The ~Christian Country Farm~

Prayers for Israel

    " Pray for peace in Jerusalem: May those who love her be safe. May there be peace within her walls and safety within her strong towers." 

                   ~ Psalm 122: 6 & 7 NCV ~

Like many of you my heart goes out to Israel at this time.  The media has launched an anti-Israel campaign.  They are not telling the truth about what is really going on there.  My prayers are that peace will be in Jerusalem. The bible tells us to pray for Israel and for her peace. I pray the United States may always be counted as one of her allies.  Israel still has a destiny to fulfill and God has His eyes on His people.  His promises will be fulfilled in due time.

Praying,

~ gloria ~

Homeschooling thru the years...

I realized today I have not blogged much about homeschooling.  Our family began homeschooling years and years ago, when my oldest child  ( 15 yrs old now) at the time was getting ready for kindergarten. I remember reading everything I could about home education and then taking the "plunge"!  Of course back then I had just a few little ones to school, and now there are 8 children being homeschooled at home! 

Homeschooling does pose it's challenges --  but overall I have been really pleased with the results.  I can't even imagine putting my kids in the public school system.  I know there are many wonderful & gifted teachers teaching in the schoools, and I am sure many kids are receiving a good education.   The decision to homeschool is much more than "academics" to me.  It's more about "relationship" with my kids then academics. Oh sure, we do have our texts and our projects we are working on, but the focus has never been on the "books" but on character development and relationships. My greatest desire is to keep my kid's hearts and to really lead them to a personal walk with the Lord.  I want our schooling time and our books we use to glorify God and to teach truth not relativism or humanism.

So we continue to homeschool. Some days I am tired. Like many of you I deal with the yearly "burn out" syndrome, and the days do come where I ask myself "why am I doing this to myself"!   But when I stop to really think about things and look into my kid's faces and eyes..... there is NO way I could put them in the local school.  I just can't. 

Does that mean homeschooling is a "perfect" fit? No! I am sure that there are many things I could be doing better as their teacher and there are hard days when I am struggling along with a child and something they are trying to understand or learn.  But overall, homeschooling is so much more than academics. ... it's a way of life...... our life does not revolve around "school" ........ we do have a time set aside each day for doing the math, the grammar, the spelling, etc. But we have learned to be flexible and to keep the "big picture" in mind.

Recently I found out a good friend of mine has quit homeschooling her kids after years of doing so. It just broke my heart.  She has beautiful children and for the life of me I don't understand why she would make that choice. But regardless of how I feel about homeschooling, I know it's not for everyone.

One of the things I really love about homeschooling is the ability it gives me to really *know* my kids.... there is no "guessing" what is going on in their minds...... everything is revealed and there is nothing hidden....if there is a problem, it's evident..... if there is an attitude that needs to be adjusted that is known too...... it's all up front and open....... no hiding anything... that can be tough, especially when mom's flaws are "open" too!  So I openly admit, homeschooling is a "stretch" for mom, and it certainly does keep me on my toes!  ( no hiding my sins behind closed doors around here!!)

I wanted to share one aspect of homeschooling that I really, really love and that is the opporotunity that homeschooling can give to really develop a love of learning in our children . By that I do not mean learning their math facts or spelling words -- what I mean is loving to learn about something for the sake of loving to learn!  Each month my kids choose a topic that they wish to study and dwelve into.... it can be anything........ and believe me we have had some interesting topics thru the years. :)  After their assigned subjects are completed they can spend as long as they wish studying their "topic of choice".   At the end of the month we have a "report night" where each child writes up a report on their topic, presents an oral report ( they hand in a typed report for me to file) and can also share a display board with drawings or print outs.  The kids really look forward to this night!  They enjoy sharing their knowledge with the rest of the family.  It gives them a sense of accomplishment.   My husband & I also enjoy hearing about what they are learning and what they have gleaned from their in depth study. 

Here are some snapshots of  our report night we held a few nights back.  As always the reports were interesting and varied.  :) 

This past month we had:

Sarah studied  about the Pilgrims.  Big sister Hannah, helped her put a display board together. :)  She loves to give these reports, even though she is just 6 yrs old and needs help reading her report a loud. :)

Paul learned about Abraham Lincoln .  The twins are getting much better with their reading and didn't need much help giving their reports!

Peter gave a wonderful report on Martin Luther King Jr.

Rebekah studied about Anne Frank.....

Samuel gave a wonderful report on William Penn -- the founder of Pennsylvania ....I learned a ton just by listening to his report!

Rachel enjoyed learning about the "maide of Louraine"....Joan of Arc.......

Hannah studied up on Mary Queen of Scotts......... what a sad and interesting life she led.....Hannah loves to study about famous women in history....... she's a lot like her mom. :) I too love studying the lives of famous women -- right now I am reading about the life of Susanna Wesley the mother of Charles & John Wesley.

Last but not least, Jacob gave us a very detailed report on the Vietnam War.......he loves to study wars, and he really learned a lot. This month he has chosen to study  the Korean War, so he really is into this "war" studies lately!  He loves history and mostly chooses historical topics of interest.

This coming month the kids have chosen the following topics to study:

Jacob: Korean War, Hannah : Christopher Columbus, Rachel: Eleanor Roosevelt, Samuel: Lightening, Rebekah: Horses, Peter: George Washington ( again!), Paul: Trains, Sarah : Dogs

I hope my kids can look back upon their years homeschooling with fondness. :)  I know I will have many many memories to look back upon.  No regrets here, even though there are the the "days" I wonder what on earth I have done to myself!

~ gloria ~

Links about the new law going into effect-2-10-09

I forgot to add links about the new law that I mentioned in my last post. I'm amazed at how many people who have not heard about this. It passed, I believe sometime in August of '08,  but most everybody is just now really hearing about it, including me. It's like they kept it hush-hush until they had to tell everyone.

I'm sharing various links from information to different peoples perspective on the subject.

www.thesmartmama.com/bg/

weblog.xanga.com/gloryquilts

www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/cpsia-updates-and-calls-to-action-3157/

www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/01/03/hand-me-down-clothes-in-the-post-hand-me-down-era-consumer-protectionism-gone-too-far/

heartyworks.blogspot.com/2009/01/no-more-thrift-store-items-for-12-years.html

www.homesteadblogger.com/ThunderwolfRanch/123267

Please read up and contact your congressman! MJ at Thunderwolf ranch shared a link to a form letter to fill out that will go to your local members of congress here.

blessings, sara

Deer in the headlights and other rambling

My husband caught this picture of Jacob last night, I call it his deer in the headlights look. lol. And ya gotta love his little curly top. He's the first of my children to have curly hair, at least for now. Baby's hair often changes. Mine as a baby went from black at birth to white blonde by 1 year old.

It's hard to believe Jacob is already 4 1/2 weeks old. How time flys! He's still a fussy baby and wants to be held when he's awake, but that is not very often as he sleeps so much. I've got a front pack carrier, and a sling to carry him around in when I have to get things done. As much as I don't want to have to carry him around very much, I know this time is fleeting, and I realize I really don't mind.

We're settling back into routine here, starting back on schoolwork with the kids. I'm working on my home management binder this week trying to tweak it to make it fit us a bit better. I would also like to add a few sections to it for different things such as a garden section, animals section, and a goals section.

I've been in a bit of panic mode this week because of the new law going into effect on February 10. I buy 95% of my children's clothes at thrift stores. And there's certainly no room in my budget to buy new clothes, even when on sale. I'm praying heavily that there is some change to the law, but that may not happen. So I'm working on what we'll do when this happens. A few things that I've realized is that we, especially my children have entirely too many clothes as it is. Thinking back to books, such as little house on the prairie, children generally had maybe 3-4 outfits altogether. Three to wear during the week, and one for their "Sunday go to meeting" outfit.

I think it would be a good idea to have some kind of program like freecycle only a clothing exchange for children's clothing where you can post if you have say, boys clothes, size 4 that you want to get rid of, and you're in need of boy's , size 5. Hopefully we will be able to do something to that effect.

Otherwise, I will likely be switching to making most of my children's clothes, and paring down the number of outfits they each have. I'm so thankful I have at least a general knowledge of sewing. The clothes I see in stores, even if I had the money to buy new, are so immodest and distasteful, I wouldn't want to anyways.

Today I will be doing school with the kids, working on my HMB, and doing some general cleaning and laundry. For dinner we're having a pot roast with some carrots and potatos, and some drop biscuits.

I pray your day is blessed!

sara

Still Working on Windows

We put up some white shades with white lace curtains in the dining room today.  I love them.  They look great.  I still have to figure out what to put on the dining room's picture window.

We put two white shades in the living room too.

I still have the quilt over the picture window in there.

I really like the lace ivory lace curtains on the door window.

I need to put curtains on the kitchen door window, the dining room picture window, and the two living room windows with only the shades.

Then I'm going to find some nicer curtains for upstairs and the bathroom.

This is actually fun.  I'm enjoying myself.

~Candy~