Blogging slump...Family slump

I have had such a hard time getting myself going since my 3 month bout with morning sickness. After the Christmas season, I have found that my previous disciplines, motivation, and family peace have been turned upside down. It's amazing what a few months can do. I am fully aware that my standing with God never changes no matter how undisciplined I or my family get, but allowing laziness, disobedience and chaos reign does not serve to bring peace or joy into a home. So... I am on a mission. I am going to go on a quest to get things back in order and learn all I can possibly can about wisdom in this season. I am going to research scripture, read books, articles and blogs and put them into practice until my family is back in order.
The very first thing I did was to pray and ask for God's grace. The next thing was to enlist the help of my husband. I normally try to give my husband the highlights of our days- good events rather than the negative. I try to keep my frustrations with school and kids between the Lord and myself, and only going to my husband for help when a child is out of my control. At times this is okay... I don't want to constantly be complaining and telling my husband how terrible the kids are- that doesn't serve to give him a great feeling about coming home; but I have seen that not discussing some of the major issues has made that matter worse in their hearts. So...now he is aware.
The biggest blessing of the day has already occurred- my husband overheard a response one of my children had this morning, and he promptly decided to take one of his days off and stay at home to help me homeschooling! What a relief that was to me, not to mention to m kids! They had the joy of having Dad expertly show them a science experiment as well as teach them a few things Mom had not been able to get to.
I would like to post as I go along... and I hope by the end there will be amazing fruit to show for the many prayers and studying I intend to do.

Daily schedule

In order to allow my kids to know what they are doing for school on a daily basis, I write out the assignments on a dry erase board. As they are done with one subject, they can erase it one by one until the board is clear. Like so...

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Series- The Knowledge of God

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Series: "Of the three sorts of knowledge proper to a child, the knowledge of God, of man, and of the universe,––the knowledge of God ranks first in importance, is indispensable, and most happy-making. Mothers are on the whole more successful in communicating this knowledge than are teachers who know the children less well and have a narrower, poorer standard of measurement for their minds."- Charlotte Mason

Our Mornings are always begun with devotions. I am so passionate about devotions because I feel Parents hold the key to their children's view on God, not only that, but a Mother and Father have a particular responsibility to display a Love for God in the most intimate place- the home. Children watch and their world-view is fashioned and formed by what they see them do and how they act at home as well as how Mom and Dad talk about God daily.
So...

We begin our day setting the timer for 25 minutes.

One Child will pray one day and the other another day. Although Miss Mason preferred children being read right out of King James, I chose to read out of the Child's Story Bible by Catherine Voss. It is the best and well- written Bibles for children I have ever read- she does an excellent job telling the stories of the Bible in an accurate way and also tying the Cross and God's redemptive plan all throughout the Bible beginning in the Old Testament. - An excellent substitute!

We spend a few minutes in Narration- them "telling back" the story in their own words- with me usually asking a question such as in our reading yesterday about the friends lowering the crippled man through the ceiling to Jesus: " What is a warning to us today about how the Pharisee's treated the sick and lame on Sundays?" or " What example did Jesus leave about why the people loved him so much?" and they will think and answer based on how they perceived the passage.

We also weave into our devotions a reading from Pilgrim's Progress one day, and the next a reading (to my daughter's) from How to be a lady by Harvey Newcomb (when my son is ready, we will begin to incorporate a missionary reading such as YWAM's books on various missionaries.

Next, we spend a few minutes on Scripture Memorization- currently we are focusing on Two Way's To Live scripture verses so my children know scriptures to share the gospel. Simply Charlotte Mason has a great how-to on making a box to aid in family scripture memory.

Lastly, we listen to a hymn. One hymn a month. Right now, we are listening to Be Still, My Soul sung by Second Chapter of Acts on Grooveshark and I encourage my kids to close their eyes and think of Jesus being in the room and use that time to thank the Lord for the Cross and for Grace for the day.

And then our day officially begins!

Madam How and Lady Why links

In our study of natural science, we are studying about Volcano's. It is fascinating that such a simple structure could be the cause of so much destruction- Amazing! But we also learned that Volcano's can also improve the habitats of native plants and animals as seen in Italy where the ground is incredibly fertile due to the volcanic ash left in the soil.

Speaking of Italy, here is a link to a video about the sad tale of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius Watch here:http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/pliny/video.html

This is a neat link as well: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/forces-of-nature-kids/volcanoes-101-kids.html

Happy Volcano learning!

Three pictures

Almost completely through with our study of Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael Sanzio (his biography can be studied here), We have pretty much decided that although he was a brilliant painter and as his work was rival to that of such other greats like Da Vinci, Michealangelo and Botticelli, somehow his work does not move us the way, say... Botticelli's Primavera's did. But we did each find something to like about each of the three past paintings we have studied this last month.

So, I'll start with the youngest (and least interested in artistic form... only beauty ;))


Audrey's favorite: Young Woman With a Unicorn- 1506

Her Opinion: "I like her because she's pretty and I like the unicorn and the lady's eye's are green." ( Like I said, she is all about beauty;) )

My Favorite: The Miraculous Draft of Fishes -1515

My opinion: I love the use of cool colors used in the water in combination with the warm hues in the background leaving my interest at what was happening in the distance- those were some pretty athletic fisherman! :)

Laura's Favorite: Sistine Madonna- 1512-1514

Her Opinion: " I like the stories behind St. Sixtus and also of Barbara
I also like to see how he painted the faces, they look more realistic than Bottecelli's Primavera's Venus. The cherubs are cute too."

What is interesting about this painting is that Hitler had this particular one locked up in a vault which protected it from bombings during the war. I guess if he could be credited with anything good, we can say this was it *wry grin*.

Mark your Calandar!

We love, love, love Astronomy using the Exploring Creation With... series. We just finished a Chapter about the sun ending it with some "extras" like looking up when we will next get to experience an eclipse. I found the date for the next nearest date for us (W. US) to experience an Annular Eclipse.

May 20th, 2012!

And if you happen to be in the S. Pacific or in Australia for whatever reason in November of the same year, you may be able to see a total eclipse. Or you may want to think about a family vacation in n Atlantic, Faeroe Is, or Svalbard to be able to see the next total eclipse three years after that- to the date.

If you are scratching your head over the meaning of Annular or Total, that's okay. I'll see if these definitions will help:

Partial - Moon's penumbral shadow traverses Earth (umbral and antumbral shadows completely miss Earth)
Annular - Moon's antumbral shadow traverses Earth (Moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the Sun)
Total - Moon's umbral shadow traverses Earth (Moon is close enough to Earth to completely cover the Sun)
Hybrid - Moon's umbral and antumbral shadows traverse Earth (eclipse appears annular and total along different sections of its path). Hybrid eclipses are also known as annular-total eclipses.


Still don't get it? Maybe this picture would make it a bit clearer:

Annular Eclipse:


Partial Eclipse:


Total Eclipse:


Hybrid Eclipse:



Very Cool!

Bulfinch's Mythology

For Narration, I had my artistic daughter draw Ancient Greece as well as the gods and goddesses as we have been reading Bulfinch's Mythology. I have to admit, I was very apprehensive about studying about this topic, but it has proved helpful in understanding our other books in literature such as Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream where certain gods were mentioned and I had no idea what it meant until now.

Folksong study

I thought this a tragic story, but very interesting given by this very authentic looking man- just the sort of man you would expect singing about foreman young Monroe and how he met a sad end.

Music and Art for week two

After a very long week, I feel like I missed some great opportunities to journal what we did- oh, well, such is life. I don't want to miss our art and music for last week though.

This is St. George and the Dragon by Raphael Sanzio. I didn't understand much of the artistic lingo that explained this painting, but I did understand what my kids thought about it.

Laura: " I love how the horse is white and the dragon is black- good and evil. Raphael must have been thinking that he wanted to paint something strong. If I drew something like that it was because I wanted the world to know I could do something strong and wonderful. I wonder if Raphael had just done something really , really good?"

Audrey: " I like it. The girl is pretty. The St. is trying to rescue her."

Okay, not as deep that one... but there is still hope!

Our 20th Century Composer was still Ralph Vaughan Williams. The song is titled Fantasia on Greensleeves. Listen HERE. Read about Ralph Vaughan Williams Here.

I loved this song- we closed our eyes and tried to identify the instruments in them. We heard Harp, flute, and violin. In the middle of the song, a sudden change occurs with flutes which I believe is called "Lovely Joan". What a beautiful song!

Blessed Assurance!

By Fanny Crosby

Born: March 24, 1820, Put­nam Coun­ty, New York.
Died: Feb­ru­a­ry 12, 1915, Bridge­port, Con­nec­ti­cut.
Buried: Mount­ain Grove Cem­e­te­ry, Bridge­port, Con­nec­ti­cut.

Fanny Cros­by was prob­ab­ly the most pro­lif­ic hymn­ist in his­to­ry. Though blind­ed by an in­com­pe­tent doc­tor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blind­ness, she said:

"It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me."

Words:

Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine!

O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
Refrain
This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior, all the day long;

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior, all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Refrain
Perfect submission, all is at rest

I in my Savior am happy and blest,

Watching and waiting, looking above,

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
Refrain

Leaf rubbing

Leaf rubbings are one of our nature favorites. It is fun for the kids, first off, what kid doesn't like to peel off all the paper from their crayon? We love to look for leaves which are complete and interesting and then we will identify them. The two leafs we found were from an English Oak-Timmy and a Pecan-Audrey.Later, after I peel them from the wall :-) We'll add them to our nature journal.

Manners

Recently, we were having lunch at some friends home. This was our first time to visit their home, and the children of this family were obviously thrilled to have "Pastor Ted" over to see their rooms and their toys. The family graciously showed around their home and just delighted in preparing an enormous lunch-bigger than we would be able to eat. Of course, preparing a large lunch and showing us through their home takes time; I understood this, my husband understood this; but little stomachs did not.

To my horror, in the middle of a pleasant conversation with the adults, one of my children (the one who "should have known better ;)")blurted out in her loudest voice, "I'm starving! I've NEVER waited this long to eat before!"
I knew then and there, that manners and the practice of it must come into effect in our home. I am going to make the study and practice of manners a priority this year so my children would learn how to be gracious instead of rude.

I typed up this rough guideline in which we will take one rule a day and either practice it by role-playing, or just put it into effect daily.

Manners

At table:
1. When we have company, please serve the guests by asking "Pardon me (or excuse me), would you like to have...?"
2. When we are guests, do not make a comment about how food looks, smells ore tastes. Just eat it, say "No thank you.", or leave it on your plate.
3. When we are guests, do not make a comment on the hour in which we are eating by saying, "It sure is late!", or "Why are we eating so early?" or "I'm hungry! When are we going to eat?"
4. When we have an older guest over, hold the seat for them and then allow them to sit, and then scoot the chair in for them.
5. Place your napkin on your lap, sit up straight, and keep your elbows in or by your side.
6. Ask for something across the table by saying, "Would you please pass the..." (respectfully if to adults, never interrupt or ask loudly), never reach across the table for it.
7. Wait for everyone to be served before eating.
8. Wait for hostess/host, Mom or Dad to begin eating before you eat.
9. Begin using the utensils on the outside first.
10. No-no's : Double dipping, slurping, burping, licking fingers, or dragging your finger across something to taste it!
11.Sit up straight (not hunched).
12. Bring your food to your mouth. Don't take your face to the plate.
13. Butter only a small piece of bread and chew slowly. Don't butter the whole piece.
14. Wipe your mouth gently with a napkin and place it on your chair when getting up.
15. Chew slowly, don't gobble down the food, don't put too much food in your mouth, or chew with your mouth open. Talk after or in between swallowing.
16. Use utensil (always, when at weddings or nice dinners).
17. Always thank the cook. Find at least 2 things you did like and compliment that.
18. Stay seated at the table, or wait until you are excused.


Setting a table:


1. Place the folded napkin in the center of the diners table.
2. Place the large fork to the left of the napkin (and a salad fork to the left of the large fork)
3. Place the salad plate to the left of the forks (dinner plates should not be on the table) (company)
4. Place knife to the left of the plate with the cutting edge toward the plate
5. place dessert and soup spoons to the right of the knife.
6. place a bread plate two inches above the forks (company)
7. Place a water glass 2 inches above the knife.
8. place the coffee saucer and cup to the right of the setting (company)

Conversation Manners:
1. Look at the person in the eye who is speaking to you (especially adults).
2.Introduce yourself and ask their name
3. Use Mr. and Mrs.______ while speaking to them.
4. Ask questions when you don't understand something
5. Stick to the subject
6. Say nice things about people and praise those who deserve it
7. Don't fidget or wander off when you are being spoken to
8. Don't listen to conversations you are not a part of
9. Don't interrupt when someone else is talking
10.Don't whisper in front of another person
11.Don't whine, tattletale, brag, or say mean things about others
12.Don't ask personal questions such as how much things cost or why someone looks or dresses the way they do
13.Don't point or stare Don't argue about things that aren't important
14. Remember the magic words: "Thank You" ,"Please" ,"May I ... " ,"Excuse Me" ,"I'm Sorry"

Telephone Manners:
1. Pick up by saying, "Hello, this is the Thevaos home." or "Hello, this is _____ speaking."
2. After hearing who they need say, "One moment please."

Starry, Starry Night- Van Gough

This past year we studied some of the paintings of Vincent Van Gough. Laura (my eldest) thought his paintings the most interesting of all the artists we have studied thus far. Here is a slideshow of his paintings to enjoy!

If my kids are anything like yours, they find all sorts of things to get into. They make crafts, play games but so many times they are tempted to ask all day if they can watch TV or get on the computer. I feel that I just sound like a broken record when I say, "If you have played on webkins for 30 minutes today, that is it! Find something else to do." So, I created a chart which is proving very helpful for keeping our little happy home, well... happy. Here it is.
Acceptable "Free Time" activities



1. Put on a play
2. Puzzle/ board games
3. Play with siblings
4. Read a book
5. Make a Craft
6. Play with toys
7. Paint/finger paining
8. Play-dough
9. Baking (Laura)
10. 30 Minutes (only) of computer time
11. 30 Minutes (only) of television- and only in the evenings
12. Take a bath
13. Play outdoors
14. Anything that brings "life" to our home- in an honoring way.


Note: It is never okay to leave a mess for Mom to clean up, watch TV or play on the computer endlessly (we don't want any brain dead kids!). It is never okay to hit, bite, yell, tattle or insult your brother or sister. It is never okay to argue and complain to Mom. When you are offended, first go the offender in a peaceful way and show him/her their fault. If they do not apologizes, then come to Mom without whining.

Our 2009 Family School Schedule

I have been working on a calendar for the year and I have finally completed it *ahh*. I'm sure we will make a few revisions as we go, but just thinking through it feels oh, so good. Here it the link for those of you interested in my little house of dreams.
This is the picture to our newly organized schoolroom- which also will undergo plenty of revisions (in which little fingers are mostly responsible for those type of revisions).

Another Story

I wanted to share some thoughts from other Moms like you who have prayerfully considered to home school. They, like so many other parents come from so many different backgrounds and experiences, but have chosen to take the step toward teaching at home. I want to emphasize what I stated in my last blog posting that home schooling does not promise smarter or godlier children,but I also would like to say again that the benefits of teaching at home are worth it when entered with a godly perspective. Home schooling is only a suggestion for godly training, not a requirement! This email was sent to me by a very dear friend Darla after I asked her to tell me why she chose to teach at home and what effect it has had in her home:

Why We Have Chosen Home school and the Benefits Seen in Our Family... I never thought that I would ever home school. I had this impression that homeschooling was for kids who couldn't adapt or for over-protective parents. When I joined Crossway (my home church), I began to question my perception about homeschooling. The families seemed closer, the kids were respectful, and the kids seemed happier. My husband (who isn't a Christian) at first was totally against the idea. I knew that as a young Christian, I had to submit to him, and gave up on ever homeschooling. But somehow, he agreed to homeschooling, at least through elementary school. So, one of my friends told me about Sonlight Curriculum and as I work part time, I liked the idea of having a curriculum made out for me. It has been far more challenging than I ever thought it would be, but I know that God wants me to home school as He changed my husband heart. The main reasons that we home school (she is only in kindergarten so its not like we have been doing this for very long!) is that it will give us more time to develop her moral character. I think that it is very hard for young kids to handle peer pressure when they are so impressionable. My hope is that when she is mainstreamed, she will know God personally, know right from wrong, and to stand up for what is right while loving others. The other reason that we home school is to improve her education, preparing her for college. We aren't too impressed with the public school system here in NC. So far, the main benefit that I have seen is an increased bond with my oldest. Home schooling is our time together, and I love having her on my lap reading to her. It also has exposed a lot of sin in my heart, and God is using it for my sanctification. A word of encouragement for anyone thinking about homeschooling..God is good,and He will not abandoned you in your time of need.

Why do I Home school?

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

As I sit here, the thoughts that are crossing my mind this Spring Break are, "I sure am going to miss teaching my kids this week!" Does that surprise you? Well, it surprises me! You see, when I first began this journey of homeschooling I knew nothing about it whatsoever! I knew I wanted to give it a shot because, "I would miss my girl" if I put her in school. I made this decision in the hight of my joy of being a new parent- little did I know after a few temper tantrums and high spiritedness from my eldest, I would be changing my mind quite a few times. When it did come time to consider schooling I remember standing at a booth in church in North Carolina to register for an upcoming homeschooling training session. I took a deep breath and decided I wanted to walk away, when the lady (who must have known what I was thinking) stopped me and asked if I was interested. I nervously laughed (not wanting to look like I was actually scared of teaching my kids myself) and said "If I teach my kids myself, they will graduate knowing nothing!" She looked at me with a look that said "Poor dear" and then said something that startled me and shook me, she said, "Honey, don't you think the God who gave you your children has the ability to give you grace to teach them?" Well, I knew then that I had to be more careful about the jokes I was going to be making about homeschooling  around serious homeschooling moms from now on! I also decided that I had better make some decisions about where I wanted my family to "be" 15 years from now. I began to take a closer look at my parenting goals and concluded that If I wanted to have children who would "rise up and call me blessed", I needed to do something about getting them there. 

 My ultimate goal in parenting as I've just hinted at at is this: I want to raise godly, god-fearing, loving, compassionate children who knew how to serve  and love others at home, at church, and in their community. The only way I could ensure my best effort in this was to train them at home. I knew that in sending them to public school, their school teacher, as well- intentioned as they might be, could not correct bad attitudes and instill godly thoughts into them. Their friends at school could not train them to love their brother and sister and honor their parents. I desired daughters who would bless the world around them, but in order to train them these things, I had to consider teaching them myself! What was encouraging to me was that this was not an original thought, it came straight from scripture. I knew there was a way to gracefully and lovingly give them a desire for the Lord and raise up kids who LOVE to be together and not grow up to be hard- hearted towards the Lord and others. 

Now I do want to emphasize that I am not blind to the needs many family's face which would keep them from homeschooling. Many are at a place financially where both members must work, Ted and I face the same challenge, and we have had to make major financial sacrifices in order for me to stay at home; but is it impossible to homeschool if that is your desire? Absolutely not! The Lord knows your desire and I would encourage you to make your requests known to him and not give up hope to see that prayer answered. I would also like to emphasize that I do understand that many choose not to homeschool for many wrong reasons, but I would like to make a loving and grace filled plea, have you thought of the impact you are making on your family if you did choose to homeschool? Is homeschooling the solution to growing godly kids? No, children are not guaranteed to be smarter or more godly by teaching at home, but there are many factors which affect our kids out side of home. How are you as a mother actively insuring that the role you play in raising godly kids is a good one? What steps are you taking to guard and train your children? For me, it is to homeschool and train them to cook and clean and be kind to each other and to honor me and their father and to laugh and play here at home, and then to serve at church, to reach out to the unsaved by making meals for their neighbors and inviting other kids over and also to have one- on -one time, reading to them individually and to have "dates" with my kids, to allow them to see how I respond to my husband and to ask for forgiveness when I have sinned against them or my husband; all these things are "training" moments which they will remember and emulate and probably be better at than I can possibly teach them! The next couple of post will be viewpoints from a few other moms- friends of mine whom I asked to answer "why do you homeschool and what impact has this made in your family?" stay tuned...