Homeschooling 101: Methods I use

Alright sooo.... I did manage to fix the mirror image problem I was having, but it seems as though I have a new issue with the audio being fuzzy... sorry about that! I will eventually be a pro at this... hopefully! :D









What is the Charlotte Mason method?



What is the Unit Study method?



What is the School Bus approach? (Teaching multiple ages at the same time)





Click here for the Creation Booklet idea from Pinterest

Happy February!!

Just thought I'd write a little update on the fam and let you all know what we are up to here. I am almost 32 wks. pregnant now with our little Gabriel James. 

I can't wait for him to get here!!!! Well, I sorta can. :) I still have a few things to get done before he arrives. We are setting up the nursery area in our room this wk. And next wk, I'm planning to do the 3-day potty training with Addy.

She's already been introduced to the potty. But firmly tells me, "Uh-uh...no!" when I ask if she wants to use it. :) I'm afraid I have my work cut out for me AGAIN!!!

So... moving on from bodily functions....

We had a fantastic holiday season as I hope you all did as well. Here's the kids making Christmas cookies:

And... I do believe that's flour in Benjamin's ear there...  ha

We decided against doing the "Santa thing" with our kids. Don't worry- if you give my children a piece of chocolate shaped like Santa Claus, I will NOT freak out :O) We just talk about Santa like we do Mickey Mouse- reminding Ben that's He's pretend. We are trying to establish some healthy rules to keep us grounded when it comes to Christmas. It's so important to make Jesus' birth the center of attention, so we sang the "Happy Birthday" song to Jesus quite a lot in December. We also made ourselves a rule a few years ago that we would not exceed 3 gifts per child on any given year. That was hard this year- but no less enjoyable for the kids on Christmas morning!

We went on a field trip to the zoo last week with their cousin Kara:

Some of the things Benjamin is currently learning in school:

letter sounds

complex shapes & number of sides they have

counting to 50

to identify states on the US map

 Here's the craft from our "Eagle" themed day:

HERE is the template to this craft

On a different note, Nick FINALLY got on day shift!!!! Hold on just a sec while I shout GLORY HALLELUJAH!!! We've been waiting almost 5 years for this change and I'm loving it!! Finally... normal bedtimes for us and the kids, and I get to see my hubby during weekday daylight hours!! Yippee!!!

So... here's what's been happening with me personally over the last 6 months or so:

God has been so good and so faithful to us. I had a long period of severe morning sickness this time around, (even worse than the last 2 times) and then we had a huge scare around the 3 month mark. I started bleeding heavily and cramping. Having experienced 3 miscarriages in the past, I was CERTAIN that was what was going on. 

When it all stopped and nothing happened, I went in for an ultrasound and we found out that my placenta was just very close to my cervix. It wasn't previa, and the tech didn't see any tears.... so I went on bed rest for awhile just to be safe. We've had 2 ultrasounds since and everything has looked great, except for the fact that the placenta hasn't really moved away. BUT, most of the uterus growing happens towards the end, so we're hoping it has grown upwards by now. We'll have another look in a few wks.

During the 3 or 4 days when I thought I was losing the baby, the peace God gave me was so astounding. I knew I had made a break through spiritually after the 3rd miscarriage I experienced, and this was a little bit of a test for my faith. But, I know that I passed. Even though my heart was breaking, I was able to speak praises to God and say, "Lord, even if you let me lose this child, YOU ARE STILL GOOD." 

Sometimes those words are very difficult to say when you feel like something dear is being ripped away from you. But as soon as I surrendered and spoke those words, that incredible peace that passes all understanding flooded over me. I didn't feel depressed or oppressed. I was grieving, yes. But I had shut the door in the enemy's face. He couldn't lie to me while I was speaking those words. I feel like God has shown me something so huge through these experiences of loss and near loss. I don't want to ever forget the lesson. Praising God is powerful!!!

I'm so grateful that everything turned out fine and we'll have another baby boy in a short time! I've been catching up on scrap booking lately (finally got Benjamin's album done) and this page of my labor with Ben gets me so excited for Gabriel's birth!!

We'll be going to the same birth center again this time. Although, I'm thinking of turning to home births from now on since my birth center most likely will not be accepting my insurance any longer.

Bringing a new little life into the world is one of those miracles that nothing else really compares to. I'm getting excited just blogging about it!! :o)

Can't wait to meet baby Gabe!

IBLP Seminar- God's Reward for Scriptural Disciplines

For those of you who haven't heard: the IBLP seminars (and a lot of other great videos) are now available to stream online.

The website is embassyinstitute.org

The fee is $9 a month, or if you can pay $99 for a whole year.

This is such an incredible blessing to be able to access these great seminars and videos anytime we want, for a really small price- NEVER having to leave our house!

If you have never been through any of these seminars: I urge you to check it out! The Scriptural truths shared by Mr. Gothard have made a huge impact on my personal walk with the Lord, and my entire family. If you've been through them, but it's been awhile: I encourage you to do it again.

Each time I go through one of these seminars, I'm at a different place in life, and I am always challenged by the new things God reveals to me about myself and His Word.

Nick and I just started going through the Advanced Seminar today.

***just a tip: if you want to do a seminar from start to finish, I've found the easiest way to access the videos is type in the search box: "advanced seminar session 1" and it will come up.***

We'll be doing the sessions slowly. (He has to listen to the audio on his iPhone while driving & on breaks at work.) Here are a few notes on the session today and some things God has been dealing with me about:

God's Reward for Scriptural Disciplines

-Daily Bible Reading

(growth) 1 Peter 2:2

-Memorizing

(purity) Psalm 119:11

-Meditating

(success) Psalm 1:2-3

-Application

(answered prayer) John 15:7

-Fasting

(health & discernment) Isaiah 58

-Praying

(power) James 5:16

-Early Rising

(productivity) Psalm 57:8, 63:1

-Reading Revelation

(blessing) Rev. 1:3

-Witnessing

(eternal fruit) Proverbs 11:30

There are many promises in Scripture. God delights in honoring His own Word. He simply wants us to take Him up on it and try it out. The list above are just some of the principles He's laid out for us and the rewards of following them. Nick and I have started some new things lately in our home and it feels so great to see the fruits of those things. But while Mr. Gothard read and explained this list in the session today, I not only recognized the things we WERE doing; I was painfully reminded of all the things we NEED to be doing!

With the intention of hopefully helping someone, and allowing all of you to hold me accountable... I'd like to share with you my successes and failings with this list of Scriptural principles.

-Daily Bible Reading

If you asked a mother, "How often do you feed your new baby?" and she answered, "Oh, about once a weeks or so..." You would obviously be appalled. I think God created our natural bodies to need food multiple times a day for a purpose. I think it's a parallel to our spiritual lives. We should be DAILY, and CONTINUALLY feeding on God's Word. When we do, the spiritual growth is apparent. I can completely tell a difference in my day when I do my devotion vs. when I skip it.

So, here's a small tip for you mothers out there: Me and Nick like to do our family prayer and Bible reading together and the breakfast table every morning... but sometimes it doesn't happen. If we oversleep a little or he has to go in earlier, I tend to just skip it altogether. God convicted me of this recently. It's better to do our morning "wisdom search" separately than not at all!

So- here's what I do. If Nick is already gone, I still (pray first) then read OUT LOUD the Proverbs (number of the day) and at least 1 Psalm. I let the kids eat while I'm reading and if Ben finishes before I'm done, I let him stay in his seat and color. (I tell him to draw words he hears me say.) I feel this discipline is not only great for their self control, but also trains them to sit quietly through church. Not to mention they are hearing the Word of God frequently at a young age. By the time they can actually understand what it means and read along, it won't be a new concept to them or a boring exercise.

-Memorizing
This is something we JUST started. I told Nick, "Honey, I used to memorize Scripture ALL THE TIME when I was in school, but have really slacked off since finishing my studies." So we decided to keep each other accountable and make if a "couple's exercise". We pick a verse or passage each week, write it out on a flashcard, stick it to the front of the fridge and ask each other to quote it at the end of each day. First we just picked a random verse in Eph. Then we did "Roman's road" (the verses you need to know to lead someone to Christ), and next we're gonna do fruits of the spirit, the beatitudes... etc. Some verses we learned as kids are coming back to us rather quickly. But each night we quote the entire list of what we've worked on thus far so we won't forget them again.

***I recently made Benjamin a Scripture Memory book. (I looked for one to buy, but couldn't find the right thing so...I just wrote the verses down, drew pictures for them and stapled the pages together.) I noticed he had a great memory when he started quoting some of his favorite books to me... so I figured it was time to put it to good use. :) I made up hand signals to the Scriptures so it's more fun for him and we say the reference at the beginning and the end of the verse.***

-Meditating

It kinda goes without saying that if you're working on Scipture memory, you'll probably end up meditating on those verses. But, of course, I can easily fall into just memorizing something mechanically... so I do try to take time and really say the words... think about them... and pray them. Actually, sometimes I even sing them. There are so many praise songs written verbatim from the Psalms. The Maranatha singers do a lot of them. Check them out on Pandora. :)

*By the way, at the end of my devotion with the kids each morning: we end with songs- usually Sunday school songs with hand signals that are fun for them.

-Application

Well, I'm sure it's clear to all that I need to work on applying these things I'm reading, memorizing, & meditating on in Scripture. But, I must say, it is MUCH easier to apply these things when they are on your mind CONSTANTLY!!

-Fasting

I have really slacked in this area the past few years. I've used pregnancy and nursing as an excuse a lot... but truthfully, it will not hurt for me to skip at least 1 meal now and then. There are also other forms of fasting that I've felt convicted to start lately. Namely, television. My kids only watch clean, educational "good" programming & videos. But, it can still be on WAY too much if I'm not very careful. I have found that having the TV on all the time creates discontent in children. (i.e. if it's not on, they become bored quickly.) Fasting a day or a week here and there is something I am going to start doing regularly to keep us in check.

-Praying

Sometimes a light bulb goes off in my brain while experiencing a delay or "boring" duty. "You could be using this time to pray," I feel the Lord say to me.

I just experienced this last night while standing by my baby's crib. She had been a little distraught, so I was standing where she could see me while she drifted off to sleep. Standing there with nothing to do, driving down the road with no other adults to talk to, or sitting beside my toddlers bed when he's having a rough night... those are all really good times to pray.

-Giving

I do practice giving, but I need to do more- and not just when it's convenient for me.

-Early Rising

Definitely need help on this one! "Early Rising" for us wouldn't be the same as most people due to our different schedule... but I know going to bed earlier and waking up earlier encourages a more productive day. I can always see the difference when we're up an hour before we "feel like getting up". Punctuality (one of the 49 character qualities Mr. Gothard talks about) is related to this one. I have completely lost my punctuality since having children and God is really dealing with me to work on this.

-Reading Revelation
Not something I expected to be on this list, but Rev 1:3 says, ^"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."
I tend to gravitate more to other books of the Bible- ones that I can understand. :) But, there is spiritual blessing promised to those who read this book. I haven't read it in it's entirety in a long time, but I'm going to start this week.

-Witnessing
This has been such a strong conviction for me personally for awhile now. It's a scary thing to really initiate a conversation about the Lord with someone if you've never done it. I'm trying to start small and work up my courage: like saying "God Bless" or making reference to how good God is when I having small talk with a stranger. I really need prayer in this area because I KNOW I am not yet making disciples like Christ called me to do.

Just last night me and Nick had a conversation about reaching out more to our neighbors. The Lord layed it on both our minds the same day that we could be doing more to get to know our neighbors and witness to them. Nick was like, "I know we've been taught that everyone is our neighbor... but if we aren't willing to befriend our physical neighbors that live right next to us... that's pretty bad!" I agreed, saying that God was dealing with me on that very issue. I admit, I don't even know all the names of the people in our cul de sac. Being a better neighbor is on our "to-do" list. Inviting them over when we have a game night with friends, bringing over some homemade baked goods to get to know them.... that's the plan. :)

Benjamin's Testimony

One night last week, I was sitting in the living room with the baby, while Ben played in his room. About 10 minutes before, I heard him ask Nick to turn on his Fisher Price piano game that hooks up to his tv. I could hear him laughing and repeating various shapes and numbers back to the television. Then all of sudden I heard a loud crash. I raced down the hall to Benjamin's room. Nick, ran from the other end of the hall, and we met at the doorway. We stopped and stared for a second, not saying anything. There was a pile of glass in the middle of the floor.

The glass globe over his bedroom light had fallen off and broken into a million pieces. Benjamin, sitting on his rocking horse in the corner, was just barely out of harms way.
"Are you okay?" I asked Ben. "I okay Mommy", he said; his eyes as big as saucers.
I handed the baby to Nick and carefully stepped over the shards of glass to pick Benjamin up. Nick watched the kids in the next room while I cleaned up the mess. After a little bit, I looked up to see Nick checking on my progress. Neither of us had said much- I think we were in shock. I finally said, "Nick, it was the Lord that this didn't hit Benjamin. He was playing his game all this time, and it was right above where was standing." "I know." He said. "He never sits on that rocking horse."

I hadn't even thought of that. Nick was right, Benjamin never played with the thing. Something had prompted him to stop playing his game, and go sit in the only place in his room where he would be safe.

I started thanking God over and over that Ben hadn't been hurt... or killed. Tears formed in eyes while I cleaned, just imagining what could have happened. "Why did the globe fall?" I wondered. I took it down to clean it about a month before that... I must not have screwed it in good enough. I needed to check every other light in the house! Why did it take an entire month to fall down? Why in the world did it shatter so badly? It fell onto a thick shag rug, on top of thick carpet. My mind continued to race as I began freaking out about this "near miss" and the safety of my children.

Thankfully, the Lord quickened my mind and helped me snap out of the downward spiral I had started mentally. I reminded myself that I am only human. No matter how hard I try to be a perfect parent and protect my kids from everything dangerous, I will make mistakes. We need the grace of God just to make it through each day. Some days it is much more obvious to us than others- like when our child almost gets hit in the head, or we nearly get into a car accident. But, truth is, even the days we don't realize it, God's grace is the only thing getting us through. He gives us breath. We MUST depend on Him for our safety... for our life.

Otherwise we could go nuts (some people do) trying to do it on our own. Putting our trust in God to take of us and our families is the only way to really have peace. Worrying about it all the time and dwelling on what "could happen", slowly steals away at your faith and will likely send you into a frenzy! While thinking through these things, my tense expression gradually broke into a little smile of relief. I thanked God again.
I thanked Him for His hand of protection. Then, I thanked Him for the resulting testimony- that would one day be Benjamin's to tell.

September pics

What we did in July

We went to the Ringling Bros. Circus...

Benjamin was a little "stinker" that night, but he sat, mesmerized,

through the ENTIRE thing!

(3 hours, people!)

We played at the Woodlands Mall...

Adalynn and Daddy surfed the web...

Benjamin colored at his desk...

 Benjamin held "baby Addy"...

We watched a really pretty sunset from our backyard...

Baby Addy stayed super cute!

We had a work day at church to get ready for VBS!!

We had a blast all week and dressed in our matching shirts with everyone else

for program night...

When VBS week was over, we SLEPT!!!

Bye July!

Recent pics of the kids...

Benjamin's 2nd Birthday Party

 Dear Benjamin,

You just turned 2 on May 1st! I can't believe how big you are getting. You are a big brother now, and a very sweet one! You call her "baby Ah.." and you always say, "Aww... baby," and kiss her when you pass by her. Your favorite things to play with are BALLS (of course) and your new drum set Papaw Phil got you at this party. You like watching drum solos on youtube :) and you try to beat on everything! You are talking very well now- even if sometimes only Mama can understand the words you are saying :) Lately your answer to everything is "No." You love books and looking at picture albums.

You like to point out all the people you know by name. You also really like counting. You count up to 6 over and over again when you are playing. Another thing you just got really into is coloring. I think I tried to force it on you before you were ready. But now you LOVE it! When we pray you say, "Thank you God" and "Amen". It's so adorable! Your favorite phrases are "Oh man!", "Oh no!", "Wow!", "Alright!", and "Ready?" You LOVE to "go bye bye". You are a rambler :)

You've spent the night at all your grandparents houses a couple of times and you do very well. We just started potty training you today... (we'll see how THAT goes!!) You are starting to get interested in dressing your own self. You also want to eat your yogurt (with your spoon) all by yourself... and I must say, you don't make as much of a mess as I expected! You are getting so grown up. You measured at 3 ft. tall a month before your birthday, so I think it's safe to say you are going to be tall. You are already in a size 7 shoe!! Can't believe that... I love you SO SO much. I just wanted to jot some stuff down about sweet, wonderful you. I know I'll forget all these special things... and you'll be grown before I know it... *sob*

But you will always be my "baby Benjamin."

Love you,
Mama

Photo Credits: This is a mixture of the pictures taken by my sister Courtney and my mother-in-law Donna Mofley.

Addy's Newborn & Ben's 2 Year Old Photo Shoots