Shabbat Shalom

A Saturday Morning Sabbath Service-

A suggested activity for week 7 of Tapestry of Grace Year I is to visit a local synagogue to attend a Shabbat service. We all looked forward to it, but finally decided to visit a Messianic congregation instead. We had been talking of going for years- and the perfect opportunity presented itself right there.

It turned out to be much more than a homeschool activity. I got reconnected with someone I used to work with, and it was a joyous (and perfect) time to see each other again! It was very comforting to see a familiar face there. Also to my surprise, the children not only survived the three hour service, but each had their stories to tell! They enjoyed worshiping with the congregation. God’s presence was strong in that place.

After more hellos and hand shakes, we walked away knowing that we would be back. Soon.

Celebrating the Shabbat at Home-

Between vacations and various interruptions, it took us almost twelve weeks to finish a nine week unit. Instead of taking a Tapestry of Grace week-long break and doing a unit celebration, we are jumping right into Unit 2 this week; but we did not walk away with no celebration at all. We opted to focus on one that we would do over and over again: the Shabbat.

This old tea tin can served as the tzedakah box and the children took turns to drop their offerings before the shabbat candles were lit. The white tablecloth has been set aside for Shabbat use only. We had to start way before sundown in order for Ron to be able to join us.

A cloth napkin did a fine job of covering the breads, but one day, I would love to have a special challah cover.

The double portion of challah was uncovered and the candles lit. Traditionally, you would only need two candles, but we opted for three, in accordance with the number of our children. I waved my hands over the candles, and with eyes covered, I recited the special blessing. Ron blessed the wine, and the kiddush cup was passed.

Zurielle did not want to drink, for her last experience with a wine cup was not very pleasant. We couldn’t convince her that it wasn’t real wine, so we just passed the cup on to Lyrica. But when she noticed that her little sister was gulping away, as you can see, she decided she’d have the last sip.

And yes, it was that good!

Ron then blessed the bread. It was heartwarming as we spoke blessings over the children, and shared a special meal. There is indeed beauty and art behind the rest, and as the two-year old kept saying that whole Friday afternoon:

SHABBAT SHALOM!

Unit 1 History Notebooking

Ancient Egypt Mini-Slideshow

Exodus to Exodus

Three weeks into Tapestry of Grace, using the Bible as our spine, our senses are alive again as we begin to make connections in the history of the ancient Egyptians, with Israel and God’s hand in the story of mankind.

I do not know how many times I have read the Book of Exodus, but I am amazed how I am beginning to see some parallels more clearly now, as I read it to the children. Miracle after miracle, plague after plague, God showed Himself mighty, yet the Pharaoh still would not let the Israelites go. And did the account not clearly state that God hardened his heart?

Callous to the things of God, no matter how events in the world today consistently point to His sovereignty, the truth remains a mystery to many. It is easy to see now how foolish the Pharisees and Sadducees responded to Jesus, and how the Truth became the stumbling block to them as they were blinded by their doctrines. Is the effect of present-day religion as clear? A resounding no. My husband who has the heart of an evangelist, has a stronger burden for loved ones in the area of receiving salvation as a free gift, and without the merit of works. But if the doctrine weighs heavier in someone’s heart and mind than the Word of God, there is nothing in the world that you could do for the person without God’s intervention. And if God has kept the truth a mystery to them, despite the revelation in His Word, who are we to keep pointing it out over and over again?

Back in the Exodus, you will see in the 27th verse of the fourth chapter where God told Aaron to go into the wilderness to meet Moses. Without question, the man went! It was only in the next verse that Aaron found out what his mission was. But it took him to step out and follow God’s leading unquestionably. Moses on the other hand, already had a supernatural encounter with God, and was given clear direction and demonstration of power, yet managed to keep questioning his ability in the light of what God wanted him to do! How is that for pointing out our walk with the Lord?

Needless to say, we are enjoying the fruits of our homeschool days, but it is becoming more apparent that I am the student here and that God has to do the work in me first, in order for Him to do the work with the little ones.

Keeping Li’l Ones Occupied and Learning Part 2

Following a thread on a Yahoo group, I decided to respond here for the benefit of others who are in the same predicament. What I’m writing here is an addendum to a post I wrote three weeks ago titled Keeping Li’l Ones Occupied And Learning.

Notice that I did not include crafts or other activities that would require much supervision, since this is for when I am aiming for quality one-on-one with the school-aged child. That means no glue, scissors, paint, etc. (which we would normally do together at a different time.) The novelty of engaging in particular toys tools or activities ONLY ONCE a week has really worked wonders for us. I always bring out 2 sets in two different spots in the house. Some days, I would spread blankets on the floor as their “designated areas” of play. Most of the times, the little ones would rather pull books from the shelves and make forts or towers, or just make general mess throughout the house, but the “Tools/Toys of the Day” have really given me and my oldest some good one-on-one time on a daily basis.

When we only had two kids, it was a little tougher with a strong-willed toddler, but that was the time we slowed down a bit. My older daughter also learned to work more on her own. Except for Bible, we did read-alouds and other assigned work during nap time, or in the bathroom while the little one played in the tub.

It was, and still is, critical for me to spend one-on-one time with the little ones before school, and that we pray and praise together in the morning. I think all that help with everybody’s attitude in the midst of chaos.

This is just a season in a mother’s life– a challenging one that would better equip us as we encourage the younger moms. This would also be the perfect time to just slow down, even with academics, and just let God work through. Most likely, the children would not treasure much of the assigned work, but would forever be impacted by the mom who seems to stand wisely in the midst of turmoil in the day.

In the end, it would be about the relationships, and the building of unity and cooperation in the home. Our four-year-old has certainly taught us a lot of that. And yes, we are still learning.

Back to Homeschool Update

I didn’t mean to be quiet this whole week. I wanted very much to come by and update, but since this was our first week back to homeschool, there were some things that needed ironing out, and the rest was pretty much just trying to stay focused and getting the children back in the groove of things. I have to say that for the most part, everyone did very well!

Here are some back to homeschool updates I wanted to share with you:

#1. I walked in the kitchen and the two little girls were snacking on chocolate chips! No, no. That isn’t what I normally feed them as you supposed, but apparently, my idea of keeping the sought after jars on the top shelf was not working.

Zurielle decided to take control and mixed the white with the brown chocolate chips in a tupperware. She then distributed some to her little sister who was waiting patiently for her share. I was calm about the whole thing- just thankful that I didn’t walk in what could have been two empty jars and twenty messy fingers . My homeschool mom brain started working: math moment!

I dumped all the chocolate chips in the counter and had the four-year old sort them in their rightful containers. That was a nice, quiet few minutes.

Later on, a two-year old was caught in the act doing a similar offense. I always suspected the drawers were partly to blame. Here’s the evidence:

#2. Zurielle was having a conversation with daddy while he was helping her brush her teeth, and somewhere I heard her say, “four and two make six.” Of course, daddy was impressed, and she must have been with herself too, since no one taught her that. She went on to do other “math facts.” I missed part of the conversation, but not when she was proudly singing, “I can do numbers! I can do numbers! Nana nana na.”

The next morning, she didn’t want to just do homeschool. She wanted to do numbers!

#3. Our first week with Tapestry of Grace was a blast! It was a little complicated for me to navigate around at first, but I am able to see the bigger picture, and recognize that it just needs some getting used to. There is something about it that my daughter likes. Okay, maybe it’s the (ancient) time period.

I was thinking of having a little party- ancient Egyptian style, at the end of the three weeks that we are doing Egypt. When I mentioned that to this daughter, she immediately came up with many ideas of what we are to eat and drink and what we are to do. By the way, did I ever mention that her name “A l i y a h” is defined in the dictionary as the immigration of Jews to Israel?

#4. We meant to start school last Wednesday, but began on Monday instead. Tuesday went a lot smoother. By Thursday, Aliyah was done with all her readings and assigned works! We didn’t plan to do salt dough map at all, but she was up to it and wanted to do an Egypt map instead of the assigned imaginary one. (I only wished we looked online for inspiration first before we did ours.)

The week’s schedule was all checked out by lunch today! Woo hoo! I am trying not to get too excited, because really, this had been a light week without the regular activities we have in the fall. It got me thinking though, how comfortable I am with this set-up and hopefully I could schedule our days more wisely and have better discernment on what we should welcome and not in our lives.

#5. Our Apologia Zoology II is not here yet, but not to worry. There should be more than enough nature observations to keep us busy. Speaking of, I am dedicating my next post to nature study.

#6. Meanwhile, the two-year old is busy too, not just with climbing countertops.

Have a blessed weekend everyone! See you next week.

Back to Homeschool Week: Curriculum

ASK a homeschool mom what curriculum she uses and see her eyes light up. Ask me, and you would be disappointed. There are so many ways and styles to educate a child, and usually, the most that they would learn from, and enjoy it along the way, is not through- you guessed it- a curriculum.

Let me first define what a curriculum is and what it is not in our home. A curriculum is a tool– a tool that we use to inspire and to guide. A good curriculum is meant to be a road map, not THE direction to get somewhere. It is not meant to burden, but to enlighten. It is not to subjugate, but to lead.

Having established that gave us much freedom and confidence to walk our education, with me as the oldest student. It becomes easier to grasp that what works beautifully for others might not even appeal to us.

Now that I’m done with the runaround, let me say that we are using Tapestry of Grace Year I for history, biblical worldview, literature, writing and geography. This is our first year with Tapestry, and our first using a curriculum tool of this scope, so I could not go into much details about it, except for the planning which is I talked about here.

I had mentioned more than once that using the Charlotte Mason approach has really instilled a love of learning in our family, including mom. Our favorite aspects of CM are: nature study, music and art appreciation, copywork, the use of different styles of narration, short lessons, and of course, learning with living books. Some of our favorite resources are right there in the sidebar for anyone to explore.

Special thanks to Randi at I Have to Say for hosting Back to Homeschool Week. I have been inspired. How neat to get so many different insightful answers to a single question and read of the stories and learning experiences along the way.

TOG Planning Update

I have poured over the first two units of Tapestry of Grace Year I, and I am very much looking forward to implementing it. I have an Upper Grammar student, but we are jumping up the Dialectic stage in some readings.

Since we are using the Old Testament as a spine, I had thought that incorporating Story of the Ancient World, would be an overkill. After going through thirty some chapters of it, I quickly changed my mind. I have peace knowing that reading it would enrich our understanding of the Old Testament and the history of God’s chosen people.

I have printed the lapbook materials for all of Unit One. We are not using folders, but putting the folds in cardstocks that would go in the student’s notebook. I have not decided yet if we are still using a three-ring binder, or Pro-Click system for that. A few months ago, my husband brought home a big box of different size three-ring binders from work that they were trying to get rid of. What a blessing, as we need these binders to organize our lives and our TOG units.

I was really tempted to do the transparency atlas project, but decided to hold off until the next round. We would do fine with just the paper maps, and I have them all printed out for Unit One. As they are completed, the maps would go on the student notebook as well.

I created a very simple resource form on Excel just for my sanity. Although TOG provides the Resource List that you could edit to your need, and Momma Knows has taken it step by step here, I like seeing the list of

• the books that I need to purchase, or borrow from the library
• the materials that I would need for projects
• the pages I need to copy or print
• the movies I need to add on my Netflix account

laid out all in one place. I like to see the resources sorted out in the corresponding weeks that we would be using them. Then I know WHAT to gather WHEN, and I can have the library materials just right on time. It is very simple, yet tremendous help, giving me a grip on gathering resources, and peace of mind.

One of my favorite aspects of homeschool planning is having library catalog access at home. On my account, I have a list of the books I need to borrow. I request them online a week before they are needed and pick them up at the nearest library as they are ready.

Thankfully, we have in our home library quite a few of the resources listed. I was thrilled to check off some of the books we own like Window on the World and Walk With Y’shua Through the Jewish Year that I never thought would be included in a curriculum we use.

For the books that I purchased, I found the best deals at Amazon. It could take some time when you opt for the free shipping, but at this point I am in no rush. If an item is not favorably discounted at Amazon, I turn to the local bookstore chain where I get a nice educators’ discount. (Of course, there’s also the used book store option.) Surprisingly, I have only had to purchase a couple of books for Unit One. If a book or its alternative resource is not in the library system, I would buy it only if I want to keep it in our home library, or if it integrally used in more than one unit; otherwise I am comfortable with finding a replacement from the vast library system.

Moving on! The other day, as the kids and I were drooling over all the fun stuff at the local Lakeshore Learning store, I stumbled upon this Writing notebook that they are selling for a whopping $8. It is basically lined and titled “Draft” on one page, and a cluster diagram on the opposite page. I like that idea better than all kinds of loose paper going in and out the three-ring binder, but why pay the $8 when I can put together our own draft notebook using the Pro-Click binding system? All our prewriting and “Work In Progress” would go here. One page would be lined and the other would be this Cluster Diagram from Writing Aids or any other diagram that we would use.

I am anticipating this year to be a great one because the Old Testament time for me is one of the most beloved periods to study. My daughter has to agree.

Choosing a Curriculum

I am writing this in response to another mom’s question on her blog on choosing a curriculum. (The link had been removed.)

There are so many options and products out there meant to “help us educate” our children. So many that you could easily get overwhelmed, especially if you have not done any homeschooling at all; or even when you are a seasoned homeschooling, for that matter. It is critical to have a personal conviction in this area, otherwise, for lack thereof, you will go the way of culture.

Decide not on any program unless you’ve develop or adapted a philosophy of education, or have set goals. Read books about home education, and about the different approaches to learning. Why are you homeschooling, or considering to? What are your convictions? And your expectations?

Once you’ve at least set some goals, and get fixed on why you’re homeschooling, it would be easier to eliminate some options and focus on a few that you strongly feel would fit your family’s needs. You would be more confident to consider certain programs not just because they come highly recommended, but because you’ve assessed them, and your heart says go for it. Of course, our initial choice would not always necessarily be the “right one.”

We’re going on our sixth year of homeschooling, and I’m still learning. For the first time, we are going the way of curriculum. In the early years, we just embraced good books, lots and lots of good books. We have developed a love of learning that otherwise wouldn’t have been there had we decided to stick with the textbooks. Again, this is just what’s working for our family.

Glean wisdom from other families. Get ideas. But don’t let anyone influence your decision without you assessing the whole picture first, or let anything get you off track. Keep your eyes on your goals, on your convictions.

I have yet to hear a family say that the first year is their best year of homeschooling. It is a process, and is usually promotion. There is room for burn out, especially when we try to do everything, and when we don’t make room to wiggle about, or make mistakes. We are learning with our children, and there are different ways of going about it. What do you feel would work for your own at least for this season?

Lastly, for us, there is a need to pray, and to seek God for all our needs. He is faithful, and time and time again, has proven that He shows the way, if we are willing and if we desire His way more than our own.

Five Years Later…

I’ve finally released myself from doing all the year-planning and have decided on purchasing a base curriculum for the fall. All that planning and building didn’t really bother me. In fact, I never wanted a boxed curriculum, and we enjoy the freedom of choosing what to focus on or not, what books to read and what activities to do.

I’ve talked to and read from other homeschool moms whose concern is that they may not be doing enough, and I have asked myself: “Am I so laid back that those things don’t move me at all?” Then I remembered why we homeschool, and that took the doubt away. Besides, I am totally sold on Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education that it never occur to me that we’re missing out on anything, learning-wise. Having Truthquest and an encyclopedia as our history guides, Apologia Elementary as science, and the Bible, helps me with everything else.

But I feel like God is leading me in a different direction this year so I could focus more time on being the facilitator of my children’s education, and less on planning.

After looking at several options, I have decided to go with the one that I have initially dismissed a couple of years back: Tapestry of Grace, and now I’m very excited about it. I’ve looked at three options intently. I joined groups/forums and have read much of what other moms have to say about these curricula and their experiences with them. I’m aware that some users consider TOG intense, and that some, even after using it for more than a year, still feel overwhelmed. I am not concern about that at all. Not that I’m supermom or anything (I’m far from that! Phil. 2:3). We still plan on keeping (most of) our afternoons free for play, activities and nature walks. I just have to remember why I’m going this route, and that is to have something tangible to help me, so that I could focus more on the content of my children’s education (and mine!) and less on the “planning from scratch.”

I believe we are ready for a new season. I am confident I can make this work for us (Matt. 19:26). Have you seen the Year I Redesigned samples? This is what really solidified my decision to go with TOG. I am holding off on the Year 1 purchase since I have a business convention to go to this week, and would like to focus on that first. I will update as soon as I get my hands on it.