I don’t usually do tags but one of my dearest friends has recently started a blog (after much pestering from me) and she tagged me. So, as not to appear anti-blogging-social I will go along with this tag. Here it is:

Pass this on to 5 blogging friends. Open the closest book to you, not your favourite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56.  Write the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.

I have two books closest to me. One is “Why It’s Hard to Love Jesus” by Joseph Stowell, which I’m re-reading and the other is “Passionate Housewives Desperate for God” by Chancey & MacDonald (available through Credo Trust) I’ll use Passionate Housewives as it was on top of the other one.

from page 56:

Be assured that neither your efforts nor your tears (Psalm 56:8) have gone unnoticed by our wise, good and powerful God; and that He has ordained your steps (Psalm 16:7).

Go to Him; plead for His strength and mercy. He will give you the rest needed to accomplish His will; as He promises:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11: 28-30

There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? But who shall I tag? Most of my blogging friends have been tagged with this one so I’ll try something different – I TAG EVERYONE!!!! If you read my blog, you are tagged! Just tag yourself, post your entry and leave me a comment so I can go read your post. 🙂

I sometimes read the blog of Albert Mohler and I am always blessed, encouraged and informed by his posts. He wrote a post back in January about “Do Your Kids Read Books?” Interesting. Thought provoking. As a homeschool mother, what will I do about it? Does this change anything in my homeschool?

He ends with these words…

Do our own young people read books? Do they know the pleasures of the solitary reading of a life-changing page? Have they ever lost themselves in a story, framed by their own imaginations rather than by digital images? Have they ever marked up a page, urgently engaged in a debate with the author? Can they even think of a book that has changed the way they see the world . . . or the Christian faith? If not, why not?

Go check out the full article. It isn’t overly long, won’t take you long to read.

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The series is one continuous story with characters that portray courage, loyalty, discipline, and honor. Read chapter excerpts and reviews or listen to theme music from each book.

We’ve just started book one in our new read aloud fiction. I have wanted this series for a few years, ever since I first saw it advertised in The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. However, as there was no Australian distributor, other books and resources seemed to take priority. Wasn’t I pleasantly surprised when I saw the series in Word bookstore??!!

The Kingdom series is a Biblical allegorical set of books that is set in a time of knights, swords, and kingdoms. Book One starts with a Prologue and has a set of discussion questions at the end of the book. Some families have used this series as an introduction to discussions about the end times. Each book even has its own score for original music, which would be wonderful for an aspiring musician. Best of all, there is no magic, mysticism, or wizardry in The Kingdom Series.

They cover the span of time from Genesis through the 2nd return of Christ. They are full of action and adventure where swords, knights, and battles are all Biblically symbolic. The allegory teaches Godly character, the adventure captures the imagination of all ages, and the action keeps teenagers engrossed from cover to cover…even non-readers! Deep symbolism with an action story makes excellent reading for ages 8 to adult.

The author, Chuck Black, wrote the first book as an attempt to capture the attention of his children and inspire them to read the Bible more. This led on to further allegorical parable like stories resulting in the rest of the series. The books are also available as audio CD’s.

Visit the website!

We’re only up to chapter five so far, but have been sitting on the edge of our seats for parts of it. My skin prickled with goose-bumps during certain parts. There are just some book that you just know you’re going to really enjoy…this is one of them!

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Upgrade

After my review on Upgrade, by Kevin Swanson I was asked how this book impacted my life so I’ll attempt to share my thoughts here.

Upgrade! How it helped me.

I’ve already written a review so I won’t rehash that so I’ll approach it from another angle without rewriting the entire book!

Kevin Swanson devoted one whole chapter to ‘education’. I like this as it is helpful to know what the goal is before we attempt to formulate a plan toward aiming for it.

“Education is the preparation of the child, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically for life and for eternity.” (p10) He then writes in the broader sense.
He says that each worldview will affect our understanding of education (see why I like it?) He then pulls apart his own definition by explaining ‘preparation‘: preparation for what? He also questions (and answers) the concept of a ‘successful education’. He gives another definition of a successful education on page 17 “A successful education is achieved when a child is prepared to make maximal use of his God-given talents and abilities in the accomplishment of the child’s calling.”

Education is the preparation of the child, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically for life and for eternity.

Then he writes 10 Secrets for a Successful Education, which aren’t really secrets at all. 😉
The first secret is on the Pre-Eminence of Character. Now all CM enthusiasts agree on this but he brings out a point which allowed or encouraged me to change my first character training habit from that of developing ‘Attention’ to Honour of Parents (duh!)

The 2nd secret is Quality One on One Instruction. This really spoke to me as my homeschool methodology had me focusing on good books. Now this is a good and worthwhile habit but it cannot and must not take place of quality one on one instruction. Of course some subjects take more individual instruction than others, like Math’s, (which I had to learn the hard way). He gave me a focus point of one hour per day for 2 full years with each child. (p47)

The 3rd secret is the Principle of Protection.
He says that protection is itself is ineffective but combined with a purpose of preparation is effective (p52). To be prepared, a child ought to be protected?all this with an identity or individual focus! He talks about monitoring the inputs and controlling the inputs that the children are exposed to. He warns of the dangers when protection becomes an end in itself:

1) the child might try to escape the world
2) amalgamate with the world and become like it or
3) change the world

The Principle of Individuality is the 4th secret and he talks about our children as individuals. This wasn’t new to me but he brought out some interesting points. The principle of individuality is liberating, so Mr. Swanson says. It can be wielded with amazing adaptability and effectiveness in the home and removes a tremendous amount of pressure from the backs of children and parents. He suggests that this principle takes the individual gifts and abilities of each child and maximizes them. This often means that a homeschool moves away from standardization. He goes on to say that this principle holds profound implications for the involvement of the state in education.

The 5th secret is Rooting in Relationships.
Mr. Swanson puts forth that every child is an individual with individual learning styles and rates and emotional concerns. An educational program will only be optimized for each child by a mentor who knows the child well. He states that studies have shown that there is no difference between the academic performance of students whose parents are professionally trained teachers and those who are not. He attributes this to the God-designed factor of relationship based teaching. In this lengthy chapter, he also discusses the issue of delegation… delegation while still retaining responsibility.

A successful education is achieved when a child is prepared to make maximal use of his God-given talents and abilities in the accomplishment of the child’s calling.

The Principle of Doing Well is the 6th secret.
Charlotte Mason enthusiasts would know this one! The main aim of education is to communicate so he encourages us to do this well. Reading and writing is fundamental. He then gives 10 focus points which I found beneficial:
1) read aloud
2) the best literature
3) don’t waste significant time doing anything but the basics
4) do not multiple the course requirements upon the student (this one hit me hard)
5) memorise portions of the highest quality literature, poetry, drama, and prose.
6) Copywork is a valuable tool
7) It is advantageous to teach them the languages of Hebrew, Greek an Latin once they are advanced in their own native language.
8) Don’t advance a student to the next level until he has mastered the basics
9) Basic learning required disciplined repetition
10) Teach the Scriptures

Reading, thinking, (verbal and written) communication, discernment and singing are basic fundamentals.

The 7th secret is the Principle of Life Integration
He writes of the difference between knowledge and wisdom… about life integration and the best way to do this is to maintain a life integrating educational environment. He encourages the reader to avoid the separation of school and life (yet he is not an unschooler). The student must have real lie experiences on which to hang the knowledge that he learns from the textbook else the textbook learning just becomes head knowledge and not wisdom or understanding. He gives another more tips like:

1) Tie their textbooks learning to real life..
2) Limit the time they spend listening to lectures.
3) Build relationships and spend time doing the important things?take the children with you everywhere.
4) Train your children to think and communicate all the time
5) Train them to be able to interact with others well
6) Encourage them to start their own business or work with you
7) Prefer hands-on training, develop a learning environment
8) Use curriculum that understands the importance of real life application.

Maintaining the Honour and Mystique of Learning is the 8th secret.
We should strive to cultivate a sense of wonder. This can be stifled if we don?t take into account the principles of individual character, etc.
Modeling a sense of adventure, self motivated learning and spontaneity while encouraging the inquisitive mind is important. Avoid activities that mesmerize yet don?t encourage wonder and discovery. He also talks about honouring and commending true achievement and achievements. Children need affirmation.

Building on the Right Foundation is the 9th secret and it deals with the content of education.
Again this chapter deals with worldview … the big questions of life. As parents we need to know what are children are learning and at the least we need to discern the worldview that under girds the books we use. In this we need to know and discern the difference between polytheism, monotheism, relativism, absolute truth, atheism, humanism, biblical theism, nihilism and those that have a providential view of history. (I’ve found that the need for understanding this, increases as the child gets older)

He says that that there is no neutrality in books or programs (see why I like this book?). God’s word must be tied into every aspect of our child’s experience be it entertainment, history, geography, science, music or reading… we must train our children to think in terms of God’s world. This doesn’t mean that every book so sentence must have God in it rather that our children must learn to see the connection to God in all that they do.

1) know your worldview
2) know what your children are learning
3) accept that there is no perfect curriculum
4) think ?integration?
5) use principles of protection and wise progression
The 10th secret of the Principle of Wise, Sequential Progression.

This chapter talks about the stages of learning:  knowledge (collection and storage of facts), understanding (discernment and arrangement of facts) and wisdom (application of those things). He warns us to beware of programs that only spit out facts or information all the way through high school. It’s important to learn the basics well but also important to progress toward critical thinking and wise independent problem solving.

Chapter 13 talks about developing a vision for your family: where to start, how to get there, etc.

These are the areas that helped me in my family. While not necessarily new to me they condensed and highlighted all the information in my own knowledge bank so that much of could become practical and I could apply it to my life. So many things cry out for our attention yet not all are necessary. They may be good but not necessary.

Don’t take my word for it though…rush out and get your own copy! These points are just what I took from the books…I haven’t done a complete chapter review, I’ve tried to speak more personally.

There are so many books, aren’t there? There are so many good, worthy books to choose from. I will never read them all and neither will my children. I’ve thought long and hard for some time about the books that I especially desire my children to read and have come up with a very small list. Of course, we read many more books (especially historical fiction) but if this ALL that we could read, I’d be content.

Books that I want my children to read…one day…

Biographies ? lots of them. We try to read biographies of people who lived in the time period or the country or the subject that we are studying. Biographies of musician?s artists, scientists, missionaries, etc.

Seven Men Who Ruled the World from the Grave

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell

More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell

The Jesus I Never Knew and The Bible Jesus Read by Philip Yancey

Mere Christianity/ Screwtape Letters/ by C.S. Lewis

What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? By Yancey

Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

Understanding the Times by David Noebel

Short Stories by Geoffrey Bingham

Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis

Mr. Pipes and the Hymns of the Reformation and other titles by Douglas Bond

Know Why You Believe by Paul Little

The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith

How to be Your Own Selfish Pig by Susan Schaeffer

Fiction:

Mary Jones and her Bible

Christy?s Old Organ by Mrs. O.F. Walton

Pilgrim?s Progress (two or three times) by Paul Bunyan

A Basket of Flowers by C. von Schmid

How the Bible Came to Us by Meryl Doney

Older/Youth Fiction

Atonement Child, Mark of the Lion Trilogy, Selected books by Francine Rivers

Israel, My Beloved by Elizabeth George

Hadassah: One Night with the King by Tommy Tenney

Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Best of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

BIBLE STUDY GUIDES

Either Heart of Wisdom schedule with Calvary Chapel curriculum or

The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History

And for catechism study, Training Hearts Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism by Starr Meade

I’d be interested in hearing in others thoughts on this topic.

Have a pre-arranged amount of spending money and know that I will stick to it.

Take esky and/or thermos for drinks and sandwiches and also doubles as a stool.

Backpack containing : Sandwiches. Water bottles. Snacks for kids.Thermos of tea. Lego or other toys for kids.

Large bags for books. (Red & White stripey bags) Or bag on wheels. (Gee, a shopping trolley would be ideal eh?)

Wear layers of clothing- t-shirt, jumper, etc. I have to be comfortable. Wear comfy shoes.

Take my glasses!

Assign ‘Miss R’ and ‘Miss A’ to areas. Devise their booklists. (‘Miss A’ takes cooking and literature while Becky takes Rare, Children’s and Nature)

Find suitable area for younger kids to settle.

Go up and down the aisles so that I can read the spines of books.

After collecting and gathering, sit down with a cuppa and go through
them all. Weed them out and see if other homeschoolers want to go through
discard pile. Ask other homeschoolers if I can peruse their discard pile 🙂

Sort books by category- HB, PB, etc

Queue lines and pay. Accepts credit and eftpos but take cash!

Have pizza delivery slips on table for easy access or we starve that
night because Mum won’t be cooking!

Have table cleaned down to peruse my new books with a fresh cuppa.
😎