Feasts of the Lord

After careful study and prayerful consideration, our family decided to begin acknowledging the Feasts of the Lord. We recognize that these appointed feasts are Holy Days that God intended for His children to observe. Though Scripture no longer requires it of us, we are choosing to celebrate them and teach them to our children as a way to honor God, grow closer to Him, and see how God's prophetic plan of redemption has been fulfilled in the spring feasts and will be fulfilled in the fall feasts.  The Feast of Trumpets began at sundown on September 4. After explaining the significance of this feast to our children, we lit candles, listened to the shofar being blown (online), then reflected on our own sins and prayed for forgiveness. We made a loaf of challah in the shape of a crown, too. The kids decided they wanted to have challah every week. My son pointed out that we would have to skip the challah on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, of course, because challah has leavening in it.

 

Week One with My Father's World: Exploring Countries and Cultures

We had a great first week of school with our new curriculum: Exploring Countries and Cultures by My Father's World. These first couple of weeks are an introduction to world geography and cultures. We also brought in a new science curriculum by Apologia. The kids love it. They each keep a notebook and do plenty of experiments which keeps them engaged and awake. Best of all, it's God-honoring and easy to implement.  Here are a few pics from our first week:

Book Basket Time

Setting Up Density Experiment

Results of Density Experiment

John 3:16 Poster

Bible Time

Geo Puzzles (while listening to

classical music) 

Geo Puzzles (each country is its own

piece, which is helpful in identifying them)

 

Geo Puzzles (best map puzzles around

and made right here in Neenah!)

Working on Geography Vocabulary Cards

Geography Vocabulary Card

Reading Chronicles of Narnia:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Chemical Reaction Experiment

Results!

 

 

New Curriculum for 2013-14

We are looking forward to the 2013-14 school year. We’ll begin September 2, with son and daughter in 4th and 7th grades, respectively. Here’s our curriculum:



Bible: Apologia’s Who Is God and Can I Really Know Him? Biblical Worldview of God and Truth - with notebooking journals

Reading: Grade-level novels (classic)

Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Student Writing Intensive Continuation Courses A and B

Grammar: HBJ Language Grades 4 and 7



Spelling: Zaner-Bloser Spelling Connections Grades 4 and 7

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000 Books 5 and 7

Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears’ Cursive Success and handwriting journal

Social Studies/Geography: My Father’s World Exploring Countries and Cultures

Science: Apologia Zoology 2 and Apologia General Science
 

Math: Teaching Textbooks Math 5 and 7

Foreign Language: Rosetta Stone German I

Art: Barry Stebbing’s Feed My Sheep

Piano and violin lessons as well as youth orchestra will take care of music.
For PE, YMCA swim classes and workouts will probably be the plan. This may be the year for the kids to learn how to snowshoe!



　

New Curriculum Planning

After visiting the boards over at My Father's World, I came across a couple of different posts that immediately caught my eye. Two very nice ladies (Jen from GA and Jennifer from FL) shared their schedules which align episodes from the Planet Earth DVD series with the weeks of study topics in MFW's Exploring Countries and Cultures. We happen to own the Planet Earth series, so I am thrilled to be able to incorporate them with our new curriculum. Here are the two schedules, which vary slightly:

Weeks 5-6 Mexico: "Deserts" Disc 2 Episode 2
Weeks 9-11 Brazil: "Jungles" Disc 3 Episode 2
Weeks 12-13 Norway: "Seasonal Forests" Disc 4 Episode 1
Weeks 14-15 France: "Caves" Disc 2 Episode 1
Weeks 16-17 Germany: "Fresh Water" Disc 1 Episode 3
Weeks 18-20 Kenya: "Great Plains" Disc 3 Episode 1
Weeks 23-24 India: "Mountains" Disc 1 Episode 2
Weeks 27-28 Japan: "Ocean Deep" Disc 4 Episode 2
Weeks 29-30 Russia: "Ice Worlds" Disc 2 Episode 3
Weeks 31-32 Australia: "Shallow Seas" Disc 3 Episode 3
Weeks 33-34 Antarctica: "From Pole to Pole" Disc 1 Episode 1

From Pole to Pole (Intro)
Mountains (India/China)
Fresh Water (Canada/Brazil)
Caves (Wonderful Episode...we viewed it during South America)
Deserts (U.S./Mexico/Saudi Arabia)
Ice Worlds (Russia/Antarctica)
Great Plains (Kenya)
Jungles (Brazil)
Shallow Seas (Australia?)
Seasonal Forests (Norway/Germany)
Ocean Deep (Japan)
Saving Species (France)
Into the Wilderness (Antarctica)
Living Together (France)

Many thanks to Jen and Jennifer!

I'm So Ashamed...



Who in the world doesn't post on their blog for almost an entire year?  Uhhmmm...that would be me. Yes, it's been too long. No, I don't have any good excuses. I didn't say I had NO excuses, I just don't have any good ones.  I hope to post more regurlarly, now. I am especially looking forward to documenting our weekly journey with a new curriculum beginning in September 2013. After four years of Sonlight, we have officially decided to make the switch from Sonlight to My Father's World. I have already received their curriculum package (Exploring Countries and Cultures) and am very excited and eager to start. I'll share more about why we made the switch later. For now, I hope to post more often as we finish up our last curriculum cores from Sonlight: Cores E and G. Having the new MFW waiting in the wings, it's going to be hard for me to get motivated to slog through the rest of our Sonlight...

Tornado!

My cousin sent this shot of a tornado, taken from her back yard. Yikes!

Music Appreciation

One of the many things I'm grateful for growing up was that my parents saw to it that I had music lessons, despite the fact that neither of them were musically trained. To this day, I enjoy being able to play for the pure pleasure of it. It is therapeutic, it is encouraging to others, and it is good for your brain!

I wanted my children to know the joy of music also---to be able to play an instrument or two,

to read music, to learn of the classical composers and develop an appreciation of God's wonderful gift of music.



Now that they are older, I am so pleased that they are using their gifts/knowledge to serve others. We encourage them to play when service opportunities present themselves, such as...

participating in worship service at church

devoting time at a nursing home





glorifying God within the community (at local library)



I hope they always remember that their gifts are God-given and are to be used for His glory, not their own glory.