Forgiveness

HELEN
You mustn't be revengeful
You have to be strong
To offer good for evil
Return right for wrong
We must not hold a grudge
And we must learn to endure
Then as God is your judge
At least your heart will be pure
Forgiveness
Is the mightiest sword
Forgiveness of those you hate
Will be your highest reward
When they bruise you with words
When they make you feel small
When it's hardest to bear
You must do nothing at all
Forgiveness
Is the simplest vow
Forgiveness
Of all their crimes
Is your deliverance now
Bless those souls
Who would curse your name
When the last bell tolls
You'll be free of blame
You can continue to grieve
But know the Gospel is true
You must forgive those who lie
And bless them that curse you
Forgiveness
Is the mightiest sword
Forgiveness of those you hate
Will be your highest reward
The time will come when we will leave this world,
and then the injustice and the pain and the sin will fall away from us,
and only the spark of the spirit will remain - returning to God who created it
You must never lose faith
You must never lose heart
God will restore your trust
And I know you're afraid
I'm as scared as you are
But willing to be brave
Brave enough for love

Tunnels Beach Kauai Hawaii 2007 Matt Anderson Photography

Tunnels Beach Kauai Hawaii 2007 Matt Anderson Photography, originally uploaded by Matt Anderson Photography.

We are looking for places to stay on Kauai for our 20th wedding anniversary. This beach is supposed to be the best snorkeling!

Wellness of Body

I am on a roll today. Just feel like writing down thoughts as they come to mind. It feels so good to sit comfortably the last two days. I didn't push it last night by sitting through a three hour movie though. That was good for me to say no to that because I had sat through church and the party at Noorul and Khairol's house. Both days I got up and did my moist-heat with the Thermophore pad (best purchase of 2010), back and hamstring stretches, and any core strengthening exercises I need to do from Parwana. I wasn't able to do that on Saturday before the morning of prayer, and I paid for it later on in the day. Once those little pain receptors in my back find friends to join them, I am all bound up. Better to be preventative and get the little ones smoothed out in the am after my night of sleep. 


So, I am in no pain and have no tightness. What is funny is the pain is very minor now, it is more "nagging" than anything. So, it fools me into believing it isn't that bad, but it really affects everything I do.


So, my body is well. I am trying to put good things in it too. :)


I also got a very good night of sleep last night. Too many late nights because of the Olympics and ministry things. All great things, but it was good to rest last night rather than go to watch North and South with the girls. I needed some down time at home with my sweetheart, especially since we have stuff Monday-Thursday night this week. :)

Filing Out My Life

This morning I transitioned the two file drawers in my kitchen computer area to the file cabinet in the office. I will bring the files that I file from opening the mail out here. It makes sense. I spend much more time out here than at my office, and I always open the mail out here rather than in the office. So, it will be a quick open and file, rather than a open, set on the dining room table, let it sit there, gather up all the piles, plop it in my office "catch all" drawer, put it in the "to file basket" and file having to get down on my knees to avoid straining my back. I don't know why I didn't think of this years ago. Oh well.

In the file next to me were old files related to homeschool and my online life of Edu-Anon and Trapdoor. I took a trip down memory lane, and I read old posts I had copied for archiving. It is so interesting to see the transition that most of us have made out of that. Tia's famous, "Moooom, are we there yet?" post that caused a little stir. The posts about transitions in theology. The posts about how much we have lost of ourselves through marriage and kids. Seeing where many are now, I know that this was because of what was happening in the spousal relationships at the time. So much has sifted out in that respect. So many divorces and transitions. It is mind-boggling to think about it.

It made me smile. It was all part of life in my 40's: elementary age kids, co-ops, teaching the basics, finding support for my own growth and education through Edu-Anon, Trapdoor. wisdom from moms who had high schoolers, tears, drama. All part of my life then.

I have transitioned somehow as I hit 50. My homeschool file cabinet is no longer needed, really. The basics have been covered. I have independent learners who only occasionally ask me for help. I facilitate and host a couple of group classes, but it is all through digital means, and I have no need for printing and filing papers for myself.

Trapdoor folded years ago (what year? I have forgotten). Friendships remain intact and some are so precious to me. I am so thankful for all in my life. The collective whole exhausted me though, but I am pretty sure I am at peace with all of them individually but have no desire to return to that collective whole that it morphed into after TDS closed down. I have nothing against it, but my real life collective whole has much less drama, and if it does, it is much easier to sort out and make peace than through the words we furiously type out on our keyboards.

Timer has sounded. On to filing out my life.

Holy Spirit Rain Down

Holy Spirit, rain down, rain down
Oh Comforter and Friend
How we need Your touch again
Holy Spirit, rain down, rain down
Let Your power fall
Let Your voice be heard
Come and change our hearts
As we stand on Your word
Holy Spirit, rain down

No eye has seen, no ear has heard
No mind can know what God has in store
So open up heaven, open it wide Over Your church and over our lives


I was so touched by this song this morning. I used to listen to it when I would sit up in my "happy place" in my bedroom in Southeast Asia twelve years ago. God gave me such peace there. I had such confidence in knowing that He would accomplish what concerned me and would bring glory to Himself there. 


I feel that today too. Being around so many younger people today who are lacking in confidence about what God has for them, it reminds me that I was like that when I was younger also.  It helps me to empathize with them. 


You are so there, Lord. It was hard when our relationship was new, and I didn't know that I could trust you. Someone 24 just hasn't walked long enough to know that. The challenge for me is not to get so comfortable in our relationship that I get soft. I must press forward in trust. Believing you with wide-eyed wonder like I did when I was 24 only KNOWING beyond a shadow of a doubt that You will accomplish what concerns me. 


The LORD will fulfill [his purpose] for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever--do not abandon the works of your hands. (Psalm 138:8)


I lift my eyes to Your throne
Lord as I lose myself in You 
The song in my heart will be 
Yours alone 
My treasure is in the Cross Jesus 
I love to meet You There
I hunger and thirst for You 
Now flood my soul  


Chorus  
River of Love
River of Healing 
Holy Spirit flow
River of Grace 
River of Mercy flow 
River of Peace
River of Promise
Holy Spirit flow 
River of Joy 
River of Blessing flow


Jesus come again . . .

Body Wellness

I have not talked about Body Wellness. I knew that my tendon laceration and subsequent pin being accidentally pulled out (causing me not to be able to exercise) would result in a weight gain, and it did!  I was at my ideal weight when I walked into my surgery on November 19. 


Now, I am over my ideal. :)  I am not going to let it discourage me, however. I had done so well at maintaining my weight over the last few years, this is merely a "bump" in the road with unavoidable circumstances. 

So, I started back with my BodyBugg logging and wearing it for calorie burn. 


I am doing really well already. :)

Poem in the Movie Invictus

Background

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Invictus

At the age of 12, Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. In 1867 he would successfully pass the Oxford local examination as a senior student. In 1875 he wrote the "Invictus" poem from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until the age of 53.

Text

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of fate
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years finds
And shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

At What Point?

At what point do you leave

And say "Enough is enough!"

Without it seeming like abandonment

Or like you're going in a huff?

I wish I knew the answer

Of why I need to go

But time has changed me

And God has sent out

His beckoning call

Toward something that

In the long run

Is better for us all

2009 Reads

JANUARY

1. Silas Marner by George Eliot
2. River of Doubt:Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
3. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
4. "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau
5. Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
6. A History of US: Liberty for All?
7. "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
8. Papa's Wife
9. Job
10. Song of Solomon
11. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
FEBRUARY
12. Reflections on the Life of the Spirit13. The Twin Manifestations
14. Walden
15. Ecclesiastes
16. No Exit by Sartre
17. St. Joan by Bernard Shaw
18. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
19. Long Day's Journey into Night by O'Neill
MARCH
20. A Streetcar Named Desire
21. The Misery of Job & the Mercy of God
22. Mudhouse Sabbath
23. Murder in the Cathedral
24. Sartre in 90 Minutes
25. Death of a Salesman
26. Waiting for Godot
27. Uncle Tom's Cabin
28. The Blessing of Friendship
29. Equus
30. War, Terrible War: A History of US
31. 1 Chronicles
32. Proverbs
33. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
APRIL34. "The Telltale Heart"
35. "The Raven"
36. Battle Cry of Freedom
37. Obadiah
38. Jonah
39. A History of US: Reconstructing America40. "Bartleby,the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street"
41. Joel

MAY
42. Les Miserables
43. Amos
44. Hosea
45. Confessions of Rousseau
46. 2 Chronicles
47. Final Harvest: Poems of Emily Dickinson (parts)
48. The Courtship of Miles Standish by Longfellow
49. The Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow
50. The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila)

JUNE

51. Souls of Black Folk by DuBois

52. Greek Lives by Plutarch

52. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

53. Roman Lives by Plutarch

JULY

54. City of God by Augustine

55. Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe (7.5)

56. Isaiah

57. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

58. The Greater Chronicle

59. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

60. Psalms

61. Micah

62. Nahum

AUGUST

63. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

64. Zephaniah

65. My Life in France

66. Wesley the Owl (very cute)

67. Julie and Julia (only got to p. 95)

68. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

69. Leaves of Grass (selections) by Whitman

70. The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar(selections)

71. Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays (selections)

73. The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (selections)

74. The Voice of the Poet: Allen Ginsberg (selections) YUCK!

75. Selected Poems by Rita Dove

76. Otherwise: New and Selected Poems by Jane Kenyon

77/78. The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: Volumes 1 & 2 (selections)

79. The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems by Robert Pinsky (selections)

80. Selected Poems by Mark Strand

81. Allen Ginsberg Poetry Collection (selections)

82. Collected Early Poems: 1950-1970 by Adrienne Rich (selections)

83. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (selections)

84. The Voice of the Poet: Sylvia Plath (selections)

85. The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath (selections)

86. Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (selections)

87. The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot

88. Selected Poems of John Donne

SEPTEMBER

89. Much Ado About Nothing

90. The Perfect Leader

91. What I Thought I Knew

92. Jeremiah

93. Lamentations

94. Habbakuk

OCTOBER

95. Daniel

96. Wuthering Heights (Book Dames)

97. Haggai

98. The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

NOVEMBER

99. Ezekiel

100. Letters by a Modern Mystic by Frank Laubach (favorite!)

101. As You Like It

102. Zechariah

I read sections of 103-115 since October 2008:

103. Be Restored: 2 Samuel & 1 Chronicles

104. Be Distinct: 2 Kings & 2 Chronicles

105. Be Patient: Job

106. Be Skillful: Proverbs

107. Be Satisfied: Ecclesiastes

108. Be Comforted: Isaiah

109. Be Decisive: Jeremiah

110. Be Reverent: Ezekiel

111. Be Resolute: Daniel

112. Be Concerned: Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Zephaniah

113. Be Heroic: Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra

114. Be Amazed: Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Malachi

115. Be Determined: Nehemiah

116. Malachi (Done with the Old Testament!)

117. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: OT by Walvoord and Zuck

DECEMBER

118. The Divine Conspiracy (finally!)

119. Matthew (in the New Testament now!!)

120. Mark

121. Luke

122. John

2009 Movies and Documentaries

It is time, once again, for a documentation of all the movies and documentaries I watched this year. I watched a good bit of them in December when I was infirm!

JANUARY

1. George Eliot - Famous Authors
2. Sylvia (Plath)
3. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
4. Frederick Douglass Biography
5. Walden Documentary
6. Ballykissangel: Season Two
FEBRUARY
7. Doubt (wow!)
8. The Visitor
9. Daniel Deronda
10. Silas Marner (w/Ben Kingsley)
11. American Experience: Eugene O'Neill
MARCH
12. Slumdog Millionaire (WOW!)
13. Amazing Grace (1 1/2 x rewatch)
14. Ballykissangel: Season Three
15. The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce
16. Long Day's Journey Into Night
17. Mark Twain by Ken Burns
18. The Last Legion (Colin F!)
APRIL
19. Expelled (about Intelligent Design)
20. A Room with a View (newer version)

MAY
21. Les Miserables
22. 17 Again

JUNE

23. Great American Authors Since 1650 (4 DVD's)

24. The Tell-Tale Heart

25. Famous Authors: Emily Dickinson

26. Great Russian Writers: Fyodor Dostoevsky

27. Lars and the Real Girl

28. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

29. UP

30. The Lion Has Wings (1940 War Propaganda)

31. Mansfield Park (2007 Masterpiece)

32. Savages

33. Return to Me

34. Death at a Funeral
35. The Last of the Mohicans

36. Enchanted April (I forgot how much I love this)

37. Benny and Joon (quirky Johnny Depp - loved it!)

38. Music Within (great biopic)

JULY

39. Ballykissangel: Season Four

40. Ballykissangel: Season Five

41. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

42. Facing the Giants

43. Ballykissangel: Season Six

44. The Proposal

AUGUST

45. A&E Biography: Julia Child

46. Julie and Julia (see my review here)

47. American Experience: Walt Whitman

48. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

49. Pride and Prejudice (Kiera Knightly)

SEPTEMBER

50. Cry, the Beloved Country (beautiful!)

51. Ladies in Lavendar (slow and sweet)

52. The Gathering Storm (HBO Biopic on Churchill)

53. Reign Over Me (edited for TV)

54. Much Ado About Nothing

55. Fiddler on the Roof (only half!)

OCTOBER

56. Anne of Green Gables

57. Anne of GG: The Sequel

58. Anne of GG: The Continuing Story

59. Capitalism: A Love Story (SO manipulative!)

NOVEMBER

60. As You Like It

61. Lost in Austen (hilarious with off humor I didn't get)

62. Tales from Avonlea: First Season Highlights

63. Wuthering Heights (1998)

64. Much Ado About Nothing

DECEMBER

65. The Best of Youth

66. The Blindside

67. Wuthering Heights (2009)

68. As You Like It (with Brit Lit class)

69. Grey Gardens (loved it!)

70. Into the Storm

71. Grey Gardens Documentary

72. Road to Avonlea: Season I

73. Never Been Kissed

74. Music and Lyrics

75. Phantom of the Opera

76. Mama Mia

77. Havana Nights

78. The Muppet Christmas Carol

79. It's a Wonderful Life

80. 13 Going on 30

81. High School Musical 1

82. High School Musical 2

83. High School Musical 3

84. Away from Her (excellent on Alzheimer's)

85. Chocolat

86. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (TV)

87. The Nanny Diaries

88. Anne of Green Gables

89. Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel

Fellow Traveler

Fellow Traveler by Ginny Owens

You can't change who I am
Or the way that i think
I won't change how you live
Or the words that you speak
But neither of us is a stranger to joy or pain
No matter how we're different
We're very much the same

Chorus:
Fellow traveler let me take you to a place where I've found rest
Fellow seeker let me show you where I've found true happiness
Fellow beggar I have good news, I know where there is bread
(I'll show you where there's bread)

I don't know where you've come from
Or where you've been along your way
But I can tell you what I've lived through
And how I made it here today
Let me share with you the story of hope I've come to know
A love that's always for me
And a peace that frees my soul

Chorus:

So if you are hungry come to the table with me
And you won't go hungry ever again

Relief

The muscles relax as the he masterfully works with tension and release exercises

The hands glide and push back and forth

Infirm

I recline on heat and ice

With pain killers, muscle relaxants,

And anti-inflammatories coursing

Through my body

As muscles spasm out of control

With every movement

There is pain

Yet, my heart soars

Despite being sore

The spirit can go to places Divine

In the midst of the pain

That transcend this temporal world

And ground us to what is truly important

And eternal in this life

Our bodies waste away

But our spirits will rise on the last day

Audrey Assad - My new favorite artist!

Audrey Assad - Love is Moving - Cornerstone Chandler - Worship from brianwurzell on Vimeo.

Tear Day

It seems that today is a tear day

One little thing set me down a path

Cleansed by salt water

Running down the cheeks

Over a six hour span

I'm spent

Yet refreshed

Authenticity accepted

Validated

Understood

From caring hearts

Outstretched over the telephone line

This Made Me Laugh This Morning

I'm a "Realist-Optimist" What are you?

The Delight of an Hour

I delight in the last hour

Talking to teenage sponges

About the effect of advertising

On the human psyche

Seeing the percent change

In their "mock stocks"

Explaining the function

Of an extensor tendon

On a big right toe

Progress made through

Sir Gawain's vocabulary

Eyes engaged - Love exchanged

Tea sipped from great-grandma's

English tea cups

A delicious hour

Savored until the last minute

Drops

Emergencies

One thing after another

Little emergencies and big

Isaac has an emergency appendectomy

Steve's dad dies suddenly

I cut my extensor tendon for my big toe

People rushing to care for their fellow man

The ebb and flow of this mass of humanity

With individual needs and fears

The mass becomes each lone heart

And we must care

We must touch

We must strive to go outside of ourselves

To hug the collective whole one heart at a time

Without this we die as a people

Annie Barrows | Borders Media

Annie Barrows | Borders Media

From my touch!

School and Dave Ramsey Finance Class

I love being more at home this year. Even though I am not constantly looking over my kids' shoulder during school, I am there when they need me. Sometimes they do not, sometimes they do.

Today they are taking the Dave Ramsey Finance Class Chapter 4 Test on debt. Michael already did it and got a 90%. Paul is still taking it. I REALLY like that class and highly recommend it to all home schoolers, AND their parents. I wouldn't let any kids graduate without this class. It is that important and probably the most practical class they will take.

http://www.daveramsey.com/school/

New Heights!

Carol Ann Weaver reports that Paul (almost 15) is 6' 4 3/4" and Michael Weaver (17) is 6' 5 5/8". George Weaver is ONLY 6' 4 1/2"! I come in a dismal 4th place at 6' 2 1/4".

St. Teresa of Avila Quote

Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing afright thee.
All things are passing,
God never changeth.
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things.
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting . . .
Alone God sufficeth.

The Holy Spirit Tingle

In the busy-ness of my life, I am suddenly aware that the house is totally empty because Paul is at Ultimate, George took Michael to watch Paul and walk home with him, and George is going to Faruz's house to help him move Khairol and Noorul's couch.

I really wanted to help, but I my back is whack again for some reason. Maybe it is so I can be home here all alone and yet not alone. I feel You within and around me.

Thank You!

Sunday Morning Muse

I woke up at 1:15 and could not go back to sleep. I had great time with God in Daniel 4. Now, I am listening to a Teaching Company audio about The English Language and Literature. I listened to a recording of "The Battle of Malden," and it made me wish that I could call my mom and tell her that Old English sounds so much like Swedish!

I know for the last couple of years of her life, she would have not really understood what I was trying to say, but it would have been nice this morning.

So, I thought I would muse on that for a bit.

I am tired, Lord. I had a very good Shabbat Retreat, and I was rested going into it and rested during it, but my lack of sleep last night has made me very tired. :(

So, hopefully, I will get a nap.

Teaching Textbooks is the BOMB!

I have had the Teaching Textbooks Algebra II for a year now, and I have been chomping at the bit to use it. It is so COMPLETE!

Michael took his first closed book exam, and he got a 92%. He was correcting some homework in Chapter 2 today, and I asked him how he compares it to Bob Jones University Math - Is is more or less work? Harder or easier?

His response: "It seems like it takes more time to watch the lecture and understand the concepts, but the problems are easier, and you get more out of it. Also, If you get something wrong, they explain the concept."

There are also less lessons overall with 130 for the whole year. At this rate, he will be able to finish it before spring break.

The switch was worth it then! I am going to have Michael retake the Algebra Placement Exam at LBCC when he is done with Algebra II. I know he will do better.

So, It is two thumbs up for Algebra II, and I think I am going to switch Paul to it for Geometry. I am excited!

I might even switch him to Algebra I right now!

Our Homeschool Year Shaping Up and Changing

We like it, but I gave the kids the option of not watching the Biography of America videos and spending more time in reviewing their US History through this wonderful site:

http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm

This is an awesome site for reinforcement and something I failed miserably at last year. I was trying to keep in step with Thelma's pace, and she was so slow through the "Early Settlement" phase of US History that they would not read for quite some time in their text. Then, we had to FLY through the last part because she spent very little time on that. So, we are reviewing everything they learned last year at an even pace. When they finish a period, they are taking the quiz. Biography of America was an excellent "color" commentary on the events, dealing more with principles, but it wasn't hard core fact reinforcement. I think this is what they need at this point in time. So, their time will be allocated more wisely with this.

They just might feel confident enough to take the CLEP exam at the close of the review, but Paul may be too young, and Michael really lacks confidence. I will pray for him in all of that.

BRITISH LITERATURE

I don't think all this American History review will be in conflict with our moving on to British Literature. I spent HOURS this weekend working on the course that starts tomorrow. I am sure that it will get much quicker once I get into the swing of editing Thelma's lectures for our use.

She got the wrong lecture up for the second half of the class. So, I had to wait for her to get it out later last night. So, I am working on editing that last 56 minutes today.

I am thinking I will need to have my Mondays during the day be reserved for class prep since we will have TOAG ministry on Monday nights now (at least that is what we are leaning toward).

Here is our reading list for British Literature:

Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan ISBN: 0486426750

Everyman, Anonymous ISBN: 0486287262

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis ISBN: 0486431851

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, editor Jessie Weston ISBN: 0486431916

As You Like It, Shakespeare ISBN: 0486404323

Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare ISBN:0486282724

Complete Sonnets, Shakespeare ISBN: 0486266869

Selected Poems, John Donne ISBN: 0486277887

She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith ISBN: 0486268675

English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology, ISBN: 0486292827

The Kreutzer Sonata, Tolstoy- (translation) ISBN: 0486278050

Favorite Father Brown Stories, G.K. Chesterton ISBN: 0486275450

Non-Dover titles:

Beowulf: A Verse Translation, Frederick Rebsamen ISBN: 9780060573782 (old editions okay)

Paradise Lost John Milton –– Norton Critical Edition ISBN: 13: 9780393924282 (old editions okay)

One novel of choice from this selection: Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1819); Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813); or Cooper’s The Last Mohican (1826) ; other titles by instructor approval. This novel is not needed until March 2010. Students may delay making their choice or check out a copy from a local library.

They will have 8 quizzes, 4 papers (3 for Paul), 2 exams, 4 study guides, 2 vocabulary sheets, and 1 explication worksheet. It seems more straightforward than the American Literature class with less that last year's 17 writing assignments, 20 quizzes, and 4 exams (no study guides last year). The exams are both open book and take homes whereas last year's were all closed book exams. So that is very nice. :)

I am so into this. It is a TON of work, but I really like it! Maybe someday, I will develop my own literature courses for homeschoolers. I think I would do well at the lecture part of it. I am still learning, but I have learned much over the last two years through The Well-Educated Mind reading and Thelma's classes.

Musings

It is hard to believe it has been eight days since I posted, but I am going from summer to school mode. So, it means less time for TWEM books but still time to educate my mind. After all, this whole blog started as a way to express what we were learning in our schooling!

So, what are we learning?

HISTORY

Review of last year's US History because I did a horrible job of quizzing them as they went along. The American Literature and American Government classes at Co-op took so much of our time that we just read without proper review. They remember everything from Thelma's American Literature, and I realized that it is because they had their reading reinforced by lecture, discussion, quizzes, writing, and exams.

We are daily doing history in an interactive way for at least one hour, four days a week. Since they did all the reading up through reconstruction, we are simply reviewing the AP US History Flash Cards. We are reading twenty a day. Then, they split the cards up and quiz each other on the contents. Every two days, I am having them take quizzzes here:

http://www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm

Fabulous website with interactive quizzes! Love it.

Doing 20 cards a week, we can finish our review by next month and continue with our regular history that involves listening to this:

Joy Hakim's History of US on cassette

In addition, we will continue with Biography of America

SCIENCE

I bit the bullet and switched to Apologia Biology for Paul

I still think the BJU Biology is much more rigorous, but it was too dry and tedious for Paul last year (Michael dutifully did every single study guide question and excelled on the test, but I don't think he particularly enjoyed it). I have heard that BJU is the best, and I got it for $5! Yet, I also had to buy the tests and answer keys and lab notebook for probably more than the $35 I spent on all of those things for the used Apologia plus I got a multimedia CD with it. In addition, I found a website with much of the book vocabulary lists on flash cards! So cool:

http://quizlet.com/1018306/apologia-biology-module-1-edition-2-flash-cards/

I just wished I had switched him last year when the co-op class was doing Apologia Biology Lab! I was just so overwhelmed with starting a new co-op with all these people I didn't know and had been together for a long time. It was a pretty miserable start for me all around. People didn't really reach out to me or my kids except the Biology lab teacher, Sheri! So, it was a relief to drop that and just do government even though I clicked the most with the Biology lab teacher. But I digress (which I can do on this blog!)

So, I really love it, and I think that Paul loves it too! I love the CD. I love the emphasis on the Lord, and who gives a rip if it isn't as rigorous?

Michael is going to finish out this:

The Cornell Bird Biology Home Study Course.

He read the whole book last year, but to get the certificate, you must pay $200 and complete ten open book exams, but we were so uncertain about our finances with George having just lost his job (another reasons why the Co-op was just too much for me). In retrospect, we probably could have afforded it! So, I wished I had done it then. He is going back through the chapters he already read and completing the exams. I bet he retained a ton though. So, it shouldn't be too much for him.

When he completes this, I will have him do Human Anatomy and Physiology. Possibly through the community college.

Speaking of Science, I have to go on to that for the kids! To be continued tomorrow.

My life in Poems

It was a fun journey through poetry. I am coming down to earth, but I tend to think in poetry these days. Claudia said yesterday at lunch that she has written poems all her life. She does this more than journaling.

Then I got to thinking that I have written songs, and they are poetry. The nice thing about poetry is that you don't have to think up a tune.

Light bulb.

So, I am looking at my day to day in poetic terms.

Off.