Displayed here is my Blogger Reflection Award bestowed upon me by Renae over at www.reflective.homeschooljournal.net.

Thank you , thank you, and more thank you’s (cursty-bow)….now I must find other worthy bloggers to bestow this most prestigious award!!!

Thanks Renae!

I am so excited to be sharing a wonderful resource that God led me to dealing with the subject of math.

I had been seeking the Lord and asking Him how can we enliven our math lessons. I had been attempting to teach it from it’s biblical principles and though we had a lovely week studying math foundations I found that when we got down to the nitty gritty of everyday drills and word problems and such there would be a dryness and dullness; I felt something was missing. I began feeling like maybe I should incorporate a biblical principle every week to liven it up, to bring the flow and joy and richness of the Holy Spirit into our lessons.

In my seeking God and thinking about this the book MATHEMATICS! IS GOD SILENT kept coming up in my mind. I had seen the title and read about it somewhere but could not remember where..it was not even recently, so I did a search on it and found many links to the book and I came across a link that I thought was for MATHEMATICS! IS GOD SILENT but it was actually BEYOND NUMBERS: A Practical Guide to Teaching Math Biblically by Katherine Loop. I followed the links to the author’s website and got blessed beyond measure.

The Loop’s family ministry website is www.christianperspective.net and they sell the Katherine’s book in e-book form. I bought it and read it over this past weekend.

BEYOND NUMBERS is a wonderful resource that shows how to view math biblically and how to teach it biblically and practically and to incorporate lessons on how math was used(and developed) historically. Teaching with all of these components (in whatever proportion the Lord leads) will present a wholistic, BIBLICAL view of math. It will also take us beyond the numbers that we first start studying about to where our sole purpose should be and that is - to see God in it all; and once we see Him and understand that He holds all of these physical laws together and that math is just a description or recording of what He has already created and that our study of His physical laws show us His nature and character, then our study of math will result in God being glorified and our faith and love and trust deepening in Him. Our focus won’t be on THE NUMBERS but will be on GOD, who is the One who keeps His physical laws consistent enough to make THE NUMBERS work anyway. How glorious is that!!! How wonderful this piece of revelation is to my spirit…it is soooo sweet to me….sooo sweet!!!

This ARTICLE from her website blessed me tremendously and sent me flyin’ high..it is just what I was looking for and answered my questions just perfectly…that’s just like God isn’t it???

So I’m just rejoicing that He has answered my questions and enabled me to see Him just a little clearer even in math.

I also bought MATHEMATICS! IS GOD SILENT. I will let u know how it is once I get it and read it.

God is soooooooo good!! Seeing God in all of life and learning is such a joy!!!!! Now I can say ahhhhh…..the joy of math!!!!(finally!!)

I really really like this blog template. I think it fits and reflects my mood, my style, my blog, and my new focus. I love my new look!!!!

Thanks Andrea!

Well, in my endeavor of trying to understand and implement the Biblical Principle Approach in our homeschool I did much study and I feel as if I kind of got off-kilter a bit b/c all I could think of at night were the RED BOOKS and buying more Noah Plan resources. There was the initial investment that I believe God blessed me to get at over 50% off retail but I began to feel (after about 2 years study and 1 year writing my own BPA unit studies for History last year which went VERY WELL…) that my focus got off. I began to be discontent(again), like so many other times once I had decided on a ‘curriculum’ or course of study. I was studying the RED BOOKS and my bible more than I was reading my bible just to be with God and I began to miss HIM. I would think to myself, LORD I’M STUDYING ABOUT YOU, HOMESCHOOLING MY CHILDREN FOR YOU AND I STILL FEEL LIKE I’M SO FAR AWAY FROM YOU.

I prayed about this for a period of several months and I finally realized I had begun to put more faith, trust in what the writers of the NOAH plan suggest/recommend and what the authors of the RED BOOKS conclude about what my homeschool should be and not be than in what God would direct me to teach my children. I had stopped leaning on Him to provide me with the direction and I was seeking it from someone else.

So I took some time and stopped studying the BPA. I began to just focus on God and on my family. I wasn’t even spending time with the children, other than teaching, because I had my head stuck in a book. I was cranky, very irritable, and very fussy. I felt as if it was my job/duty was to study and get this thing done. One thing I failed to remember is that even though God may have led me to use the BPA He never intended for me to take the whole load of directing the education of my children upon myself. He never intended for me to do it alone and it took me a while to realize that.

Another thing I had to evaluate is this: Why am I teaching the subjects/topics that I am? I realized that I had felt pressure to teach what the NP recommended and I so wanted to cover much of what they suggest b/c the academics they put forth are just excellent….but what is excellent for one may not be excellent for another….as the bible puts it ALL THINGS ARE EXPEDIENT BUT ALL THINGS ARE NOT LAWFUL. I finally came to understand that I had to decide if I was going to teach these wonderful academics for the sake of obtaining knowledge or teach the academics to equip my children to be able to honor God. So I’ve had to come back to my ORIGINAL purpose for homeschooling and that is that my children may develop hearts of godly wisdom that governs their lives and the lives of their children. My goal is not for my children to be able to say I had a BPA education…but for them to be able to say I have a relationship with the Creator of this universe and I know Him and can see Him in all of life.

And then my dilemma could have been in a faulty understanding of what BPA is, I don’t know. I do know this. I do not have a leading idea/principle for every lesson. I have not even taught my children the 7 principles of America’s Christian History. I don’t even understand them all yet myself. I find they relate more to a personal walk with Jesus Christ. I know this may sound kind of crazy but I just don’t find within myself that I see it as necessary that my children study like George Washington. I’m still confused about what makes us a Christian nation. I’ve gotten many definitions but I just cannot digest that something can be Christian and not acknowledge God. I guess I’m saying that while I agree that the godly training of character is paramount to producing a God-fearing citizen and that the citizens are who make up this nation and will be tomorrow’s leaders that restoring America to her colonial roots is not my goal for our homeschool. Restoring America back to God is my goal. I don’t know if I just contradicted myself or not I mean I understand the academic scholarship was excellent back in the days when George Washington went to school but I feel instilling a love for God is more pressing, at least right now. I do teach the chain of christianity…this is our 2nd year going over it again and I love the framework it provides but I just want my children to KNOW God..to love Him with everything in them and I want them to see that everything came from Him…even in their studies of handwriting, reading, lit, arithmetic, etc. and I use the BPA to accomplish this. Our lessons have become a joy again. My 3 yo, with no prompting layed down next to me in my bed one night and said MOM, I YUV YOU (my response - I love you too, baby), MOM, I YUV GOD (God loves you too)….translation: I love God. We were not even talking about the Lord but his little spirit has been touched by God’s Spirit and I know it is as a result of me not boxing God nor myself into our homeschool having to be a certain way.

I don’t want to give the impression that the BPA is not about glorifying God…it is…I’ll say that again…The BPA does glorify God..but I feel it’s emphasis to accomplish this goal is just not where I am right now. I can only do what I understand and I’ve come to realize that I don’t have to do any more than that. Implement what God gives me understanding on in BPA and move on. I’m sure I’ll understand more next year.

I kind of feel like I’m a conglomeration of Charlotte Mason, Heart of Wisdom, Christian Classical(minus study of Greeks and such) with BPA interwoven thruout…so sometimes I feel as if I’m not truly BPA…I’m not into labels as such. The only label that means anything is that I’m called a true child of God and the name of Jesus is the banner that waves over me and mine. So homeschool-wise whatever I am is whatever I am..whatever you want to call it, call it but I know where my heart and my allegiance lies and it is with God no matter if I 4R a topic or do word studies or narration and notebooking or not.

So that is why I feel this blog’s focus needed to change(if I was to continue to blog) because I feel I’m not just about BPA. I use some aspects of BPA and whatever else and seek the Lord to show me how to blend it in just the right proportions to present WHAT MY CHILDREN NEED. He knows better than me what they need…and so I will, once again, let Him lead me and guide me in this area…and prayerfullly I will find the joy again in sharing our journey on this blog.

Just wanted to inform anyone who comes by here that the focus of this blog has changed. You can view it from the sidebar, just click on ABOUT THIS BLOG.