Are you Prepared for this Battle???

I can remember sitting in Dylan and Drew's room at night praying with them when they were babies. I remember asking God, "what in the world am I supposed to pray for them??"  Being a parent is such a tremendous responsibility and I knew I wanted my kids to know Jesus, but after that, what specifics should I pray for them? What magic words could I beg God for that would set them up for lives of prosperity and success? Good lives, how could I guarantee them good lives?

Oh man, I was such a baby. God has used my kids to grow me up in more ways than one. I had to learn how to pursue God myself before I could began to ask God for the things that matter in the lives of my kids.  Prosperity and success are not those things.

When I prayed for God to break my heart for what breaks His, and He did, that was part of the process of Him teaching me that what He wants is my heart. He wants all of it.  He wants theirs and He wants yours. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

I read a book called Shepherding A Child's Heart by Ted Tripp when Dylan was a baby. It started a paradigm shift in my thinking that has helped me as they have gotten older in regards to discipline and behavior issues.

Yesterday Dylan was making me crazy. He was whining and giving me trouble with every single thing. I sent him to Sarah's room to be alone. After a few minutes I went in and checked on him. I held him in my lap and asked him if I could pray for him. I started praying and when I thanked God for making Dylan, tears started streaming down his face. When I asked Dylan why he was crying, he said it's because God didn't make him nice. He went on to tell me that God made everyone else nice, but that he wasn't nice. He said, " I am not nice to my friends, I am not nice to Sarah, I am just not nice. My heart is not nice. "

It hit me like a ton of bricks that Satan is after my son's heart. He is the thief and He is a liar and many of times, I have heard him whisper those lies in my own head. "You aren't good enough, you aren't smart, you aren't pretty. You are fat. You are out of control."

We are in a spiritual battle friends. It's real and there is an enemy who wants to control the lives of our kids. It starts young. Dylan is seven.

You see, I could have missed this way too easily. I know there are times that I do. It may have been easier to discipline Dylan and to continue demanding good behavior from him, but what I may have missed was the cry of his heart. If I only reiterate to him his shortcomings and failures, then Satan has the advantage.  Dylan needed someone to hear his heart, he needed someone to tell Him the true things of God's word, and to teach Him to battle those lies on His own when I am not there to do it for him.

We are in a spiritual battle and whether we acknowledge it or not, Satan is after our kids. We have to stand strong for them. We have to equip them to engage in this battle and to fight for the one true God. Join me in pursuing the hearts of our children, will you?

We are going to be studying the armor of God now as part of our school day. This is me holding myself accountable by telling you all. I am going to order this book and I printed this picture off the Internet today. Then I wrote in the armor of God. I had Dylan help me pick out the coolest picture we could find because I didn't want it to be some cheesy cartoon character. I wanted it to look tough and masculine. When I printed it out and asked the boys what the knight was about to be doing, Drew said, "he is going to fight in a battle." Dylan said, "he is going to look so cool and all of the girls are going to want to kiss him!!!" WHAT?!?! I am SO not ready for that kind of talk!! Sigh. ( I am reminding myself that it is also God's plan and design for a man to marry a woman, and this is a natural thing, but God help me to tone it down for a while!! Oh, how I want to protect their hearts for their spouses, I digress...).

I am also stealing some explanations from this picture, although this is exactly the kind of picture that I don't want...

It's hard to see, but if you click on it, the explanations are great, and short and concise. I tend to ramble so that's helpful for me.

Speaking of rambling...I think I am doing so now...I hope this encourages someone and please pray for me and my kids as well if you think about it! We can't fight this battle alone, we need each-other!

Love,

Our Homeschool Day Part II

According to the curriculum's I have chosen, to go through a years worth of Math, we need to do 4 lessons per week. Science is 3 lessons per week. I have determined accordingly with our other subjects.  Because we can pick and choose between 3-4 subjects a day, I came up with this little chart to help me stay accountable. It's also a way that Jason and I can communicate in case he decides he wants to hang with the boys and do some formal schooling. He can look at this chart and see what holes need to be filled for the current week.

It's hanging in our pantry:)

 Here is what we did this morning between subjects...

I am often too quick to forget how good a little sunshine and fresh air is for the well-being of the household! I am not going to lie, this 700 degree weather has kept us indoors a little more. With the exception of swimming, of course!! It has been brutal.

Jason is cleaning up around the yard today to get ready for our Labor Day block party and the boys have been helping him.  That's another plus.

Have I mentioned that homeschooling has been such a blessing for us? Happy Labor Day!!

Our Homeschool Day

Our Homeschool Day

A couple of people have asked me,  and we are having incredible results, so I thought I would post a little recap of what our days have been like this year as we venture into year TWO of homeschooling. I do not have anything set in stone bc we are learning, growing,  and working out the details, and I know change is inevitable.  Flexibility is one of the glorious benefits we are experiencing as we home-school.

So. In the mornings, I put Sarah straight in her seat to eat her breakfast. While I am getting all of our plates fixed, the boys practice their letters.  Sarah eats. and eats. and eats. :) They each pick 5 letters a day and use a dry erase crayon to work on writing their letters. I am going for repetition, dexterity, and improving fine motor skills with this. Which hopefully will result in good penmanship .  I was gone for five hours the other day, and when I came home, Drew (5) ran up to me so excited to show me how good he had gotten, while I was gone,  at writing the number 3. The curves are still a little hard for him, but he took the initiative to practice on his own and was so excited to show me his improvement!! Hallelujah! We both were thrilled.

The boys are usually done with their letters by the time I get their food in front of them. I give them a sticker for each letter that they complete and they LOVE that!! The stickers go on their folders and we are excited to see how fast we can get those folders filled up with stickers! ($2 for a book of 1200 stickers at Wal-Mart!)

Then we all put away our dishes and we have free time together. This involves mommy getting stuff done, Sarah playing with her toys, Sarah playing with her brothers, time to read together, time to play wii,  (yep, I will admit it, they play wii, during the day. I'm sorry, it gets hard to occupy the entire day when you are home together all day every day), sometimes we cuddle on the couch and watch Elmo, sometimes Sarah and I get showered and dressed together or whatever.  The boys may clean up or just whatever needs to be done that day. Trips to HEB, washing my car, playing with a friend, playing a game together. It's really flexible. We basically just live life together.

Snack time comes and goes, and before I know it, it's time for lunch. We sit together as a family and eat lunch and then Sarah goes down for a nap. While Sarah naps, the boys and I do math. We use Saxon and I couldn't say enough good things about it. The boys LOVE it and they are always excited to do it. Which is amazing, because last year I begged Dylan to do schoolwork with me. He hated it and it's because I made it too structured and boring for him. And I outdid his attention span.  This year he loves it. and again, I give them stickers for every assignment or task completed. I sit with them and can encourage them or help them as they go. Sometimes it is helping Drew draw the curved part of a 3,5, or a 6, and sometimes it is helping Dylan to be ok with the fact that his circle isn't PERFECT!!!  I asked him today, "Dylan, what matters the most? Is it that you do everything perfect, or is it that you try your best?" His response was, "WHAT MATTERS IS THAT I GET IT PERFECT!!!"  Uh-oh. laughing

After this, I have started a new thing where the boys have one hour of quiet time with NO MEDIA. Still working out what that looks like without them waking up Sarah, but I want to to learn how to experience stillness. With no noise.

Those are the two subjects we have eased into so far this year. Tomorrow, or maybe today, I am going to add a block of time into our afternoon in which we practice our reading skills. We are using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," and we also use Bob Books.  I don't have much to say about our reading experience this year bc we haven't taken the plunge yet. Dylan is a beginner reader and Drew knows his phonics, and I am looking forward to building on those skills.

We have a Science curriculum that is in the mail and I imagine we will probably do that while we sit at the table and do math. We can easily transition from math to science and I think it will be enough of a change that I can have them sit and concentrate for an hour or so, while Sarah sleeps. And it's hands on, so it's very helpful for Sarah to be away and not grabbing everything. Yet, it is TWO fun things, and not just one long stretch of math, or vice versa. When I put the Saxon Math away, the boys are always aching for more. I think this helps keep the excitement alive. I am hopeful that it will be the same with science.

That's our day in a nutshell. At one of our mealtimes during the day, preferably one that daddy is with us, we read a story from The Jesus Story Book Bible.  We have a flow that works for us in which we read a story from the bible, talk about it and how we can apply it to our lives,  and then we all go around the table and pray. This is our "formal" bible study time together as a family. It's fun, simple, and all of us benefit from it.

So there it is, that's what homeschooling year two, part one, looks like for us! We love it.



Our Homeschool Day II

Education

There is no "In My Shoes" today.  We will pick up next week and finish strong with a few more stories.   Thanks for joining us in this adventure.  It's been good.

Yesterday I visited this school.  The morning started with chapel.  The students recited scripture from memory, in Spanish and in English, they sang hymns while the piano was played by a classmate, and they sat quietly and attentively through a message that would be comparable to the length of a sermon at church.  These kids were K-6th grade and the little girl who was playing the piano, her head couldn't be seen over it.  She was so small.  The guest speaker who shared a sermon with them asked them questions abut the correlating scriptures afterward, and they knew every single answer.

I observed a few classroom settings and the kids were extremely well-behaved and they were eager to learn.  Was it perfect? No. Were the kids robotic? No.  However, there was a calmness and peacefulness to the classroom like I have never experienced before. The teachers asked open-ended questions and the children rose to the occasion, answering proudly. 

What was even more impressive was the philosophy behind the way they do the things they do.  I walked away so encouraged and with some new ideas to implement here at my home. 

I think the most profound quote from the day, to me specifically was this, "Is coming to know about mastery of facts, data, and technique or is it about submission to a revelation?"

I think this single statement nails on the head the reason why too many kids are growing up in the evangelical church, only to graduate wanting nothing to do with God, and the same reason why they are coming through our school systems having no desire to continue learning for their own personal satisfaction and as an extension of their God-given design.  Many go to college for a degree to open doors, and have no desire to learn, but rather to socialize and have fun and/or to simply do what the world expects of them.  I was guilty, and only in the last several years have I developed a strong desire to continue learning and growing my mind.  Which leads me to another thought, "Our minds grow on knowledge, not facts."

To elaborate on the above quote, "coming to know," means grabbing a hold of something.  It's sort of the same as saying, to understand something.  So in the church, "coming to know," would be to submit to the revelation that Jesus is Lord and that we believe in that revelation.  It would then be submitting ourselves to such belief.  It is not merely about mastery of facts, which is all too often the biggest thing children learn in church.  They learn the stories, the names, and the dates, and it ends there. They never learn to submit to a revelation.

In the world of education, mastery of the facts would be how to pass every test and exam and how to continue advancing.  It's more about meeting the standards and less about the art of learning.  It's less about using the mind God gave us to explore the world around us.  Quite frankly, it can be boring and not much of a challenge to our children who were born to observe, learn, and grow.  It can be stifling to their growth as opposed to giving them tools to embrace and engage their minds, which leaves them fulfilled.  Simply depositing facts into them as if they are empty receptacles only belittles their ability to come to conclusions on their own.  Which they then believe is the truth about themselves, and it can lead to despair, frustration, and feelings of unworthiness. 

With that said, I'm chewing on a lot today and am adapting the way I do school with Dylan and Drew.  I learned some great, practical tools yeterday!  Thank you Jesus!  Homeschooling is a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I am hopeful for the things ahead of us. 


Love,