In All Things…Praise Him!

I wanted to do a post on what we use in our home for our homeschooling curriculum!    That seems to be one of the first questions, that most homeschoolers ask each other.     So here is what our daily routine looks like for the school portion of the day and what we use to accomplish our goals in our homeschooling.

DS 6, does his handwriting after breakfast, basically independently, while I do kitchen clean up and meal prep time.   For handwriting we use the Grade 1 Penmanship for Christian Writing by Rod and Staff.

Then we sit down together for the rest of our academic subjects which are:

- Reading (Bible Nurture and Reader Series grade 1 by Rod and Staff)

- Math  (Grade 1 Rod and Staff)

- Phonics (Grade 1 Rod and Staff)

After lunch we have circle time.   Circle time consists of:

- Scripture Memory

- Misc Memorization

- Story time

Our story time portion of Circle Time is where we utilize good Character building books.   For my little guys, we love the Little Jewel Books by Rod and Staff.  They are not too young for DS 6, yet interesting to DS 3.  Other things we like are the Moody Series by Sarah Maxwell, The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Poetry for Memorization by Rod and Staff, Christian Liberty Nature Readers, Among the ____ People living nature books purchased from Yesterdays Classics, God is Good Series by Rod and Staff, Thornton Burgess Bird and Animal Books for Children, Beatrix Potter stories, just to name a few.    We try very hard to choose good, quality and wholesome literature for our children in their young, tender and impressionable years, and have found that we can never go wrong with any of the storybooks (and there are TONS) by Rod and Staff Publishers.

Each week we do an art/craft project, and we also listen to many praise songs, and children’s Bible music CD’s, as well as Acapella hymns from Rod and Staff and Classical Music.

Each night we read an episode or two from the Rod and Staff grades 2, 3 and 4 Bible readers!   These are excellent, follow the KING JAMES bible, which is important to us, and covers the entire Old and New Testaments.

Of course with all of the above comes ‘life’….outdoor play, nature appreciation, fellowshipping with other Godly adults whom can help us to instill character into our children, chores, cooking, animal care, etc….  Our goals are to raise men who have great Faith in Jesus, who love and obey God, who are compassionate to our fellow man and also equip them with a good thorough, traditional education that is Christ centered in world view…and Rod and Staff delivers!  

Colossians 3:23

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord…

Heartily:  from the heart; with all the heart;

1. with zeal; actively; vigorously;

2. eagerly; freely; largely;

Son:  “This is just too hard”

Mom:  “Well, sometimes we have to do things that seem too hard or we’d never learn more then what we already know.”

Son: “I don’t like doing the hard books”

Mom:  “There are always things that we don’t like doing, but we need to just get at it, and do it with a smile, and then it’s done!”

Son: thinks, smiles and gets at it and is done in no time!

Mom:  Almost complains again about cleaning the dreaded fish tank and the light bulb comes on….  

DS3 enjoying his ’school’ too.

One of the things that came with my Rod and Staff order is the Bible Stories to Read book and TWO of the Bible Stories to Color books.  I love this!   I read a short Bible episode to the boys after breakfast and then they both color a page that correlates to the story while I do kitchen clean up.  It’s the perfect start to our school day.

And last, but not least… 2 thumbs up for the Aquadoodle ®  products!  

They are not messy, non toxic, easy to take along and what’s more, my boy loves it!

Psalm 40:2
He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

I am very blessed…what did I, a rotten sinner, ever do to deserve such a wonderful life?  I ask myself that daily…my Lord is gracious and merciful beyond my comprehension.  I stand absolutely amazed!    

Welcome to my blog:   In All Things…Praise Him!   I am the wife of a hard working husband, and the mother of five fabulous children. 

We are a blended family with “his, hers and ours” (he has 4, I have 3 and we have 2)…..it’s not always an easy road to travel and often lonely in conservative Christian circles, but we muddle through!   His are grown, mine are jr high/middle school aged, and ours are DS6 and DS3, that we homeschool exclusively.

This is our 2nd year of homeschooling…DS6 has never been to a public school, and neither will his little brother, DS3.   We are so thankful that the Lord has led us to homeschool our 2 little boys! Having plenty of experience with the public school system, we have seen the village and we do not wanting it raising these precious boys.   Homeschooling, for us, is a conviction.  If we chose not to homeschool, we would, therefore, be in disobedience to God.