Reason I Home Educate My Children #1

I am always telling my children to think. When they hear something, no matter what it is, they should always question, "Does that make sense?" Even if it makes sense, it's not necessarily right.

DD12 just did a science experiment from Jay Wile's Exploring Creation with General Science. In the experiment she proves that heavier objects drop faster than lighter objects. She dropped a sheet of paper and a book. Of course, the book hit the ground first.
In the very next experiment, she found that the conculsion of the first experiment wasn't correct by dropping several other items from a flat sheet of paper, to a paper clip, to a rock, to a book to a crumpled up sheet of paper.

These two experiments are just one example of what I am talking about. There are so many issues in the world today that "prove" themselves to be true at face value. Many members of our society will accept a given "fact", not question further and just go with the crowd.

I want my children to grow up to be thinkers. They may not know everything there is to know (Who can know everything?), but thinkers have the ability to seek information about what they need to know.

Middle Ages - The Four "Alls"

There were:
"the peasants who worked for all,
priests who prayed for all,
knights who fought for all,
and kings who ruled all."

The above quote and following activity can be found in Knights & Castles: 50 Hands-on Activities to Experience the Middle Ages by Avery Hart & Paul Mantell.



We are enjoying our studies of the Middle Ages.

As we are working through the curriculum from Winter Promise called Quest for the Middle Ages, we found this activity that took about a week to complete. Each day we read about one of the "four alls" and completed a section of a shadow box of it. DD10 is really into this project and DS5 was only interested in making a knight scene that you see above. The book suggests using shoe boxes, but I felt a shadow box would be easier to display for a longer time.



DD10 made all of her figures out of clay except for some pigs in her peasant scene.

The peasant who worked for all.




Priests who prayed for all.




Knights who fought for all. (The background is a stone picture she printed from the computer.)





The king who ruled all. (This section is incomplete as DD10 is having difficulty in making a person kneeling to be knighted.)



DS 5's completed project can be seen at the beginning of this post.

Pet Memorial

Our beloved guinea pig died last night. It has been especially hard on DD10.

She loved the little piggy way before she ever got her.

DD10 wanted a guinea pig. I am not a pet person. I have a hard enough time taking care of my husband and three children, I am not interested in adding the responsibility of a pet to my daily tasks.

I told DD10 that if this is what she wanted, she had to do the research by getting a notebook and answering the following questions:

How much do they cost?

What do they eat and how much does that cost?

What kind of living arrangements to they need?

Do they require supplements?



I also made it clear to her that she had to use her money to pay for this thing and to buy it's bedding and food for the entirety of it's stay with us.

There were many more questions, but DD10 did her research and filled her notebook. Once the notebook was filled, I told her that if we were patient, we could probably get a free guinea pig from somewhere. Sure enough, one came available in the local paper. We also got a free cage.

So we brought Mina home. My daughter took care of that piggy like it were her child. She scrubbed the cage once (sometimes twice) a week, fed her, cared for her, geave her treats at Christmas, and so on.

She even kept Psalm 36:6 printed on her cage.

We woke up this morning to find that Mina went to be with God. It was heartbreaking to tell her that the guinea pig was gone. She sobbed all day and there was nothing I could do to take the pain away.

Encouragement in Tough Times

So many things going on in our little lives right now. With the financial distruption to our lives in the beginning of August, things are finally starting to smooth out. By that I mean that hubby and I are at peace with it all. It is far from over, but we are at peace knowing God is in control and only has our ultimate best interest in mind.

Things I have found to be an encouragement at this time:

Books
The Bible - I am reading the book of James and it starts out "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perserverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper
Our Daily Bread for Persoanl and Family Devotions

Songs
Praise You in This Storm by Casting Crowns
Revelation Song by Philips, Craig & Dean
Our Great God by Todd Agnew

Friends - For the first time in my life, I feel I have people around me who aren't quick to judge, but will instead pray with me and for me despite their own struggles at this time. I pray for them, too as the act of praying for others invokes hope.