Starting Earlier Than I Planned

Our tradition is to begin school after this little dude's birthday at the end of August:

 He'll be four this year.  I love using his birthday as a marker of a new beginning and I love holding off on school until we've celebrated one more important day.

I was also looking forward to a couple more weeks of summer to finish all the projects I said I'd get to and haven't finished yet.  I was looking forward to a couple weeks of no running around.  I wanted to set up some coffee dates with various ladies in my life.  But, B & S have both said, "We want to start school NOW!"  I know enough to realize that in two weeks, reality will set in and B will tire of school. But I also know that if they are enthused I should go with that momentum.

So, we're beginning on Wednesday. 

Here's the plan:
Fun (Shhh, actually "review") Days:  August 18-20th & August 23rd-25th.










Plus: 

• Games:  I'll bring out Games for Learning: Ten Minutes a Day to Help Your Child Do Well in School-From Kindergarten to Third Grade and Games With Books: Twenty-eight of the Best Children's books and How to Use Them to Help Your Child Learn-From Preschool to Third Grade to add some activity to our days.  There's a lot of ways to use games that we already have so we'll pull them out.

• Notebook Review:  We'll also go through B's notebook from last year and skim it again (because he says he doesn't remember anything.  *sigh*) and I'm thinking we'll pick an activity/game/craft to do in relation to what he learned last year. 

• Phoneme Cards:  I went to a great workshop this summer and learned a basic way of re-enforcing phonemes to my struggling reader while teaching them to my preschooler for the first time.

Hopefully they'll love these first six days and then we'll move into our first unit of study with just as much enthusiasm.  Hopefully.  But, you know...

Your Obedience Affects Me

Today the Terpstra's left the continent to follow God's leading to work in Africa.  They wanted to leave a year ago --  raising support takes time though. But at least two years ago they took the first step to say, "O.K., God.  We'll go."  And with that step of obedience our stories began to intertwine; we eventually became the ones to take their place of service at TNL, and God's great silence in our lives lifted.

It's amazing how your obedience will affect someone else's life; someone you never expected.  I have to wonder how many times did my obedience begin a domino effect in someone else's life?  Did my leaving that one place create a space for someone else to find purpose there?  Did my going to that other place for a short time mean something to someone even though it made no sense to me?  When I said that phrase, gave that gift, followed that urging, what changed?

We may never know how our obedience affects others, at least not fully.  But it's mysterious to think about it.  And it's certainly more peace-giving to consider this than to only consider how our obedience changes only our own lives.  Because it doesn't.  We are all connected.

"If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one another."  -- Mother Teresa

Thank you, Father, for speaking.  Help me to listen and obey more and more.

July Catch Up

Here's what we've been busy doing in July:

  1.  Do anyone else's kids try to make Lego Star Wars stop motion videos? 

2.  Fourth of July got rained out.  We had fireworks on the 3rd though.  So, I'm all good.

 3.  The Great Sand Dunes.  Vacation Day 1!

4.  Mesa Verde National Park.  Toured the cliff dwellings.

5.  Not sure how you "close" a monument, but they did.  B was game enough to at least jump out for a picture of the sign.

6.  The Grand Canyon.  I have done my parental duty:  my kids have now seen it.  And they were done seeing it after about 30 minutes (like every other kid in America.  Crazies).

7.  I don't care if it's 115 degrees in Laughlin, we're getting out of the car to have some In-N-Out.

8.  Lego Store #1 in Downtown Disney.

9.  My favorite place on the planet:  the Hollywood Bowl.  This was how we celebrated 16 years of marriage.

10.  No... No.  THIS is my favorite place on the planet.  The Pacific.

11..  S, perk up.  You're at Legoland for Pete's Sake.  This time we get to go inside instead of just doing the "downtown."

12.  Zion National Park.  More amazing outdoorsy stuff.

13.  "Hey, take a picture of Daddy and me.  It's our anniversary."   And my three year old obliged... in a hotel on our last night on the road with our three kids in tow.   Good thing there was the Hollywood Bowl.

Sad Day in the Homeschooling World

Sono Harris passed away over the weekend.  Wife of Greg Harris, mother of Josh and other really gracious kids that I've chatted with in the vendor hall at conventions.   Joshua Harris gives information about her cancer and passing here.

I remember attending a workshop of Sono's at a convention some years back.  She talked about "God, Our Present Help" and she identified some of the negative feelings homeschool mom's encounter:  lonliness and isolation, weariness, frustration and disappointment.  She said to let our difficulties be opportunities for God to work for and through you.  She said that parent/child relationships are not for ease and happiness but are the context for the change God works in and through us.  God is working in you and you may not be cooperating yet. 

I found much wisdom in this woman, homeschooling's consummate mother.  Her present rest is well deserved, though she'd probably correct me and say it's all really grace.