Today was a really good day…because I held myself together :-)  and it wasn’t that big of a struggle!!!!!

We finally got up this morning about 10:00am.  We ate breakfast and the children were instructed to clean their rooms, really clean them and then take care of their personal hygiene by taking baths.  This took until about 2:30-3:00 for them to finish.  I know God has done a work in me b/c just 3 weeks ago I would have been so stressed and would have begun rushing them to finish, and then stressing them.  But I kept telling myself there was no rush and God was in control of our day.  I had all these plans in my head about what I wanted to accomplish as far as bookwork today…but I stayed relaxed and just let the day unfold.

When dh went to work about 3:00pm we sat down and did our long-awaited History lesson from MWOG.  We are on the Creation link and we finished up the principle GOD CREATED THE CONTINENTS FOR A PURPOSE.  We finished labeling and outlining the last 4 continents(we started this in Nov 2007) and we perused the World Atlas of each continent.  My dc seem to like this book, it has very colorful pictures of the people of each continent, how  they dress, each country’s flag, what they export and what region of the country/continent the exports come from…they especially love reading about what kinds of animals live in each continent.  This lesson took a while b/c my dc started telling me about movies they had seen that reminded them of what we found in these continents.   We even got into a discussion about evolution, that it is a theory, and how it goes against the bible and that the bible is our source of what is true….it was a really good time we had together.

My 8yodd then asked if they could have lunch(about 4:30pm) and she proceeds to fix lunch for her brothers…to my amazement.  So since I saw she had everything covered I went downstairs to workout.  After my workout, I saw they had cleared the table and so I brought out a bag of books for them to read thru and told them that while I shower they were to have reading time and for my 8yodd to read to her brothers if they asked her to.  I heard not one fight or bicker.  They seemed so content that I was able to spend time stretching in my room after my shower(since I had forgotten to stretch right after my workout).

After my stretching I sat on the living room floor with them and read some poems to them from THE HOME BOOK OF VERSE FOR YOUNG FOLKS.  We read and laughed at those until dh came home for his lunch(6:30pm) and they were all ready to eat again by 7:00.

After dinner I put 3yo in the tub and told 8yodd to begin her independent reading and I gave her a choice of autobiographies to read.  She chose Christopher Columbus…As I’m trying to wind everyone down for bed she reads one chapter and asks me can they make a boat in her room so they can sail the seas like Columbus???

Oh well,   I guess that’s what I get for letting her read an adventuresome story right before bedtime….I get sailing adventure at night!!!!!

So I”m gonna close this out now and go read the bible with my 6yo and then prayerfully everyone would have had enough of their booster shot of “mommy love” tonight and drift on into sweet, peaceful, dreamy sleepy bliss!!!!!

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 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.

I wanted to post the ‘little’ lesson I wrote for BAR or Reading Comprehension using the NP models and forms. This lessons supplements the Bible Study for that particular week so we used the leading idea and principle from the Bible Study for that week.

Principle: Eph 6:1-Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right

Leading Idea: Jesus submitted to and obeyed His parents, even though He was God’s son

Scripture: Luke 2:41-52

Memory verse: Matthew 5:16-Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Day1:

Read scripture

Copy memory verse

Define obedience on Word Map

Day 2:

Read scripture

Define antonym(grammar)

Identify antonym to obedience=disobedience

Read Deut 28, 4:40, Psalm 1 to compare/contrast consequences of obedience and disobedience.

Fill in T-chart with observations from scripture

Day 3:

Discuss how we let our light shine thru being obedient

Here is what my dd did for her reading comprehension assignment. I used the Noah Plan’s form for a word map from the Reading Guide(2nd edition). This guide is packed full of resources to use to teach reading and all that is included in reading…fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, phonemic awareness. It recommends the WRR for orthography and spelling.

The second day’s assignment was a T-chart that I used to introduce the concept of antonyms and to highlight the consequences of obedience and disobedience. This was based on the scriptures I used….u can adapt these to whatever scriptures you use and to the ages of your children and their ability to reason, etc.

I absolutely love the richness, thoroughness and the detail this reading guide goes into and the tools it gives u to teach reading. The only hitch for me is in the implementation of it. I only have so many hours in a day to do what needs to be done and I can’t implement ‘half’ of what I want to do, what is in my heart to do right now. So I’ll just do what I can. This is the first and ONLY BAR assigment I’ve written…prayerfully I’ll be able to write more..also, this lesson came spur of the moment. This was not in my plan. While we were on this particular Bible Study lesson I felt a prompting to do a little BAR or comprehension lesson on it. As you can see it was nothing “earth shattering” but prayerfully God was able to use it to re-inforce and solidify and “imprint His laws” on my child’s heart!! If so then this simple lesson made a difference in my child’s life…to God be all the Glory!!

I received this in my email from Crayola.com…I’m going to check into some of these myself…just wanted to share this with any who drop by my blog……

TEACHER APPRECIATIONS EVENTS OCCURING

ACROSS THE NATION
Each new school year brings promises of colorful learning,

and Crayola® is always proud to be a part of teachers’ and

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Participants will receive free gifts—as well as some much-deserved
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Office Depot® is hosting the 13th Annual Teacher Appreciation

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MICHAELS®
Michaels thanks teachers for inspiring creative young minds every

day. Come to Michaels August 20th through 26th and receive a

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WAL*MART®
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will be hosting Teacher Appreciation Events

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Teachers are invited to celebrate the new school year at Teacher

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OfficeMax is hosting Teacher Appreciation Events in the last week

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Teachers can call their local OfficeMax store or 1-877-OFFICEMAX, to

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THANK YOU
Throughout the school year you can rely on Crayola.com for fresh

lesson plan ideas and teaching tips. A new feature added this

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Colorfully yours,
The Crayola.com Team
http://www.crayola.com

After talking to HSLDA, the school district has said that they will NOT allow the parent to do the written assessment for the child BUT since the notice came so late in this year they will allow us to do it THIS year.

Well.. one day at a time Sweet Jesus, that’s all I’m asking of You….

I am grateful that I don’t have to scramble around now and get a certified teacher…that I can submit what I have…but I don’t like their policy. The reg’s. do say the superintendent has to give his consent and this NEW superintendent will not give his consent.

Ok…I will comply but praying all the way

One thing that I desire(besides beholding the beauty of the Lord is to write more on my blog.  I think I”ve decided to keep both blogs although I’m still working on that logic.  I see so many nice, full, informative blogs.  I enjoy many of them and when I spend time reading them I can kind of get a ‘flavor’ of the heart of the blogger…almost like getting to know them.  I enjoy getting to know other sincere, homeschooling moms who love the Lord.  The medium of the internet is a wonderful tool to have access to much information and I do appreciate the homeschool communities that have started on the web.  Used the right way, the internet can be a tool of blessing for many.  God will use it in the lives of His people…many times He has confirmed a word to me thru what someone else has written and vice versa has given me words to encourage someone as I left comments on their blog.

But, it needs to be kept in it’s place.  I find many times that I put off blogging b/c I am so busy at home.  Any time I don’t have the baby pulling at me wanting to play or diaper changed or to eat, etc. I’m washing/folding/putting away laundry, tending to my 2 other children(supervising disputes, supervising room cleaning, bathroom cleaning, personal hygiene maintenance),  figuring out what we’ll eat for dinner next, writing/thinking about next year’s lessons(which start July 6), mopping floors, working out, paying bills, cleaning up, blessing the house, or just plain sitting down talking/enjoying my dh’s company….I don’t see where I have much time to write.

So I think the solution for me is to schedule it!! I know that it does not take a rocket scientist revelation but it kind of was for me.

The only thing is that I find I’m not good with a ’schedule’.  I do better with a ‘plan’ of action, if u know what I mean.  Even when we school I think  do better with just having a ‘list’ of things to accomplish but yet still be free enough to get them done in the way that suits me each day.

So I think I’m gonna aim for once a week.  If ideas come to me to write(which they have)…I put them on an index card sitting on top of my computer … it’s there even as I type this entry) but the children have come in from outside now and I know the time is winding down b/fore one of them will need me…not to mention dh….

…so I’ll wrap this up…and we’ll see how my new blogging commitment/schedule works out…

wish me well!!

I FINALLY got someone from HSLDA to call me back(an attorney) and he assured me they would get in touch with the Super. of the district(he’s out until Monday) and get this resolved. HSLDA’s take on it is that the state of NY allows the parent to do the narrative just with the consent of the Super…along with the fact the disctrict did not notify me of this until I had graduated my daughter and turned in my 4th quarter report AND year end assess… this has gotten kind of crazy but I’m trusting God. These 3 gifts He has given me are His and I’m relying on Him to protect them from whatever however He chooses.

Bottom line is….we’ll know on Monday…