Linky love

Here are just a few links you might enjoy:

Thinking Like a Christian; What Does the Bible Say About Public School, pt. 1
Thinking Like a Christian; What Does the Bible Say About Public School, pt.2
 Humanism: The Self-Destructing Religion Affecting Christians

Help!

It's mid-winter where most of us live. The skies are bleak, the ground is frozen. Our thoughts can become as bare as the trees.

Then there are the children--the lovely, lively ones who delight us.

But we worry.

"Will I get all of this educating done? Are we doing enough? How can I keep this dirty house together without neglecting their education? How can I love on my babies without letting the older children suffer? Where can I find the strength to face all of this responsibility?"

Don't look around you, look up! He is a help in time of trouble--cry out to Him! 

This will be your answer:

"I will help him, saith the Lord," (Isaiah 41:14)

"It is but a small thing for Me, thy God, to help thee. consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with my blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made a covenant for thee. I laid aside My glory and became a man for thee; I gave My life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give.  'Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. 'Help thee?' Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency. 'I will help thee.'" (Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, January 16)

Not everything in our lives is meant to be "perfect", just made perfect by His will and intentions for us.

Yes, everyone has a challenging child, or a challenging day, or challenging circumstances. It is all about learning to rest and abide in Christ.

"Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age..."

Do you sleep?

Does a mother need to be told she needs sleep?--sometimes we all do. Especially when we get a real case of "do-itis".

I found this wonderful sage advice while printing out the 4th reader of the Alternate McGuffey readers from Dollar Homeschool.

Lesson 43--Necessity of Sleep

If you are to work well, you must sleep well. If you are to keep your health, and strength, and youth--to carry your powers of work with you to the last--you must sedulously pay court to your pillow. It will commonly be found that the men who carry their years lightly are men who possess the faculty of sleeping at will.

If you have much work to do, you must not account time spent in sleep to be time lost. It is time gained. It is an essential part of the duty of the day. I had once and old servant who used to say, "Well, I have done my work--now I'll get my sleeping done." Sleeping was, in her philosophy, a thing to be done--not in a passive state, but as an active part of her duty.

And every workman should so consider it. Let him sleep in his bed, if he can, at proper hours of the night; if not, let him sleep at any odd time, when nature invites him to rest himself. If we do not play tricks with ourselves, if we work hard without overworking ourselves, sleep will rarely be coy to us; we can sleep in almost any place. 

As a general rule, it may be said that busy men are better sleepers than idlers, and that mental labor contributes more to sound sleep than bodily fatigue. I believe that only mere novices in work are kept awake by the thought of it. 

Experienced workmen acquire a habit of shaking off its thoughts when they will. If there is one thing in life for which I am profoundly thankful to the Giver of all good, it is for the gift of sleep. 

I have found this advice to be so very true! I have developed a habit over the last 25 years of taking a rest in the afternoons. This is so very important when dealing with the sorts things I must in my home, raising my 15 children. I am to be on call at any moment throughout the day--whether from my dear husband or from an infant child. This means constant alertness and diligence. Rarely do I allow my guard to be down--even on weekends or during times of vacation.

My race is one more one of the marathon--I must space my energy out in order to last and finish. This is why a daily time is necessary where I can put it all out of my mind--just as the writer above suggests.

I wasn't able to block out all of the other thoughts when I first began, but I also incorporated a daily Bible reading just before I went to sleep, and this caused me to gaze upward and place my cares on God, so that my rest was peaceful and I fell asleep quickly afterwards.

I have found that even 30 minutes of this sort of sleep will cause me to be cheerful and life-giving to my family until I go to bed at night--and then, even though my sleep may be interrupted due to various needs on the part of my children, I am still able to feel rested and on top of things.

During those months just after bringing home a newborn infant, I have also learned to sleep pretty much anywhere, at any time, in any position. This ability has been such a great help to me. In those times, whenever the baby is nursing and contented at my breast, and the children are all safely engaged in front of me, I have often snatched a few winks--this was to keep my sanity.

Afraid to take an afternoon nap because of all that has to be done? Consider these words:

"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep." (Psalm 127:1-2)

Taking back learning from ''education"

Our compulsory school laws do not promise children will be "educated".

It doesn't matter how many tests are administered, there is just no way to measure how much a person is learning, or at least comprehending.

Compulsory laws can guarantee only one thing; that a child is tethered to a desk for so many hours a day, for so many days a year.

Attendance is not the same thing as learning. We take tests all of the time and then conveniently forget the content unless it is relevant or necessary for our lives.

And in this we have the advantage. We can throw out the "scope-and-sequence" and serve up whole meals of the soul-satisfying, delicious variety, instead of bland, dull  institutional fare.

As this new year begins, let us forge ahead with confidence that we are not hampering or harming our children by keeping them home, but by our sacrifice and willingness to suffer loss and sanction, we are blessing them and allowing them the most extravagant and richest opportunities possible!

A homemade book for Christmas

Homemade Christmas cookies!

What better gift is there than a good book?

Books stay with you. You live in them, and if they are especially helpful, life-giving ones, their words come back to you when you are in tight spots.

I have put a tutorial here about how to bind a good book. If I were to give one as a gift, I would fancy it up a bit; perhaps spring for a colored file folder, print out colored labels, add a ribbon for holding one's place, etc.

Printing one's own book and giving it away is wonderful because it can be unique--there are so many wonderful authors and titles that have lost favor in modern times, and yet are so rich!

Our children love to receive books--they know to expect them from me this time of year, and so they look forward to it. Besides making them, I gather them from all sources; thrift stores, online, etc. 

Here are just a few ideas of those online that can be printed out and gifted:

...in words of one syllable These are the results of a search I did for books written "in words of one syllable" for early readers. Many titles to choose from here.

Snuggle up to a good book!

Charlotte Yonge  Here are the results of a search for the authoress. She is considered a truly "Christian" author of the Victorian era--some criticized here for being "too" Christian.

Elizabeth Prentiss Another wonderful authoress--penned the well-known "Stepping Heavenward" which I discovered via Elizabeth Elliot.

G. A. Henty Every young man should read a few of these!

George MacDonald This author is a household favorite. C.S. Lewis enjoyed his writing immensely.

Rudyard Kipling  Little children love his Just So Stories--our favorite is How the Elephant Got His Nose.

James Baldwin He had an engaging way of writing about history--fun stories to share aloud or alone.

Sunshine for Life's Pathway I recently discovered this one, and I found it very interesting. This one presents much food for thought and meditation on all sorts of Biblical subjects--even some humor. Consider this little ditty:

When Adam, waking, first his lids unfolds,

In Eden's groves, beside him he beholds,

Bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, he knows,

His earliest sleep has proved his last repose.

(ht: Dewey's Treehouse)

I'm printing this one out as a "Merry Christmas to me" present, that is, after I get all of my other projects finished...we're hoping that you and your family have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Christmas Homeschool

The three wise-men following the star of Christ!

Someday, I am going to begin planning in July for December...someday when all of my children are grown and there isn't anyone left to plan for!

Meanwhile, in the real world, I need to face the facts; there is no way for this mother to keep up the grind of formal homeschooling during the holiday season. Besides, if I did my children would rebel.

Instead, I try and do a stress-free "Christmas school". Every one of those nifty craft projects that were too messy or time-consuming to do at any other time, Bible study, poetry, Christmas stories, original compositions, are all very much a part of my December plan.

The children begin their salt dough creations!

For one thing, every one of my children knows that the holidays mean salt dough creations—the children love to work in this stuff almost daily. Good thing Sam's Club sells a mega box of salt for only 98 cents! We work, bake, and then paint and decorate them. Many of these turn out to be wonderfully sweet decorations that are saved as keepsakes and hung on the Christmas tree each year.

Next, we also love to create Christmas cards—of different varieties. These are great, sneaky ways to get the children to do some unofficial copy work while filling the insides with creative poetry—and because others may see these, the handwriting, spelling, and grammar receive closer attention! 

God's Word is precious!

For Bible study, I am having the older children study the nativity accounts from the Gospels and then complete a comprehensive, written narration. I am also requiring them to memorize a Christmas carol from our hymnals and play at least the melody on an instrument of each person's choice (around here that means keyboard, guitar or recorder).

Creating a family newsletter is another great way to keep the kids writing. It is a cinch to fix up a first-rate booklet to send to family and friends via desktop publishing. I have used PrintMaster to create newsletters in the past. It is so enjoyable to include family photos, scans of original artwork, prose and poetry the children compose themselves. The funniest stories we ever included were the ones dictated to me by the tiniest children in the family—verbatim!

Besides these, there are so many great resources for coloring pages, mazes, crossword puzzles, cut-outs, etc. for free on the Internet. Here are a few of the sites I am using this year:

A time of thanksgiving...

Activity Village

Disney Family.com

I am using the Christmas decorating pages from Activity Village, both as activities for each of the children, and coloring in and laminating a set of each to use as a file-folder game. The snowman set from the Disney site is perfect for one of these folder games as well.

Activity village also offers a series of coloring pages covering the nativity with lines for narration or copy work! I have printed and copied some mazes and dot-to-dots for my tiny ones from here as well.

For Christmas math we just allow the kids to purchase gifts for each other—the practical application is worth 50 workbook pages!

...to reflect on all God's blessings!

Of course, there is also a lot of hand-crafts happening in all sorts of secret ways and places for Christmas gifts—I can't share all of that here for fear of giving away some surprises!

Additionally, one should never discount the baking of yummy cookies and other good things—we are cracking out the "What Einstein Told His Cook" book to delve into the "why's" and "how's" of sugar, etc. Science with a smile!

What are some of the ways you like to incorporate stress-free learning during the holidays?

Technology is not necessary for a good education

Here is an interesting piece on just how wonderful it is for children to be able to live without the constant intrusion of electronic gadgets--besides the Waldorf method being so closely related to how we homeschool everyday!

The smartest, most creative and innovative people in our nation know that children need time to play and think before they get used to being limited to the spoon-feeding of media of all types.

Guess what's not on our Christmas list this year?--technology!