Toy guns and Swords

I'm really loving homeschooling my 4 and 13 yo sons. We started our history unit in the Medieval Period and naturally the boys took to the idea of using swords in their playtime together.

We established some ground rules and gave them noodles cut in half. They have a cross between medieval battles and some sort of Asian maritial art dual complete with courtesy bowing and round -house kicks.

Boys will truly be boys. I love to see my kids enjoying each other's company and having good natured fun. It was what my 13 yo asked me next that I wasn't sure I was ready for.

They now wanted to play with a cap gun that was given to my 13yo by a relative. I took a deep breath and realized their morning had already been full of experiments. They had frozen water balloons and melted them with various ideas that came to their mind. They had used their computer time to team up to beat the enemy. Now, they wanted to play with the cap gun outside.

My first reaction was, " No! we don't play with guns. They hurt people." Like swords don't hurt. Boy did I feel the big hypocrite veil coming down across my face.

I agreed to let them play after laying down the rules for their play. They understood and off they went... never out of my critiquing sight. They each very methodically following the rules shot a couple of rounds of caps and then it was over. Yes, that was it. The whole experience of their play took less time then it took for me to decide to let them play with the cap gun and give them the rules. Wow!

Being somewhat experienced in these parenting thing, I truly believe that if I had taken a different course in letting them explore this natural boyish activity their interest for the forbidden could have taken a whole different path.

Do I believe that I have allowed an evil and desensitized them to the dangers of guns? No way. As a parent, it is my duty to daily train then in all areas of life and this was one lesson on one day. It was also a day of fun for two brothers ages 13 and 4 who also learned how to play together using courtesies, respect and lots of TLC toward each other.

Grammy's Homemade Curriculum

Recycled Curriculum- Preschool

My mama has been a wealth of information. She is usually on the road driving her 18-wheeler across 48 contiguous states. But, this week she docked at our house for a week with her grandkids. We all love it when Mama stays over.

Oh course the children love Grammy's visits because they get to ignore all the rules with Grammy coming to their defense. The added perk to us is that my husband and I love the breaks she allows us.

During this visit she has already given me tips on baking bread, handling a teenager and as recent as last night, "Grammy's Homemade Curriculum".

She asked me if she could cut out pictures from an old Good Housekeeping magazine. I said, "sure", thinking she was bored. It is not unusual for her to whip out paper dolls and make them dance on the wall using a flashlight. The children love her spontaneity just as much as my brother and I did years ago.

I sat on the sofa with the ABEKA Little Readers going over book number four with my four year old. He was pleased that he could show off to Grammy as he read the consonant/vowel blends and later three letter words near the end of the book. He finished and joined Grammy on the floor to glue the pictures she had cut out of the magazine onto plain copy paper. They glued pictures on the paper that was divided into sections.

Then in the casual way she does most everything, she pulled out these labels that she made with a colored marker she had my son get her earlier and starting holding them up to him and asking him to find the picture that matched the label. I'm watching the whole thing. He does it!

But wait, this is not a package curriculum. This is not following the order of teaching or rules of letter recognition with a preschooler. Some of the labels are even four letter words. Her words, I still hear, "he's ready". Yes, he was ready.

My kids love the old fashioned way I try to do many things around our home. They have coined a phrase for everything I do, "Mama's Homemade". It was only fitting to call was my mom did as, "Grammy's Homemade Curriculum". Umm, so that's where I get it from.

Homeschool Planning

Here it is 20 days before school starts and I'm not anywhere near to being finished pulling together our homeschool plan for this year. I have many notes, notebooks started and several different schedules that I tote around awaiting a lull in my day. But it's not not done yet!

My goal this week is to complete six weeks of lesson plans for history (detailed with all the copies). Pray for me guys.

Family Vacation Day 4 & 5

Day Four, Grand Prairie, Texas- The Wax Museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not &
Plano, Texas- Planet Pizza (Indoor pizza and amusement park)

We all got a little later start this morning. It was okay since we only had to travel to Grand Prairie. Our first stop was the wax museum. On the trip there I decided to do brain teaser. I read several famous quotes and we played a game to see who knew the answer. I also asked them about several inventions and who was the inventor. Each one of my kids as well as my husband really surprised me with their knowledge. It was great for boosting my confidence in continuing to read and expose them to things that sometimes seem above their heads. The kids are really listening and absorbing. I was pleased.

After the Grand Prairie trip we trekked across Dallas all the way to Plano, Texas for a visit to Planet Pizza. The children had visions from the Toy Story movie when Woody and Buzz went to Pizza Planet. They were very impressed when they saw all the indoor rides and video machines. We stayed there for more than three hours.

We called it a day with some Ben and Jerry's and headed back home.

Day Five, Dallas, Texas- Bahama Beach

Here was again, another perfect day for being outside ALLLLL Day loonnggg. After a relaxing lunch at Joe's Crab Shack we applied the sun block and headed to a nearby waterpark. All I can say is FUN, FUN, FUN. I have never played in so much water- all day long. Lots of slides and lazy floating in their lagoon.

We had so much fun that we left the park to come home and walk the dog only to return to park for a movie on the lawn. It was a pleasant experience for the whole family right here in our own "neck of the woods".

Summing it all up, this was a wonderful family vacation shared with the one's I love most. Friday came all too soon.

Family Vacation- Days 3

Day three-Roanke, Texas- Heneritta Farms &
Fort Worth, Texas-FW Science Place and Museums

On day three we set out for a shorter road trip. It was only around one hour, just past Fort Worth. I had found an online farm with over 700 hybrid breeds of apple trees and some peaches. The apples were ready for picking. We had missed the peach picking season. I had planned to read more from "Paddle to the Sea" and our adventures in "20,000 leagues under the Sea"; however, my husband being moved by the Holy Spirit felt a deeper prompting and in the garage before pulling off he lead a mini study time covering our assurance of salvation. He read from Jude.

Since our daughter is getting baptized this Sunday, we go some good feedback from the younger two. Staying in the same vein, no fiction today, I read from a Bible storytime book that my daughter had brought for the road trip. The short story was about giving from your best, not the left over. Even our oldest participated during the question time. It was beautiful! We'll see if they, as well as us (dad and mom), remember this principle as time goes by.

The farm owners definitely practiced giving their best. They opened their land and cook house to us, perfect strangers. They taught us how to pick the apples without hurting the tree or being wasteful. Picking the apples and romping around on the farm was picture book quality. All three kids enjoyed looking for the just the right apples to pick. We saw famailiars like Galas and Granny Smiths and many, many hybrids. We were allowed to taste them right off the tree. They were delicious.

My husband told us stories of picking peaches in his grandmother's backyard. We were all mesmerized by God's nature all around the farm. We even learned that the loofa sponges we have in our bathrooms do not grow in the sea but actually grown on a tree. It was amazing to see the over foot long loofas hanging from an enormous tree that resembled pictures I'd created in my mind after reading Jack and the Beanstalk.

We then loaded our apples in the wagon in the back of the van and headed off to Fort Worth to visit the FW Science Museum which was featuring a Star Wars exhibit. It was a personal pick from my husband.

My husband took so many pictures in the Star Wars exhibit that he batteries ran low on the camera. My oldest son is so into the mechanics of how things work that he took right away to one of the stations set up to build a magnetic car. We all tried but naturally his was the only one to really work properly.

We finished up with a walk through the Cowgirl museum and lots of experiments with different accounts of perception. I think my husband and our oldest son enjoyed this one the more than the rest of us. I got dizzy around the third experiment.

We had a wonderful third day of our vacation at home.

Family Vacation Time- Days 1 & 2

The past four days have been filled with different adventures. This year's plan was to stay based at home and each day take a day trip to a different adventure in the big, vast state of Texas. This plan worked exceptionally well this year as it allow us to see our beloved golden retriever each day.

Day One: Grand Prairie, Texas- Six Flags over Texas

We have thanked God for the perfect, overcast day that we spent at Six Flags over Texas in Grand Prairie, Texas. We enjoyed the Marvel comic theme as well as the Looney Tunes characters. My husband relived days of his youth with our thirteen year old as they rode the Batman and Flashback. We all (except the thirteen year old- he didn't want to get wet) enjoyed most of the rides that get you good and wet. It's really the only way to do a theme park in a Texas summer.

I was really pleased that I had choosen to bring and read "Paddle to Sea" on our way to the theme park. So, when we rode the logs at Six Flags we all talked about being just like Paddle to the Sea in our log traveling the sea. It was a really proud homeschool moment to make the connection and have the kids use their imaginations.

We bypassed the burger and fries at the theme park and opted for a familiar taste with Panda Express. We were happy they added this favor to the park. We had a perfect day!!!

Day Two: Waco, Texas- Cameron Zoo and Dr. Pepper Museum

We were off today on a real driving trip. We mapped the trip on mapquest and it would take 1 1/2 hours to reach the zoo. We packed our food bag and our organic tea bottles for our drinks and the it seemed like we got there in no time.

The zoo was like none other that we had ever seen. There was a path that creatively took us though rainforests, marsh lands, sandy beaches and more. It was very real and kids made all sort of learning connections from their book knowledge to real life. They were so in to it all that we ditched the contents of our one of our many plastic ziplocs to start collecting "nature" as they called it. Yet another proud homeschool moment.

After the zoo visited the Dr. Pepper Museum that was real nostalgic for my husband and me. Since we are not soda drinkers, the real joy for our kids was when we got to drink soda floats at the small counter shop after our tour. The kids got to see a real well that when well to create a visual for stories that we have read.

I read the first chapter of "20,000 leagues under the Sea" on the way back and all of us, except my dear husband took a nap on the way back home.

Jehovah Jireh - My Provider

Genesis 22:14 introduces the name of God as being a provider. God is shown as being a provider to Abraham when he was faithful and took his son Isaac up to the mountains to be a sacrifice. That place was named Jehovah Jireh because it was where a God provided a sacrifice.

It was this passage that I awoke with in my heart as an answer to a conversation I had had with a friend just yesterday. As a result of an unfortunate job circumstance my friend was informing me that she and her husband would not be able to use my preschool services for their child. In my trying to encourage her in her situation and well as me in my own family's financial hardship that this unfortunate circumstance had created, I quoted to her, "When the Lord closes one door another will open". To put it another way, God is Jehovah Jireh- My provider.

Now this statement I made was not setting well inside and by the time that I had awaken the Holy Spirit had created in me a desire to find biblical truth to what I had said. Now being biblically correct is always important since a person's relationship with God as their Savior is not always known or evident. I knew that my encouragement should always point to God. I was not sure that I had done that.

I looked in the concordance in the back of my bible for the words where "door, open, close" were used and I found nothing in that context. I thought of stories from the bible that demonstrated this statement that I had quoted and the one story that I remembered was from Genesis 22:1-14. It was the story where Abraham took Isaac to the mountains to sacrifice him. Abraham believed by faith that God would have both he and Isaac return down the mountain after the sacrifice. Now that's faith. It was when Abraham had drawn his knife for the sacrifice that he heard the tugging of a ram in the caught in the bushes. It was a ram that God provided for the sacrifice. It was a moment of faith and testing. It was a moment that God revealed Himself as Abraham's provider.

After remembering the story I planned to read it in my bible after my daily devotion- "Drawing Near" by John MacArthur. I preceded to my devotion dated June 29th and there it was. A whole devotion on "Enjoying Friendship with God" with a Further Study section leading to the book of Genesis 22:1-19. The Holy Spirit could not have spoken to me more clearer.

So, today when my friend brings over my precious little preschool student for her last day, I will be prepared to share a biblical perspective on the unfortunate circumstance that effects both of our families. I will able to encourage the both of us with the beautiful illustration of God truly closing one door and opening another.

I can truly say that God does work everything for good for those that love Him- Romans 8:28.

It was because if this unfortunate circumstance that revealed God's constant love and care for us. He truly gives us all we need, at the time we need it most.