Our Advanced K Year -- Week One Review

(sorry in advance for lack of pictures. I am using my mother's computer as our two laptops were stolen yesterday- and our desktop is not working again - and I just wanted to get our memories down for record keeping as soon as possible)

With the girls being only 4 and 5, we decided to call it Advanced K, even though they did finish a full K year program with Sonlight. This week has been like a dream!! I can only assume that it won't always be this good, but I am definitely grateful for this wonderful week.

We began each day with Bible time, with the girls really living with the story of Jesus in the Temple. We read from 5 different versions but my favorite was Catherine Vos' The Child's Storybook Bible that my mom bought us last year. After our Bible reading, we have been using Manners Made Easy by June Hines Moore as our devotional. This has been a lot of fun, as we act out what we are learning - and being able to tie it back to God's Word --and it is something all 3 of us can use :-) Manners is also reinforced at Tea Time in the afternoon with Everyday Graces: A Child's Book of Good Manners that uses living book stories to teach manners. (this is a gem I learned about at the MomHeart conference and is a great resource)

Both girls have given awesome oral narrations from our History reading, which we are using with our lapbook templates. Even though the concept of history and living long ago can be difficult to grasp at a young age, both of them are easily identifying differences in Josephina's life (who lived in 1824) and their own!

Copywork was unbelievable! I use Worksheet Works to make my own copywork and have them trace the writing for this age. I expected Jordan to take 2 days, as it was a long selection, but I was impressed with her attitude towards it. . . this is often an area that she doesn't try her best, getting bored easily. This week she did a lot more each day than I expected! And Cali??? I expected the same passage to take all week, and she finished with Jordan! She kept asking to do a little more till she was done -- and both girls did a very neat and clean job. :-)

Asking "to do a little more" wasn't limited to copywork, either. They were the same way with their Science notebooking. I planned on only doing a few templates per day, and they asked "can we do a little more, please!" To quote Cali, "Yeah! I love learning about our bodies!! This is fun!!"

The same thing happened with their new Language Arts and Math books! Cali did only 1 lesson per day in her Queen's Language Lessons, even though she wanted more, as I really wanted to stick with the set up they have of short lessons with a variety of topics, but what she did was channel that energy for more into doing a very good and detailed job in the work I gave her. Her attention span was 100%, she had wonderful insight into the picture study, her creative story based on the painting included dialog, was longer than her stories used to be, related really well to the painting and had wonderful descriptions, she really listened to the poetry selection to make her own observations and her picture narration from the poem was wonderful! In Math, however, she definitely went beyond what I expected of her -- I had 2 pages a day planned and on Thursday, Cali did 9 pages on her own!!! To quote Cali again, "Mama, I like doing school. I wanna do some more!"

Jordan was a BRAND NEW CHILD with her Language Smarts lessons from Critical Thinking Company. While she is enjoying her math book from the same company, and doing a great job with it, it was Language Smarts that was the big winner here! She LOVES it!! I went back and forth on what level to get as she completed Sonlight LA 2nd grade this past year, but we decided to go with CTC's first grade Language Smarts book since she is still young, the company does add in advanced topics in all of their books, and because while we loved the "natural approach" to Language Arts that Sonlight used, I wanted to make sure she had a good foundation without any confusing holes for her. Well, the choice was a good one! The colorful pages and fun and varied exercises has my handwriting phobic daughter wanting to do every bit of writing included, even when I offered to let her skip some of the writing portions because we had done copywork earlier that day. She would tell her Daddy at night about her language lessons and it was the first thing she wanted to show him Thursday night at our Daddy Presentation. To quote Jordan, "This is so much fun!!"

(side note memory: Cali is growing in leaps and bounds in reading, constantly reading words to us that she sees. She also obviously has a good foundation, as she has been helping Jordan!! Jordan had to look at a set of words in an exercise, cross out the word with the long vowel sound and replace it with a short vowel word. While she quickly and easily identifies the vowel sounds, for some reason it was a challenge for her to come up with new additional words. . . But Cali could in an instant and kept telling Jordan answers! It was a strange turn of events to have to tell just turned 4 Cali Bug to go play with blocks so Jordan can do her own work without help -- something I normally have to tell Jordan daily!)

Both girls have also LOVED our Math Games! We have played Sum Swamp almost daily for the past few weeks -- and always by them asking -- and we played a variety of games from the book Games for Math by Peggy Kaye this week. I HUGELY recommend both of these resources!!

Jordan has also had huge growth in her effort during Independent Reading Time. While she will easily read a book of her own choosing from cover to cover on her own, we have often taken turns reading pages when it came to books I bring for school time (even though she would end up reading much more per day than expected with this method, she felt reading a whole chapter herself was overwhelming before). However, this week, with The Josephina Story Quilt, she kept Shushing me every time I went to read, wanting to read each chapter to Cali and I by herself! She loved this story.

Both girls memorized the entire 4 Seasons poem this week, even though I had 2 weeks scheduled for it. They loved performing this for Daddy, complete with drama movements of course :-)

AND -- all of the above happened while they each had a stomach bug this week!!!!

This week was full of joy, sweet moments cuddled up with good stories, creative projects, fun videos and great memories. Watching them show their work to Daddy Thursday night, and seeing the joy and pride they had in their work made me smile.

And now to make your heart smile. I leave you with an adorable -- and very enlightened -- prayer that Cali said spontaneously the other day. Blessings!!

Dear God, help me to have a good day today.

I know I can't do it without your help.

I love you God.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

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Thanks for a GREAT Year, Sonlight!

We have finished our "K" year with Sonlight, and it was a wonderful year! Even though we decided to go our own route this coming year (that started on Monday -- more on that later!), we will definitely be coming back to Sonlight throughout the years for subjects, supplementals, and maybe even complete cores.

The first blessing with Sonlight was the schedule. Not only was it laid out in such an easy format, but it actually taught me how to make a weekly planner I like (my own for this current year is very similar). It also freed me from almost all planning. I opened and went for the most part, although I did look ahead each 6 week block to get an idea of what was ahead and get occasional supplemental materials. It was just what I needed to transition from the complete self created unit studies I was doing before that was very labor intensive.

What I learned about myself is that I can stick to a laid out schedule and still feel freedom to follow a few rabbit trails Before, I was changing my plans so often that I couldn't plan for more than a few weeks at a time, as I wanted to do every new unit heard of! That did give me some anxiety for the future as I thought I would always be so "flaky" and I knew we had certain goals for our homeschool that I didn't think we could meet if we flew around completely haphazardly. With Sonlight, I was able to do what Robin Sampson talked about in The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach, follow delights within a set framework. Toward the end, we finished the last 12 weeks in about 6 weeks due to delight and interests, and feeling more freedom to leave out a few things and replace with others. I know that I will feel even more freedom with a year framework that I designed myself, to be able to change a bit as needed.

The second blessing was THE BOOKS!!! Sonlight definitely picked some winners that I never would have heard of, or tried at this age! While there were a few that we are saving for later because the girls weren't interested (Apple and Arrow, Family Under the Bridge, and surprisingly Dr. Doolittle) the winners were HUGE hits!

In Grandma's Attic was pure fun and we loved the look back at simpler times. Twenty and Ten was a BIG hit that led to many afternoons acting out the story, even though it had what I consider to be a pretty advanced topic (French children having to hide ten Jewish children from Nazi soldiers during WWII). A Grain of Rice was loved by us all, and also led to fun games. I had never heard of that Chinese fairy tale, but I know we will be rereading it time and again. The biography Johnny Appleseed was a fun read aloud, and since biographies are something my husband and I want to focus a lot on in History, it was a pleasure to read one that was perfect for their ages. 5 True Dog Stories and James Herriot's Treasury for Children were beautiful tales for my animal lovers.

The missionary stories, in particular, were a big blessing. Hero Tales, Mary on Horseback, and Granny Han's Breakfast all led to wonderful discussions about faith and how to live our lives as witnesses, and truly being His hands and feet. Jordan has told me she wants to "go teach other people in other countries who don't know about the one true God." After telling her that we will take her when she gets a bit older, she told me that she has a voice and can tell them now!! I told her that she was absolutely right, she could, but some places aren't safe for little girls. She counter offered a few times, and we are currently agreeing on the age of 10 for going on a mission trip :-). We will see what the future holds, but thank you, Sonlight, for touching and inspiring her heart like that!!

Finally, Sonlight blessed me by teaching me more than any Charlotte Mason book I read about choosing copywork and being able to apply it for natural grammar instruction. Their Language Arts was a perfect fit this past year, including all the wonderful readers (The Beginners' Bible Book, Frog and Toad Treasury, Greg's Microscope, Hill of Fire, Daniel's Duck and The Firecat)!

So thank you for a year of wonderful memories, Sonlight!!

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Thoughts on The Ministry of Motherhood - Part 1

I know I said that my Science plans would be the next post but I just had to share something.

I am reading Sally Clarkson's Ministry of Motherhood. I knew it would be good -- but I had no clue how good!

I chose to read this book first, over her others, because this one dealt with the GIFTS that she talks about in Educating the Wholehearted Child. That is one section of that book that I just didn't really understand or grabbed onto as I would have liked.

Ministry of Motherhood is totally inspiring me, and it has me diving into His Word so much -- and I am only in the Introduction!!! At the end of each section there are Study Notes and Questions, and they are so rich that I have had to take only one question a day!!! Yesterday I took 5 pages in my journal to answer the many parts to Question 1. Today was 3 1/2 pages for Question 2.

I want to share with you my insights into Question 2. The question was stated like this:

"Read Psalm 127:3 - if possible, in more than one translation. What does this verse imply about the Ministry of Motherhood?"

I grabbed 4 versions that I had closest to me (NIV, NLT, NRSV, and a New Translation of the Hebrew Text Torah that we picked up at our library book sale for an additional resource for the Old Testament), along with The Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament and Eedrmann's Bible Dictionary.

Here is what I found (emphasis mine):

NIV - Sons are a heritage from the LORD; children a reward from him.

NLT - Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.

NRSV - Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD; the fruit of the womb a reward.

Tanakh/Torah - Sons are the provision/heritage of the LORD; the fruit of the womb, His reward.

Bible Knowledge Commentary OT - Children are evidence of God's providence. Children are some of the Lord's providential blessings. They are a reward from the LORD.

Eedrmann's Bible Dictionary defines reward- The idea of God's reward being given in response to the faithfulness of his people is explicitly stated as early as the Abrahamic covenant. But already there it is made clear by the context that the reward is not deserved from God, but is rather an expression of God's grace toward the human covenant partner whom God has chosen. The reward is intended, nonetheless, as a motivation to faithfulness.

Old Testament examples:
- Ruth rewarded for joining herself to Israel (Ruth 2:12)
- Saul hoped David might be rewarded for being faithful and sparing his life (1 Sam 24:19)
- People of God rewarded for keeping God's laws (Ps 19:11, Prov 13:13) and for righteousness (Ps 18:20, 58:11, Prov 11:18)
- Where nature of the reward is specified it is most often prosperity and security in the land. (Exod 20:12, Lev 25:18-19, 26:3-12)

In New Testament contexts, the reward intended is simply God's gift of eternal salvation (Matt 25:34, Rev 11:18)

*** I believe God is showing us that children are VERY important to Him! They are the next generation; they are open and willing vessels that will be filled - either by us with His Word and love OR with what the world says!

Children are:
- His heritage -- and ours!
- His reward -- and ours!
- A sign/proof/evidence of His provision -- a gift, like grace, we cannot/do not earn or deserve!
- A motivation for faithfulness to Him - for the true, wonderful blessing He has bestowed on us - for counting us as worthy to bring them up in Him and for Him.
- Children are listed as a reward in all of the translations I studied. What I found to be the most interesting is that in the Old Testament, reward is most commonly linked to prosperity and security in the land (something that no one would dispute is important and a blessing) and in the New Testament, it is most commonly linked to God's gift of eternal salvation -- there is nothing better or more of a blessing!!
- God lists children in His Holy Word as being worthy of the same description -- reward -- as prosperity, security and salvation!

WOW!!!

Is there a higher calling than ours, a Ministry of Motherhood?

What other calling could possibly be more important to God than raising up the next generation, and doing so with due reverence, intelligence, prayer and grace??? I am not saying other callings aren't equal to this calling. . . I am just proving its significance and importance for Kingdom Work! It is so easy for the role of Motherhood to be downplayed, especially in today's world.

I believe that God's Word is telling us that the role of Motherhood, the role of Fatherhood -- any role that influences children -- is very important to Him, and is indeed, a Ministry. :-)

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Unit Plans for Cells – the Building Blocks of Life (Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Science)

As I mentioned in this post, we are going to be starting our 36 week block on the Human Body, which I entitled Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, with Cells - The Building Blocks of Life.

For our first 6 week block, we will be studying Introduction to the Human Body, Cells, Genes, Germs and our Immune System. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, for the first 5 weeks, we will be reading from a variety books on the topic, and doing various activities including narrations, copywork, lapbooks, online games, and coloring sheets. Week 6 will be our Project Week that will tie it all together and focus on more experiments.

I got my ideas for this unit from Amazon searches and a few different resources, most notably The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach by Robin Sampson, and Little Otter's Homeschool Science Curriculum: The Human Body .

Week 1

- We will be reading Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie and Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body as well as watching the videos for both.

- We will have copywork that they will either trace and decorate, or just decorate, that says, "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well." Psalm 139:14

- Homeschool Share has two lapbooks that we will be pulling pieces from throughout our 36 week study -- Human Body and My Body. This week we will be using the Fearfully and Wonderfully Made template.

- I also found a Human Body Systems template on another blog somewhere that is really good that we will be using throughout the study, as we study each system. This week we will do the Cells - Nerves, Blood and Eggs piece.

- Our Big Activity -- Field Trip to the Houston Health Museum!

Week 2

- We will read from Usborne's First Encyclopedia of the Human Body, pages 4 and 5, on Tuesday and Thursday we will look at DK Guide to the Human Body, pages 4 and 5.

- For supplemental reading, if desired, we will check out I Know How My Cells Make Me Grow (Sam's Science)

- Activities this week include a Crayola Coloring Page (Color a Human Cell) and The Body Book Printable from Scholastic's Easy Make and Learn Projects: Human Body (this was a free sample/excerpt that I found somewhere online), as well as looking online at any Usborne Internet Links.

Week 3

- On Tuesday, we will read The First Encyclopedia of the Human Body pages 42 and 43, and checking out the Internet links on Usborne's site. Thursday we will look at and discuss DK Guide to the Human Body pages 58 and 59 (Genes and Chromosomes page).

- Activities this week include printing the Usborne Quicklink image of Organs, and coloring the Body Organs template from Homeschoolshare.

Week 4

- We will be reading The First Encyclopedia of the Human Body on Germs page 52 and 53, as well as pages 48 and 49 on staying healthy. Thursday we will be reading Germs by Ross Collins.

- Activities will include looking at Internet Links and doing the Germ layer template.

Week 5

- We will read First Encyclopedia of The Human Body pages 54-55, and 58-59, look through DK Human Body pages 38 and 39 on body defenses, and read Germs Make Me Sick - Let's Read and Find out Science 2.

- Activities include the Internet links on Usborne's site, and watching the Internet movie Your Immune System

Week 6

This is PROJECT WEEK so we will be doing different projects on cells and germs and watching videos (Germinators: Immune Systems by Moody Science and Cell-a-bration Cytology by Newtons Workshop if I can get them).

I am eager to start -- I really like the new set up of doing History two days a week and Science two days, as I think it will lead to more relaxed, in depth studies. I also think the girls are going to love the book selections and activities!

Happy Homeschooling!

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Darn that Delight-Directed Education. . . :-)

I have gone back and forth, since deciding to flip flop our schedule for history, whether or not to start science from the beginning (meaning week 1 of my already nicely printed schedule) or from the second semester (week 19) that lined up on the page with the history lessons. I had pretty much decided to start from the second half, meaning Respiratory and Circulatory Systems, Reproduction, and Digestion/Nutrition, to make it easy on myself -- until our door bell rang yesterday. . .

Darn that Delight Directed Education! (LOL) Out of my huge list of books I ordered from Amazon, one lonesome book arrived yesterday - Germs by Ross Collins. This book was on a list or two, and it received tons of stars on Amazon, but it almost didn't make the budget cut. . . I threw it back into my cart at the last second. And I am SO GLAD I did!

The girls immediately asked me to read it and I started to tell them "No, that is a book for Science and we will have to wait till we get to it in our schedule," before I realized how RIDICULOUS that would be, so I sat down and read it. And then Jordan read it. And read it. And read it some more. I lost count with how many times she read that book to me, herself, Cali, the air. . . and I did get some awesome videos that I will try to upload once I figure out how to do that. (Videos that totally captured their personalities, too -- Jordan being studious and reading, explaining and expanding on the story in the book with her own version, and Cali jumping in front of the camera, making her silly faces and trying to make me laugh.)

So, I put it up for a vote this morning -- Should we start with Respiration and Circulation and learn about our heart, blood and lungs or Cells and learn about our bodies cells and germs. It took a nanosecond for them to scream "GERMS!" so I guess we have our winner.

I will post our plans for this unit in the next post :-)

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Unit Plans for Early 1800s and Pioneer America (Welcome to American History)

The countdown to kick off for our Welcome to American History block is on! All books have been ordered, and while they are trickling in ever so slowly, I wanted to share with you what we will be doing for our first unit. :-)

Remember, we will be doing a flip flop and studying our second semester plans first due to the fun Homeschool Day at a nearby historical living farm in May for this time period. At the end of the semester (1800s - 1940s), we will then begin with the beginning (Columbus - American Revolution).

The lineup for the first 5 week block (on our schedule, weeks 19 -23) includes 2 weeks studying the Early 1800s, focusing on the Meet Josefina American Girl book, and 2 weeks studying Pioneer America, focusing on Meet Kirsten. Week 5 caps off our study with a Project Week, which I will post more about later.

Early 1800s:

- Weeks 1 and 2 has us reading Meet Josefina (American Girl book) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. After reading, we will complete an activity. We will be using the American Girl lapbook templates from Homeschool Share, completing the Who is Josephina, Josefina's favorites, Living in 1824, Spanish Words, and What Changes Josefina's Life? templates

- Copywork for week 1 will be broken down into pieces each day for Cali -- Jordan should be able to complete in a day or two. We will discuss metaphor and descriptive writing. The selection is from Meet Josefina.

It seemed to Josefina that the dancers flew around the room with as much ease as their shadows had. They whirled by in a blur of bright colors.

- Our Read Aloud for weeks 1 and 2 is Tom Sawyer. I found Junior Scholastic Editions of a few of my favorite books that the girls have seen me read and on our shelves, that we will now be able to read together. At first I wasn't sure about reading these adaptions, but I was impressed with how they actually used the original author's words, just taking out parts that would either be boring or inappropriate for this age. I think it is perfect for them!

- Copywork for week 2 will be broken down in the same way as week 1, and comes from our Read Aloud.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

- Our Readers for the girls will be The Josefina Story Quilt for week 1 and Next Spring An Oriole for week 2.

- For Bible, our topic for week 1 will be Jesus as a boy found in the temple and week 2 will be John the Baptist. While we read through the Bible with Sonlight, toward the end I started following topics that I thought were important. One week the only thing we studied was Esther, but we read the story in all of the various children's bibles we have, as well as watch the Nest Video and Veggie Tales video (and discussed the liberties taken with the story!). The girls loved this! They really lived with Esther for the week and it helped the story come alive for them. What I chose to do for the next 36 weeks is take 36 episodes or stories from the Bible that I really want to focus on, and assigned one per week. We will read the story from the different Bibles, watch any videos we have, and do some activities.

- We will also be memorizing 12 poems throughout the 36 week block. I chose them based on interests, language, popularity and a few to reinforce topics we will be discussing in other subjects. Our first poem, which we will begin memorizing next week and finish at the end of these two weeks, was chosen based on the adjectives and descriptive language, which reinforces what we will be discussing in our copywork.

It is Four Seasons Author Unknown:

Spring is showery, flowery, bowery

Summer: hoppy, choppy, poppy.

Autumn: wheezy, sneezy, freezy.

Winter: slippy, drippy, nippy.

At the end of week 2, the girls will perform/recite this poem for Daddy!

- For our Fancy Fridays with our friends Skylar and Emy, we will be introducing Mary Cassatt for picture study and Introduction to the Orchestra for music. Our creative writing topics will be to Draw a picture of your favorite thing (toy or object you play or sleep with) for Week 1, and If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you want to live? for Week 2.

Pioneer America:

- Weeks 3 and 4 has us reading Meet Kirsten (American Girl book) on Monday and Wednesday. After reading, we will complete an activity. We will be using the American Girl lapbook templates from Homeschool Share, completing the Who is Kirsten, Kirsten's favorites, Living in 1884, and the fashion templates.

- Our Read Aloud for weeks 3 and 4 is Little Women which is also the Junior Scholastic Edition. ** I want to add here that I know this doesn't fit the time period... we already read Little House in the Big Woods and I am saving the rest of the Little House series for next year, but I am sure that would fit wonderfully here. The reason for Little Women here is because our next unit is Civil War, in which the book is set, so this serves as an introduction. . . also because this is really the only place it fit in my schedule LOL! **

- Copywork for week 3 will be broken down into pieces each day for Cali -- Jordan should be able to complete in a day or two. The selection comes from our Read Aloud for weeks 3 and 4

Give them all my dear love and a kiss. Tell them I think of them by day and pray for them by night. I know they will be loving children and will do their duty faithfully.

- Copywork for week 4 will be broken down in the same way as week 1, and is taken from Meet Kirsten.

"Since you live here now, you must have a place in our fort just for your doll," Lisbeth said.

- Our Readers for the girls will be Marmee's Surprise: A Little Women Story Step 3 for week 3 and week 4 will be open for a FREE CHOICE :-)

- For Bible, week 3 our topic will be The Lord's Prayer and week 4 will be The Good Samaritan. We will read the stories from the different Bibles, watch any videos we have, and do some activities.

- We will begin our second poem during this unit.

Tumbling:
In jumping and tumbling

We spend the whole day,

Till night by arriving

Has finished our play.

What then? One and all,

There's no more to be said.

As we tumbled all day,

So we tumble to bed.

We will be working on this for several weeks before the girls will perform/recite this poem for Daddy.

- For our Fancy Fridays with our friends Skylar and Emy, we will be continuing our study of Mary Cassatt week 3 and have a Nature Day week 4. Our creative writing topics will be an entry in our Gratitude Journal for Week 3, and an entry in our Feelings Journal for week 4.

I will be choosing all of our Project Ideas for Week 5 as we progress in the unit, capitalizing on what they find the most interesting. I will be pulling ideas from Kirsten's Craft Book, Kirsten's Cook Book, and Kirsten's Theater Kit.

I am really looking forward to diving into this unit with the girls, I know they are really going to like the new format. Happy Homeschooling!!!

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Pictures of my girls

Since I have a ton of pictures that would be cute to share with family -- and not enough ideas for posts to share them in -- here is a post of a few recent pics of my beautiful girls :-) Enjoy!

The girls had fun playing dress up with Daddy's MBA cap and gown :-)

Jordan, my girlie girl, right before her "Locks of Love" hair cut.

Cali girl posing in her fancy dress before her tea party.

The kick off Tea Party of "Fancy Fridays" with best friends Skylar and Emy. More posts on this soon!

Look, I'm here, too!

I love that they truly are best friends!!

And finally, my two hams in action:

Cali on stage at the Vince Vance concert -- she is so shy, can't you tell? :-)

Jordan in her Drama class. Right after this scene, they performed a play called "The Octopus" in which Jordan was the lead character! I think one of the moms is going to put the video on Youtube, so I will try to link soon!

HAPPY MONDAY!

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Cali the Prayer Warrior

Cali, better known as Cali Bug around these parts, is our goober girl. She lives to make other people laugh. She is constantly making funny faces (most frequently involving crossed eyes and her tongue out), doing funny dances, attempting to tell jokes (that actually aren't jokes at all but gotta love the effort), laughing and saying, "Get it?!?"

But don't let that spirited, spunky, silly exterior fool you. And don't be tempted to see the occasional rule pushing and look at the just-turned-four-baby-of-the-family-so-I-whine-to-get-attention personality trait (although Mommy and Daddy are working hard on that, as it recently has reared its oh so pleasant head again) and assume she doesn't have powerful spiritual insight to share. My little fireball has a huge spiritual gift of prayer!

Whenever she makes the wrong choice, she says an impromptu prayer asking for forgiveness almost immediately (or whenever she realizes it is the wrong choice). When she wants something really bad, she prays to God for it. When she sees someone hurting, she prays for them. Sometimes she prays for the silliest things that I know just makes God giggle (I tell my girls that the highest form of joy is a giggle and since God IS joy, that He giggles whenever He sees them doing something that really touches His heart!) -- such as her favorite famous prayer, "Dear God, I want to play a game. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

A sweet memory I think I will always carry with me is Ms. Kelly, the Preschool Director at our church, coming up to me a few weeks ago. Gregg and I serve there, so we know her pretty well. That day they were having a special time with the children, making cards and praying for Little Bekah who is a 3 year old who already lost an eye to cancer and is still battling for her life.

Ms. Kelly came up to me and told me that she had to hold back tears while praying with Cali. She said that she was able to pray with several of the children as she went around the rooms, and most of the children didn't really understand what they were doing, or it didn't really touch their hearts -- but that Cali GOT IT! She said her little prayer was so heartfelt and full of love, and that she could tell that Cali prays a lot. Ms. Kelly said that it really touched her heart, and as her Mama, I must say I beamed extra bright at the wonderful compliment she bestowed upon my "sweet potato girl".

Cali is a tough cookie who can be feisty and isn't afraid to let her desires known -- sometimes VERY strongly -- but that girl does have a soft heart full of gold, and better still, full of God's love. I try to remember to turn to prayer often in life's events, and I try as often as possible to model that out loud, but I must admit that she has taught me (and reminded me) to do it at times I hadn't thought about.

I love you, Cali girl!

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Jordan 12:20

This week has been so full - and exhausting! We have been doing a lot more spontaneous reading cuddled in various locations throughout the house, we have played a different game each day (I am really leaning towards relying heavily on games for math this coming year, so we have played Yahtzee, Uno and Battle so far), and we have had a lot of outdoor time.

With all of that going on, I have also started nap/quiet time again, where we gather in Mama's bed, read a chapter from a book -- currently Winnie the Pooh -- and then we all close our eyes. The rule is that you must be quiet, still and have your eyes closed for twenty minutes (Mama too!) and if after that time you aren't asleep, you can then play quietly in your room until the hour is up. Cali has fallen asleep everyday, and Jordan has even taken a nap half the time. Yesterday was not one of those days, however.

After the 20 minutes was up, and I could tell she was getting restless, I told her to go to her room and play quietly. She wasn't supposed to come out until 4:00, when the hour was up, unless it was to go to the bathroom. She came out after a few minutes, and I normally would have promptly reminded her of the rules (since this is a new thing we are starting) and sent her back in -- but for some reason I held my tongue.

She quickly asked for materials to make a Scripture Verse. See, early last year we used a curriculum for Preschool called Bright Beginnings and in it, we had a memory verse each week. We decided to make a big poster for each one and hang it on our wall in the Living Room. We ended up with around 13 huge posters around the room (no mistaking our beliefs the second you walked in the house!), and they stayed up until about 3-4 months ago when I finally took them down.

Well apparently, Jordan was either reading a book about an angel in her room, or she was playing pretend, but she came out saying that her and this angel were talking, and she wanted to make her own Scripture Verse. I helped her get out the large white paper and crayons, and she sat down on the other side of the room. She asked for help with the word "destroy" and then asked how to spell "Evil" to make sure she had it right. She was about to ask how to write the number 12 again (occasionally she writes the second number first like 21) but then she remembered our learning poster that has the numbers so she looked up instead. I was very curious which verse she could be writing -- she knows quite a lot at this point, but nothing that seemed to have all of those elements.

After adding a smiley face at the bottom of the paper (something her Daddy always did with the others. . . one to be cute, but mostly to cover up a dark spot that appeared at the bottom of all the papers) she announced that it was ready to be put on the wall. I walked over and just smiled.

The poster reads:

Jordan 12:20

SONGS OF GOD DESTROY EVIL

I knew she made it up herself, but that made me smile all the more. She didn't worry that her verse wasn't actually from the Bible. She believed she had a message about God and His power that was important to share -- and I agree.

We know that speaking the Word of God does destroy the darkness and evil, and that praising God by singing His Word is just one way of brandishing that 'Sword of the Spirit,' which is the word of God. We do a lot of singing around here -- me with my off-key self and all :-)

I have no idea where she got the "Address" part, and it might not technically be in the Bible, but I think this is one verse I may keep on my wall for awhile. . . and it is already one that I have memorized!

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"It isn't YOU speaking, it is God speaking in you"

WOW! These are the words that my five year old, Jordan, told me yesterday. We were cuddling on the sofa, reading Max Lucado's The Way Home. I was explaining to them how it symbolizes our relationship with God. How, like Anna in the story, we are His Princesses and how the King in the story symbolized Jesus, coming down to the Lowerlands to give up His life to save us.

Out of nowhere, Jordan interrupted me, saying, "God is speaking."

I was a little surprised by this interruption, so I muttered the very eloquent question, "Huh?"

Her beautiful blue eyes then turned to me and she said, "What you are saying is the Word of God. If it is the Word of God, then it isn't YOU speaking, it is God speaking in you."

" . . . . . " (blink blink)

After a moment, I was able to speak again and I told her how insightful and intelligent that was, and how she was right.

The interesting thing is that I have been raised hearing a version of this all my life. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and we are His vessel. Praying often that it is His words, not mine, that speak in times of comfort or discipline. That Jesus is the Word. That the Bible is His word, and He speaks to us through it. YES, I have heard all of that before, but I have NEVER had it put like that before.

I told my husband later that night and he had the same reaction. It is truth, but neither of us had thought of it that way. Isn't a child's faith amazing? They can see Biblical truths so simply, while we can over complicate things in an instant.

OH Jesus, give me the faith of a child!!

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Me - Renewed

I am just getting back online after an AMAZING weekend with Sally Clarkson. I went to her Dallas MomHeart Conference and it was a complete blessing!!

I have been to like 9 or so different homeschool conferences in the past three years (counting online conferences) and while they have all encouraged me in some way or gave me new information on the schooling aspect, NONE have touched my heart as a mother more. . . and none of them have renewed me, empowered me or rejuvenated me like this one.

Not only hearing Sally speak, but being able to see her wonderful, beautiful children -- the fruit of her homeschooling efforts, and living proof that the 'Wholehearted Child' educational philosophy works -- in person was a real treat!

I walked away with so many ideas of ways that I can grow in my relationship with Christ, infuse even more joy and laughter into our family, how to make even more memories, how to make reading aloud not only enjoyable but potentially life changing, how to discipline more effectively (and truly get to their heart), how to inspire them, how to pray more passionately and effectively. . . I could go on and on!

While the conference itself was amazing, equally wonderful was staying in the beautiful hotel room ALL. BY. MYSELF!!! It was so. . . clean. . . . and white. . . and quiet! :-) Right away I was able to put all of my belongings away and even laid out every piece of my makeup on the counter in the cute little tumblers they provided, and I did not have to worry about finding a child covered with lipstick. I did not touch the television remote the entire weekend either. I read, prayed, slept, listened to my own thoughts (sigh). It was heaven! And, getting a beautiful flower arrangement from my wonderful thoughtful husband was icing on the cake.

I also highly recommend Sarah Clarkson's new Book, Read For the Heart. I am about half way through this HUGE book and loving every word. After I finish that, I move onto finally reading The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson that I picked up this weekend. I can't believe it has taken this long to finally read these other books of hers, considering that my personal mission is to "Encourage Moms To Experience Joy in the Ministry of Motherhood." After I finish this book, I will move to reading her Mission of Motherhood book, and then Dancing With My Father, which is about living with joy.

I have also begun rereading Just Give Me Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz. I read this with a small group of women in our church a few years ago and it really blessed me then. It goes through the entire book of John. While I was on this mini-retreat of mine, I realized that while I have been watching Joyce Meyer everyday, and reading tons of devotionals, and watching Life Today, and all that, I was lacking in my personal relationship with Jesus. How can I possibly be the Christian, Wife and Mother that I want to be, need to be, without Him??

I am going to be playing around with my schedule a bit to find time to blog (not only to keep family updated on the girls, but also to try to start writing again) without being online during the day itself very often. I want to set the example of media time being a treat, not a time zapper like it can be and has been for all of us in the past.

Off to dance with my girls -- Have a BLESSED day!

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