December 18, 2011 by admin.

Today, we had the privilege of visiting with veteran missionary, Terry McClure who is currently in the USA on furlough. He and his family minister to the people on the Islands of Palau in Micronesia- You need to Google that! :)  Bro. McClure has done a series of Bible studies that will help not only children, but adults as well. I am going to be posting bits and pieces of his studies (hopefully once a week!) to help generate some traffic to his site www.mcclureministries.com . The whole series on 36 lessons on CDRom is available for $30. It is well worth the price, I guarantee it. Please visit his site and for answers to your questions, please email Bro. Terry at terry@mcclureministries.com   So I’ll try and post the first lesson as soon as Christmas is done and get on a regular schedule to help all of us homeschoolers who lose our umph after the holidays! LOL

Posted in philosophy, Bible, projects, prayer, beginning, homeschooling, hints, Uncategorized | No Comments »

August 31, 2010 by admin.

“Focusing on the big picture” is necessary when home schooling. When we don’t focus on the big picture - the result of our efforts plus God’s grace- we get tunnel vision. One of the biggest pitfalls of home schooling failures is that they got tunnel vision- only seeing a small pinpoint of light, and (eventually)wondering when the end will come!

On the road home to WV from NC there is a tunnel through Big Walker Mountain. I will never forget one trip when the traffic was backed up for over 20 miles before the tunnel! As we got closer to the tunnel, we could see that they had one lane closed and were painting lines on the road. There was an exit right before the tunnel. (I think they kept that exit just for claustrophobics!) Well, when there are three females in a vehicle for a long period of time- let’s just say that is why they make rest areas! By the time we got to that mess, we were about to float through the tunnel and it didn’t seem like traffic was going to move for a while, so we elected to go OVER the mountain.

Once we got moving again (and breathing air that was not laden with paint fumes!) we saw the most beautiful farms and rolling hills! The sky actually looked bluer, and we even ‘mooed’ at the cows in the pasture. J Sure, it took a longer time to go over the mountain, and the gas station on the other side of the tunnel was the same one we stopped at when we came down the other side of the hill, but we were no longer stressed and grouchy at one another. It was a FUN journey. One that I would like to take again some day.

In comparison, many a new home schooling Mom has picked up her curriculum at a curriculum fair with delusions of grandeur (okay, maybe that’s too strong) -visions of excellence- dancing in their brains. Instead of choosing curriculum based on usable, everyday knowledge, we are lured by bright colors and/or name brand, shiny, excellently printed, streamlined and organized materials. As we pick up the package, we see our son or daughter at the next homeschool fellowship standing in front of a three sided cork board with a pointy, white stick discussing the plans for a new rocket designed to reach the north star! Well, not saying that can’t happen, for obviously in our history, people have done great things, but this should not be the main goal! If it happens, thank the Lord! Until it does, teach what is necessary to inspire greatness, and leave the promotion to God. J

Tunnel vision says that if Junior or Susie did not get 90% on all quizzes and tests he/she did not apply him/herself. The big picture says that your child knows 90% of the materials presented! If you feel that the other ten percent is absolutely necessary for their life goals, and they might not learn those facts later on, then by all means continue to teach that material until your child knows it. Otherwise, chalk it up to human error. (You know, chances are that if you give the same test a week later, after explaining the wrong answers, they may get a higher score. And chances are, if you go over the wrong answers you will find they say something like, “Oh! I knew that! I didn’t mean to put that answer!”)

Now, some of my homeschooling friends would chastise me right now for being mediocre and rearing my children without a full-throttle gung-ho attitude. “If we don’t aspire to greatness,” they say, “others will, and we will have a bad testimony for Christ and for homeschoolers everywhere!” Well, just call me a mountain of mediocrity, I guess. I think it was the Apostle Paul who said to let your moderation be known to all men, and that although he was a learned man, he chose to know nothing among some folks save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Don’t get me wrong, though, he CHOSE not to know anything among SOME folks. The point is that Paul had the big picture. He was learned and educated, but he wasn’t proud about it. You know what he counted all that as! He knew what was important in life and that was to attain Christ. To know HIM. To show others who Jesus Christ is and what His desire for our lives is.

We must take heed, therefore, to stave off the condition of tunnel vision as we go through the tunnel of homeschooling - for it IS just that- (just a part of the whole road of life) Let us not be forgetting that there is a whole valley opening up just beyond the 12^th grade!

All that aside. Maybe I am justifying my lack of Math skills? That sounds like a random thought, but it’s actually pertinent. I tried last year to do Algebra. I didn’t do so well. I am going on 39 years old. All of 25 years ago I was in an Algebra class in 8^th grade. I failed that class and every other Algebra class I have ever tried to go through since. I guess I’m going to try it again this year just because I have something to prove to myself. At this point I don’t’ know if it will ever get done, but I’m mad enough at the Algebra god to push him over a cliff! He plagues my dreams with visions of X and Y - that doesn’t do anything to help that Biology class the kids are taking- and makes me think in parentheses! (Well, sorta). See what I mean. J

If I don’t watch out, I can get tunnel vision. I will forget that I have lived those 25+ years in happiness and peace without EVER solving for X. Am I mediocre because I don’t think in terms of Algebraic expressions and polynomials? I don’t know, but in the big picture, I don’t think many people care. Well, except those rocket scientists. Whom, I guess, are needful to society. When your child reaches that goal, forgive me for my ignorance, please.

In all honesty, if I could ever have finished my grocery shopping with the aid of X, I may have tried to use her. She just doesn’t make herself available! J Dusting with the aid of Y may have encouraged me, since he might have saved me some time - um, after I did the problem to solve for the amount of time it would take to dust the area of my home before I started to actually do the work.

So, did I do it the hard way?

I guess sometimes you just have to go OVER the mountain and not through the tunnel!

Posted in attitude, philosophy, Algebra, curriculum, hints, beginning, homeschooling | No Comments »

July 15, 2010 by admin.

Money…

It can buy you a house, but not a home.

It can buy you a bed, but not sleep.

It can buy you a meal but not an appetite.

It can buy you entertainment but not happiness.

It can buy you an expensive watch, but not time.

It can buy you the best medical care, but it cannot buy life and health.

It can buy you shoes, but it cannot make you walk.

It can buy you music, but can’t put a song in your heart.

It can ease your conscience by giving to the poor, but it cannot buy eternal life in Heaven.

It can buy eyeglasses, but it cannot allow you to see a sunrise.

It can buy an education, but not give you intelligence.

It can buy you protection, but not peace.

It can buy hearing aids, but hearing is a gift from God.

It cannot buy pardon for your sins.

It cannot buy the joy of knowing that you are a child of God and a royal descendant of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

It cannot buy the precious blood of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It cannot buy a white robe or a new name in Heaven!

It cannot buy my mansion or my time with the Lord Jesus.

It can steal my time if I forget that money is not worth much in the scope of everything else. Money cannot buy faith and trust in the provision of the Lord Jesus!

Posted in philosophy, hints | 1 Comment »

February 4, 2010 by admin.

This is the second part to my WHY Bible Study. We get into a little bit of homeschooling/child rearing at this point, but I hope that you were benefitted by asking yourself ‘WHY we do what we do, and why we have given our lives to serving Jesus and doing his will ‘ (from the song- A Love Down Deep in My Heart, by the Rochester’s) I feel I again need to clarify that I am not intending to teach or preach to men, but to instruct younger women. If you are a man and are reading this, please take it or leave it. 

Part 2

1. Why ask why? I’m actually thinking about WHY we would ask God why about a situation, but a good way to study your King James Bible is to apply the law of first mentions which will give you a definition of a word or precept within the text of scripture in which it is found first.

The first time the word why is used in the Bible is in Genesis 4:6. Interestingly, it is not asked by man, but by God himself. He asks Cain- Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

I think God wants to show us something about asking the question ‘why’.

One, he wants to show us that he is reasonable. He gave Cain an “out”. He gave him a chance to explain himself. Cain brought the fruit of his own labor, and when he was called on the carpet for it, he found himself speechless. If you will notice, Cain doesn’t answer God, but goes and talks with his brother. Gen 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother : and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. He evidently didn’t get the sympathy from Abel that he was looking for! So one sin led to a bigger one, and he killed his brother. That was Cain’s free will and not God’s fault. He gave Cain a chance.

Two, God wants to show us that he is in control and we are accountable to Him.

Verse 7 says : If thou doest well, will thou not be accepted? and then he goes on to give Cain terms - IF this, then THAT. Eventually, Cain is punished by being sent out from the presence of God and everything he knows.

Three, since God is reasonable, and we are accountable to Him, He wants us to trust Him. What is the first thing that Cain did when God dismissed him? He went out to get a second opinion from his peer. He did not humble himself to God and get rid of the pride of his will. He was proud of that produce that he brought before the Lord. HE worked for it. He didn’t bring the sickly looking tomatoes and limp carrots and squishy cucumbers! Nosiree- he brought the best he had! And in itself, this is not bad, for we should give the Lord our best and our first fruits, but it was in his attitude where sin abode!

His attitude was the problem. The wrong sacrifice COULD have been fixed. He didn’t trust God to know what he was doing. He didn’t understand WHY his offering couldn’t be good enough. Of course, we realize that GOD was setting the standard - the “type” - of the blood sacrifice, a foreshadow of Christ’s blood shed for us.Leah has coined a curious word. She calls a bad attitude BADITUDE.

When we see folks with children who are:

1. Surly and bored-looking, who obey -most of the time- but with stooped shoulders and rolling eyes

2. Teenagers or pre-teens who never speak or smile unless they are talking to their friends

3. Who have an ‘impress me if you can’ air.

4. Church members’ kids- Kids who should be the happiest kids on earth with a Daddy who looks forward to coming home to Mamma, who treat them with love and respect, who would do anything possible to make them happy-

5. Kids who do what they are told, for the most part, but you can tell their heart is not in it. It’s not their idea so they are going to make life miserable for everyone else.

6. Kids who shouldn’t have a care in the world

These are homeschooled kids, public school kids, and Christian schooled kids.

We are saddened by their Baditude.

Even sadder is the fact that a lot of parents don’t seem to notice! As long as their child is not the one making a scene or embarrassing them in public, it’s all good. Just the moment the child gets out of hand in public, though, the parent exhibits one of three attitudes themselves.

One- AKA- Defeat. ‘I just don’t know what I did wrong to make Johnny or Susie do this’ (and they have not the strength to change it) They make excuses for the child’s behavior to you, but when they get home, a battle ensues, not for the child’s good, but because the parents were embarrassed. This only leads to the child learning what socially acceptable behavior is, and not changing their heart.

Two- they yell at the child until EVERYONE is embarrassed at the yelling instead of the original offense delivered by the child. The child usually yields to the parent at this point, depending on how old they are, and then the parent proudly accepts the victory over the situation and thinks they have it covered, and the child proudly starts doing something else socially unacceptable.

Three- They ignore the child until the child decides to stop doing whatever it is that is annoying everyone, and chalk it up to a phase that all kids have to go through and/or as a battle between children and grown-ups.

A long time ago, I sat my kids down and said. “Your Dad and I are NOT your enemies, and we want you to talk to us- not your peers - about how we make you feel. I do not want an “US against THEM” war going on in our house. We may not always agree with you, and may not let you have your way, but if you trust us, we can get through anything - because WE have already been there, and your friends haven’t. So if “US against THEM” is what you want, we’ll be on YOUR team. ”

When you hear the word “Whatever” come out of your child’s mouth - they have BADITUDE. They are not just ‘expressing their creativity’ as the school would have you believe. They are expressing their sinful nature! But they are also questioning your authority.

DEAR PARENT, it’s not enough to have a well trained and obedient child.

WHY do our children have bad attitudes?

Well, are we reasonable toward them as God was reasonable to Cain? Or do we just get mad and throw scripture at them and say they MUST honor their father and mother, and JUST BECAUSE I SAID SO? Because I’m The MOM!- that’s WHY!? Do they see US honoring God, just because HE said so? Even on our bad days? Let’s be consistent.

Do they realize they are accountable to us, as we are accountable to God? And do we remember that we are accountable to God- FOR them- at least for a good part of their lives.

Do they trust us?

Try this at home if your children are still small enough to handle: and for Pete’s sake, don’t make a big deal out of it or tell them WHY…just have some fun. YOU know why, and that’s what counts.

Stand your child in front of you and tell them to close their eyes and fall backward into your arms. If they do it, they TRUST that you will catch them. (What if they look over their shoulders while doing it and give a nervous laugh?) It might take a time or two, but I bet they will get used to it.

You have had a training session in trust and faith, in you, and eventually in Christ.

But what if they don’t do it? Well, training sessions are NOT designed to make your child feel inadequate or embarrassed. If they don’t trust you, it’s your fault.

Do not punish them, and don’t - by any means- fall apart in front of them and scream WHY DON’T YOU TRUST ME? Cry to GOD to show you why you lost that trust, and how you can get it back. Then dry your eyes, pull up your pants -um…straighten your skirt… and be consistent in your walk and talk and know WHY you tell Johnny and Susie to do this or that.

By the way, there is no real science to parenting, although advice is helpful. I am in no way calling you a bad parent! I am but trying to get you to listen to some hard-gained wisdom and instruction through my OWN trial and error and by my watching others and deciding there must be a better way. If you see fault in my family, just look for a better way to do it than us, and I’m sure the Lord will be pleased if you honor Him in all you do. Once God fixes you, then you can show others (Psalm 51).

So Why ask Why? Is it wrong to ask God why? I have to conclude that it is not wrong to ask God why, because there are so many other instances in the Bible where someone asks Him why. David asks why a LOT in the Psalms.

So next time we’ll talk about examples of HOW to ask God why.

Posted in philosophy, attitude, child rearing, hints, homeschooling | 3 Comments »

December 21, 2009 by admin.

img_0631.JPG (power lines!!! )

will there be a sound? 

A classic philosophy question.  Another: If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?   Or is that Psychiatry? 

Ahhhh, Physics, Philosophy…and Photography!   Three great things to ponder. (smile)

Things we have been pondering lately - in that order might be:

1.Physics…a natural science of matter and it’s motion through space and time. Eventually you get down to something concrete no matter how small it might be.

One of Leah’s questions in Physics was something like this - The speed limit sign on the highway, is it average speed or immediate speed?    Leah was first to post a comment; it can’t be average speed, because that would mean that you could go 20 mph for a while and then speed up to 90 mph for the remainder of the hour…the average would be about 55 or 60 mph… I kid you not, THREE cops who are in her online class studying for criminal justice degrees said it was AVERAGE speed, and their reasoning?  Because that’s the speed most everyone does give or take 10 mph. 

Leah was right.  She got good marks on that one.  Hope we’re never driving in California  ;)  ’nuff said about that.

2. Philosophy - definition according to Wikipedia - Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning subjects such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.    Philosophy is an attitude to life or way or principle of living whose focus is on resolving the most basic esistential questions about the human condition.   For example…What is the meaning of life?  Why are we here?  

Reminds me of a song!  (by Becky Lester)

There are so many questions in this life, that men have tried to reason away.  Like where to we come from and why are we here?  And how does night turn into day?  Well I’ve known the answers for quite a long time, and it’s not just something I’ve learned.  I found the answers to all of life’s questions, in God’s blessed holy word -

The answer is in God’s Word; nessled in those pages there is a refuge for the soul. There is healing when your soul is dying. So if you’re searchin’ my friend, let me tell you again - the answer is in His word!

A PHYSICAL answer to a PHILOSOPHICAL problem…how much simpler can it be?
And why can’t people see it?  

3. Photography is an example of a physics experiment having to do with the discovery of the speed of light.  Speaking of seeing things.  People have a tendency to believe things if they can see them.  I think it is a tool of the devil to use the media, and so called trick photography to show people amazing things that are not real. On the other hand, a picture is worth a thousand words!  And BOY hasn’t our “brave, fearless leader” been speaking a LOT lately?  SO, on that note -

Let’s talk about global warming!  (After all, it’s mostly hot air! smile)  It’s been COLD and SNOWY here.  We got about TEN INCHES of wet, heavy snow that pulled down (slang) LOTSA trees.  One such tree, Beech in fact, fell from the hillside facing our house across the road into the power lines and landed in our yard.  -Okay, for all you “critiquers”- it doesn’t matter what kind it was, but it sounded good at the time!  :)   It was 16 inches in diameter - uh, that’s around.  Seems like to me, the global warming, Water World Wannabes missed it this time.  And I have pictures to prove it! 

I know one thing… PHYSICS and PHILOSOPHY… the LORD said that he would not destroy the world with water again.  They better be a-watchin’ out for the fire. 

Not a very ‘deep’ blog this time, and I do apologize.  But I THINK I can upload pictures so you can see our snow and the tree that came across the road.  If it doesn’t work, Chris will fix it and I’ll send out an appendix later, haha.  Our electricity has been off since Saturday morning, so please have a little grace.  

 ohhh that picture looks too big….let’s see how it goes…here goes…SAVE 

Posted in photography, philosophy, physics | 6 Comments »