Trixie's Travels...

Sunflowers make me smile...

A dear friend sent me a bunch of smiles today.  She is on a missions trip in Thailand right now and they went to a sunflower farm ~ these flowers ALWAYS make me smile....I can't help it.

I would love to look out my back door and see this!

or this...

I can't help but to think about how a sunflower follows the sun ~ gee, I wonder where the sun is in this picture?

Did you see the bee on the landing pad?

How about the bee on this one.....Did ya see it?

Don't they make YOU smile? 
  

What happened?

As part of the kid's curriculum, they need to do copywork.  Basically, just copying word for word a beautifully written piece of work.  This term their copywork is coming from an old book co-compiled by one of my newest favorite authors, Emma Serl.  The book is American Ideals. I found it while searching the internet via  Google Books for good literature.  This was a compilation of written works by many authors dealing with the subject of Patriotism and was written so that "somehow (they might) get a clear idea of what love of country implies in the patriot's soul and should lead to in the patriot's conduct"*.

In this book is an abridged version of a written work by George W. Doane entitled "The Men to Make a State".

    The Men to Make a State must be intelligent men.  The right of suffrage is a fearful thing.  It calls for wisdom, and discretion, and intelligence, of no ordinary interests of all the nation.  It takes in, at every exercise, the interest of all the nation.  Its results reach forward through time into eternity. Who will go to it blindly?  Who will go to it passionately?  Who will go to it as a sycophant, a tool, a slave? How many do!  These are not the men to make a state.

    The Men to Make a State MUST BE HONEST MEN.  I mean men with a single face.  I mean men with a single eye.  I mean men with a single tongue.  I mean men that consider always what is right, and do it at whatever the cost.  I mean men whom no king on earth can buy. 

    Men who are in the market for the highest bidder; men that make politics their trade, and look to office for a living; men that will crawl, where they cannot climb, - these are not the men to make a state.

    The Men to Make a State MUST BE BRAVE MEN.  I mean the men that do, but do not talk.  I mean the men that dare to stand alone.  I mean the men that are to-day where they were yesterday, and will be to-morrow.  I mean men that can stand still and take the storm.  I mean the men that are afraid to kill, but not afraid to die.

    The man that calls hard names and uses threats; the man that stabs in secret with his tongue or with his pen; the man that moves a mob to deeds of violence and self-destruction; the man that freely offers his last drop of blood, but never sheds the first, - these are not the men to make a state.

I appreciate the books of old that challenge a child's heart; the books that make them think so that when they copy these words, it is like they are engraving them on their heart and hopefully as they grow older they will rise up to a higher standard than that around them.

So I wonder, what happened to these kind of books today?

**written in the introduction of the book by Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus, Harvard University

Homeschooling ~ How we start our day....

If you didn't know, we have been homeschooling for a while now.  It was something that God completely directed us in because there is NO WAY! and when I say NO WAY! I mean NO WAY!, I would of even thought of doing this. Looking back though, I can't see life any other way for us, there has been so many benefits to it and some I probably will not see until years down the road. 

We spend our mornings getting into gear by the normal getting ready, making of beds, eating of breakfast; hopefully, brushing of teeth and doing chores around the house.  

On a good day, we say the Pledge of Allegiance, our school motto and pray as we begin our day.  I say "good day" as a way of saying it just doesn't happen every day.  I would love to say that we are so disciplined and that life NEVER interrupts us so that we can do these things in a regular manner each and every morning, but that just isn't how life rolls around here.

The kids have added saying their scripture memory verses after our school motto and it is so sweet how they give a high five or a "Good Job" when each of them does it word for word perfect. 

This year was another year of new beginnings.  We attend Community Bible Study weekly in our area and along with doing that study we added a few more things that we rotate in the week.  

Along with the kids doing their study in Acts, they also read 2 chapters of the Old Testament.  We want to read through the Bible twice before Sis graduates High School.  We started in Genesis and will read straight through to Revelation and start again.  While we read, we look for any promises that God gives in those chapters.  They  can be promises that He answers immediately or it gives the kids something to look forward to as they read on. The kids need to tell me the promises that they found and I am amazed at how most of the time they see promises that the other one didn't pick out.  

 

Once or twice a week, we read a hymn and about the author of that hymn.  I have confessed that I am not musically inclined so I just "read" all of the words to the hymn.  One day we plan on getting some music.  There isn't any rhyme or reason as to what hymn we read about; I usually just pick one that I have heard about or like the words to and we read that one.  

 

We rotate reading Know What You Believe with the hymn study.  This book we read a little bit at a time and the kids listen to what I read to them and then write down three things that they remember from my reading.  They keep these entries in a journal.  This has been a challenge because I do not allow them to look back in the book to get information.  They need to remember correctly the information that was read to them.  The kids can ask clarifying questions to me before they write down the information but the information must be accurate.  One of those listening skills that is often hard to learn in the beginning and needs to be continually worked on.  

 

Each day they read a chapter or two in a book about a missionary that lived in the time period that we are studying.  Right now, they are finishing up David Livingstone - a missionary to Africa.  Next up, will be William Booth.  The Trial and Triumph book is read from, maybe, every 2 to 3 weeks.  It is usually a small story about a person from church history and correlates with the biography that the kids are reading.  

It sounds like a lot, even look likes a lot when you are writing it down; but time wise, it only takes about a 1/2 an hour to accomplish all of it.  If the kids had to do ALL of it every day, I don't think that it would be as interesting for them but because we rotate books in and out during the week, it keeps them looking forward to what we are doing that day.  

Everybody does schools differently, that is the great thing about homeschooling it is fit to the individual family ~ so happy schooling!

Until next time.....