Welcome Friends

Snow Day!!!! Hope you can get out and enjoy it, we're taking the kids out later this afternoon! Wish I would have splurged for Snow Pants!, Lol,

We're going to try to make it, tickets are kind of expensive

I'd love more details about LaneCH gymnastics, we'll start Soccer soon too :)

P.S. Did you see that Veggie Tales is going to be in town?

Yeah, we picked it up at Learning Palace, i think it was 19.99, but we had a 20 % off coupon (you can get them in the Family Fun magazines at the library...and other various places)

I love the pocket chart too, I'm really really happy about it, My only complaint is that I wish it was double sided, the back has a pocket to store all of the Calendar pieces which is nice too though!

Yes, we live near IHOP and go to the Prayer Room sometimes and to the Sunday fellowship. My one daughter is very involved in the kids' ministry. I've been going to the Prayer Room for Prenatal Prayer, and it's so wonderful to have people bathing me and the baby in prayer. It's the best "church" we've ever been a part of.

We're believing revival will come here soon. Lots of people from here have gone to Lakeland, and they're passing the Fire on.

You sound like my kind of person. I'm glad we've gotten in contact.

Love,
Penney

Hi Jasmine,

Right now I'm using Heart of Wisdom with my 4 oldest. They are 11, 12, 14 and 17. I use it loosely, as I do everything!:) You can find out more about it at heartofwisdom.com. Some people complain that the website has too much on it and they have a hard time figuring out what the curriculum is really all about, so I'll try to explain it the best I can. Another way to learn a lot about it is to buy Robin Sampson's book The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach. That's really what the curriculum is - a teaching approach. The emphasis is to be led by the Spirit and to place the Bible at the center of your curriculum. Do it first, and really study it! She uses Charlotte Mason techniques such as narrating, copywork, lapbooks, notebooks, living books, etc. She has compiled lesson plans for Ancient History. That book is called Adam to Messiah. The whole thing starts with Genesis. She includes lots of resources to help you study the biblical accounts and to study what else was going on at the same time in so-called secular history. But we all know that History is His Story! She gives you lots of internet links you can go to so you can study further, even if you can't afford to buy all of the study books. She includes recommendations for Bible dictionaries, Bible encyclopedias, secular books about history and living books and novels.
We are wrapping up our study of Abraham. I read a novel about Abraham and Sarah to the kids. I'm going to reread the story to them straight from the Bible now so that they know what the Bible really says, and what the author added for the sake of fleshing out the story and characters.

A tool that Robin recommends that I find very helpful is the Chronological Narrated Bible. It helps to put events chronologically and adds explanation to the text all in one book. I have only bought a few of the books that she recommends in Adam to Messiah because of a limited budget. I would love to get them all. Some of them I have checked out at the library, but it's hard to use them before I have to take them back. I hate time constraints!

I'm trying to teach the same topics to my younger ones through coloring pages and such. I haven't done very well incorporating them into our lessons yet. But my 7 year old and 8 year old are reading really well now, so I might pull them in more this coming year.
They like their free time, but they might be losing some of it and have to listen in with the big kids! They might buck me at first, but they ask lots of questions about things in the Bible, so I think they'll secretly be glad that I'm making them join in. My 7 year old has been reading his Bible every night lately! I've never had one that young do that!

Robin has also compiled lesson plans for Wisdom and for several Science topics. She's planning more in the future, but she's looking for help, since she has a large family and is very busy. Recently she has had lots of health problems, too. Personally, I think what she has put together is plenty, and if we need more, we can do the same thing she did and put together our own studies. That's my opinion anyway. Some people get scared when they see that only 2 years of curriculum have been completed. But Robin gives good suggestions for the next 2 years. It could be done in a 4 year cycle and then another 4 year cycle like the Classical approach. I don't do anything in that organized a fashion!

Well, I hope I haven't talked your ear off. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Love,
Penney

lol, I know what you mean!

The weather is fantastic isn't it! Says we'll have beautiful days today and tomorrow too, can't wait to get out and enjoy it! Hope you can get some time in the sun too!

Just to say Happy Easter & God Bless you and your family

Hi Jasmine
I just saw your answer to my request, thanks very much. I'll try this tomorrow morning.
God Bless you
Ana