What's My Motivation?

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Living in Love

I Corinthians 13
Paraphrased for Homeschool

Though I teach my children how to multiply, divide, and diagram a sentence, but fail to show them love, I have taught them nothing.
And though I take them on numerous field trips, to swim practice and flute lessons; and though I involve them in every church activity, but fail to give 

them love, I profit nothing. And though I scrub my house relentlessly, run countless errands, and serve three nutritious meals every day but fail to be an example of love, I have done nothing.

Love is patient with misspelled words and is kind to young interrupters. Love does not envy high SAT scores of other homeschool families. Love does not claim to have better teaching methods than anyone else, it is not rude to the fourth telephone caller during a science lesson, does not seek perfectly behaved geniuses, does not turn into a drill sergeant, thinks no evil about friends' educational choices.

Love bears all my children's challenges, believes all my children are God's precious gifts, hopes all my children establish permanent relationships with Christ, and endures all things to demonstrate God's love.

Love never fails.

Where there are college degrees, they will fail; where there is
knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we teach in part. But when the trials of life come to our children, the history, math, and science will be done away and faith, hope and love will remain; but the greatest of these is love.

Author Unknown

What's in a Name?

Through much prayer and seeking, the Lord has put on my family's heart to go "independent" this current school year.  I thank God for the blessings and fellowship I received our first four years of homeschooling through our homeschool group, but I clearly felt the Lord's leading to not enroll or even associate with any group for now. Next year, who knows? What I do know is the strong confidence and supernatural peace that comes from obeying the voice of the Lord.

With this change came an opportunity. When you sign up to homeschool independently, you are able to name your school. I didn't want to go the whole "Sanchez Family Homeschool" route but I also didn't want to arbitrarily pick a biblical sounding name without giving any real thought to it. This gave me an opportunity-No, rather it forced me to reexamine and contemplate the ultimate goals not just for this school year but also for the rest of my children's lives. A chance to refocus, recalibrate and encourage myself with meditation on God's word and will.

After much prayer and during my normal morning devotional time, I came to a passage of scripture that mirrored exactly my feelings and convictions for what I do with my kids and why I do it. So simple, yet so profound and exact. Though I desire my children to obtain the practical knowledge of this world, my bottom line is to train and lead my children into a lifelong relationship with their Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ(Colossians 1:16;Acts 5:31). That their lives would bring praise, glory and honor to Him is the most I could ever ask for (3 John 1:4). 

1 Peter 2:5 says this, "You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ." So as the days go by and the trials come and go, I can stop and remember the purpose of "Living Stones Christian School" and be encouraged and refreshed for the ministry I have been entrusted with and equipped for by a loving, sovereign God.
 (Galatians 6:9;1 Timothy 1:12;Psalm 103:19)

Nature Explorers Club~Deb's Park

Last month, our hike was at Deb's Park. For the hike, I created a simple scavenger hunt. You can find it on  Pinterest: Nature Scavenger Hunt. Leave it to a dad to point out the animal poop along the trail and ask why I didn't include "scat" on the list. ;) I also gave the kids a blank paper and told them to sketch whatever caught their eye.  It was so awesome to see the things that they noticed: birds flying high above the hills, flowers growing around us and even an old rusty car! It was a gorgeous but super sunny day and I would love to go back again with a little more knowledge about the type of plants growing along the trail. "Dirty dozen" Weed identification As an added bonus, someone from the nature center brought out a snake for a little impromptu photo shoot. Isn't God's creation amazing!?

Like mother, like daughter!

Nature Explorers Club~Arroyo Seco Trail

It was the first meeting of the Nature Explorers Club! I wasn't sure what to expect being as this is the clubs first year and I'm organizing it. I warned everyone far in advance that they would all be my guinea pigs! Our group, which mostly consists of fellow homeschooling CCPCS familes, met up by the Rose Bowl Aquatic center. I read them "A Seed is Sleepy" by Diana Hutts Aston. Warning: Prepare to wait awhile to allow giggles to subside after reading about "naked seeds"! I knew the kids would get a kick out of that part. After a brief overview of the safety rules, we were off and headed up the road to the trail head. The hike was a very easy and family friendly trail. Roundtrip was a little over 1 mile (thanks Dane!) The kids had a great time-stopping along the way to point out seed discoveries. Did somebody say "naked seed"? Diego was kind enough to point out the dog seeds and horse seeds along they way! Oh yeah, and naked seeds. Though I may not be plant and tree savvy, I hope that these outings will accomplish one thing in the kid's hearts-to develop a great love and awe of our Creator who is very involved in the lives and ways of ALL His creatures. (Luke 12:6;Psalm 139:15) At the end of our hike, we worked on a page for our nature notebooks. Next month's theme: Trees! Can't wait!

Buddies!

Gotta start 'em young

A wild cucumber! (http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/WEEDS/wild_cucumber.html)

Hunting down those elusive lizards!

What's that on the tree?

It's just a little guy!

Plug your nose!

Bag o' seeds

More seeds!

What'd you find???

I think that grasshopper has seen better days!

If you take the time.....

to slow down....

you just might find.....

something......

Really Cool!

It's always okay to get a little silly :)

Teach Your Kids How To Pray Thoughtfully

"I've encouraged my kids at different times and in different ways to pray thoughtfully. It's easy for our little ones to just repeat the same prayer that they do everyday or copy what they've heard us pray without any thought. I really want them to understand the power of prayer and to take full advantage of it with earnest, heartfelt communication with the Lord.(Proverbs 15:29)  It's an amazing thing to have complete and total access to the God who created and sustains the whole universe and all within it and yet we tend to take that privilege for granted. We can come boldly with full confidence knowing that God hears us and desires to grant to us our petitions, according to His sovereign will.(Hebrews 4:16; John 14:13; Mark 11:24)
  Recently, I stumbled on a great article in a home school magazine that addressed this very issue. The magazine was Home School Enrichment and the article was "Prayer Basket Devotions" by Wendy Dellinger. In the article, she explains a great resource that I immediately applied for our prayer time at home. It is amazingly simply yet incredibly effective and my kids just love it. They now approach prayer time enthusiastically!

What the author implemented as a prayer basket, I have turned into our prayer jar. All you need is 5 different colors of contruction paper and a jar. Each color of paper represents a different prayer category: Countries, Ministries and Missionaries, Family and Friends, Prayer Requests, and Godly Characteristics. Discuss with your children each of the categories and come up with ideas of what to include as you write them down on little scraps of colored paper designated for that category. (For example, we write all ministry and missionary prayers on red, prayer requests on orange, godly characteristics on purple, friends and family on green, and countries on blue.) Fold up all the little pieces of paper and put them in your jar. Then, during your prayer times, each person gets one folded paper of each color and prays for those specific things. It has been a true blessing to our family and I have seen God's hand in it from day one! For example, one of our good friends was going on a trip so we wrote her prayer request for a safe trip on orange paper. Every day following that, one of us "heppened" to get her prayer request! This system has helped us is many ways. First, it has helped us to be diligent with our prayer time. Second, it helps us to remember specific requests that we have promised others to pray about. Lastly, it encourages us to pray for people and places that we ordinarily wouldn't think to pray on behalf of. I pray that you and your family will find this helpful and encourage you and your children to develop a prayerful heart!

Some homeschoolin' fun!

This week in Apologia Astronomy, we are learning about the sun. We learned how sunspots are cooler than the temperature of the sun (but still a scorching 7,000 degrees!) and that the more sunspots the sun has, the hotter our weather here on earth is! For fun, we concentrated the sun's heat using a magnifying glass and melted a hershey's kiss. Yum! The kids liked that one.

The Story of the World took us to Scotland where we learned about the life of Mary Queen of Scots. Now that could be the making of a novella! Locked up by your power hungry husband, who later on is mysteriously strangled to death in his garden. Of course, all eyes and accusations are on you, the bitter wife, making  you just as popular in the polls as Obama is now! You run for safety to your cousin, Queen Elizabeth of England, but she is beyond paranoid being as she has no heir to inherit the throne and you are next in line! She locks you up for 19 years fearing you are plotting her death, which seems to be confirmed as true when spies intercept your outgoing letters that seem to lean that way! After 19 years of accumulating numerous dogs and birds (think animal hoarders style), you are finally executed by the very one you had run to for refuge. Talk about drama! The kids made a "tartan" representing their clan (remember, we're going for a Scottish theme here!)

In our yard, the kids stumbled upon this strange mushroom growing in our grass. Very alienesque! The kids were more brave than I-I wasn't going to get near that slimy looking thing!
                                                    

And what day would be complete without having first row seats to Monster Bug Wars? Looks like you don't want to mess with a wasp, no matter how tiny it is, if you're a spider!

Bringing in the Sheaves

A common response I get from people when I tell them I home school is usually something like, "I could never do that....I  don't have the patience....I wish I could, but I just don't have what it takes." Although I truly sympathize and understand where these women are coming from, the bottom line is neither do I! I could never do that, I don't have the patience and I don't have what it takes. Notice all those statements emphasize and are focused on "I."  I definitely don't have what I need to faithfully serve my children in this capacity, but Jesus does and He freely gives! (2 Peter 1:3)

We would't dare approach any ministry at church with the idea that we are serving God because of our own abilities or talents, and yet we so often approach homeschooling with that mindset. (2 Corinthians 3:5) The bottom line is that homeschooling is a ministry, and as with any ministry, God does the calling and equipping. We come poor and empty and he in turn fills us and gives us all that we need to perform our service for Him. (1 Timothy 1:12).

God supplies all we need to fulfill any task that He calls us to. As obvious and simple as that sounds, we are in constant need of reminding. (Philippians 3:1) We quickly get run down, overwhelmed and discouraged when we lose sight of Him who performs all things for us by the power of His Holy Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6) How suddenly our calling can become a burden if we allow it to.

Remember, God is standing ready to supply the guidance (Psalm 16:11), wisdom (James 1:5), patience (Revelation 2:3) and love (1 John 4:8). It won't be easy, but it will be possible (Matthew 19:26). It will require sacrifice (Romans 12:1), diligence (Romans 12:11) and obedience (Isaiah 1:19), but to those who do not grow weary, a harvest is promised! (Galatians 6:9, John 15:16, Psalm 126:6).