The Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ February 2016

October is the last month I posted a Homeschool Mother's Journal? 

Seriously? 

This is not acceptable. This is not going to fly. I will speak about the happenings of February here, trying to keep it at a reader-friendly length and then continue with these HMJ posts, at least on a monthly basis. Wowzers! 

In My Life This Month

After months and months (and months and months) of waring within myself, trying to wrap my brain around the Gospel - salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone! I think I am beginning, only beginning, to see a bit of growth and a sliver of understanding of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Continuing to stay in the Word, listening to doctrinally sound sermons and praying (doing all of these even when I don't want to) helps. Back in June I talked about how continuing to put myself in the way of Truth, by the means as previously mentioned, will lead me to knowing the Lord more, loving Him more and then obeying Him more. I am becoming a testament to that, but none of it on my own. It's only because of Jesus and His righteousness. He's the One who gives me (all of us) grace to overcome and run towards Him.

In Our Homeschool This Month

We are marching forward. It may be at a snail's pace, but progress it is.

History - Our topics for February have been Pioneers and the Ohio River; Ohio becomes a state; the Louisiana Purchase, War of 1812; The Star-Spangled Banner; Louisiana becomes a state; Robert Fulton and Indiana & Mississippi become states. Now that sounds like a lot, but MFW curriculum is based on the Charlotte Mason method of teaching children and the kids are not overwhelmed by too much information, plus there are a lot of hands-on activities. 

Science -  We have discovered all kinds of information about Living Things, Animals and Plants. 

Bible - We are walking through different names of Jesus this school year. These past 4 weeks have been about Jesus being the Lamb of God and the Vine. Adelle is doing Bible on Switched on Schoolhouse too. I don't think we can learn too much of God's Word.  :-)

Math - We are memorizing addition facts and having so much fun using our Math-U-See unit bars. 

Language Arts - Jonathan doesn't see the need for practicing penmanship, but he likes how short our phonics lessons are over at Easy Peasy. Adelle has moved to Switched on Schoolhouse for LA also.

Read Alouds - We finished up Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy and are now in the middle of On the Banks of Plum Creek. 

Thinking Ahead

I pretty much know what my Sugar Bear is going to use for next year's curriculum. I'm a little stuck on what to go with for my Little Man.  

A Photo, Quote or Video to Share

How's about an article to share? Todd Friel of Wretched Radio mentioned an article titled, Clothed in Righteousness by Joni Eareckson Tada. It is sooooo sooooo sooooo good! You must read it. And if you don't know much about Mrs. Tada. Look her up. She has quite the testimony and the Lord uses her physical weaknesses to draw her to Himself. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes. He uses everything necessary to conform His children to the image of His Son, Jesus and most of the time His tools are the difficulties of this weary, broken and depraved life. I pray He conforms me too.

We're Listening to

Did you see my The Scariest Song post? Yeah. We are listening to Sovereign Grace Music for kids. These songs are so Gospel and Bible saturated. You can tell they are specifically for children, but they're not annoying. I get fed the Truth and the Gospel through these songs also!

My kids pick up on songs so quickly. Music is just part of who they are. They come by it so naturally. Being the sponges they are, I felt it necessary to throw out the junk music we had (yes, not all "christian" music is good). We can't just deprive them of everything. They're still going to listen to something, so I bought the Awesome God album, with the intentions to purchase another album every couple of weeks, as we have the means to do so. 

We have to grow them in Truth and music is one way to feed them.  :-)

New Songs I'm Working On

Speaking of what we're listening to....  I'd like to share a couple of fantastic songs I've discovered in these past few weeks. I came across both of these on Sovereign Grace Music. 

The first one is I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow. The words were written by John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace. Mr. Newton has asked the Lord that he might grow in faith and grace and to seek the Lord more earnestly. God didn't answer his prayer in the way that was to be expected. 

Here's the very last lines of this one:

These inward trials I employ 

From self and pride to set thee free

And break they schemes of earthly joy

That thou mayst find thy all in Me

Isn't that just wonderful?!? I boo-hooed the very first time I heard that song and read those lyrics. My prideful mind and heart needs to learn that God is sovereign and I must comply. Period. 

The other song is a hymn written by Isaac Watts called Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed. I learned that this hymn had a chorus written and added to it and we know it today as At the Cross. This arrangement by SGM is absolutely beautiful and the chorus that was added this time seems to fit more appropriately, both lyrically and musically. I was going to try to wait until closer to Resurrection Sunday to sing it in service, but I don't think I'll be able to. 

Chorus:

My God why would You shed Your blood

So pure and undefiled

To make a sinful one like me

Your chosen, precious child?

Other Things I'm Working on

Well, I started to purge after being inspired by the KonMari method, but I hit a wall. I must continue!

My Wishlist

I was looking for something that would help me teach the kids the Book of Proverbs. I saw that Mildred A. Martin has a written a lot of books for children on this topic. I borrowed Missionary Stories with the Millers, skimmed through to get an idea of Ms. Martin's writing style and liked it. So, my wish list is a follows: Missionary Stories with the Millers; Wisdom and the Millers; Prudence and the Millers; Growing with the Millers and other such books by Mildred A. Martin. 

This was a last minute idea to share. I don't know why I wanted to make this wish list known.

Scripture of the Month

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  ~Galatians 5:16-17