids. Could not really knowing your children be God's plan for the family? No. Sadly, it's really no wonder children are in the mess they are today.

I believe homeschooling is so right. It is the model God set in place. It's a return to the ways of old. Isaiah 58:12 says, "...you will restore the foundations laid long ago; you will be called the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of streets where people live.