Here is another EXCELLENT article from Marilyn Howshall.  This just echoes my heartbeat about God and what He is showing me about gentle, loving education.  I seek His aid in helping me to accomplish the ‘gentle’ and ‘loving’ part of the education

I’m sharing these articles b/c these thoughts are where God has me right now and are my heartbeat…His Way of doing things…

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_the_heart_of_true_educ_and_lol.htm 

I believe I am in a time of refreshing and even re-focusing in our homeschool journey.  This article written by Barb Shelton was like a breath of fresh air and it encouraged my heart.  Many of the things she discusses were a re-confirmation and just made me want to jump up and down and holler AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_refreshing_and_re-focusing_the_hrt_of_the_hser.htm

I believe this article serves as a word to me from the Lord especially the part about being liberated from what public schools do and even think about homeschool(ers)(ing).  I would find myself comparing our day with the public school and we would come up short each time-in my mind that is…how discouraging.  But thru this season of burnout and much discouragement that I felt God allowed me to go that far down so that I could really see what HE defined as education and what was really happening was that He was taking me on a road that was yes different from what public school was about-we did things different and think differently therefore that is why everytime I compared us with them we looked different.  Well, that is how we are supposed to look-that is how God was taking our homeschool.  After I came to the ‘end’ of myself(I had no idea what was wrong with me and had no idea how to make it better or how to get out of this ’stupor’ I was in) did the Lord begin to show me that His definition of education is different than what the world says…that is echoed in this article. 

In her 7 Pillars of Education Barb points out in item #6 she did not find that in the Word but I say it is in there…The ‘dominion mandate’ that God gave Adam and Eve(and to us) to have dominion, subdue, master our environment all to the glory of God will fit in with item #6 and #7.

I encourage you to take the time to read this article.  Barb has many, many articles on her website that just bless me and I’m sure will bless you too.

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_refreshing_and_re-focusing_the_hrt_of_the_hser.htm

I guess today is confession day b/c here is another one:  I suffer from the “I DON’T WANT TO’s “….

What is that you may ask?  The I DON’T WANT TO’s are the times when the thoughts come to me “Do math now, or read a story to them, go cook something in the kitchen with them, etc” and I say to myself ” I DON’T WANT TO”  and I usually don’t.  I’d prefer to sleep(b/c I’m exhausted) or try to relax but rest never comes.  Disobeying God does not bring rest or peace.  As a matter of fact, I believe, that continual disobedience or going in your own strength, your own wisdom, and your own way can result in burnout…which is what I’m still coming out of.

So I find I struggle with my flesh many times in the area of keeping our schedule thruout the day.  We do not have a rigid, fixed schedule but rather(as one mom put it) we have a Plan…a loose structure of how things should GENERALLY go. 

Since I”ve decided to resist my flesh for the past 2 days I have had such a wonderful feeling of productivity.  No my house is not ‘perfect’ but it is very presentable and I’m satisfied with it.  One thing that I believe God put on my heart to start emphasizing(I say emphasize b/c we do it but it has not been consistent nor have I spent time on JUST these things alone)in our schedule is Domestic Duty(another name for chores…I feel if u call it a chore that is what it will be…death and life is in the power of the tongue.  I prefer to teach my children that cleaning up their rooms and house is not a chore but a responsiblity and that is what I’m trying to convey in the term Domestic Duty…Duty not being a chore but a duty is a responsibility-I need to 4R this topic!!!!!!!!!) 

The other area to emphasize and do more of is Read-Aloud time.  Since our 4th quarter is winding up I think this is a good time to focus on these two areas and prayerfully that will set the foundation for next year(we start in July.)

So here is a little peek into our last 2 days.

Since I consider Domestic Duty a learning activity( definition of learning activity:  learning to organize, clean, straighten, put things away decently and in order, etc. are all things that need to be learned and become a discipline) then it constitutes school and it is marked as such.

On Monday: 

we had breakfast.  I had my dd6 washed the dishes…for the first time…she seemed to enjoy it and she did a good job.  It helped me tremendously while I cleaned up after my other 2. 

we took care of personal hygiene and cleaned our rooms-made bed neatly(no wrinkles), picked up toys , clothes, trash from floor and put each thing in it’s proper place.  I did my room as they did theirs.

we did Bible Study.  I decided to have us reflect on the meaning of Easter(as the children call it.)  I asked them what is the meaning of Easter and they said CANDY!!  Well, that was a barometric reading for me to let me know we had not communicated the real meaning of the Easter season effectively.  So that is how we spent our bible study time on Monday-discussing Jesus resurrection, what His resurrection means to us, etc.

After bible study I had both my children help me fold 2 loads of laundry.  My 4 yob went AWOL but my 6yog stayed with me and did a fantastic job.  I guess I thought she was too young to fold her clothes.  I could never imagine giving her a bundle of her own clothes and telling her to fold them…I still don’t think she would BUT because she was doing it WITH ME I think that made all the difference in the world to her.  With both of us working we were done in NO time.

Since we wake up late we get a late start, it was about 3pm when we finished the clothes.  We ate a hurried lunch and we had to take 4yob to gymnastics class.  Got home at 6pm

Dinner

Playtime

6yog played 2 games of chess with her father…(he taught her how to play when she was 5) and by then it was beddy bye time.

On today, Tuesday:

breakfast

personal hygiene, clean rooms

bible study-we are studying the ABC’s of salvation-A-All people are sinners, B-The Bible is God’s word of love and salvation…..These ABC’s are on the inside cover of dd bible so I am going thru these and we discuss them…not too much notebooking on them…I’ll come to that eventually.. we did B today and we read the story of Jesus birth and Him teaching in the temple…had behavior issues so we did not finish the 2nd story.

Ate lunch

dd6 played tic-tac-toe with dad before he went to work

dd6 played 1 game of chess with mom

Math- we did oral lesson 7….Ray’s is more comprehensive than I thought.  This lesson took a little time for us to do but I love the methodology!!

Made brownies-taught children how to read recipe and reviewed what 1/4, 1/2 means, taught them how to measure and they helped me cook spaghetti for dinner.  All was done by 3pm today…hence the many postings on this blog.

I share this b/c this is such an improvement over what we have been going thru.  My mood is better and I feel like we are being productive…learning and education is happening just not in the ‘way’ education is defined by the world.  I’m not totally exhausted and my spirits are up..not beaten down…Thank You Jesus!!!  I keep feeling like I’ve been thru some type of sickness or surgery and I’m on the mend…any overexertion will push me back into ‘it’, you know what I mean?  So I am careful now to hear God and to OBEY Him when He speaks….

Burnout is a terrible thing to go thru and I think I had it bad.  I felt like my whole schedule and homeschool had fallen apart and was hanging on by a thread.  I had no motivation to be creative and it seemed like a bucket of water had been poured on my fire.  But I’m drying off now.  I will continue to share our progress.

I have another blog on HSB called www.homeschoolblogger.com/lovinghim4ever.  It mirrors this blog…I keep them both the same(for the most part.  This entry is not on my old blog.) I was reluctant to get rid of the first one…I did not know why…now I do

Because the editor on my old blog gives me more functionality than this one right now.  Sorry Andrea!!  I can get my smilies and insert a link and change the background color and size, style, and color of font here.  So I type up my entries over there and cut and paste them over here….

But let me quick to say that I am fully confident that once this support team on homeschooljournal.net work out the kinks and things that this editor is going to be THE BOMB!!!!!!!!

All kidding aside I am happy here…I love my blog template…and I’m so appreciative of the hard work that I’m SURE must go into supporting this venture!!!  Kudos to our support team here!!!!

I have a confession to make.  I did not study the lessons that Brenda shared with the SDS group but I’m logging this under my SDS study for this week; you will see why a little later  

It seemed as if my time just ‘got away’ from me this week…BUT as I did my own 4R to construct my own bible study lessons the first word I researched in the scriptures was WORD..meaning THE WORD OF GOD or THE WORD OF TRUTH…JESUS IS THE WORD.

I got very blessed by my 4R of this topic.  This is not all I came up with but this is just what stood out to me…

Psalm 119:25 - My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.

That says to me that the Word of the Lord, written or spoken, has life in it.

Matt 4:4 - But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God

That says to me that every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God has life in it enough to sustain us and is NECESSARY to live this life…bread alone won’t do it.

Prov. 4: 20-22 - My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Then it hit me…The word of God doesn’t just have LIFE IN it…IT IS LIFE!!  It doesn’t just give life…it’s very essence and being is life. 

I think about the health experts who tells us to eat food that is alive, has life in it like veggies, plants, herbs, etc.  Well the Word of God goes a step beyond just having life in it, it IS LIFE.

This is proven by

Heb 4:12(Amp) - For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the ^[a]breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

How does this connect with SDS study?…Heb. 4:12 was in our lesson this week for us to break down and do a 4R on (I think- I don’t remember although I read thru the lesson I did not do it on the day assigned…but I did do it unbeknownst to me)

Anyway, this is such a powerful truth for us to keep in mind - that the Word of God is alive…it doesn’t just have life in it…it IS LIFE!!!!!

What is also precious to me is that the bible tells how the Word that God spoke (and had written down) is precious to Him.  He does not take lightly what He has said.  If He said it He will do it!!!  He did not just speak (or have men write by the Holy Ghost) just for the sake of speaking…He had purpose for His words and He had a purpose for speaking what He did speak.  How many times have I spoken frivolous words or went back on a word I gave?

God is not like that.  It says so in Psalm 105:8 - He is [earnestly] mindful of His covenant and forever it is imprinted on His heart, the word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations

God so esteems and has bound Himself by His own word that the bible says this in Psalm 138:2 - I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

God has made us promises that He means to keep and perform in our lives..I believe He soooooooooo wants to bless us with all that He has(not just materially, with even the thoughts and desires of HIS heart..how precious are HIS own thoughts to HIMSELF?  How much do we esteem His thoughts?  to desire to know His heart about whatever but especially about how to go about homeschooling the children He gave us?)

II Chronicles 16:9 - For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

He is looking for those whom He can bless…who will receive what He has to give…who is able to receive it what He has the way He wants to give it…those who don’t put Him in a box…

I sure want to be a candidate for His blessing of His wisdom and knowledge in insight!!!!!

The last point I want to make is the scripture found in Psalm 103:20 -  Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word

A question popped into my mind as I turned to write down the next scripture…It was ‘how does the Word of God have a voice?’ Answer:  WHEN WE SPEAK IT!!!

What a powerful principle!!  When we speak the Word of God, or speak what God has said, we are speaking LIFE!!  Life to our situations, to our lives, our bodies, our children.  I believe we activate angels to assignments when we speak the the Word of LIFE and give it VOICE!  Put LIFE  into the atmosphere and KEEP putting the Word of God into and over whatever situation needs to be changed to align itself with God’s will and we will see change.  Life begets life not death and death does not beget life….only life begets life so I challenge myself to start speaking life…not that I speak death, I just don’t speak the word of God as often as I think I should.

So that is what I learned this week from the SDS study(by no intention of my own but) by God’s providence.  He kept me on course after all!!

Isn’t He marvelous?