Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Week 2

We are in our second week of homeschool now and I am more dependent on God than I have ever been. I want you to know that I have NO IDEA what I am doing. I am so far outside my giftings it is not even funny. I pray for God to give me creativity with the boys daily as we do this thing called "homeschool". My main goal for these next few years is that the boys would learn character and obedience. I feel like I am just laying foundation now. Our days are filled with lots of fun, lots of spankings, lots of love and LOTS of time-outs. There are no bad attitudes allowed in school which is why they get expelled :) numerous times throughout the day. Seriously though, I am LOVING it. Most of the time, the boys are happy and eager to learn... and just joys to be around.
We are learning more of Colossians 3. I can't wait to video it. The part we are learning today is...
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." (v. 16)
Obviously, there are a lot of big words in that verse. I really think they can learn the meaning if I can do a good job explaining it. They don't know what most words mean so why not teach them some big ones?? We talked about what admonish means. It means "to warn".
Like warning someone to watch out for a big hole they are about to step in.
We talked about singing psalms... which we actually do everyday when we march in the classroom.
"This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made.."(that is Psalms 118:24).
We talked about wisdom and gratitude.
One thing that is so great about teaching is how much YOU learn. I am memorizing more scripture than I ever have because I am teaching it to them. They really like learning verses most of the time because they get to hold their huge sword up while they recite their verses ("... and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" Ephesians 6:17).
I want to encourage any of you who have even considered homeschooling and think you are unqualified, that if I can do it, YOU CAN DO IT. God will give you all the gifts you need to do it.
I am operating completely in God's strength because I am not naturally good at this stuff.
I know it is Christ through me if my kids learn anything. I just hope the verses are changing their little hearts as we meditate on them and say them OVER and OVER and OVER.
"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."
Psalm 119:11
"I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."
Psalm 119:16
"The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple."
Psalm 119:130
Today, we needed some sunshine and fresh air so I grabbed the $3 pool from the garage and some dish soap and threw some alphabet letters in. They had to fish them out with their toes and put them on the towel so we could spell words. They had a great time and had no idea they were in "school".
Reece's hair situation makes me so sad. I tried to put some back on him.


TA-DA!! The new military Reece. Sorry, mom. I won't do it again. He likes it. Some of our words...
This one is in honor of my dad.
Their one and only,
"DON".



"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3

(FYI- If you get the homeschooling book I recommended, please know I think she is much more hard-core than me. She only uses the King James Bible to teach her kids and cleans her kitchen spotless everyday. Um, that doesn't happen here. But, there are good ideas in the book.)

4 comments:

Angela said...

I loved this post!!! First of all, I really do think the hair is darling. I love his big smile that goes along with it.
My days have been filled with lots of spankings, too, LOL! Who told Andrew he was two? :)
I would love to be a fly on the wall during your day.

The Pumphrey's said...

Can I send my kids to your "homeschool" one of these days??!! You are doing an amazing job!! And Reece's hair looks adorable - even without the curls :)

AG said...

Can we do this next time I come??
Maybe Aaron would participate :)

HennHouse said...

Which book do you use? I don't homeschool, but I would love to teach my kids to memorize scripture.