I wanted to share one of our math lessons that we had last week and how it ‘materialized’. 

This was supposed to be a lesson on patterns and the principle we were to reflect on at the conclusion of the lesson was that OBSERVING GOD’S PATTERNS IN MATH.  I had told my children that God has placed patterns in HIs math principles(patterns in numbers, shape, etc) and that we need to be able to see the patterns in life.  I decided to read the story about THALES in MATHEMATICIANS ARE PEOPLE TOO VOL 1 .   I DID NOT PRE-READ THE STORY SO I DID NOT KNOW WHAT IT WOULD BE ABOUT and providentially enough this particular biography was on how Thales observed patterns to help him sovle a problem.  What a great lesson that was, for me at least!!!!  I was thrilled!!!!!!!!!  I then gave my dc the assignment to look for any patterns they see as we go about our lives. 

Ok, that evening we took the dc to Burger King….God sure knows how and when and where to teach!!!….and in their Kid’s Meals the toy was a suffed animal, a bat.  We then went to the gas station.  I got out the car to pump gas and as I was getting back in the car my dc were talking so loud I told them to quiet down and my 6yo son said MOM WE FOUND A PATTERN!!!   and he shows me the underside to this stuffed animal, it was a bat and there were patterns in the bone structure that go thru the bat’s wings!!  I was thrilled and thanking God that He was the One who showed them this and that He was showing me that He was in this lesson all the way!!!!  Isn’t that just wonderful????  Isn’t HE just WONDERFUL??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I congratulated them on their find and marveled at how God really presented that lesson..how He got involved in it Himself!!!!

We are studying the following ‘ideas’/principles/truths in math along with studying some of the mathematicians in math history while we try to incorporate teaching math from real life(when we are not using our Ray’s text

THE PRINCIPLES THAT GOVERN MATHEMATICS WERE MADE BY GOD -

We find our biblical support for this in Col 1:16-17 -For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Since we can’t SEE the principles of combining objects(addition) nor of separating objects from each other(subtraction) we can classify the principles of math as ‘invisible things’…we can see the effect of the principles of addition in action when we join 2 objects with 2 other objects we get 4 objects.

MATH IS A TOOL THAT HELPS US TO CLASSIFY AND CATEGORIZE WHAT GOD HAS CREATED - based on Gen 2:20

So here is where we learn and discuss that man has devised a way to ‘label’ God’s principles and the patterns man has found in numbers, shapes, and in the natural phenomenon of earth(gravity, equations for higher level math), and whatever else(science).  Man came up with labeling 2 objects with the number 2 and 1 and 10 and 39,000, etc. 

MATH NOTATION IS JUST A DESCRIPTION OF GOD’S PRINCIPLES OF MATHEMATICS - this one sort of relates to the previous one

OBSERVING THE PATTERNS OF MATH WILL HELP US TO SOLVE PROBLEMS - Here we read a short biography of Thales.  I did not pre-read the story before reading it to my children but providencially enough, this biography from MATHEMATICIANS ARE PEOPLE TOO VOL 1 was a story about how Thales used the patterns he observed in how the his shadow was cast on the ground and the position of the sun to figure how tall a certain pyramid was.

THE COMBINING/MANIPULATION OF NUMBERS WORK BECAUSE GOD IS HOLDING ALL THINGS TOETHER - based also on Col 1:16-17

Here I discussed with my children why is it that the sun stays in the sky?  What would happen if one day the moon was sitting in the ocean and the grass was floating in the air or if we were floating out in space?  Why doesn’t that happen?  (because God is holding these things together)  So it is with 3+5.  It will always equal 8 no matter what country u are in, no matter what day it is, if you are at grandma’s house.  What would happen if we wake up one day and 3+5=23,994.87 and the next minute it equals 3+5=0 and next year 3+5=2…would you know how to keep track of how many toys you have or how much money is in your piggy bank?  Well, everyday and everywhere we go 3+5=8 , why? (because God is holding all things together so that His principles are the same or consistent.  It blessed me to realize in this study how big God is and how much He cares for us.  We discussed that God could be holding His principles that require mathematical descriptions FOR US…so that we could make sense of this world and so that we could walk in the dominion that He wanted Adam to walk in, and so that we could KNOW HIM.

WE CAN SEE THE NATURE OF GOD IN MATHEMATICS

We just finished discussing last week what CONSISTENT and FAITHFUL means.  The lesson was based on the previous example of numbers not changing.  It took them some time to ‘discover’ or reason that if numbers are consistent then so is God…that if numerical principles come from God then there is an aspect of the numbers that must be like God.  Just like my son has my nose or my dd has my dh’s eyes…(after me asking many WHY questions) they reasoned that is because they come from me and their dad.  Well so do mathematical principles come from God.   When we did come to that conclusion I took them to Hebrews 13:8 to ‘confirm’.  Another idea we discussed is if God is FAITHFUL and so consistent in holding this universe together and is able to hold numbers and their patterns and principles together then surely He is able (and willing) to hold my little life together and work all things for my good as I give my life to Him !!!!!

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Just a note:  The study of math was for us a dead subject.  Even though I was teaching the concepts in math to my children, it was dead to me and boring.  I began to pray to God for how to bring the life into math.  Our other subjects were alive but math was not.  I really believe He led me to two resources that showed me how to teach math from BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES.  Of course if you want to bring the life into something you MUST bring God…but from all the study I had done thru the NP Math guide and even GACE I was still missing ’something’…there still was no ‘aha’ moment…or I should say I had ‘aha’ moments but they were not lasting. The NP math guide and GACE gave me the principles that govern math but did not go as far as I needed into seeing how God was in the mundaness of learning and drilling addition facts.   Now everytime we drill of number facts we can know and be reminded that these equations work because God is holding them together for them to work.  Even when u look at the fact that Jesus took 5 loaves and 2 fish which should have been enough food for several people those 7 pieces of food fed over 5,000 people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So God can make 2+2 equal anything He wants it to equal but for the most part He allows it to equal 4.  He allows it to be consistent because HE IS GOOD, HE IS FAITHFUL AND HE WANTS US TO USE IT AS A TOOL TO GOVERN OURSELVES IN HIS EARTH, AND FINALLY HE SOOOOOO WANTS TO BE KNOWN!!!!

Anyway, the resources are:

BEYOND NUMBERS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO TEACHING MATH BIBLICALLY by Katherine Loop and

MATHEMATICS: IS GOD SILENT by James Nickel

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This year we are studying from MIGHTY WORKS OF GOD: SELF GOVERNMENT. I did not write my own HisStory lessons this year…but I did want our principle this year to be SELF-GOVERNMENT so I felt this was an appropriate time to check this resource out and use it. I really like it. It gives several principles to discuss with your children for each chapter. I love how Mrs. Smith explains the concept of self-government, the concept of history being God’s story or HisStory, how she defines and explains government being direction and control. These lessons come in very small “sound-bites” if you will…very simple…nothing overwhelming to you or the child….but yet these topics are ‘heavy’ with meaning and application. I’m so grateful for this book because I don’t know if I’d be able to explain these difficult concepts and then offer such comprehensive reflective and reasoning questions. Even though the lessons are simple the concepts are not. The lessons conclude with an assignment to record the principle in the child’s notebook or print out an activity sheet. Most of the time the child just has to record one sentence. I just add on additional questions for my daughter to answer and write about, if I see the need. I sometimes add in my own application(if God gives me one) and my own questions for reflection in addition to what’s there. Some people may feel it is too simplistic but I love the freedom to be able to add on additional activities if I so desire or additional writing prompts. There are days when what is there is sooooo sufficient depending on how our day is going and how tired we all are. It is perfect for us for where we are right now!!

Some of the principle we have disussed and learned about so far are:

History is His Story

Studying History will help us to recognize God’s Hand as he works in the lives of men and nations.

God commands us to remember all H has done for us as individuals and nations.

Government is direction and control.

If I govern myself well, I will not need others to control me.

God has a plan for civil government.

Another incredible math resource that pointed me TO James Nickel’s book MATHEMATICS: IS GOD SILENT is BEYOND NUMBERS by Katherine Loop.  This gave me such a fresh and new perspective on Col 1:16-17 and how it applies to mathematics….and really that verse applies to all other areas of study as well.  You can read about Katherine’s book here.

It reinforced and enlightened me on how to teach math biblically; what to keep in mind and how to teach and see God’s greatness in your study/teaching of  math.  Katherine encourages you to keep God’s goals in mind teaching biblical math(and enumerates what they are).  Of course, other math resources are listed at the end of the book with her commentary.  I came across this book at a very crucial time in my re-education.  I know God led me to it.  This is another keeper!!!

This math resource has been such a wonderful blessing to me. God has used it to shed light on some very important factors in my biblical re-education. The one breakthrough that I consider to be the most important is that I’ve finally understood that one’s philosophy of education is based on your worldview. One’s worldview is religious(or can I say ’spiritual’) in nature…either you believe in God or you don’t and I’ve finally realized what FACE is trying to do in having a person go through the SDS; also what J. Rose does in GACE by talking about ‘thinking governmentally’ and the Christian idea of man and government and the Christian idea of a child….all of this terminology composes a person’s ‘worldview’. Your worldview(what you base the decisions and actions of your life upon…the foundation of why you feel you existence is, what meaning there is to your life) will determine completely your view of all areas of life, including education.

So for the Christian it becomes imperative to establish a BIBLICAL worldview. These questions (and others) need to be answered from the Bible, either directly or indirectly.

Part 1: The first chapter lays the foundation for what will be covered in the rest of the book…and that foundation is Jesus Christ…just as it says in scripture:

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ(I Corinthians 3:11)

The remaining sections of chapter 1 define worldview and how one’s presuppostions determine worldview. It then details the components of a worldview :

1. Metaphysics- the study of reality or the study of the nature, structure and origin of what exists. There are 3 subcomponents of metaphysics…they are:

• cosmology - the structure of what exists; i.e. how the world works
• cosmogony - how the universe came into being
• ontology - the nature of the kinds of things that exists

2. Epistemology - the study of the nature and limits of human knowledge; what does it mean to know something? How can we know what we know?

3. Ethics- the study of right and wrong attitudes and actions.

The components of a Biblical Worldview are contained in scripture. I won’t go into much detail about how Mr. Nickel describes the biblical worldview…I’ll let you get the book or you can study this out for yourself but I’ll document these scriptures:

For metaphysics:

• Genesis 1:1 speaks to the subcomponent of cosmogony
• Col 1:16-17 speaks to cosmoglogy
• Acts 17:28 speaks to ontology

Psalm 36:9 speaks to Epistemology
Leviticus 20:7 speaks to Ethics

These are just SOME of the many scriptures that one can find in the bible to establish godly thinking and mindset. This mindset undergirds all other expectations and though processes that we will have about life.

I absolutely loved Chapter 1.Chapter 2 - From Adam to Christ - begins the documentation of the historical flow of mathematics ; to discover that man uses the tool of mathematics either independently of God or in relationship with God and the outcome of these 2 ‘worldviews’.  This history continues until chapter 5
Chapter 6 - Talks about how mathematics Works

Part 2: Chapter 7 - talks about Objectives that the Christian educators should hold in view when teaching biblical mathematics

Chapter 8 - Pedagogy and Resources -

The books concludes with Timelines for the historical flow of mathematics along with the bibliography and indices .

This is one great resource. I tried not to give too much away as I would not want to spoil anything for anyone wanting to buy the book but hopefully I gave enough to whet your appetite.

I especially wanted to share what blessed me most about the book. This concept and clarification of worldview and how to arrive at a biblical worldview…that the bible GIVES us GOD’S VIEW…hence a biblical worldview…. has made many things come into clearer focus for me. It has confirmed for me that the Bible does indeed hold the answer for every area of life. It may not be a direct scripture that speaks to an area of study but there is inherent in the scripture underlying principles that can be deduced from scripture. God has marvelously ‘hidden’ the treasures of wisdom in knowledge in Christ…in His Word…it may not be ‘obvious’ but it is there and He will show us the infinite applicability of His Word. It has helped me to see that all of life is contained and is based upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified and that God has something to say from His Word about ALL of life(because He is The Source of All of life). It has helped me to understand more and more that in our quest for GOD’S TRUTH, we can study nothing(academia included) without it being rooted in the knowledge of God and has helped me to enlarge my vision of God of just how big and how great and how wonderful He really is; how all-encompassing He is..how He does indeed fill EVERYthing in EVERY way…making all things complete.

Ephesians 1:22-23

22And He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church [a headship exercised throughout the church],^(A)

23Which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all [for in that body lives the full measure of Him Who makes everything complete, and Who fills everything everywhere with Himself].

I am teaching Bible by using the layout/format in the NP Reading Curr. Guide. They have it broken down into 4 headings to coincide with 4 quarters in the year. I’ve gotten behind and I’ve given up keeping up with their schedule but I press on b/c we have been enjoying our study, at our pace, in our own wayt!!

1. The Immediacy of Christ
2. The Old Testament History
3. The Wisdom Lit and Prophets
4. New Testament History

Under THE IMMEDIACY OF CHRIST

I have chosen the following to teach for our first quarter:

• Prophecies of Jesus birth
• Birth of Christ and childhood
• Death and Resurrection
• Christ’s example of self-gov’t in being obedient to parents, His temptation and triumph, obedient all the way to death
• crucifiction and ascension/How He brough salvation

Now for resources I’ve chosen to use the coloring/activity sheets from Calvary chapel. These serve as both Bible study pages and BAR-vocabulary from the word find…looking up scriptures for the crossword puzzle, and other supplemental independent and oral reading for my 8yo. The principle we reasoned to when we studied the prophecies of HIs birth was GOD PROMISED TO DELIVER MAN FROM SIN. We started with Isaiah 9:1-7(from the Calvary chapel activity sheets) and talked about the state of man according to what Isaiah 9:1-7 stated. I asked many WHY questions and then asked the same questions another way just to ensure they understood why God sent a deliverer. This was a most blessed time. I could see in my dc’s faces that their hearts had been touched by the fact that Jesus took their punishment. He didn’t deserve it and He did nothing wrong but He loved them so much that He took their punishment…that we were the ones born into sin and Jesus became that sin for us. How wonderful it was even for me to remind myself of this. Then we went to Isaiah 53:2-12 and reasoned to the same principle that this was God giving a message to his special servant, the prophet Isaiah about His promise to send a Savior.

Our next series of lessons Gabriel visits Mary(Luke 1:26-38 and other referrin scriptures) and The Birth of Jesus(Luke 2:1-7) all reasoned to the principle that GOD IS A PROMISE-KEEPER; GOD KEPT HIS PROMISE TO SEND A SAVIOR TO MANKIND….(and if God kept His promise back then then surely He will keep His promises to us) as we witnessed the evidence of the Savior being born thru the scriptures.

Much of what we talked about in our lessons God gave me on the spot or the morning of the lesson. I did not plan on teaching these principles..they came as I kept looking over my lessons and even in the midst of teaching some of them a principle would pop into my mind and then I’d steer the lesson for us to reason along those line. My lessons were all nicely laid out but I’m learning to stay loose and I have to keep in mind that this is God’s lesson not mine. I am supposed to be allowing HIM to teach not me. So I find I get less and less upset when my schedule/lesson does not go as I plan and many, many times I feel somewhat uncomfortable with a lesson I have written and instead of just forging ahead like I used to do, I am learning that that is God gently nudging me and so then I have to stop and listen and pray. I’m learning as I stay humble and sensitive to Him many times He will change my lessons, give me principles I had not thought of and the lesson goes so wonderfully…..wonderfully b/c then I know I’m in His will with these lessons.

I also try to think of these principles as TRUTHS… I ask the Lord what TRUTH about Him should I be teaching my dc in this particular lesson.

We officially started our lessons the last week in July so we have now finished our first 6 weeks…and I feel sooooo behind!!! I have not accomplished(academically) what I set out to accomplish in my schedule but we trudge along day by day getting thru our daily schedule (which I think I need to revise). Most days I get the skill areas done and am able to do some History and Science on alternating days but not like I want it..but u see therein lies the trap I fell into that I MUST stay out of….making MY plans, setting MY schedule and NOT relying on the Lord. At the same time that I go thru these feelings of inadequacy and feeling like I’m not accomplishing what I need to we have the smoothest flow in our homeschool this year!! I am learning in so many ways to just TRUST THE LORD…with EVERYTHING!!!!!

I‘m learning to trust Him with our daily schedule. When I made my plans back in July and set our schedule I had Bible, Math, Orthography, Oral Reading, English, Music, History, Independent Reading, PE, Read Aloud scheduled for everyday for 2 children. That proved to be too much. My dc didn’t complain though…I was just tired…several nights we finished up at 10:30pm…granted we didn’t start until 1pm…I know I know…..so I think that schedule was overkill…this is my first year hsing 2 children … so now what I plan to do is to do the skill areas(Bible, Math, Orthography, Oral Reading) with each child on alternating days…so 6yob will be on Monday, Wed, Thurs….8yog will be on Tues, Wed, Fri. or something like that. I even try to be sensitive as to which child I work with first in the week. 6yob may not be on Mondays every week but whatever day I work with him, I work with her the next day. On days where I’m not working with one child I have a folder that I fill up with independent work they can work on without me so much…we are all in the same room so if they need me I’m there but I try to gear these assigments to where my involvement is not so intense so that one child can work by themselves while I work with the other child…. and then for content areas(History, Science) we do every afternoon after our skill areas are done. I alternate History and Science from M-Th afternoons…Friday afternoons are free or they can do enrichment lessons on the computers with Reader Rabbit math or phonics or geography, typing, etc. I try to get in some read aloud time in the afternoon also…doesn’t always happen. We are currently reading Little Pilgrim’s Progress. Also, right before bedtime 8yog has her assigned independent reading to do. I made a log for her to mark down the date for each chapter she reads and she is to write 2-3 sentences about what she read about in that chapter and/or write what she felt about what she read. Music seems to get done without any prompting from me(could that be the Lord orchestrating things, hmmm…) b/c my dc see it as a ‘break’ from our lessons so when we have our breaks I’ll hear my 8yog practice the songs she has taught herself. Then of course her younger brother wants to do everything she does so at some point during the day I’ll hear him playing the pieces of songs that he knows how to play(that she has taught him!!). I have not even started teaching English yet!!!!!!!!!! So where does trusting God come in? I have seen times when if my schedule wasn’t working I would be so stressed. But since God is working in me to trust Him with my planning and our entire homeschool I find that the little bumps along the way don’t stress me like they used to . I decided to make the changes in our schedule and I am at peace about it…thank You Jesus!!! The fact that I have not covered Englislh yet surprisingly is not bothering me either. It will get in there at some point. I’m using SWR and once we start our spelling diictation she will get her grammar activities. I do plan on starting her on the basics on composition writing sometime soon. The one thing that I do wish is that we might start at like 8:00am in the morning so at 12noon I can be done with at least one child’s skill area but I’m finding that our ‘natural’ flow is to wake up late and go to bed late (10-11pm, sometimes 12am) so we are working into the evening. I’ve contemplated trying to change our wake up time but for now I think I’ll leave it alone and keep trusting God with our start time and our schedule…things are getting done … it just seems like it is ever so slowly.

I’m learning to trust God with my the content of our lessons and the EXECUTION of them!! I am seeing such a change in the flow of our homeschool and our daily lessons. I think I may have mentioned before that my dc don’t really balk too much at doing lessons. What makes this year different than last year? The major difference is that God is THE FOCUS… not MORE of the focus but THE focus. I decided to ditch the workbooks(as far as relying on them for my lesson plans) and trust God to guide me in writing my own lessons and in putting my own curriculum together in subjects where the lessons are already written. I am making more of an effort to have a principle or idea that I want to teach. Lisa Hodgen’s post on teaching ideas versus just teaching facts has really put into words what my heart’s desire is. I want to teach God’s truths and principles and I’m doing more of that than I used to. Not that it is an extraordinary amount but there were some days where we spent so much time talking, reasoning, discussing scripture and trying to arrive at the principles and then talking about how it applies to our lives and the purposes for why God set things the way they are took the whole lesson time. This has got to be my favoritest(is that a word) time in our day. I think my dc enjoy it also.  They are always interjecting questions and more questions about God.  These have been some blessed times for us.  Sometimes I think we take too long talking about these things b/c then we end up not recording it in our books or doing any math problems…I’d have to finish up that day’s lesson the next day and give it as independent work(that is how our Independent Work folders got started)…u know what I mean? Another book that has helped me to focus more on structuring my lessons on biblical principles is Mathematics Is God Silent. The principles that are shared in that book can be used thruout life and certainly in other subjects. My thinking has been revolutionized and I have been changed just from what was shared in that book. I see God even more clearer and I find that the fear that I used to be in re: the state and their requirements is fading. But the whole focus of our lessons is different than last year hence the whole flow of our homeschool is different this year. That is what I attribute that to..our focus. The flow is sooo sweet..it’s like we are walking around in warm honey. The Spirit of the Lord is so sweet. Now I don’t want u to think that we don’t have our scolding moments and times of discipline but the times that we do have together are sweet on a whole…and that is causing me to relax more and more in the arms of God. I’m seeing that the more we focus our lessons on God..making Him the reason for why we study what we study and making glorifying Him the end-result of why we live out His principles … the more He blesses us with more and more of Himself. How awesome is He!!!!

I guess I’m saying that even though it may feel or seem like we are not moving along with our ‘academics’ like I had planned I find that we are talking about God and the His truths from His Word more. I definitely do have a peaceful, satisfied, ‘warm-fuzzy’ feeling inside when I think about how we have progressed in our discovery of God and how His truths undergird and shape our everyday life. I was especially blessed to be able to see Him in math(see previous post on The joy of Math). I am pleased with our how and what we are learning about God and how we have found that that does not end with bible study; obtaining knowledge of the Holy One carries over into every subject we study. I try to keep the focus of our lessons not on academics but on knowledge of Him, first and then learning the rudiments of each subject and how to apply to our lives so that we may glorify God. We may reason thru some scriptures on Monday but I find if we do not reference that scripture and our conclusions thruout the week then the ‘academics’ tend to take over, at least in my mind. So once I’ve introduced a principle and scripture we review them and our conclusions of the principles and their application thruout the week briefly before we do math drills, for instance. I do praise the Lord for that and for helping me to document our progress in ‘educationese’ for our state b/c as we all know they care nothing about what we are learning about God

I guess I can look at it like this:

If He can hold all things together like it says in Col 1:16 and keep this universe and everything in it running in sync, then surely He can hold our little homeschool together and keep us on track … HIS track…not my track…not necessarily my schedule…but if I trust Him surely He’ll make sure that my children learn what they need, have what they need and get them to where He has destined for them to be in this life He has given them; surely He will see to their development so that they won’t be lacking in anything…surely He’ll give them understanding in the subject areas they need as I feebly attempt to explain something that I struggle with….surely He will be mine and their Teacher…surely they’ll pass whatever tests they are to take when it comes time,,,surely He’ll save them and bring them into close, intimate relationship with Himself….surely they will proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and be vessels of character and honor unto God their Maker…. and surely, at last, He’ll bring us all Home to live with Him forever and ever and ever worshipping the Lover of Our Souls….so I MUST trust that God can and will do this for us…and that is what I’m learning to do!!!

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!!)

A change has taken place in my thinking, my heart, and in therefore, my actions or my implementation of how we homeschool.

As I was being refreshed and renewed, I didn’t know it at the time, but God was kind of ‘weaning’ me from all that I had read about what others were doing in their homeschool, even from the much of the material I was studying in the Red Books and the NP lesson plans book. All of a sudden I didn’t have a ‘taste’ for any of it and I began to wonder if I was on the right track with the BPA. I even wondered if I should still be homeschooling…but I’ve learned never to make a major decision when emotions are running high and even when I’m experiencing much uncertainty…the answer will come in the calm…I just continued to wait on the Lord, enjoying my rest in not having to do school just enjoy my family and children.

But I had come to the point where I’m tired of doing things my way or in my own wisdom/thinking. I’ve said that before and even when I thought I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do I realize now that I was not. I received very clear instruction from the Lord to go back to doing certain things that I used to do(when homeschooling was a pure joy!!) when my dd was 5(and when I didn’t have to report to the school district). Once she turned 6 and I had to start sending in everything we were doing a war ensued inside of me-wanting to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading but yet somehow feeling like I needed to cater to the districts and always being more concerned with what they’ll think; and the school district’s/worlds expectations won out…and that burned me out.

So God put me in a place where all of those distractions that used to pull at me were non-existent, flushed my insides out from the ‘old wine’ so that He could put in the ‘new wine’ of His revelation/instruction.

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So I’ve returned to using scripture as copywork for our handwriting lessons. That will coincide with our Bible Study.

I’ve decided to accept the fact that I cannot do all the subjects that I had planned in one day…. Now, we do what we can each day (along with my other responsibilities). The way it has been going since we started back last week, we either do ’skills’ lessons(math, handwriting, grammar, spelling, etc) or our unit study…and I’m even praying about if and/or how to incorporate our ’skills’ lessons into our unit study lessons.

I also count time the children spend cleaning their rooms/household chores as school. It goes under life skills.

I’ve gone back to using math add-ons/games on the internet to be a part of my dd’s math curriculum.

In short, I’ve eased up on myself and my children…My lessons have gone back to ’simple’(no less effective, I pray :). I’m learning how to be much more loving to them no matter how far behind I feel we are and basically to accept and be content with where they are in their development and not PUSH them to where I feel their public/private school counterparts are…even the lessons given in the NP are very aggressive and complete and are WONDERFUL in my eyes…I would want my children to attain to ALL of what I read in these lesson plan books but I’ve had to just stop striving to MAKE my children be…rather I’m learning to just LET them be…while teaching and guiding them gently.

I tell you things go sooooo much smoothly. We go to bed now happy with each other and so much less tension in the house since our days are not spent arguing and me fussing and upset and tense and feeling like I’ve failed if we don’t do have a math lesson everyday…so what if we don’t finish the book.

I’m learning to REALLY put my trust in the Lord and in following His way and instruction. My children are fine and will get to where they are supposed to be…God will make sure of that!!! The scripture God brought back to me is this:

Matthew 11:27-31(amplified)

28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ^[f]ease and relieve and ^[g]refresh ^[h]your souls.]

29Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (^[i]relief and ease and refreshment and ^[j]recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.^(A)

30For My yoke is wholesome (useful, ^[k]good–not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

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So having said all of that this week we started His Story again and picked up with the 3rd link Jesus Christ-The focal point of History. That was our principle.

For BIBLE/HISTORY I read to my children the bible stories of Jesus getting baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus and the little children, and Jesus choosing 12 disciples. I gave them bible sheets, from Heart of Wisdom site to color as I read these stories. In all of this we would discuss and reason Jesus’ purpose (Principle of Individuality) for coming and referencing that to the Chain of Christianity in showing what God was doing/how His plan was unfolding to bring liberty to America and the world from the beginning…Creation.

It was such a simple lesson, if I wasn’t trusting God with my homeschool I would wonder if my children learned anything from something so simple..I trust that what I shared in this unit that God would put His Super to my natural and bring something Supernatural out of it in the lives of my children.

Today we read about the Last Supper, Jesus’ Resurrection, and His Soon Return.

For GEOGRAPHY we looked at and studied maps of Israel and the Middle East Region. My dd had to locate the nation of Israel first She labeled a blank outline map of Israel. She labeled Jerusalem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan River and the surrounding nations of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and the Med. sea. These are some of the sites we visited and used in our study
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/lgcolor/ilcolor.htm

http://www.freeworldmaps.net/asia/israel/map.html

http://www.masada2000.org/geography.html

This next site is a WONDERFUL site. You can download interactive maps and map puzzles where your child has to put each state in it’s place(for US map) or each country in it’s respective place on the continent. When we did our Moses link my dd fell in love with this and kept asking (on non-History unit days) if she could do the map puzzle of Africa!

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps.htm

Now, on to ART. I decided to study/introduce my children to the painting of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci since we read about the Last Supper today.

I found a printable here at this site:

http://arthistory.about.com/library/artists/tours/leonardo/n_leo_10.htm

I read a very short biography of Leonardo and gave my dd the printable of his painting and asked her to study it and reproduce it. This is what she did…I thought it was precious so I decided to post it….

I also found more art history at this site…

http://arthistory.about.com/cs/leonardo/a/last_supper.htm

I found these search engines just for kids…

AJKids - AOL@school - Awesome Library - Google - KartOO - KidsClick! - ThinkQuest Library - Yahooligans

I clicked on AJKids and found the following site that gives a biography of Leonardo in simpler language for younger children.

http://www.askforkids.com/fr?u=http%3A%2F%2Flibrary.thinkquest.org%2F3044%2Fnov_over.html&bu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.askforkids.com%2Fweb%3Fq%3D%22da%2Bvinci%2C%2Bleonardo%22%26dm%3Dlang%26page%3D1&q=%22da%2Bvinci%2C%2Bleonardo%22&o=0&l=dir&s=k&dm=lang&qt=0

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So all in all, things are going well…I’m happy and my children are responding so much better to school and just overall. My 5yob can’t seem to stop hugging me and coming up to me laying on my shoulder and he keeps telling me, “Mommy, I love you”. I tell I love him too and I stand in awe at what God is doing in my life and in my family as I determine to trust Him and go with His leading for everyday.

What a fun-time we had in our read aloud time yesterday! I don’t read aloud everyday…I wish I could be consistent enough to do that but we do it when I really feel the inspiration. I blogged the other week about taking a read-aloud/literature book and take as many lessons as we can from that. Well, my children asked me the other day if they could watch the Sword in the Stone movie. I said yes, since we are still on ‘vacation’…and it gave me a thought to go get books on knights, and armor and such. So I consulted the reading list from Teaching the Trivium’s products. The Bluedorns son and daughter has published a list of good read alouds and biographies and such. So I chose to get books by Homer Pyle(fitting with my dc’s desire to watch the Sword in the Stone and medieval times). I got the one entitled Some Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. I was seeking an unabridged version and I think I got one…most of them say “adapted by such and such”.

As I began to read I could tell it was not ‘capturing’ my children’s attention. They were in the room listening but out of obedience, if u know what I mean. Their minds were elsewhere. As I read the scene describing how Robin Hood met Little John and how they had a ‘duel’ fighting with ‘cudgers’ and ‘goose-feathered arrows’ I started to really act out the scenes as I read them and the more I got into they did. I even began to have them act out scenes. I told boy(5) that he would be Robin Hood and girl(7) that she could be Little John and when I got to the part where Robin Hood told his merry men “Three blasts upon the bugle horn I will blow in my hour of need, then come quickly, for I shall want your aid”—-I had boy(5) blow his pretend horn and then had “Little John” run to his aid. We had a blast!!!

The second chapter was the story of how the Sherriff of Nottingham tried to trap Robin in by having a shooting match. As the archers from surrounding towns came to compete — “And now the archers shot, each man in turn, and the good folk never saw such archery as was done that day”–my children went and grabbed their “bow and arrows” they had made out of plastic clothes hangers and my dd’s hair elastic hair bands and used non-sharpened pencils for arrows — they each took their turn at shooting—each other and me.

I loved it and they did too. I stopped after the 1st chapter so that we could clean up the downstairs and my dd says to me “Mommy what about the story of Robin Hood”? I promised her I would read more after we cleaned up and I tended to the baby. Then we read the 2nd chapter.

I decided to try and make a “little” vocabulary lesson to enhance their understanding of what they hear me read. I made up a sheet of vocabulary words b/c this book is written in very similar style as the King James Bible…using words like nay, no harm shall befall him(Robin Hood speaking of LIttle John), guile, etc. so I made a list of 10 vocab. words from the first 2 chapters that me and dd(7) will look up in the dictionary and define.

Here are the words I chose:

• archer
• forest
• skill
• cunning
• yeomen
• outlaw
• bold
• shrewd p. 12
• cudgels p. 13
• 10.Nay p. 14

Part 2 of this assigment is to copy the sentences that these words are used in from the book–exactly as the author wrote it. I think I’ll use these sentences as copywork for our cursive handwriting, vocabulary, grammar/sentence construction, paragraph writing. Here are the passages we will attempt to work on:

Copy each sentence. Underline all vocabulary words.

• No archer ever lived that could speed a gray goose shaft with such skill and cunning as his.
• There lived within the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was Robin Hood.
• Nor were there ever such yeomen as the seven-score merry men that roamed with him through the greenwood shades.
• When Robin was a youth of eighteen, stout of sinew and bold of heart, the Sheriff of Nottingham proclaimed a shooting-match and offered a prize of forty marks to whomsoever should shoot the best shaft in Nottingham.
• So shrewd was the stroke that the stranger came within a hair’s breadth of falling off the bridge.
• I must needs own thou art a brave and a sturdy soul, and, withal, a good stout stroke with the cudgels.”
• Nay, forbear!” cried Robin; “he is a right good man and true, and no harm shall befall him.”

I received in my email a wonderul example of how to teach grammar, spelling, vocab, and penmanship straight from descriptive texts of living books. You can view this article on how to do that here at Trivium Pursuit email list archives.

I would just be sure to add/teach the biblical origin/purpose and the biblical prinicples of each of these subject areas.

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