It's Been a While

This blog has been neglected too long. It is time to start tapping in words that will create a "picture". By the way, my name is Avonlea and I am the oldest of Mom and Dad's four children. I am fourteen and have a passion for animals and music. I also love taking pictures and I will hopefully overwhelm you with pictures of cats, snow, birds, and more! Enjoy.........


My Grandma and Grandpa's wild cat in my bedroom

A winter morning in Walla Walla county



Dad on the tractor up at Parkdale with Rose and Rowan...... in the snow

Mom posing while it's snowing (in Parkdale)

A merlin in Walla Walla county

 



Balance

If you asked me what was that most important thing that I wanted my home-schooled children to learn, I would answer without hesitation, "the Bible."

The person who knows the Word of God is a truly educated person.

However, this fall, as we went about our home school day, I had a mental image of a scale. On one side of the scale, sat the math, science, literature, music, languages, geography, typing, etc. On the other side of the scale sat the Bible. I realized that if I truly wanted the Bible to impact the other areas of study, the scale would have to be at least equal. As it was, the scale was very scholastically heavy and Biblically light. Adjustments were in order.

So, now we start our day with God's Word. We read a few chapters, discuss them, pray (with a prayer list), watch the 40 day mission challenge, and journal. It takes an hour. We then move into other subjects. At the end of the school day we come together again and read about the early church. We read biographies of missionaries and martyrs. It takes another hour. The day is bookended by truth.

I can tell you this, I have never been so relaxed in my home school day as I am this year. I am covering the most important thing, and with that, everything else falls into perspective. We pursue God first, prioritize our day, and watch Him infiltrate everything.

I heard Rowan talking to Grant the other day.
 He said, "Grant I don't know what to do. I can't stop thinking about God!"
Grant replied, "You don't want to stop thinking about God, because when you do, all good things follow Him out."

This is truly it. I want them to establish the habit of thinking about God all the time. To know, that all good comes from Him, and apart from Him is nothing good.
 The scale is slowly moving in the right direction....

The Children's Hour by Annie

"Between the dark and the daylight,

When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day's occupations,

That is known as the Children's Hour."

*Longfellow

This poem has been making the cinnamon roll circuit of my mind lately and has finally arrived in the middle. The middle being where action takes place.

There was little I needed to revamp for school this semester, fall went very smoothly (despite a very thorny Rose). The only curriculum things I altered were spreading a week of grammar out to two weeks (filling in with more journaling and poetry), and adjusting a few things on Avonlea's checklist. Avonlea really loves languages and cajoled me to let her take Spanish. She also is very interested in calligraphy. So I bought a Spanish course and a calligraphy book and gave her free hand in them.

The only major change I added was the addition in my day of a Children's Hour. I ask things of my children all day. They, for the most part, obey without grumbling. So many times when they ask me to do something with them I have a legitimate excuse, "Sweetheart, my hands are covered in chicken grease right now," "I don't really think a bike ride in 30 degree weather sounds appealing," "I hate monopoly." etc. So....I told them on Sunday night, that I am setting aside 3-4pm every day for them. NOT for their education, NOT for their nourishment, NOT for their laundry or dust-balls, but for THEM.

So this week, Avonlea, Grant, and I finish afternoon school, get the babes out of quiet time and discuss what we are going to do with our hour. The first day we played sardines (like hide and seek) for the whole time, Tuesday we played red-light green-light, mother-may-I (which I discovered they had never heard of), and duck-duck-goose. Today, they wanted to bake brownies.

So for one hour, I am theirs exclusively.........and it's the best spent hour of my day.