Schedule, schmedule

How important is a schedule, anyway?  We stuck exactly to our 2010-2011 homeschool schedule on Monday.  Then on Tuesday Monk wanted to do his science experiments right after breakfast, so I gave an inch.  Now today Twinkle Toes is doing art BEFORE math.  Have I lost all control of this school in just three days!?

Here's where we are sticking to the schedule- where I absolutely refuse to budge.

1.  The kids will be awakened before 7 am each morning, no matter what time they get to bed the night before. 

2.  We will have our morning devotions from 7-7:30 and breakfast from 7:30-8 with Greek.

3.  We will have our Sonlight read-aloud time, map and timeline work, and LAs from 9:30-11 each morning with lunch to follow.


Here's where I'm going to allow some leniency:

I will let the kids choose which individual subject to complete during each independent study block as long as they continue to get them all done and continue to do them well. 

My goal is for my children to become independent learners, so it's probably best to allow them some flexibility in their schedule.  What do you think?  Are you a strict scheduler or do you incorporate some flex?

Blow by blow of our first official day of school.

4:56 am- Awakened by my thoughts, I got up and quickly scribbled out grocery list. (Ha!  Beat ya up on the first day, Roan!)

5-6 am- Bought groceries at Walmart.

6-6:30- Put groceries away (I'm used to having help with this)!

6:30-6:45- I ate breakfast- cereal and prepared Loui's blanket in the living room with chocolate milk and a Noah's ark toy to play with.  Note- have cereal waiting on her blanket for her tomorrow. Then I said a quick prayer that our day would be productive, but mainly that the kids would enjoy themselves and that we would glorify God today.

6:45- Awakened children.

7-7:30- Morning devotions.  Prayer, read and explained Galations ch 1, character training in diligence, and memory work Psalm 103, then listened to Sing the Word The Heavens Declare Psalm 103 and closed in prayer for our church and family (took requests from kids).

7:30-8-  Made pancakes while Monk, Twinkle Toes, and Measle completed 2 pages in their Greek workbooks.  We reviewed our flashcards together.  AB worked on his letters until he spilled his OJ all over everything.  Note to self- 4 may be too young for multi-tasking at the breakfast table.

8-8:30- Morning chores and music practice.  I threw some frozen chicken breasts in a pot of water to get a start for making chicken squares later.

  

Power dressing for the first day of school, no doubt.

8:30-9:30- Individual study block 1 (Math for Monk and Measle and reading for Twinkle Toes). Twinkle Toes finished her reading in 30 minutes so I had her choose a different book to read for 20 minutes then she took a 10 minute break.  AB worked on shape sorting until he stepped on and broke the dollhouse staircase, which only took Big D two days to make!  Then I sent him outside to play for the remainder of the hour (along with his little sister.)  Mixed up and popped sausage balls in the oven.  Monk took the whole hour to complete his math.

  

  

  

9:35-11:05- Read-aloud and Language Arts.  Finished read-aloud by 10:30 and spent 30 minutes on LA.  Measle Bug (7) completed several sheets in her handwriting book while Monk (11) and Twinkle Toes (9) did the Sonlight LA dictation exercise.  Then I did a much easier dictation exercise from Spelling Wisdom 1 with all 3 kids.  Monk and Twinkle Toes then worked an exercise of Wordly Wise while I finished up the sausage balls and worked on the chicken squares.

I bought these Native American leather craft projects for the kids to work on during read-aloud, but did not anticipate that I would have to help Measle so much.  She kept getting it tangled and I was getting frustrated with her.  Of course, my husband takes a picture of this and not of me reading-aloud to the kids as I had requested!

All smiles again after Daddy praised her for working on a craft that says ages 12 and up. 

See what happens when a perfectionistic mother turns over a project to her 7 yr old?  You know what?  She loves it and doesn't care that she messed it up!  I sure hope the big kids' moccasins turn out better than Measle's purse!

11:05-12:00- Lunch.  Sausage balls, yogurt, apple sauce, and chicken squares.  Nana came and practiced piano with the kids for a few minutes, too.  I was thrilled to have LOTS of  leftovers for my freezer:  two ziploc bags of sausage balls and about a dozen chicken squares.

12:00-1:00- Individual study block 2 (Science for Monk, Math for Twinkle Toes, and Reading and LA for Measle)  Measle burnt out after about 20 minutes of reading aloud to me and 15 minutes of reading an easier reader to herself.  Twinkle Toes finished her math in less than half an hour and started directly on her science.  Monk took the whole hour for his science.

1:00-1:45- Individual study block 3 (Reading for Monk, Science for Twinkle Toes, Measle finished up her LAs)  Monk finished his reading in less than half an hour and by that time Twinkle Toes had already finished her Science since she started early so they both got started on art by 1:45.

1:45-2:25- Artistic Pursuits 4th-6th Grade Book 1 The Elements of Art and Composition.

Twinkle Toes' first drawing.

Monk's first drawing.  Even when he's unplugged, he's thinking about electronics.

Done for the day!

What did I learn?  1.) That I need more than 5 hrs sleep!  2.) That I've got to invest in a straight jacket for Louie.  (I'm thinking I could make a killing marketing straight jackets for toddlers.  They would come in cute colors and patterns.  I wouldn't call it a straight jacket, of course, but Cozy-fit or Mr. Snuggles or something like that.)  She only flooded her bathroom once, got into nail polish in my bathroom and painted her big right toe as well as some of her clothes, stripped down naked twice, and climbed onto the table every chance she got, especially when naked. 3.)  It's going to take Monk every bit of an hour to do his math and science assignments daily, but the reading this year is much easier than last year and will probably only take him 30 minutes.  4.)  Twinkle Toes has a hard time answering her science discussion questions in complete sentences.  I had to make her repeat them twice, finally holding her hand throughout the third time around.  5.)  Measle still can't be trusted to read chapter books to herself and understand them.  I'm going to have to let her read-aloud to me.  Ugh.  (This was when Louie was painting with nail polish in my bathroom.)
 
So I asked the kids at the end of the day which subject they enjoyed most and Monk said science, Twinkle Toes said art, and Measle Bug said reading her chapter book aloud to me (figures).  My favorite was our Sonlight read-aloud, of course.  I wonder if I have time to grab a nap before swimming at 4.  Probably not.  My favorite time of the day may be tonight as soon as I climb into my bed!

How was your day?  What did you learn?

Getting to the heart of the matter- in discipline, that is.

Several of my favorite bloggers, such as Kimberly at Raising Olives and Tara at Too Many Kids in the Bathtub, have written extensively on the theme of getting and keeping our children's hearts.  I've learned so much on this important topic from them and also from the Maxwells, but since I'm a slow learner, I'm always on the lookout for further encouragement in this area. I recently picked up a little gem of a book, Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman, and I thought I'd share some of my favorite parts with you. 

Don't make the mistake that so many parents make and allow your desire for changed behavior to replace your desire for a changed heart.  (p. 33)

Am I the only one who has to constantly remind myself of this?  What's worse is when I find my own convenience is the motivation behind desiring their changed behavior, rather than my desire for my children to know God and glorify Him. 

If you can reach the heart, the behavior will take care of itself.  (p.33)

I think this is key.  When I concentrate on training a particular behavior in my kids, I get the cart before the horse.  I should concentrate my efforts instead on my children's hearts.

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.  Proverbs 4:23

Jesus made this same point on several occasions regarding certain laws the pharisees prided themselves upon keeping.

Are you thus without understanding?  Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from the outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart, but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?... What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defile a man.   Mark 7:18-23

We can spend all our time trying to curb certain behaviors in our kids and at the end of the day turn them into little pharisees who pride themselves on their external obedience, but have darkened hearts.  Or, we can pour ourselves into our children's hearts and let their hearts take care of their actions.  Actually, we can pour the Word of God into their hearts and let the Spirt of God through the Word of God change them. 

I need to remind myself that my children are not my own, they belong to the Lord and exist for His glory, not mine.  Why is this so hard for me to remember? 

Anyway, I have lots of other quotes from the book I'd like to share with you and may do so in additional posts, but I think this really is the foundation of child training- getting to the heart of the matter.  What do you think?

Still Quiverfull?

I hate to admit it, but I'm obviously advancing in age.  This pregnancy more than any other has brought on questions from our family and friends.  Sometimes these questions are couched in emphatic statements, such as:  "Surely you're finished NOW!"  or "This HAS to be the last one!" or "When is enough enough already?"

My doctor is very sweet and doesn't pry into my belief system.  She knows I'll decline prenatal testing since we wouldn't abort our baby regardless.  She knows by now not to expect me to use birth control despite her mandatory speech after each baby.  And she knows I know about the increased risk of genetic problems with my advanced maternal age.

So, is this our last one?  Will this be it?  The answer is, I don't know.  Only the Lord knows that. 

Being quiverfull is new for me, though I'm not a new Christian.  I'm reading the Bible in 90 days for the second time this year, but it's not the first year I've read through God's Word, or the first time I've studied it.  I've spent years in Bible study- Precept, BSF, CBS.  I've read MacArthur, Sproul, Piper, and Bridges for years.  Why do I mention this?  Because during all those years of loving God, reading His Word, and reading books about His Word I wasn't quiverfull.  Have you ever not seen something that was right under your nose the whole time?  That's what it was like. 

Have you ever walked into a room or closet looking for something, only to forget what it is you're looking for once you open the door?  If you're like me, you stand there just looking, hoping it will pop out at you.  Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.  Being quiverfull didn't pop out of the pages of the Bible for me.  I took a different route to becoming quiverfull, but now that I am, it does jump off the pages of God's Word.

I want to share a few references with you that I jotted in the front of my Bible while reading it through this time.  These all have to do with God's view of children as a blessing.  Some of the verses command having children while others show fertility as a blessing or infertility as a curse.  They were there all the time in black and white and I never saw them.  I thought God told Adam and Eve and Noah's sons and daughters-in-law to have children because the earth was barren.  I never considered or even noticed all these other passages.

So, I share them with you in case you're like I was, and have never really thought about it or noticed these verses.

Genesis 1:28- God commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it.
Genesis 9:1- God tells Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth.
Genesis 21:6&7- God opens Sara's womb and after having Isaac she says God has brought her laughter.
Genesis 30:22- God opens Rachael's womb and she responds with thanksgiving that God has removed her disgrace.
Genesis 38:8-10- Onan struck dead by God for separating the act of sex from the possibility of conception (spilling his seed.)
Exodus 23:26- Miscarriage and infertility as national curses (in contrast to blessing and protection).
Leviticus 20:20- Childlessness as a curse.
Leviticus 26:9- Fertility and multiplication of people as favor from the Lord.
Leviticus 26:22- Dwindling numbers given as a curse.
Numbers 5:21- Infertility and shriveled womb as a curse from God.
Deuteronomy 6:3-Having many children equated with all going well with the nation (as a result of obedience.)
Deuteronomy 7:13&14- God's giving of many children as a result of His love and blessing (national level).
Deuteronomy 23:1- A man with crushed testicles or his penis cut off was denied access to the assembly of the Lord. (And we think having a vasectomy is a matter of stewardship?)
Deuteronomy 25:12- A woman who grabs the testicles of a man even in order to help her husband in a fight must have her hand cut off in punishment.  (Kind of makes you think God takes this whole seed thing seriously.)
Deuteronomy 30:9- God's gift of many children as a part of His giving success to His people.
2 Samuel 6:23- Michal, David's wife, made childless as a punishment from God for her contempt of David. (Remember just like on occasion God sends sickness as a punishment, it is not the norm.  Usually we see infertility as a curse on the nation, as a result of the nation's disobedience.  This is the one instance I saw childlessness as an individual curse.)
2 Kings 4:16- Gift of a son to the woman of Shunem as a reward for her hospitality.
1 Chronicles 4:27- Having lots of children results in the tribe growing as opposed to not having a large family resulting in a smaller tribe.  (This is in the context of listing the descendants of Judah and it is obvious from the context that having a large tribe is a blessing.)
Psalm 127:3- Children are a gift from God, a reward from Him.
Plsam 128:3- A fruitful wife and vigorous young children seen as blessings from God.
Isaiah 29:23- Many children seen as a blessing (national level).
Jeremiah 31:27- Greatly increasing the population of His people as a future promise of blessing.
Hosea 9:11- Children not being born, growing in the womb, or even being conceived describes the glory of Israel "flying away like a bird" upon being cursed by God for disobedience. 
Malachi 2:15- God says He desires godly children from the marriage union.  This is given as the primary reason in this passage that God hates divorce and being unfaithful to one's spouse.

Quite a list, is it not?  Not comprehensive for sure, but just the ones that jumped out at me as I was reading.  Feel free to add verses in the comments section that I've skipped over.  But, these passages are all from the Old Testament you might argue, the old things have passed away and only the New Testament applies to us, right?  Wrong.

Jesus said that He came not to abolish, but to fulfill all the law and prophets.  In other words, the Old Testament still counts.  Is there a gift of celibacy?  Yes, the Lord has gifted some people with the ability to remain single for His purposes.  But I challenge you to find a verse in Scripture- Old or New- that condones a married couple choosing to not have a child.  God desires married Christians to rear godly children.

So am I still quiverfull despite being in my late 30's?  Am I still quiverfull despite suffering from varicose veins?  Am I still quiverfull on those days that I'm overwhelmed by training the children I already have?  Am I still quiverfull when confronted with the statistics of birthing a "defective" baby?

The answer is a resounding YES.  My confidence does not rest in my ability to take care of all these children- to give them the love and training and home education they deserve.  My confidence does not rest in my husband's ability to provide for them.  My confidence rests in the Lord.  He says having many children is a blessing.  God's blessing seldom looks like what man calls blessing.  God does not condone laziness or self-indulgence, materialism or "me time".  I don't think anyone regards having more children as being easier than having a few children, but God isn't about setting the bar low.  Our standard is holiness and it is only upon striving for His perfect standard that we can fully appreciate His grace and mercy. 

And finally, let me add a caveat about serious health problems and other methods of being quiverfull in heart.

Some (like Rick and Jan Hess) argue that if you're well enough to have sex,  you're well enough to bear children.  I can tell you right now that if multiple doctors told my husband that my getting pregnant could kill me, he wouldn't allow me to get pregnant under any circumstances.  Some men may not feel this way.  My husband does.  He's the leader of our home and that would be the end of our having biological children.  But, the Lord has given us a heart for the orphan and many Christian couples are adding to their families through adoption.  These families are agreeing with God that children are a blessing and are depending on the Lord to meet the needs of their growing families.  I do believe that the declining birth rate in our country and the upcoming resulting decline in the work force of our nation, are a direct curse from God (and a natural result of our lack of respect for marriage and life).  However, I know precious Christian couples who have struggled with infertility and I don't see infertility as a curse on an individual basis as much as on a national scale.  My personal conviction is that God has made certain godly couples infertile so that they will reach out to the orphans of the world that God has compassion on, but most people are blind to.  Children are a blessing, no matter how the Lord adds them to your family!  And in the case of adoption, you also have the privilege of being used as God's instrument of compassion to the fatherless.

Ever heard the expression:  "When you don't know, you don't know that you don't know."?  Ignorance is never an excuse when it comes to God's Word, but more to the point, once you do know something, it becomes a matter of whether you're willing to submit and obey.  Now that I am convinced of the importance God places on godly children within marriage, and convinced that many children are a blessing from God, and even convinced that a separation of the act of sex from the possibilty of conception is condemned by God, I cannot in good faith respond in any other way than by handing over this are of my life to the sovereignty of God.  That doesn't mean I think my responsibility is to be passive and just let whatever happens happen.  My husband and I are not supposed to deprive one another as a rule, but only as an exception to the rule.  Not only that, but there are many orphans in the world, little blessings-in-waiting.  God still calls them blessings- remember children are God's gift to a nation (not just to a family)- even as they sit in orphanages.  Even those children that are never adopted are God's precious blessings and I have so much admiration and respect for the many Christians around the world dedicating their lives to teaching and equipping the orphan.  If you want a fresh burden for the orphan, I suggest you pick up a copy of One Million Arrows and read it.  God will accomplish His purposes with or without us, but isn't the goal of the Christian life to know God and to be used by Him to bring glory to His name?  I think the heart of all believers is to be used by the Lord to accomplish His purposes.  Let's not only be merely willing, but eager to be used by Him.

Our schoolroom takes a leap into the 21st century!

Not long ago I showed you pictures of our newly organized schoolroom.  This wasn't always our schoolroom, but it has become that and I love having it near our living room and kitchen.  I also love that it is a multi-function room.  We can still eat at the table when we want to and I keep all my stationary things in the secretary (not shown in this picture).  If you saw my last set of schoolroom pictures, you may notice something different in this one.

The focus of our homeschool is still books, books, books. 

But, I've added a computer lab to our schoolroom.

Some of you may wonder why?  Others of you may wonder, what took you so long?  Let me try to address those questions starting with the latter.  I firmly believe that the foundation of education should be books.  Knowledge is contained in books and passed on through books.  It's no coincidence that God chose to reveal Himself to us in a book, rather than some multi-media format.  The generations of Americans that made our country great were educated through reading and largely through self-study.  I want to continue with that tradition.

So, why add computers into the mix now?  Several reasons:

1.  Monk (11) and Twinkle Toes (9) are learning to type with Mavis Beacon and they've both switched to Teaching Textbooks math this year which utilizes a computer.

2  Measle (7) has not been the math whiz her older siblings were.  She struggles a bit more to get math and this leads to frustration on my part (how do you help someone get something that's so obvious?!).  She needs extra practice and I've purchased several math programs to supplement her Saxon assignments.  We started using Quartermile Math last year and have added Rainbow Rock this year. 

3.  Monk (11) is interested in learning some computer graphics- like Blender.

4.  I'm selfish with my computer.

So there it is, my full confession.  I also recently purchased a Greek grammar that comes with a pronunciation and practice CD.  I may be the only one interested in that, but I've made it available to them.  Also, we're going to study Rosetta Stone's Mandarin Chinese starting in June and continuing throughout next year.  We might as well get ready to enter the 21st century now.

How about you?  Do you utilize computers in your homeschool?  To what degree?  Why or why not?

The Creation Museum

I've been wanting to take the kids to the Creation Museum so badly.  I was hoping we could go last year, but it didn't work out so Big D drove 3 hours each way from his brother's house in Terre Haute, Indiana so we could take in this wonderful attraction while in the vicinity (loosely speaking). 

Our first family pictures in almost two years.  Please note I'm 7 months pregnant.

I knew we'd see lots of creation science exhibits, but I was pleasantly surprised about the many exhibits dedicated to the Word of God.  Here's Monk posing in front of Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door in Wittenberg.  The hammer that sparked the protestant Reformation.

Louie in front of a replica of Guthenberg's printing press which made it possible to mass produce the Bible in Europe for the first time.

Noah's ark, of course.  The girls enjoyed the interactive computer quizzes stationed throughout the Noah's ark exhibit.  Twinkle Toes (9) got every answer correct.  Measle Bug (7) didn't fare so well.  Gotta work on our listening skills!

Ice cream break.

The motley crew.

The botanical gardens are beautiful!

AB was a little tentative, but did feed the donkey.

Measle fed all the animals.  Aren't alpaca's cute?

The petting zoo gang.  (Everyone else abandoned us and went back to the RV for some R & R while we braved the heat.)

Bye-bye Creation Museum.  We hope to visit you again someday!  We were all really impressed with the quality of the museum- Disney quality in my husband's words.  We were also impressed with the high view of Scripture here- the museum really is as much about the truth of God's Word and the gospel as it is about creation.  I loved the 7 C's of the showcase exhibit Walk Through Biblical History:  creation, curse, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, consumation (or something like that.)  The kids got a kick out of the Men in White special effects show and Big D and I could have spent all day in the bookstore.

Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum and Seward Johnson statues

Between Ft Wayne and Kendallville, Indiana is a town called Auburn.  The famous car of the same name was manufactured here as well as a number of others.  There are a dozen museums in this town, but my husband has always wanted to go to the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg museum so we did.

I'm not really into cars so the only thing I know about Auburns is that Remington Steele drove one (my favorite tv show of all time, by the way.)  And I know Jay Leno collects Duesenbergs because my husband made me watch a show on it once.  Never heard of Cords before this trip, though.

Currently there are 14 Seward Johnson bronze statues scattered around the downtown area of Auburn, Indiana.  Johnson is a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson, co-founder of Johnson & Johnson.  His life-size bronze statues are castings of living people of all ages depicted in everyday activities.  One statue we saw was that of a window washer.  You really did have to look twice to make sure it was a statue and not a real person.  He has also used public domain photos and art, sometimes adding a twist. 

Evidently there is some controversy surrounding the above statue, Unconditional Surrender, as the public domain photo upon which this statue is supposedly based Kissing the War Goodbye by Victor Jorgensen doesn't show the lower legs and shoes, only Alfred Eisenstaedt's non-public domain famous photograph V-J Day in Times Square shows does.   I'm sure you wanted to know that.  I found it interesting. 

This one's a little larger than life which made it hard to miss.  We didn't take the time to see all the statues, but enjoyed seeing the ones we happened by.