Listening for the Quiet

Five Minute Friday

The Word: QUIET

A weekly challenge by Lisa-Jo Baker. We all write about 1 word for five minutes.

Unedited. Just thoughts.

Ready?

GO










In order to write about the word "quiet," I had to first go into my room and lock my bedroom door, warning the kids that I needed five minutes alone.


Even with the solitude, I can hear the clicking of my keys. The hum of the construction workers across the street. My son is right now asking, "Mommy?" Apparently a locked, shut door doesn't keep out questions and requests and urgent needs that only mommy can meet.


There isn't a lot of quiet at our house. Home Schooling involves spinning a lot of plates in the air at the same time, hoping they don't crash to the ground.


My best times of "quiet" are when I wake up before the kids and spend time with God. I'd love to say that I eagerly jump out of bed, slip on my robe, and glide to the couch with a smile across my face.


No.


Most mornings I hit the snooze a few times and then roll out of bed with a thud.


I love the quiet times. It's just the first 2 minutes of getting out of a warm bed that are killer.


"Mommy?" There he is again.


Focus, Becky. Focus.


I try and remember that in a few short years, my house will be very quiet. The kids will be grown. There will be no "mommy" through the door. No giggles down the hallway. No squeals of laughter from the trampoline outside. No questions. No read aloud books. No clamber of this or that.


The quiet times will come.


For now, I'll unlock my door and listen. To their questions. To their tears. Even to their fights and screams and complaints.

And I'm learning that even in the midst of the noise, my spirit can be quiet within me, at rest, as I listen moment by moment for that still small voice.

Shhhhhhhh

Bringing Exodus Home

Teacher Tuesdays

I was recently asked to blog on our church's website about how to take our current sermon series on the book of Exodus and apply it at home. What a privilege!

It just so happens that we're studying Exodus from the ancient times in our home school right now. I love how God coordinates things. :)

So for your reading pleasure and enlightenment, here's the blog: Bringing Exodus Home.

When Mommy/Teacher Gets Sick

Teacher Tuesdays

I recently shared pictures of our first few days of school. I even created a plan for what I'd do if I struggled with various moods during the year. I neglected to plan for sick days.

Last week, I had some sort of allergy-headache-bowling ball for a brain-kind of day. When my kids were little, we could enjoy a bag (or three) of popcorn and PBS Kids. But that's not an option when "the show must go on" and little minds still need to wrestle through school.

How did I cope?

Well, for starters, during preschool time, while studying the letter B, my boys and I laid down and watched a couple of Blues Clues episodes as I prayed for the ibuprofen to kick in.

Our laundry didn't get finished in one day as I'd have liked.

The dishes remained in the sink. I was thankful the kids had something to eat, even though it came out of a jar and a can.

Daily chores weren't checked, meaning they weren't done.

And for our history reading, my throat was too sore, so I had my 11 year old read for us.

These days happen to all of us. Unfortunately, we don't get sick days. But we can cope. Navigate. Alter the course a little bit.

The dishes can be done another day. The laundry isn't going anywhere. An extra movie in the afternoon while I rest on the couch will not hurt their brains.

It sure does make us thankful for the healthy days, though, right? And early bedtimes?

Question: How do you handle sick-days as a mom? Any tips?

"He tends his flock like a shepherd:

He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young."

Isaiah 40:11

How We Home School

Foto Fridays

(Or Saturday, you know, whatever...)

I'm often asked, "How do you get it all done?" when talking about the different ages of the kids and home schooling. To satisfy the curious and encourage the faint hearted, here's a post in pictures of what our home school looked like in the first week. Let me know if I can answer any questions!! :)

8:00 AM 

We start each day at 8 AM with our Bible time. We're still working through the Psalms with Draw to Learn the Psalms. We're on Psalm 113! Woo-hoo! The home-stretch.

A few years ago, I had a really hard time fitting Bible into our day. A friend encouraged me to make it the number 1 priority. Now, it's just habit. The kids expect it. It took work to get here, but the habit has been established.

8:30 AM  

After Bible, I have a preschool time with my youngest. We are starting a letter of the week curriculum using a combination of books on my shelf. I haven't done preschool for years, and this is a lot of fun. I forgot how much I enjoyed those early years. Resources: ABC I Believe, A is for Adam, Alpha Tales Letter Books, My ABC Bible Verses, & Scripture Memory Songs.

9:00 AM

After preschool, I move to my first grader. His work includes handwriting, math, poetry, and reading out loud to me both books and sight words. He also does the fun preschool activities that I'm doing with Kevin. It really doesn't take more than 30 minutes with him.

During this time, my preschooler watches a LeapFrog video. :)

9:30 AM

For fun, I bought him the 1st Grade Jump Start game. He loves it! He's learning and having fun.

7:00 AM - 10:30 AM

My girls are very diligent, starting their school work even before breakfast. I don't know where they get it. Probably their daddy, who used to get up at  5AM and take care of his horses. I was the girl running out to catch the bus because I slept in until the last moment. Regardless, they're early-risers and get started on their seat work quickly.

They each have a check list for the week of what they must accomplish each day. On the computer, my sixth grader does Grammar Key, Teaching Textbooks for math, Typing Instructor for Kids, and sometimes they read their book on the Kindle for PC.

Other daily seatwork includes Wonder Devotional Bible reading, copywork, math worksheets, practice of Bible verses, practice their dance, read alone book and/or report, writing lessons with Writing Strands, and spelling with Spelling Wisdom.

9:30-10:30

After Bible, Preschool, & First Grade Time, I take about 30 minutes my 4th & 6th graders individually to do a few subjects with them and check their work. Sometimes they haven't finished, and they complete the rest after lunch.

10:30-11:30 AM

After checking the girls' work, we all get together again for history and science. We're using Mystery of History this year, and so far so good! We will be starting BJU Science 5 in 2 weeks. After our lesson, we snuggle on the couch for our read aloud. If it's getting late, we'll do this after lunch. This week, we read The Magician's Nephew. Needless to say, they were begging me to read it all day! Gotta love the Narnia Series!

Laundry still needs to get done! I do it all in one day. Lights, Whites, Darks, & Towels. This week, we paused whatever we were doing to fold and put away each load together. Usually, we do it all in the evening before bed.

Chores! We have three bunnies now, and it's 100% the children's responsibility. This, along with house keeping responsibilities, is on their chore list.

When the weather's warm, I try and get outside for lunch. On this day above, we hiked through the corn field to a tree in the middle where it's cleared out and has shade. During lunch, we review our Bible Memorization. It was in this corn field that we decided to rap our passage.

After we've finished, we play outside!

This year, I want to actually PLAY all those board games we have in our cabinet. I'm putting on the schedule "board games" to play in the afternoon or early evening. This way, it's a constant reminder of something fun to do with them. I know it seems bad that I need to remind myself to play with them, but my brain often goes other places.

So there you have it! Our first week of school, and that's about what our year will look like, except that our Co-Op will start in September.

Happy Learning!

Rapping the Bible

Teacher Tuesdays

Have you ever tried rapping the Bible?

We started school this week, and for scripture memory, we picked up where we left off last year in Matthew 5:21-22. I have a long-term goal to learn all of Matthew 5, 6, &7. It's going to take awhile!

To change it up, we decided to rap this short section. Below, you'll see the humerous result. Hey, whatever works, right? Many thanks to my 7 year old son who video taped about a dozen mess-ups!

What fun things are you thinking of doing this year to hide God's word in the hearts of your children?

Finding Free & Discounted Books

Teacher Tuesdays

Finding Free & Discounted Books can be a challenge, but with the internet, we have a lot of options, especially if you're willing to use ebooks. You can download a free reader at Kindle for PC. Some are simply pdf's, no reader required. Below is a list of the places I search first when looking for books for our home school.

FREE

Project Gutenberg. Find free online books such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, among thousands of others.

Kindle E-Books. More classics, with modern books thrown in as well. Wuthering Heights, Lord, Teach Us to Pray by Andrew Murray, and The Pursuit of God, to name a few.

Online Literature has lists sorted by author, title, and time period. 

Inspired Reads. This is a blog that offers free Christian ebooks every day. The style varies, but I've found some great free resources.

$1 or Less

Ebay. I just scored a large hard cover picture book lot for under $1 each shipped, including many award winning books. I was looking for some new picture books for my preschooler, and this deal made my month! I hadn't thought to look on Ebay before this for "Lots" of books. Buying in bulk saves shipping.

Half Priced Book Store. Their clearance section often has books that range from $1 or less. Go prepared to hunt. It's not really organized. (At least ours isn't).

Garage Sales. Again, if you enjoy the hunt, this is a great way to pick up books under a dollar.

$3
Paperback Swap. You send your books to other members, and then you get credits for books that you want. Although you're still paying on average $3/book that you ship, they give you credits in advance just for signing up, so you start out ahead of the game. At this point, though, I've been in it long enough that it feels like I'm just paying $3/book.

Amazon used books. I've found that many of their used books also qualify for Free Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. I used this option when ordering school books this year.

$5
Half.com This is a great resource, but your minimum shipping rate is $3.99/book, so if you add a 75 cent book, you're almost at $5. This is still much better than running out to the local bookstore, though! And this summer, I found a free shipping special, so my 75 cent books were actually only 75 cents!

What treasure am I  missing out on? Where do you find your book deals?

It's Raining Books!

Teaching Tuesdays

Books, books, books! We take a literature approach to history, which means I scour half.com, paperbackswap.com, and amazon.com’s used books to find deals on all the books we’ll read during the school year. The ordering has been completed for fall 2012, and now it’s like Christmas almost every day when the mail comes with one book or another. Our mail lady just told me that I needed a bigger mailbox.

For us, the literature approach is the best way my kids learn. At the end of last school year, I asked them to write at least 3 sentences on over 30 topics from our study of American History. It was eye-opening that the events and people that they read historical fiction or biographies on were the easiest for them to recall. When my 8 YO daughter got to Danielle Boone, she wrote four complete paragraphs. She loved that book and couldn’t narrow down what she wanted to say. To me, she gained much more from a good book than a simple paragraph in a text about him.

Of course, the downside to a literature approach is that you can’t possibly read a good book about everything – there just isn’t time! That’s why this year, we’re going to use Mystery of History as our spine and then supplement with literature. I'm also excited about some of the quizzes and activities that will be able to help us review the information.

I’m already flipping through the pages of our new books, eagerly anticipating the adventures that they hold. I’ll post on here our family favorites.

To the other home school moms out there: What does school planning look like at your house?

I know it's a classic, but...

Is it sacrilegious to poke holes into a book that is known as a literary classic?

I just finished reading Little House on the Prairie to my kids. It's the first time I've ever read it. Somehow, though, I thought I knew all about the book series, having seen random episodes on TV of the family. I couldn't wait to dive into this classic!


We are studying about the pioneer's westward expansion. Laura and her family captured the attention of all of us as we lived the days with them, listened to the wolves howling outside of the cabin, sweated with pa as he worked so tirelessly day in and day out, and shivered with Laura when the Indian War Cries rang in the night.

Then, this afternoon we read the last two chapters.

My girls just stared at me like, "What? That's it?"

So basically, they pack up, move, and everything we just read was as if it never happened. We thought it was quite a let-down! I could hardly believe it.

So, in light of this, we eagerly went to the shelf and grabbed the next book in the series, hoping to find out what the brave, hard-working family does next. But unfortunately, it's about another boy, in another city entirely. We all just sighed and put it back on the shelf.

I know, I know, she marries that farmer boy. But I think we need to let the strange end of this book settle before we dive into the life of another young person.

Home School Resources and Plans

I've updated the Home School section of my website, Emerickhome.com.


Now, you'll have access to free resources such as copy work documents and journaling prompts. You can also check out what our school year looks like and see our family's favorite books.

Have fun browsing!

Writing Contest with American Girl

I wanted to let you know about a writing contest American Girl is having. My girls are both working feverishly on their stories, hoping to win the two new dolls.

Here's a link: http://www.americangirl.com/fun/agcn/cecile-mariegrace/contest.php

Good luck! And happy writing. :)

Let the School Year Begin!

It's been a little quieter here on my blog. Probably because we started school the first of August! I like to begin in the heat of August so that when the beautiful spring days roll around in April, we can be done.

I'm in the middle of updating my website with home school resources, tools, plans, etc. As soon as it's finished, I'll let you know!

School's done for the day. Time to hit the pool!

Blink!

Blink. It's a card game I play with my kids. Over the weekend, we had a Blink marathon. It's a fast moving game, where you match up the numbers, colors, and shapes. I love that even the youngest kids can play. But the whole time we played, I kept singing the song "Blink" by Revive.

Then this morning, reading Psalm 90, the song jumped back in my head.

"Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom."

This summer is zooming fast. I usually start school in August so we get out earlier in May, but I'm dragging my heals at that thought. We haven't had enough lazy pool days!

And as I plan for fall, I am trying to be so careful not to pack it full of so much good stuff that the days rush by! Already saying no to hundreds and yes to a few activities feels like too much.

There's a line in the song, near the end, that always haunts me. "Slow Down... slow down." It's at about 2:32.

I suppose that even if we didn't do any activities at all except living day to day, like summer, time would still keep moving at a quick pace.

A few verses earlier, the writer says that a thousand years for us are just like yesterday for Him... zip, they're gone.

"O satisfy us in the morning with your lovingkindness, 

that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." (90:14)

If life is going to keep traveling at this quickening pace, then I don't want to waste it complaining or frustrated or angry. I want to be filled with joy because of His lovingkindness! Don't you?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvuxFdM3S58

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Praying in the new school year

As I begin to plan the next school year, I've claimed this as my theme verse:

As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. (I Samuel 12:23).

Prayer and teaching - pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

Prayer. When your children wake early and your husband comes home late, when do you pray?

God knows the heart of a mother. I've found that posting scripture around the house is a huge help, reminding me to pray for them. In my bathroom, I have a sheet posted on the door of scriptures to pray for your children. I also have been trying to pray over them at night as I tuck them in, rather than giving a quick kiss and running off to do my own thing.

Often, I will wake in the middle of the night for no reason, and instead of tossing and turning, I ask God, "What do you want me to pray about?" These have been sweet times with Him as I sit in the stillness and listen for Him. If we're memorizing scripture, I'll pray through the verses. Sometimes I'll be convicted of an area of sin, and other times a name will come to my mind.


"On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night." Psalm 63:6


And though all of this is good, I'm going to attempt a concerted effort to reclaim the morning time for Him. I've cleared a special spot in my closet for prayer, and I hope that if I'm quiet enough, I can slip in there and pray without waking the family! We'll see how it goes. :)



Reading through the Psalms has been a huge inspiration. It essentially a prayer book for the believer!


"Save me, O God, for the waters have threatened my life!" (69:1)
"God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us." (67:1)
"Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer nor his lovingkindness from me." (66:20)
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (51:10)
"O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling places." (43:3)


I mark prayer passages in green in my Bible. This is another way that prayer becomes a natural thing instead of a forced habit. Praying the words of God gives me confidence to approach Him.

When do you make time to pray? I'd love more suggestions. The more I talk to our Heavenly Father, the more I want to talk to Him!

"O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly, my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water."  (63:1)

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Draw through the Psalms

I am loving the challenge our church gave to read through the Psalms this summer! Reading them out loud has been especially helpful. If you want the guide, you can find it here: Psalms Reading Plan.

I've been inspired to teach the Psalms to my children using this tool: Draw to Learn the Book of Psalms. This can be done after dinner, before bed, at breakfast... but for my family, we will use it as a part of our home school day.

Here's a review from the website:

Looking at this series reminded me of Bible study when my siblings and I were younger. For every chapter of the Bible we read, we’d draw a picture and put it in a binder. Boy, were they fun to go back and look at after a few years! This series from Notgrass takes that same concept, and elaborates on it somewhat, giving drawing instructions to accompany specific Bible verses. Each page contains a scripture reference at the top, a summary idea from the scripture, and a large empty frame with instructions underneath. Students begin by reading the referenced scripture, thinking about it, then drawing a picture following the instructions beneath the frame. The pictures are sure to serve as a great reminder to students in the future about the verses and their meaning. For example, my sample is for the Book of Proverbs, and several of the assignments are: drawing a gorgeous crown for Proverbs 4:7-9, drawing a person who has been on a long search and has finally found treasure for Proverbs 2:1-5 and drawing highway signs for Proverbs 15: 18-21. Each volume in the series contains 150 lessons, and is designed to complete throughout the school year. Because the lessons include drawing practice, the authors recommend taking this portion seriously, using drawing pencils and a good set of colored pencils. Advice for drawing the best possible pictures and suggestions for expanding the Bible study into a unit study are included in the introduction. – Jess

Psalm 18:1-3
¹ I love you, O LORD, my strength.
 ² The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
   my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
   He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
³ I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
   and I am saved from my enemies.

Home School in Pictures

Here are a few recent home school pictures.

Toddler likes to "help" Big Sis with math.

When did she get so big? A lot of her work is done independently now.

This is where I like to read too. In the sun.

Again, toddler is "helping" big brother with online reading lesson.

Free Cursive Writing for Kids

Have you ever noticed that all the little home schooling workbooks start to add up? I'm always looking for ways to save money.

I had used "Handwriting Without Tears" for my oldest, but when my second daughter wanted to learn cursive, I looked for a way to do it free. (I also wanted her to learn a "prettier" form than HWOT.) Here's what I found, in four free, easy steps!

1. Teach them the basics with these free worksheets:  http://www.kidzone.ws/cursive/index.htm

2. Then, create your own tracing pages here:  http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/cursive/index.htm

• I like these pages because they have the dashed horizontal lines so the kids can practice the correct height of the letters with the middle line. 
• This site is great because you can see what the pages look like in real time.
• I spent 10 minutes copying and pasting 60 of the kids shorter catechisms into the space, printing a page at a time, and ended up with 30 pages of practice. That will last us 60 days! By then, she'll be more than ready for cursive copywork.

3. Create your own copywork documents with a cursive font. I like Learning Curve Cursive Font. (It's free!)  She writes this into her own notebook. (I move to Wide Rule Notebooks now.)

4. Once she's mastered copying cursive to cursive, I have her start "translating" from a regularly printed text. From here on out, everything she writes is in cursive.

This brings up the question: How do I create my own copywork, and why do I need it?  Here are a few quick points, but I'll go into more depth in a later post:

• I create my own copywork at the beginning of the school year of Bible Passages I'd like them to learn and other texts that relate to our history subject.
• Here's a free link to the copywork document I created for Early American History. This is a standard font. However, when I print it for my kids, I use a font that matches their age. (Learning to print: Primer Print. Learning Cursive: Learning Curve. Older Children: Any font works.)

http://www.emerickhome.com/homeschooling.php

There is so much more I can say, but this should get you started.  Enjoy your free cursive lessons!