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why I am still homeschooling..

Written by Joy
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This week, I have been asked several times why we have chosen to homeschool.    Well, we didn’t start out homeschooling the kids from the beginning.  Our oldest went to public school until the 4th grade.  There were a few issues and our only option at that time was to homeschool him.  However, after several years of homeschooling him and our oldest daughter, we quickly came to realize that this is what God had intended for us to do all along. Since then, we have added two more children to our family and homeschooling journey.

Some of my favorite verses about teaching your children come from Deuteronomy.  You see, homeschooling is not all about reading, writing and arithmetic.  Yes, those academic courses will help my children get a job in the future.  My goal though is to teach my kids to love God with all their heart, soul and might.  As Christians, we are to glorify God through it all, no matter what.  This is our job as parents and what is my most important goal ever in teaching our children.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We are beginning our 10th year of homeschooling and I will have a 9th, 3rd and 2nd grader.  We graduated one from high school last year, who is now attending a local community college.  As of right now, we will continue homeschooling until God tells us to do differently.  While it wasn’t our intention to begin with, we are very intentional with our homeschool now.

2012, homeschooling, , , , ,

so thankful and blessed… #901-913

Written by Joy
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so thankful and blessed… #901-913

What an amazing week God has blessed my family and I with.  We do not deserve the mercy and grace that He gives us.

Since today we celebrated Father’s Day, I thought I would dedicate this post to the father’s in my family’s life.

901. My heavenly Father.

902. mercy and grace given to me by my heavenly Father.

903. my heavenly Father sending His only Son to die on the cross for my sins.

904. my earthly father who now is in heaven with my heavenly Father.

905. my dad raising me in a Christian home.

906. memories of reading the bible with my daddy.

907. memories of singing hymns with my daddy.

908. so thankful my children saw their PePe before he passed away.

909. seeing my husband raise his children to know God.

910. thankful to my husband for all the time he spends with his children.

911. thankful that my husband and his dad are close.

912. thankful for my husband’s step-dad for always being their for him and for us.

913. blessed to have all of these men in our life.

 

I would love for you to join me and the others linking up at A Holy Experience. We would love to see how God has blessed you and your family.

2012, multitude Mondays,

my son and his favorite books…

Written by Joy
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All children are not alike.  My 4 are proof of that.  My two oldest kids learned to read by the ages of 3 and 4. My youngest two are just now learning to read small words at the ages of 6 and 7.  My 7 year old boy though has struggled with his speech ever since he started talking. There are just certain letter sounds that he has struggled with.  While he has proved tremendously over the past few years, we still work daily on pronouncing words while reading books.

Since my youngest son was struggling with reading, going to the library was not fun for him.  He hated to pick out books.  He hated for me to pick out books.  Even if I told him I would read the books to him, he still did not like reading at all.  This is where this momma started praying.  I mean, I love reading.  Our whole family loves reading.  Books are a favorite downtime for our family.  To have a child that did not like books or to read, it really sadden me a lot.  I knew it was because he struggled to read.

We continued our Hooked on Phonics, as well as Bob Jones Phonics and English.  I also continue on praying.  I hated seeing my son get frustrated and upset not being able to read and figure words out.  Then one day as we visited the library, like I do every time before we leave, I told the kids to go choose some books to check out.  Low and behold, my son picked out some books all on his own.  I couldn’t believe it.

The books are written and illustrated by Jim Arnosky.  The books are all about nature and animals.  Mr. Arnosky will go out and actually film animals to take home and study. He has written over 80 books and has won many awards for the books.  I have to be honest, I have never heard of Mr. Arnosky until my son just went and picked up 3 of his books.  They were Little Lions, Raccoon On His Own and Rattlesnake Dance.

When we got home from the library that day, he immediately wanted to read all three of the books.  We sat down and I read the books to him.  I was so proud of him and told him so.  We read those books and he looked through those books over the next two weeks that we had them.  When we got to the library, my son wanted to read the books one last time.  I said okay and we sat down on one of the love-seats.  To my surprise, he wanted to read the books to me!!

I was so thrilled and happy!  I literally was sitting there with tears in my eyes.  I was so proud of my boy.  He did need help on a few of the larger words, but for the most part, he read slowly, the whole book.  When he finished, you ought to have seen the look on his face.  It was priceless.  He was so happy!  His confidence level skyrocketed after that day.

Now, he will happily go into the library and choose a variety of books when I tell them it is time to go.  However, it never fails, he will come home with a couple of Jim Arnosky books.  I have to say, I can’t blame him one bit.   They hold a special meaning in my heart as well.

So mom, if you have a son who is a struggling reader.  Don’t give up on him.   Before you know it, your son will be reading.  Just keep reading to him and letting him choose books that interest him.  It may not be the readers that come with your special curriculum.  It may be a random book just pulled off a shelf at the library.

Do you remember the very first book that your child(ren) read to you?

 

2012, homeschooling, ,

Father’s Day

Written by Joy
2 Comments
Father’s Day

This is the day we recognize the father’s in our life.  First, I want to say Happy Father’s Day to my husband.  He truly is the best dad in the whole world to our kids.  I am so thankful God sent this man to be in my life.

I also wanted to mention my dad as well.  Even though he is no longer with us on this earth, he will always my in my heart.  He truly was a wonderful dad and grandpa.

I also wanted to give one more shout out to another Father.  My Heavenly Father.  He gave the ultimate sacrifice of any dad ever.  He sent us His son, to die on the cross to save us from sin.  No father loves us more, like He does!

Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there!

2012, family

a little trip..(part 2)

Written by Joy
a little trip..(part 2)

As I said in the post before, my husband and I went on a little trip to Golden, CO.  We visited a couple of different museums and visitors centers.  However, one of the best parts of the trip to me (besides being with my husband), was the drive up to Mt. Evans.  Mt. Evans has the highest paved road in North America.  From where you turn off the major Interstate 70 you will drive until you are 14, 240 feet at the summit.  The drive up to the top and back down to the bottom is truly amazing.  The views are gorgeous and the wildlife you see is just beautiful.

As we were driving to the top, we first pulled off at the Mt. Goliath Natural area.  It’s a little building were they talk and show the landscaping of the mountains.  It shows the 3 different levels of the mountains.  It also showcases the vegetation of the land.  The plants, flowers and trees are different at each level due to the climate.  This area is actually a boundary between the sub-alpine forests and the tundra.   This area also contains most of the Bristlecone pines.  They have dated some of the pines to be older than 1600 years.

We continued the drive to the top and then came to Summit Lake pull-off.  At the time we were there, Summit Lake was still frozen.  I had never seen a frozen lake before!  However, we were unable to walk to the lake due to safety concerns.  The Wildlife Rangers were accessing the situation at the time.

The first day we went to Mt. Evans, Summit Lake was as far as we could drive.  It had snowed the previous day/night and they had the road closed to the top. We were determined to go to the top of the mountain, so we came back the following day.  We wanted to tell our kids that we had been 14,000+ feet on top of a mountain!  {grin}  So the next day, we made the journey back to Mt. Evans and were told we could drive all the way to the top.  I never tire of the beautiful views that God has created.  The views did not disappoint as we passed Summit Lake.  Around every curve there was another gorgeous view.  What surprised us was seeing people riding their bicycles and even a man walking up so high.  We know the air gets thinner as you go higher and was told to be careful and to drink plenty of fluids.  Yet, these men were out enjoying a ride and stroll at such a high altitude!

We then came around the corner to the very top.  There was this huge stone building that I later found out was once called The Crest House – “The Castle in the Sky”.  However, a propane tank exploded and blew the roof and part of the building up.  They then changed it into a visitor’s platform.   The views from the different levels were amazing. There is also an Observatory on top of the mountain as well.  We didn’t make it around to see this.  The wind was blowing so hard that it was very hard to stand up and was freezing cold!

What surprised me the most up on top of this mountain?  Seeing mountain goats and sheep!  I had never seen a mountain goat or sheep before.  I could not believe how docile and calm these animals were.  They continued grazing, breaking through the little bit of snow and ice that hadn’t melted yet.

I was unable to get close enough to the mountain sheep to get any pictures of them.  However, take my word for it when I say that they are beautiful creations of God.

The views from the top were so beautiful and I am glad we had decided to come back on that second day.

 

I am so glad that I was able to go on this trip with my husband.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime trip with just the two of us, until our children are all on their own.  As much as we enjoyed being with one another, we both said the next time we took off again on a trip like this, our children will definitely be with us.

Have you ever been on a trip and wished you had your children with you?

2012, family, homeschooling, , ,