Since I first began to dive into God's word, He has fanned the flames of that passion into steady embers. The bible studies I have worked through (bible study is work, yes) have spurred some of the most dramatic change in my life.
Much. Needed. Change. But not nearly enough.
Lord, transform me.
For years, I have used my Words of Life cards to pray through those scriptures daily, speaking the power of them out loud into my day. I have prayed some of them so many times, that the words will always come to me, card in hand or not.
May my gentleness be evident to those around me. Today, I will not be anxious about anything. But I will, with thanks and praise, present my requests to God. And His peace which transcends all understanding will guard my heart and mind today as I present my requests to God. I will think about things that are true, noble, pure, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. And the God of peace will be with me today. (Phil 3:5-9)
The power of speaking God's Word into my life will brighten the worst of my moods. Breath hope into my darkness. But as always.. God has more in store.
Scripture memorization.... could that be one of the keys to transforming this biblical knowledge that sparks and inspires my heart, into something that can flow into the lives of those around me, something embodied in my actions, loving others like Him?
Let my tongue sing of your word, Lord. (Ps. 119:172)
So with my sisters in Christ at Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries Blog, I am joining the Siesta Scripture Memory Team for added encouragement and accountability on my goal this year to memorize 2 new scriptures per month. Along with about 20,000 others, as of writing this post, I will post my scripture to memorize as a comment on their blog on the 1st and then a new one of the 15th of every month.
Here on my blog, I will also post my current scripture and invite you to post yours.
First memory verse for 2015:
I will walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which I have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for others in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph. 4:1-3 NASB)
Not easy (suprise of the day, right)...but possible. Just like the way, since our move from Alabama into the multi-cultural hub that is Central Florida, I have begun to speak like those I am around the most and lost some of my southern drawl. OK, Ok, I said I lost SOME. I will also be enabled to speak like, act like, love like, become humble like Christ as I spend more and more time keeping His words within my heart.
I will be attentive to
His words, I will incline my ear to His sayings. I will not let them
escape from sight, I will keep them within my heart. They are life to
me, one who found them, and healing to my flesh. (Prov. 4: 20-22)
As I focus on my memory verse and most of all on changing an unhealthy pattern of behavior, reacting instead of responding, I am grateful for this gem from Colossians 4:6 "Let my speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that I will know how to respond to each person."
If you look closely at the words, you notice there are steps in this verse. The first verb is "let" which implies a natural Holy Spirit action is on the other side of my "releasing" it to happen. If I allow this natural side effect of Christ in me, guiding me through details of every day life, yes, even my words, the result will be I will know how to respond to each person. Before the desired result of knowing how to respond, there is a pause, a waiting on God moment.
As I am one who regularly reflects on and regrets my words spoken in haste, like "vomit" of the mouth, completely thoughtless and NOT FILLED WITH GRACE, I have peace as I see the beauty of the Christ filled life. It is He who transforms me... Not I. I just have to let it happen.
Edited on Oct. 4, 2015 - Scripture memorization has been a focus of mine this year, although I haven't been able to keep up the pace of the Siesta Scripture Memory Challenge and memorize 2 per month, I have memorized 6 separate passages this year. It is order to my thoughts in my crazy days and on weeks when I lose that focus, I lose that order. YIKES! Thank you, Jesus, for Your constant reminders.
There were many years when I had an amazing library of Usborne Books... but.... never the time to utilize them fully. Yes, my kids had their favorites and we knew the wealth of information that was always within our reach. But with the busy schedule that my kids had while they were in public schools, we never seemed to have the time to put those great books into use as they were intended.
Now, as their education is in our hands and we can slow down to read the books that we want to read, our Usborne Books have been invaluable to our school. I will share with you our favorites.
Usborne Books Reviews
The Beginner's Series (K-4th grade)
These $4.99 books have it all. We use them now for science readings. We schedule science for 3 days a week (K) and reading one or even half of a book on science day gives us a great digestible amount of information with a glossary of 4-5 new terms to include in your science notebook for science copywork (2nd-4th grade) and a fun Internet References page for more discovery time. The websites are constantly being evaluated and updated through the Usborne Books Quicklinks page.
Older children are always drawn back to these because of the amazing amount of attention grabbing photography. My older children read these just for fun. With 43 titles and counting, there are so many interesting topics, they just do not get old.
Also, in the series are Firefighters, Pirates and Castles.
Durable "Lift the flaps" that are smartly designed on "board book" type pages with great detailed information in layers of under the skin/cover/roof scenes that are well laid out to bring a wealth of new knowledge to their fingertips.
Some of the available titles:
See Inside Ancient Egypt
See Inside Ancient Rome
See Inside Math
See Inside Planet Earth
See Inside Famous Buildings
Art History
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Book of Famous Artists
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We are starting in the beginning of the Usborne Book of Famous Artists and working our way through the great compilation of Artists. The book is laid out chronologically and we use the book as our source of information for the artist. We also use prints of the artist to include in our Artist Study Binder.
The Famous Paintings Cards will be our go to resource for review on those most famous paintings that are important to know.
More to come, folks, as we will continue to share all the wonderful Usborne resources we use!
Our homeschool journey has been short so far, but I have come miles
and miles from where I began. My children are currently 7th grade, 5th
grade and Kindergarten and the oldest two had primarily gone to public
schools until October 2012, when we had moved to a new school system and
things began to add up and forced us to make some changes.
Many,
many things influenced our decision, primarily, our lives were losing their Christ focus. My children were not
thriving in public schools; some of the things that make them special and full of potential were a drawback in the classroom setting. And we were tired of jumping through hoops for others' idea of how to educate a child. We made the decision and pulled them out
within 4 weeks of the first serious contemplation. Crazy fast, yes, I know. But, I didn't want to waste any more time. After some heart to
hearts with a couple of other homeschool moms, a ton of curriculum research and the final gut wrenching decisions, I was ready to get started.
Those
first few weeks were crazy, for sure, but I kept reminding myself that
it was normal. It takes a few weeks to get a routine and really a year to learn your kids and feel comfortable with the routine. But there is no
better way to learn that to dive in! You will discover so much about your kids that you never knew!
We have been through curriculum
that didn't fit, we have had some days that ended in tears (mainly
mine)! But, I wouldn't trade a day of that time for where they were before. I am learning when to raise the bar and when to lower it!
Here are a few things I wished I had known when I began this journey.
1) Limit Group Lessons
I
learned quickly not to expect my 4th grader and 6th grader to take any
thing too seriously when we did group lessons. They were used to a
formal class room experience, so being at home was relaxed and fun and
one look at each others' goofy faces during our combined science and
history classes and laughing and silliness would take over. They could
not even share a table without cracking each other up. We quickly moved
into independent lessons. They learn better when they are alone with
the material and no distractions.
2) Timed Daily Checklist (at least a Checklist, if you can't set times to it in the beginning)
It
helps my children peace of mind when they know what the day looks like
when they begin. Since we jumped in so quickly, I had no idea how long
things would take and often started the day with a longer list than
was possible in a day. Each child is different and, especially to begin with, any
new thing may take longer to get into the swing of. Now, it's
perfectly ok with me now to start each new term with a checklist but change as we go. But, once they learned to use a timer, or keep an eye on a clock,
we felt more confidant knowing they have X number of minutes to tackle
something. They dive in and get it done.
3) Charlotte Mason, Charlotte Mason, Charlotte Mason
I
did not run across the teachings of Charlotte Mason until the Christmas
break of our first year, but I read enough that I was immediately
intrigued. We were running into roadblocks; grammar that was way too
advanced for their level and seemed unnecessary to me, long tedious lessons that were uninspired, and
no time to include some elements crucial to the type of education that I
wanted to give my family like Bible History, Nature Study, Artist Study, Art and Drawing Lessons, Music Lessons, Latin/Greek,
Geography and Biographies on missionaries, great scientists and world
changers.
Charlotte Mason knew that out of everything a
child learns in school the things that stay with them are the things
that touch their hearts. What touches your heart? The beauty of
nature, great art, brilliant music, inspiring stories? If they touch mine,
won't they touch my children as well? I want that for my children. I
want them to care about this blue planet God gave us to live in. This is what
my personal public school education totally missed. Why not inspire my
kids to learn history with great story writers? Why not inspire their
curiosity for science with amazing science books and hands on time in
God's creation? Yes, Charlotte Mason had me from the start.
The
Charlotte Mason philosophy is to use short lessons with a lot of
variety. My oldest may have 12-15 items on their checklist every day (some
only take 5 minutes) and 20-25 different subjects each week. Some subjects
are every day (Math); some weekly (Biography, Latin/Greek Roots, and some are bi-monthly (Artist and Composer
Study).
Books
The other focus of CM school is on great
books. Books that inspire interest, written by an author who is
passionate about his subject are a must.
Where
to begin to choose these booklists? The number one source of help for
me on booklists and how to put a schedule like this together is
www.charlottemasonhelp.com. The author is a former public school
teacher who is a CM Homeschool mom to 4 and her love for Jesus, comes
through in her lofty goals for her children, her patience and endurance
for the journey, her booklists and practices in her schooling. There
is so much wisdom to be gleaned from her site. I also read everything I
could by Charlotte Mason and others, online and in books about the CM
method to truly inspire me for this course.
Language Arts
The Charlotte Mason method is a
simplified approach in many ways, that uses all the time spent in these
great books, to teach many things at once (vocabulary, spelling and
more). But don't mistake simplified approach with easy/unchallenging. We have Oral and Written Narrations of what they have learned to
improve their comprehension by helping them to learn to recall and
retell the information.
Another great website that helped me to understand the process of teaching Language Arts Charlotte Mason Style, is at Wildflowers and Marbles.
We haven't incorporated every subject yet, and we still go weeks sometimes without having time for Nature Study; but my children approach their
school days with a new contentment that warms my heart and makes all of
it worth it.
4) Free Homeschooling Resources
My newest find, and one that I am super excited about is a totally free homeschool website that uses some Charlotte Mason suggestions and principles. AllInOneHomeschool.com offers All-in-One or Subject by Subject schedules. Some of the material is written by the Homeschool mom who and some of the material links to free online resources for a complete homeschool education. We are using the site for part of our Reading Program for my Kindergartener.
For those who do not know how you can afford to homeschool and buy the books/curriculum you need, please do not let that stop you. Their are abundant free online resources, and this amazing family has put them online in a smart by grade schedule, to bless others with their hard work.
Also, we have a fabulous public library system here in Orange County, Florida. I find a good portion of the books we use online on their website and have them sent to our door. Completely FREE.
5) A New Family
I wish I had known how different my family would be after making this change. Their are sibling conflicts here, of course, but overall I have many amazed moments of thinking "Wow, my kids actually like each other now." They have downtime, and know how to just be kids and entertain themselves. We don't have to be rushed all the time. I have learned to be comfortable with having my kids around... all the time.
Our pace is as fast or as slow as I feel it needs to be for each, new day, each new season. We have read some unforgettable books, together. We have seen more blue sky and magnificent oak trees.
All of this has been one of the
biggest challenges God has placed in my life. But when we made the
radical decision to pull them out of public school, I needed to see a
radical improvement in their education. I want radically different kids
in the end when they take their first
steps into the world of adulthood. I want them to have confidence in an
education that has inspired them to love this world that Jesus loves,
be confidant in His love for them and to know who they are in Him.
