Homeschool Hump Day Encouragement

As the school year begins to wind down for you, you may be tempted to just set everything aside until August or September and start school then. I would like to encourage you to consider ways of engaging your children even if your normal textbook/workbook schooling is over until the Fall.

Studies have shown that kids who are more engaged in learning will continue learning even outside of conventional learning environments. There are several things you can do with your children that covers all the academics as well as some elective subjects. Here's a brief list of some of those ideas:

• Go to the zoo-science
• Allow children to help write the grocery list-handwriting
• Visit the local fire station-civics/community understanding
• Wash the family vehicle-physical education
• Walk around a local lake or park area-science and physical education
• Make cookies for local police, fire, EMS (ambulance) or hospital employees-science, math, civic awareness
• Choose household chores to help with and switch every week-life skills
• Visit a local art gallery-fine art appreciation
• Visit a local museum-history, science, arts
• Write letters to friends or family members your children don't see often-handwriting, language arts
• Participate in the local library's summer reading program-reading, language arts
• Watch a parade-civic/community awareness

This is of course not a complete list of things you could do, but the idea is to think of learning in all aspects of your everyday life! What can you include in this list?

Check out this printable! It can placed in a photo frame for easier use. Just slide it in the frame, fill in the numbers with a dry erase marker, and cross off as you complete things. Once your list has been achieved, begin a new one!

Lyn~

When You Can't Explain It...

As Christians, we have a different "moral compass" than the world. We discussed that last week. You get ready to d something, say something or go somewhere and for some reason that you just can't explain, you don't feel right about it. Something inside keeps telling you that it's not right. From last week's post about the Holy Spirit, we know that it is God's way of keeping us in check. But what about those times when it's not you saying or doing something or going somewhere that you get that "this isn't right" feeling about? What do you do with that?

The prompting of the Spirit is often used to inform your children through you. Their hearing from the Spirit is not quite as developed as yours as their parent. Or maybe they are not yet of the age that they've made a decision to follow Jesus and make Him Lord over their lives. In this case, God uses you to say, "Now Timmy, is that thing you're going to do the right thing to do? God doesn't want you launching sister's baby doll into the trash can (or any number of similar things)." God also uses wives to speak up about that prompting, too.

Think about the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. God told Elizabeth first that she would bear a son, then He told Zechariah. God told Mary she would bear the Son of God, then He told Joseph. Each time, the women told their husbands (or soon-to-be husband), but then God spoke to the men. Wives tend to be more tenderhearted and hear from the Lord in a more intimate way. Now I'm not saying that if you feel like there's something your husband wants to buy and you feel a prompting from the Spirit that he shouldn't buy it that the Lord is going to send an angel to tell him that after you just did! I'm saying that you need to be confident to tell your husband that you don't have peace about the purchase, you feel an urging to not do this or that, etc.

When you get that feeling, that sense that "this just isn't right," don't shy away from speaking up and saying so. The Word says to be bold. It also says that God will put the law (the knowing of right and wrong) in our hearts and minds. If you don't have peace about something, pray about it, and then discuss it with your husband or your children. And even if you still can't explain why you feel this way, explain that it just doesn't feel right in your spirit. You are responsible for what you say and do and what you don't say or do, so even if you happen to be wrong, you are choosing to act on what you believe the Holy Spirit is saying.

Have a blessed week!

Lyn~

Homeschool Hump Day Encouragement

As the year is winding down, I have this thought in the chaos of end of the year events with my children's supplemental school:

Lyn~

More Than a Moral Compass...The Holy Spirit is Our Guide!

Have you been in a situation where you're hanging out with your friends, thinking about the fun times you're having and one of those friends wants to do something that just doesn't sit well with you? I'm not talking about anything illegal or even anything bad perse. They just want to flirt with a waiter or be a bit more obnoxious than usual or do something that feels...wrong, to you anyway. That's often referred to as your moral compass. But it's much more than that.

God has called us as His children and followers of Christ to live set apart lives. So when you're friend wants to leave a tip in a glass of water instead of on the table or wants to intentionally trip someone while they're walking or jokingly harass someone else and you begin to feel a twinge in your heart, your spirit, that's not some ethereal, mystical compass pulling at you. That's the Holy Spirit! He's letting you know that whatever your friend is doing, is not right or good and you shouldn't participate in that. 

Leaving that friend alone for a bit here, have you ever received more change back than you know you should have? Did you choose to keep it? Or was there something rising inside of you, in your heart or mind, that made you speak up and say something to whomever gave you too much? If you spoke up because you felt you should or that you needed to, that was the Holy Spirit speaking to you. It's how God speaks to us to show us what's right and what's wrong that we're doing in our lives. Without it, we would not have a reason to have morals and values. Nothing would matter that we did because it wouldn't feel right or wrong...it would just be what we wanted to do all the time.

The Bible is the basis of that moral compass and the Holy Spirit is that guide that shows us when we're going down the wrong path and when a change must be made. In Galatians 5:17 the Word shows us that our sinful nature is to do opposite of what the Spirit wants. These two forces are constantly fighting each other so we struggle with doing the right thing sometimes. But when the Spirit guides us, we produce the kind of fruit in our lives that is pleasing to God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Have a blessed week!

Lyn~

Friday 'Fess Up

Today's 'fess up is about music, specifically Christian music. Lately, I've been troubled by the lyrics to a recently released song from a popular group. The lyrics are talking about a husband and wife's marriage and how they're both broken. But what the song says beyond that is that "maybe you and I were never made to be complete....the only way we'll last forever is broken together."

Maybe it's just the way I interpret things, but I believe Jesus makes us complete through His sacrifice on the cross! That got me to thinking about some of the other Christian songs I have been listening to. One says "you must think I'm strong enough to give me what I'm going through..." If I'm going through something bad, I don't believe God GAVE that to me and He certainly doesn't push me to the point of hitting rock bottom, as the song goes on to say. Lastly, there is a song with lyrics that proclaim that He (God) gives and takes away...While I do agree that He gives us favor and blessings and He does take away pain, the condemnation of our sin, I do not agree that He gives us things and takes them away. 

I'm trying to be more intentional in what I listen to and what I allow into my mind and ultimately my spirit because I know it does affect me and my attitude, behavior, mood, etc. So this week, listen more intently to the lyrics of the music you listen to. What are they speaking to your spirit? Are they building you up or tearing you down? Do they reflect your values and morals?

Maybe it's time to alter your playlist!

Lyn~

Homeschool Hump Day Encouragement

Do you feel like you lose momentum toward the end of the school year? I know what that looks like. You're so close to the end of the book, you think you might just stop right now. After all, most textbooks pick up with the new school year right about that place the last textbook left off, right? They overlap in teaching and learning some of those later skills.

Or maybe you're like me...the end of the textbook is so far away. You've worked hard on the material all year, but there have been struggles--yours and the kids! But the end of the textbook is almost out of sight, out of reach before the school year is over and what's the point of all this homeschooling if I can't finish the textbook? I've caught myself thinking that!!

Homeschooling Mama, this is the time to take a step back. You need something to refresh you and your homeschooling even if it's just to get through the rest of the school year. Try going to a park, taking a field trip, exploring your town or area, take the kids grocery shopping for certain items and incorporate math, or just flat out PLAY!

We lose momentum because of the monotony of what our homeschool day has become. But it's okay to deviate from the norm or what you think SHOULD be a normal homeschool day! Changing things up reenergizes not only the kids to get them ready for more learning but it gives you a new outlook, too. You can focus on the task and accomplishing it with ease rather than with struggle and conflict. Pray that the Lord would give you new ideas of teaching your children.

You know, in the Old Testament, there weren't textbooks, a normal school year or grades given out. But Deuteronomy 6 says this about schooling:

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:7-9).
Teaching your children doesn't all have to come from textbook and workbooks. They are great aids, especially when we don't know where to begin in our homeschooling journey. But think of the world around you and what you can show and teach all of your children from God's creations!

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego had similar quests for knowledge and understanding. They worked for the king and God gave them knowledge because they also prayed and worked for God!

Don't get discouraged, Mama! Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it!

Lyn~

Do You Walk By Faith...or By Sight?

This weekend at church, I went up to receive prayer for healing. I've been battling a sore thumb/wrist area for a few months and I know the Lord can and will heal me. I just hadn't gone up to be prayed over until Sunday. I'm not sure why. Maybe other pressing issues or situations in my life or just had a day when I had forgotten about the slight pain that comes and goes.

So, I went up and received prayer. Its was amazing because I literally felt tingling in both hands and I received that healing right then and there! The pain was gone except for this tingling, which was not pain, but I can't exactly describe the feeling. Has this ever happened to you? Have you received prayer and answer or healing immediately? I hadn't experienced this before, so I was quite excited!
After lunch, we came home and I began to work on the computer. Well, it wasn't long before that familiar crampy, achy pain came back and it seemed even stronger than it had been. You know, Satan likes to do that to us to get us to doubt and start to fester unbelief that our healing actually took place. He wants us to lose faith in the healing power of Jesus! And that, dear sisters, is when we must turn from what we are seeing, feeling, and experiencing and hold fast and strong to what we believe. Jesus died and took our sickness, pain, disease on Himself! To deny that we are healed and to want to hold on to those things is to say there was no reason for Jesus' death. 

Jesus conquered more than death on the cross, though. He bore everything Satan created to destroy us. Jesus was made sickness that we might be healthy through His sacrifice. If you believe your are healed, you were prayed for and you have faith in the power of Jesus' Name to overcome sickness and disease, then don't let your faith waver and stray! Hold on to the promise that He bore all of that for you...no matter what you see in the natural. It's been settled in Heaven and God is preparing to manifest your healing in this realm even now!

Lyn~