Thoughtful Thursday

Faith
Excerpt from Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

My God,
I bless thee that thou hast given me the eye of faith,
     to see thee as Father,
     to know thee as a covenant God,
     to experience thy love planted in me;
For faith is the grace of union
     by which I spell out my entitlement to thee:
Faith casts my anchor upwards where I trust in thee
     and engage thee to be my Lord.
Be pleased to live and move within me,
     breathing in my prayers,
     inhabiting my praises,
     speaking in my words,
     moving in my actions,
     living in my life,
     causing me to grow in grace.
Thy bounteous goodness has helped me believe,
     but my faith is weak and wavering,
     its light dim,
     its steps tottering,
     its increase slow,
     its backslidings frequent;
It should scale the heavens,
     but lies grovelling in the dust.
Lord, fan this divine spark into glowing flame.

Our Journey to Homeschooling (Part 1)

I love and adore my sweet friend Analisa more than words can say. I could write an entire blog post about her, how much I have learned from her, and how much her family means to us, but this is a post, or rather a series of posts, about our journey to homeschooling. The reason I mention Analisa is that, for my introductory post, I have unabashedly copied almost the entire sidebar from her blog. I have done this for two reasons: 1) she is a much better writer than I am, and 2) she sums up many of the reasons we homeschool so beautifully.

The only real difference between her beginnings story and ours is that we never sent any of our kids to school. I went to college to be a teacher and have a BA in Elementary Education. I always planned that I would stay home with my kids until they were all in school, and then I would go back to teaching. I would have the summers and school holidays off to spend with them and so it seemed like the perfect plan. 

I was happily carrying out this plan and had registered Jordan for kindergarten in the spring of 2008, when to my surprise I realized that from the moment we arrived home from kindergarten registration I had this feeling in the pit of my stomach. I kept thinking about dropping my 'baby' off at school and I told Jason multiple times that I was totally going to cry on her first day of school. So I asked myself, 'Why am I going to cry when I drop this sweet child off on the first day of kindergarten?' and my answer was that somewhere deep inside it just didn't feel right. At the time I didn't know why and I couldn't have put it into words, but looking back I know that the feeling I had was a seed...just the beginning of something much greater than I could have imagined. 

Here I will turn the post over to Analisa:

Why “Every day. All day?"

I never, from the first day I dropped our oldest off at kindergarten, felt peace about taking my children to school.

I had the constant underlying feeling that my influence was over, that I was expected to be finished with my kids and give them over to strangers to take care of their training and education. I was told that my children are far better off in the hands of professionals; segregated into classrooms of same-aged children, separated from any real connection with family and adults, forced to attach to their peers who were never meant to mentor each other, separated from the elderly who impart the wisdom and knowledge of the past, labeled, numbered, graded, trained to move about at the sound of a bell.

Not only were their days now monopolized by someone else’s agenda, but when they got home their evenings were dictated to us through homework and endless activity that we are told they “need” (soccer, dance, music, etc.). I began to wonder if “schooling” is the same as “education.”

Then God planted in my heart a seed of an idea.

We have chosen not to give our children over to the culture. We have chosen to train, teach, mentor our children ourselves: not “all day, every-other day,” not “half-day, every day,” but 24/7.

Now I’m here to encourage you to question. Your answers may not look like ours —but examine what you take for granted as fact, truth, good, necessary. Challenge what the culture sells you. Question what you believe and why. Seek not the favor and knowledge of man, but the wisdom and heart of God. Investigate, inquire, scrutinize, sift, probe, search.

Every day.

All day.

I remember reading this on her blog shortly after our kindergarten registration experience and I decided that I needed to take her advice. I needed to question, challenge, investigate, inquire, scrutinize, sift, probe, and search. I figured what could it hurt and I knew that I had to dig deeper into this before I could be at peace with any decision.

Be sure to check out part 2 in which I will tell you what digging I did and how we became convinced (and convicted) that homeschooling was the best choice for our family, and part 3 where I list the books, videos, articles, etc. that we found most helpful during our decision making process.

Thoughtful Thursday

Friends

Today's Thoughtful Thursday post is dedicated to all my wonderful friends. I am so thankful for each and every one of you and your friendships are a true blessing.

I love this picture of the friendship and love between Jonathan and David:
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. ~1 Samuel 18:1

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.
~Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.
~Proverbs 27:9

The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.
~Psalm 24:14

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
~James 4:4

He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.
~Proverbs 22:11
 
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
~John 15:12-16

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The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
~William Blake

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.
~Author Unknown

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.
~William Penn

I'm Back

I'm back! I know I have been neglecting my blog lately, but it is because we have been SUPER busy since the middle of May. I have really missed blogging this past month, so let's catch up shall we?

May found us busy with dance recitals - two to be exact plus one dress rehearsal. Jordan and Corinne both took dance at Columbus DanceArts Academy this year and loved it. This was Corinne's first year and Jordan's fifth. Corinne performed in the annual mini recital and was totally adorable dancing to Row, Row, Your Boat. Jordan performed in the 'big' show for the first time and was absolutely beautiful dancing to the theme from Titanic.

Also in May, Carson and Corinne finished up a fun year at Little Shepherds Preschool. This was Corinne's first year of preschool and she loved every minute of it. Carson graduated from their Kindergarten Enrichment program and had a really fun year as well.
This picture was taken at the annual Mother's Tea and both kids did a great job singing for everyone.

And after all the crazy busyness of those two weeks, we had exactly four days to get ready to go on vacation!

Thoughtful Thursday

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

John 10:27-29

Thoughtful Thursday

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

~Romans 12:2