The Evening News

Tonight, as my hubby and I sat watching the evening news and flicking through the few channels that our antenna gets, it seemed that a sad theme was jumping out at us… 

*Click*  We heard about the deadly toll that the recycling of electronics takes on workers in India.  We watched both adults and children working away to provide for their families by investing both their time and health into dismantling toxic waste that we, as Canadians, ship to them as recyclable electronic waste. 

Then, *Click*, there was the story about whether we should really be using that harsh “C” word at this time of year…  Christmas!  The marketers weighed in arguing that Canada is a multi-cultural country and so “Christmas” just isn’t relevant anymore for this “Winter Holiday Season”.

Just before the news came on *Click* we caught a few minutes of a documentary about life in the mid to late 1800’s.  What a stark contrast to today!  People then has so much less, wasted so much less, threw out so much less.  These were the people who raised and taught our grandparents and great-grandparents.  They laid down the foundation for the life and families and country that we now have. 

And yet, *Click*, the commercials point out the gluttonous buying frenzy that the corporate world would encourage us to indulge in at this time of year.  This is thought of as progress. 

This is the kind of progress that has brought us other interesting phenomena like the show that friends discussed with us over dinner tonight…  *Click*: “Extreme Couponing”.  I know, I don’t have cable or a satellite so I haven’t seen a whole episode but watching short snippets on YouTube has just made me cringe. 

Now, don’t get me wrong – I am about the most frugal girl there is around…  If I can get around buying something I will.  I love borrowing and lending.  Bartering is awesome and from time to time I’ve been known to clip a coupon here and there. 

But tonight I saw clips of people who had stockpiled 150 years worth of deodourant just because the coupon made it nearly free.  Do they ever wonder what they are going to do with 150 years worth of deodourant?  Or who ends up paying the real price when they are clearing out the stores for next to free?  The prices will go up!  What about the cost of devoting so much of your valuable time to shopping when you could save the same amount by growing your own food.  You get double the value by saving the money and getting fresh, organic food over processed, packaged food.  Don't we all lose when our focus is on getting stuff and not on saving money or even better on enjoying the life that God has given us.

Of course there is a time and place for couponing but we need to make the distinction between wisely investing our money and hording.  Looking over stockpiles of cake mixes, deodourants and dishwasher detergents just makes me imagine all that is invested in these items that a cash register receipt doesn’t tally.  There’s the cost, in time, of searching and planning for these purchases – often without regard for the need for the items.  There is the cost of finding storage space for all of the stuff, buying shelving, heating garages that would otherwise be cold, mortgage payments for larger homes with extra storage space that might otherwise not be needed.  I think of the extra gas in the car as I would drive out the store again and again to get that one more deal.  Then I think long and hard of all of the impulse buys that we really get caught on when we go out to buy these treasures.  The stores rely on those!  Extreme couponing may work for some but there are certainly more costs involved.

Again, I hate having this beautiful time of year, when we anticipate the coming of our Lord at Christmas, overshadowed by so much commercialism.  *Click* (Off goes the TV.)  Someone who wisely explained the stuff monster is Annie Leonard on her short videos at www.storyofstuff.com.  Interestingly, she points out that, while we have more stuff and more luxuries than any time before in history, we aren’t happier.

One way that we like to combat the Stuff Monster at this time of year and to refocus the giving onto the guy whose birthday we are actually celebrating is by giving gifts to him.  These gifts are the ones that get to the poor and hungry since he said,

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”  Matthew 25:35-40

We love Christmas in our home so we don’t want to miss out on the food, the parties, the gifts, and the happy crooning of Bing Crosby in the background, but it must be that – background music to accompany gifts that Jesus actually gets.  Here are some places that we have bought our birthday gifts for Jesus in the past.

http://www.partnersinternational.ca/

http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/
http://www.worldvision.ca/Pages/welcome.aspx

Happy hunting folks, as you seek to honor Him whose birthday we celebrate.

Peace and Joy!

Cori

Preparation: Advent

Dear Friends,

As the Christmas season starts to get harried by the constant barrage of things that we are told we must do and buy in order to make the right impression on ourselves and others I always tend to get introspective, wanting Christmas to be more than a long to do list interspersed with fun parties and gatherings and punctuated by a big Visa bill.  I want to show those around me the love of Jesus and my love for them and yet does it always have to be with gifts of the more traditional sense? 

This fall has been a harried time too.  One of those seasons in which I often feel like I am helplessly being tugged here and there, not really able to get at the reins of this speeding wagon. 

Why is it that the house seems eternally out of order, that the bills seem to overwhelm my pocketbook, that my ability to gently love and guide my children is there one moment and then vanishes at the first sign of the every day speed bumps in life.

Maybe you know them, the things I didn’t think I would have to deal with as a parent…

“Sister, can you come and help me?” says one daughter.  “The baby just pooped on the floor!”

“Why didn’t you say that she was throwing all the board books in the bathtub?”

“What do you mean the Christmas tree just fell on you?”

Some times real life is too much. 

As Christmas approaches again I strive to peel away all of the pageantry and to survive the daily circus and just be a part of the anticipation, the advent of the King.  I feel so unready in my messy house and my dirty track pants (‘cause the laundry is piled so high).

Then I remember the focus in our school this year… “Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child”.  As I journey this crazy, bumpy path, I myself need to be prepared and not to focus on the preparations of the pageantry all around me.

This fall hasn’t been a good one for maintaining the best routines; it’s been “one of those days” more often than not.  There’s a lot of room for growing, learning and improving – and I’m mostly talking about me.  But if we focus on preparing both our children and ourselves for the seasons of life we will be ready to take on the circumstances.  In the short term I want to prepare my heart for Christmas: to thrill at the anticipation of the arrival of the King.  In the longer term: my desire for my family and for myself is that we will be prepared for the path laid out before us.  If being prepared for Christmas or for life was all about managing a “to do” list it would be so much easier – even though I am so often not “managing” the way I’d like to be.  Perhaps that is why we all need to take the harder route and let the One whose words are the light for our path to lead us.

Wishing you a blessed season of advent Friends as you prepare to celebrate the arrival of our King!

Cori

Mother Culture: Nurture

Can it really be only a few days until our next Charlotte Mason gathering in Bradford?  I am very much looking forward to it but sad that I can’t squish everyone in my little living room anymore…  Sigh!  Regardless, I love getting together with all of you in person or in spirit through our virtual wanderings.  If you are reading this to brush up on what we chatted about at our last meeting then forgive me for missing so much.  I was too distracted and self-absorbed that night (and have been quite a bit since then, too.)  If you missed the meeting or are just too far away to join us then I beg your patience since I must skip over so much good stuff that we chatted about in order to actually get this little note out to you.

Thank you all for your grace in my silence when I promised to share some notes from our gatherings.  Here’s my little bit…

We discussed chapters 3 and 4 from Educating the WholeHearted Child: “Home Nurture: Shepherding Your Child’s Spirit to Long for God” and “Home Discipleship: Shaping Your Child’s Heart to Love for God”.  Practically, we also looked at the first part of chapter 11 on Language Arts which I will try to summarize that in a later posting.

Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up [nurture them] in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Nurture is more than just checking off your spiritual teaching from a daily checklist of “educational things to do”, more than filling your day with praiseworthy things and activities.  When we make the decision to homeschool, I think that we all struggle with wanting to help our kids to have a proper Christian education and yet we don’t want to minimize faith to a subject in school.  What are some ways that you, Friends, help to take spiritual development beyond being a simple subject to learn?

We talked about making sure that Bible reading time wasn’t just done during school hours, that we needed to model for our kids both our devotional time and that we serve others as a manifestation of our faith.  But biblical nurturing is more than that.  Biblical nurturance of our children must be a constant and ongoing investment in the growth of and caring for the faith of the children that we have been entrusted to raise!

The Clarksons write (on page 47), “If the purpose of biblical nurture is to feed your children with God’s life, then it must involve more than just doing Christian things at home.  Biblical nurture opens windows for God’s life-giving grace to enter your children’s hearts.”  God does this by way of His Word (“Scripture is grace in print”), prayer (“Prayer is grace in words”), and Fellowship (“Fellowship is grace in person”).

Then they went on to give a model of home nurture.  (Good, I needed some concrete instruction!)  Their model follows the acronym GIFTS and show five key areas that we should work to develop as we nurture our children in the training and instruction of the Lord.  Note that the different areas span the spectrum of desire at one end to ability at the other.  In other words, to nurture desire for God we focus on heart issues through Grace and Inspiration, whereas we use our abilities in Training and Service to develop the hands that do.  All of this is anchored together in the centre at the heart with faith:

Grace: “The gift of grace is the desire and ability to relate personally and purposefully to God and people.  The gift of grace prepares your children to become channels of God’s grace and love to other people.”

Inspiration; “The gift of inspiration is the desire and ability to view all of life in the light of God’s sovereignty and purpose.”  Inspiration helps your children to live with hope in a fallen world.

Faith; “The gift of faith is the desire and ability to study God’s word and apply its truths to every area of life.”  Faith is the heart of these gifts.

Training; “The gift of training is the desire and ability to grow in Christian maturity in the power of the Holy Spirit.”  This is more than just training in right conduct or knowledge but also in choosing what is right to do and doing it.

Service; “The gift of service is the desire and ability to minister God’s grace and truth to the needs of others.”

Some action points (A muddle of ideas that we chatted about and suggestions from the reading):
*Visit elderly neighbours, family members or church family to help and encourage them.
*Practice hospitality.
*Make meals for families with new babies or who are struggling with illness.
*Shovel the neighbours driveway or plant some flowers in their garden.
*Have a weekly family games night in which you practice good sportsmanship.
*Have regular personal and family devotions.
*Read the biographies of Christian heroes.
*Share answers to prayer with one another.
*Discuss questions of faith and belief.
*Learn together about biblical truths, history and wisdom.
*Allow kids to hear the scriptures and to understand them themselves without having to “dumb down” the language or to be given the moral of the story.
*Practice godly disciplines like tithing, good stewardship, submission to authority.
*Develop your own list of family values.
*Get involved in service projects.
*Keep a garden of blessings (the produce of which goes to a food bank or other food distribution agency).

Please, Friends, share some of the ways that you keep the faith alive in your home…

Talk soon,

Cori

Thank you

Thank you for you many words of encouragement and your prayers for our little girl and for our whole family.  We wait and pray and try to keep all things in perspective - really, so much worse could happen!  For now, our daughter is well and we are continuing the daily struggle of fitting it all in: school and play, hiking in the woods and tidying the house, preparing for Christmas and enjoying visits from friends. 

As such, I am behind on my blogging.  I want specifically to get my next blog out on our virtual Mother Culture meeting.  This past meeting was on nurturing and discipling our kids.  We also talked practically about language arts and came up with a great resource list.

As we slog away, rather distractedly, at our reading and math lessons this fall I am constantly reminded to keep worthy goals in mind and am thankful for God's grace which I know will sustain us.  We are also focusing on giving our kids the skills to fill in the gaps for themselves which are bound to come in any education let alone one with so much humanity interspersed into it as our little one room school house has. 

Yes, there will be ways that a licensed teacher would far surpass me in her teaching skills and knowledge - I am acutely aware of this as I, the Math Mama, am teaching an art class to a group of elementary schoolers.  On the other hand, in our home we can focus on helping our kids to learn work ethic while they are cleaning a bathroom, or to learn problem solving skills when they need to help their sister find her missing pair of runners, or logic when they have to decide how to arrange the plates on the table for the guests that are coming.  Our lessons may not always be formal but always we are teaching and our children are learning.  The rest will fall into line.  I pray for that everyday.

Blessings Friends,

Cori

Silence

Dear Friends,

I have been silent for a while.  Waiting.  Trying to find peace in the middle of a storm. 

In the quietest moments I put my ear up to my little daughter’s chest and listen to the bump-bump of her little heart as it keeps time.  It’s not the thrum of her rhythmic living that I am listening for.  I wait for the silence in between, holding my breath.  It seems like it is only in those tiny little snippets, those fractions of a second when I can hear the still small voice of my creator whispering to me that he is the one that keeps the rhythm of life moving, that I don’t need time to stop to hear him.  I get so caught up in the noise, in the busyness of all that is going on around me but he is there keeping the planets in motion and this mother’s heart from bursting.

I don’t know about you but it seems that when one thing goes wrong, everything seems to go wrong.  I get caught up in the frustrations that don’t matter and can’t see all that is still going well, all that is still functioning to the rhythm that God set it in motion with.  So I’m agitated that my daughter lost her iPod.  (Thank you Lord that they called from the bookstore to say they’d found it.)  I wonder why the bills are so much more regular than the paycheques.  I am bugged that the plate for the microwave got smashed on that merciless ceramic floor that seemed like a good idea at the time.  I am irritated that that horrible big box retailer is stalling at getting me my money back because they sent me a light cover instead of a turntable plate.  “So very sorry, ma’am.  That’s our mistake but I don’t deal with returns and yes, their phone lines are down again today.”  It almost seems therapeutic that the dishwasher went caput and it was so comforting that a kind acquaintance offered to try to fix it but it wasn’t worth the cost of the parts.

On the other hand, my children are happy, we have food and clothes and a warm home.  We have a hope and a future.  And even in all of my grumpiness we have been able to help a friend to find a much needed bed.  I count my blessings realizing that I’ve never wanted for a bed and yet need of a bed hasn’t made this friend nearly as grumpy and sullen as I.  Self pity is exhausting.

So, I bring myself back to the silent moment with my ear up against my little girl’s chest.  If only I could count the blessing of every heart beat knowing that the Lord doesn’t owe me a single one more than he has already given.  It isn’t the beats that I am listening for but the silence in between because at a routine check up a few weeks ago the pediatrician mentioned something about a murmur and a cardiologist.  A few days later the cardiologist said things like heart block and pacemaker and it seemed as though my own heart had stopped.  How could such a happy and healthy little girl as my own princess be broken hearted?

Over the next few days we learned that he had decided that the need for the pacemaker wasn’t as immediate as he had prepared us for.  He does expect her heart to deteriorate and then they will tear my heart open even deeper as they operate to repair hers.  Until then I am striving to live each moment thanking God for the rhythym, not waiting for the silence even though I know that he will still be whispering to me in those moments…

“When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, your consolations delight my soul.” –Psalm 94:19

Wishing you Peace in all of your moments Friends.

Cori

Mother Culture 2011-2012 "Up-dates"

Dear Friends,

I need to take a brief break from our virtual meeting to come back to the reality of the live meetings that we are having here north of Toronto.  I needed to update things here for you since we have had a couple of changes in our physical group. 

First of all, I am pleased to share with you that our little group will now be meeting in two locations: Bradford and Woodbridge!  Corinna Duguay has expressed an interest in welcoming folks into her home and I am so excited that someone with her experience and enthusiasm is willing to house some of our crowd. 

Secondly, I have had to make a small change to the schedule: our next meeting was to be held at my home in Bradford on October 27^th but will now be help in Woodbridge on that night and in Bradford the following week, November 3^rd.  Thanks for your patience with me and my mistakes in scheduling.

So, the meetings will continue to be on Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 pm.  We will continue with the same reading list that we began with.  (I am really enjoying the snippets of reading I am getting of the next few chapters!)  The meeting continues to be a parents’ only meeting though nursing babes are always a treat and welcome to come and be involved.

The Woodbridge meetings will be held at the home of Kevin and Corinna Duguay.

They are at:

7551 Huntington Road
Woodbridge, Ontario
(Near Highways 427 and 7).

Please contact Corinna at 1-416-613-8110 or corinna.duguay@gmail.com for more information about their meetings or to RSVP.

Meetings in Bradford will continue to run at my home.  HOWEVER, we have the option of meeting at a local church (thank you Becky!).  While September’s meeting was overflowing with all of us enthusiastic homeschoolers the feed back that I have had since has been mostly that we would like to continue to meet in a homey setting but if size necessitates then we will move to the church…. 

SO! I am asking that you please RSVP to me and let me know if you will be coming.  If it seems that we will have 20 or more in attendance again then I will move the meeting to the church.  I would like to make this decision a week or so ahead of time if I can so the sooner that you can tell me if you are coming the better.  Thank you all for being flexible on this and please be sure to check your emails before you come to confirm where the meeting will be.

Please contact me, Cori Dean at 905-778-9412 or mapletreepublications@sympatico.ca for more information about the next meeting or to RSVP.

Meeting Dates:

1.         September 22

2.         October 27^th in Woodbridge ****PLEASE NOTE: I have had to change the date/ location for this meeting as I scheduled a conflict.***
            November 3^rd in Bradford .  ***Originally had planned the meeting to be on October 27^th in Bradford .  Please change this in your calendars.  Sorry!***

3.         December 1^st in Bradford
            December 8^th in Woodbridge

4.         January 12^th in Bradford
            January 19^th in Woodbridge

5.         February 16^th in Bradford
            February 23^rd in Woodbridge

6.            March 22 in Bradford ONLY (as the following week is the OCHEC conference!)

7.                  May 3^rd in Bradford
            May 10^th in Woodbridge

8.                  June 7^th in Bradford
            June 14^th in Woodbridge

The reading list can be found here.  

Looking forward to seeing many of you again in November!

Blessings,

Cori

Mother Culture: Bringing Faith to Bible Learning

Now that we have given the academic study of the Bible a thorough glossing over it is imperative that we don’t forget to address the heart as well.  In reading Chapter 10, “Discipleship Studies Methods: The Study of the Bible” from Clay and Sally Clarkson’s Educating the Whole Hearted Child, we talked not only about teaching our kids the basics of Bible doctrine and stories but also about finding that balance between the rules and the stories.  It does our children no good if they think that Christianity is merely a set of rules to live by nor can we successfully teach them by only highlighting feel good stories and neglecting to give them guidelines to live by.
So how do we help Bible learning time to go beyond an academic subject and become a matter of the heart that relies on real faith and a relationship with Jesus?  Here are the few suggestions that we gleaned at our little gathering.  (Please share your ideas with the group here too!)

• Do devotions as a family at meal time or bedtime.  We can devote ourselves to reading and studying God’s word and praying both during our structured school day and at other times too.
• Live your life expecting your children to learn from your own excitement and passion about your faith.  Share faith stories, let your kids see you having your private Bible reading times.  Model your faith day by day and side by side.
• Remember that Christian books and activities don’t make a home “Christian”.
• Serve together.  Serve intentionally.  Some ways that you can serve is to write letters to family, friends or missionaries, shovel snow, bring food to a neighbour, sort at a clothing exchange or food bank, collect food or money for the same, create a garden of blessing, the produce of which is given to members of the community that need it.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions! 

Well, I thought I could summarize our last meeting in just one or two postings.  I guess that we really did cover a lot.  And now I am racing to get through the reading for the next meeting.  Read ahead with me: the next meeting of our little groups will focus on chapters 3 and 4: “Home Nurture” and “Home Discipleship” as well as the first part of chapter 11 on “Language Arts”.  What I’ve read so far has already given me a lot to think on. 

Also, look for a new meeting and reading schedule to be posted soon as we are fortunate to add another group to the mix.  Corinna Duguay has been kind enough to offer her home as another meeting place on alternate Thursdays to house those who couldn’t make it to Bradford or who find Woodbridge closer or more convenient to drive to. 

Are you interested in taking this virtual group and bringing it alive in your home with some like minded homeschoolers and a good book?  I’d be happy to help you to set up your own meetings starting with the same reading list and a similar schedule to our own.  Please let me know if I can be of some help.  Support is so essential in this line of work whether it be virtual gatherings like this or real life meet ups for some “professional development”.

Talk soon!

Blessings,

Cori

Mother Culture: Resources for Teaching About the Bible

While reading the Bible should be the primary learning tool for “teaching Bible” in our homes there are a lot of age appropriate suggestions and resources that can be used.  Today we will look at some of these resources as we continue our discussion on Chapter 10 of Clay and Sally Clarkson’s Educating the Whole Hearted Child, the chapter on teaching the Bible.

The first resources that we have always used in addition to our regular Bible reading are the materials supplied by our local Awana program to learn to memorize Bible verses as well as to pursue spiritual disciplines like serving, tithing, praying, and more.  It is a fun and systematic programme for all ages that is very rigorous.  (Cubbies books are for children in JK and the year before JK.  Sparks have three books: HangGlider, WingRunner and SkyStormer for kids in SK to grade 2.  T&T has four books for grades 3-6 starting with Ultimate Adventure 1 and 2 and finishing with Ultimate Challenge 1 and 2.  Trek materials are for junior high students and Journey takes students through high school studies.  You can order these materials at http://www.awanacanadastore.ca/servlet/StoreFront.) 

As well, for all ages, we have used the FREE Bible League Day Planners which include a variety of Bible reading plans which we encourage the older kids to choose from to study.  I usually carry these in August and September but now you can get them at http://www.bibleleague.ca/scp.php. 

For younger children, a good Children’s Bible is a great supplement.  The Clarkson’s mentioned a few but one in particular that some mom’s in our little gathering had experience with and which they felt was quite good was, The Jesus Story Bible, as they said that it relates every story to Jesus Christ.  (I am interested in getting my hands on it so I think I will order some in to Maple Tree.  It is quite economical at $18.99 and you can get a deluxe edition for $27.99 which includes the complete audio recordings.  Anyone interested in ordering one with me?)

For older children, we are encouraged to start to teach them to not just read but to study the word on their own so it is wise to start to teach them to use resources like concordances, commentaries and Bible dictionaries.  In our home, we have started with a concordance.  There are online concordances but they just aren’t any substitute for the information that you can get from the real thing.  I do use “You Version’s” IPhone app which has many different versions of the Bible and some limited search abilities.  In our house, while we do use several different versions of the Bible we have two chosen concordances, The NIV Exhaustive Concordance and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (KJV). 

Paired with this is a good Bible dictionary.  Unlike a regular dictionary a Bible dictionary is defines words as they have been translated from the Hebrew and Greek and so gives more background, and can define words within their context in the Bible by comparing different passages with the same word and giving lists of where the word appears in the scripture.  Bible dictionaries are a great help in understanding biblical ideas.  Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words has been an essential tool in our home since my university studying days.  Another good dictionary is The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary. 

I have been searching around for good resources that will complement our Charlotte Mason education and am excited about this resource as it includes both Strong’s concordance and Vine’s dictionary: The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.  I think I might add this one too to Maple Tree’s shelves.  (Let me know if you’d like to order a copy.  They are, of course, cheaper for one book than my original concordance was on its own let alone buying the dictionary too.  Book prices are so great lately!)

As well, study bibles and commentaries are useful.  In our house, my hubby and I use Life Application Study Bibles and we have the classic Matthew Henry’s Commentary of the Whole Bible to refer to on our shelves. 

When students have learned to use these tools they can then move on to learning with them to do first topical studies and then inductive studies.  More on these another time.

Further to this we also looked at ways to make studying the Bible more than just an academic subject.  More on this in the next Mother Culture posting…

Blessings,

Cori

Mother Culture: Teaching Bible

It seems bad grammar to title this “Teaching Bible” but really we do need to talk about much more than “teaching the Bible” or “teaching from the Bible” or “teaching about the Bible”.  That’s why I am generalizing: so that we can look at this most important and foundational subject from many aspects.

One of the key things that we grappled with in talking about teaching the Bible as a subject in school was dealing with the fact that we don’t want it to be pigeon holed as just a subject in school.  We need our kids to know that reading and learning from the Bible is not simply an intellectual pursuit but that it is a pursuit of the heart as well. 

So where to start?  Yes, learning from the Bible should be a regular subject in our school schedules and we need to make efforts to expand it beyond the academic.  Let’s first look at the academic though. 

While there are a lot of good children’s Bible story books out there, there is no substitute for just reading the Bible with your children.  If you are reading along with us in Educating the Whole Hearted Child, you know that the Clarkson’s suggest that you chose a specific version that your family will learn and study from just for continuity but didn’t suggest one in particular.  Then just taking time to read and discuss passages from the Bible should be the foundation for Bible learning. 

Their suggestions remind me of a time that I was sitting in a home schooling seminar about how to teach the Bible to our children in school.  The speaker first asked how everyone was currently teaching the Bible.  One woman responded that in their family they simply read the Bible together and that now, her teenaged son read on his own out of devotion and without the need for prompting because of the habits established.  The speaker went on to tell about how we can liven up the scripture lessons by using puppets or dressing up as Mary Magdelene but the real light bulb that went on for me that day was in what I learned from the mom in the front row.

So I took the idea home.  We read the story of David and Goliath.  When in the past I would have taken out a children’s story bible that told how God was looking out for the little guy, instead I read directly from the Bible and asked the kids what they had learned.  My then six year old daughter answered, “David killed Goliath.  Killing is bad but God loved David anyway.”  What a true and wonderful lesson that we wouldn’t have learned if the story had been moralized through the teaching of a children’s story.  Given the opportunity to think about the passage, our children are able to grasp big ideas without us having to chew them up and predigest them first.

While I usually ask the children to narrate the Bible reading both right after we read and the next time that we open up the Bible as a review, some moms said that they liked to do the Bible reading and not ask for a narration until they’ve had a chance to sleep on it and to mull over the ideas they learned.  

There is nothing like simply reading the Bible in order to learn about the Bible.

More on other resources for learning from and about the Bible in my next post tomorrow.

Blessings,

Cori

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Friends,

This morning in church, our pastor, of course, preached on thankfulness.  I so appreciated his reminder: "It's called Thanksgiving Day and not Thankful Day!"  We are not choosing to celebrate a day when we are thankful but a day in which we give thanks for all the Lord has given us to be thankful about. 

Too often we wait for a feeling to come over us in order to feel able to give thanks.  This morning was not one of those mornings.  My husband and I had yelled at one of the kids, we were late for church and I was fretting that my brother had once again been admitted to the hospital with serious health concerns as well as over the health concerns of a friend.  I wasn't feeling thankful. 

How humbling it was to be reminded: give thanks anyways!  As we had the opportunity to share in our church family the reasons that we had to give our thanks I realized that there were so many reasons to take this day and thank the Lord.  I am thankful for my children, my "job", for kids at Awana who have no trouble in listing things that they are thankful for, for my health, for the support of many friends in trying times.

But if giving thanks isn't meant for a specific situation or circumstance then the things that I have to be thankful for are not also limited to the circumstantial.  I am thankful for the love of God, for Jesus' sacrifice upon the cross, for God's divine written word, that he continues to pour out his blessings on me even when I respond so poorly, that he loves me even more than I love myself. 

I am reminded that thankfulness is never a product of our circumstances: even those with the most ideal situations (beautiful homes, functional family relationships, jobs that are fulfilling and well paid) often feel a sense of deep dissatisfaction.  On the other hand, we can all remember fondly people in desperate circumstances that were able to sing of the goodness of God and how blessed they felt.

This brings to mind the example of a common problem in the Dean home.  Perhaps you have seen it before?  A troupe of otherwise happy children is confronted with the opportunity for something new, something more, something exciting.  When that opportunity disappears, instead of going back to the previous happy, go-lucky state that they had been in before the item of their affection appeared they become a sad and irritable bunch.  This happened recently at the dentist: four young girls had seen the dentist, had their teeth cleaned and checked and had been given a clean bill of health.  All were smiling.  Then the dentist brought out her treat basket of "ten for a dollar" party favours and, before the Dean family walked out the door, three of four girls treats had broken and they were in tears.  Another round of party favours brightened the day but really, those four girls would have left just as blessed and well cared for if they had never seen the party favours and they would have been happy.

Think that this is a childish problem?  Well, try this exercise: stop reading the fliers in the local paper.  It is amazing how quickly we develop a long list of needs and wants that we didn't know existed until we see the local store fliers.  Along with other strategic changes, we stopped reading fliers several years ago and our level of contentedness increased in a disproportionate amount to our circumstances!

As our pastor said this morning, "If you say, '___ is a barrier between me and thankfulness,' then you give it too much power in your life.  If we realize this then we can engage in the giving of thanks not because of where we are in life but because of who God is."

Wishing you moments to give thanks despite the circumstances of the day,

Cori

P.S. - Here's a cute little poem I'll also paraphrase from this morning's sermon.  (Sorry, I don't know the title or author.)

To live above with the Saints I love,
Now that will be the glory,
But to live below with the Saints I know,
Now that's a different story!

Mother Culture: Christian Education

Well, it has taken me a good week to get caught up on the day to day happens: my husband and I were blessed to have our first weekend away without children in several years.  After Thursday evening’s {most excellent} Charlotte Mason meeting here at my home we trundled off to bed so that early the next morning we could head out.  I think it was more difficult for me to leave my technology behind than my children as I knew that they were in good hands.  Because of this though, I blissfully spent many hours just resting and reading and enjoying the company of my hubby – without a computer on hand and am only just now reaching the summit of mount o’launder-us and taking a few minutes to reflect.

As I look back over the reading and discussion that we did, I think that there was far too much that we covered to get it all on one blog posting…  So I am going to try to pick out a few highlights and then post again soon. 

Please feel free to enter the discussion by posting a comment orquestion and become a part of our virtual support group.  If you have the book then read along with us, this past week we read and discussed chapters 1, 2, and 10 of Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. (If you’d still like to join the discussion and would like a copy of the book, I do have a couple of extra copies available.) 

The underlying theme of these chapters and the book is that real education does not start with an academic paste that is adhered to our students.  Instead the foundation of a Christian education truly is relationship with Christ.  All of our efforts and teaching should grow up out of this goal.  As we have always said, “It is far more important to us that our children grow up knowing and loving Jesus and striving to be the women that he individually designed them to be than that they ever learn to read….  And they WILL learn to read.”

Key to the discussion is the realization that having a Christian home or a Christian education really involves much more than adding Bible verses to the subjects that we study, reading Christian books, attending Christian activities or even making sure that we have a daily Bible reading time.  True Christian education comes out of a lifestyle of living daily in relationship with Christ.  We realize that it is only by modeling for our children the Christian life, including how we deal with our own failings, that we can lead them to go beyond an academic study of God and on to a true lifestyle of faith.

One of the core ways that we do this is by making education a day by day and side by side activity, not one where the teacher stands as the bearer of all truth and must disseminate their knowledge by lecturing and testing.  Instead, when we realize that our children are just as valuable and able as we are, though less grown and knowledgeable, then we acknowledge that we are on a journey with them rather than acting as a polished tour guide for them.

As such, our job is more hefty than simply being the bearer of knowledge.  Our job is to instill in our kids our values, to give them a sense of their heritage, their lineage both in a general sense as the Church of God but also in a personal sense as we share with them the value of who they uniquely have been made by the power of the Creator God.  We need to teach them to serve, to love others, to understand how to learn, to have a passion for learning and for God, his people and his creation.

These are some of the foundational principles in Christian education.  Please enter the discussion.  Next, I will post some of the more practical ideas that we chatted about with regards to teaching the Bible to our children.

Talk soon,

Cori

More Mother Culture at Home and Abroad

Okay, I am going to make one last little note on upcoming Charlotte Mason meetings....
At Home:

I have invited you all to join me either in person or virtually for our little gatherings in my living room here in Bradford, Ontario.  I know that many of you have responded or have picked up a copy of the book that we are reading.  (For more details see this posting and this one.)  I ask that you would please be patient with me though and even if you have told me that you plan to come, could you please RSVP so that I know who and how many to expect on that evening?  (Usually one of my daughters like to bake something special for us!)  I can send on my address information to you then as well.  I am very much looking forward to having an encouraging evening with many other home educating parents!

And Abroad:

Well, I can't claim to have gone very far abroad as I have become quite the homebody in my homeschooling years but I have heard through the grapevine about others who meet up to share some "Mother Culture" in the same way that we do.  These folks have shared their information with me so that they can welcome more folks in their area for some comaradarie but I haven't updated the list since the spring so please let me know if you have any more up to date information.  I would also love to add more names to the list, especially of groups that are outside of Ontario, so if you are involved in another Charlotte Mason study group or know of one, please pass on the info here as it may be helpful to someone else in your neighbourhood.  It means so much to me to be able to meet with like-minded moms and I hope that many of you will be able to benefit from some of the same.

Mitchell, Ontario: Contact Laurel at 519-348-0378 or ljbaldridge@gmail.com.  Meeting every 6 weeks.

Kingsville, Ontario: Contact Jennifer at pjgagnon@cogeco.ca.  Near Windsor.

Millgrove, Ontario: http://wholeheartedhomeeducators-canada.blogspot.com/.  Near Burlington?

Bradford, Ontario: Contact Cori at 905-778-9412 or coriandmark@hotmail.com.  Meeting every 5 to 6 weeks.  Between Barrie and Newmarket.

And remember that if you can't find some Mother Culture at home (here in Bradford with us) or abroad (with some of these lovely groups) then you are welcome to join the virtual group here as we try to be a help to one another!

Keep in touch!

Blessings,

Cori