JOHN BUNYAN

I first heard this amazing poem, written by John Bunyan, in a wondeful talk given by Corrie Ten Boom.

It seems John Piper has also.

Read what Mr Piper says:

"I was listening to a talk by Corrie Ten Boom yesterday and heard her recite a little poem by John Bunyan. It's one of the best statements I have ever heard about the difference between the law and the gospel. You'll see how it relates.

'Run, John, run, the law commands
But gives us neither feet nor hands,
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids us fly and gives us wings.' "

Just wanted to share.

Blessings
The Mummalady

SONG FOR YOU

This has been on my mind to share.

A song we like by Keith Green.

There Is A Redeemer


There is a redeemer,
Jesus, God's own Son,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy One,

Jesus my redeemer,
Name above all names,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Oh, for sinners slain.

Thank you oh my father,
For giving us Your Son,
And leaving Your Spirit, 'Til the work on Earth is done.

When I stand in Glory,
I will see His face,
And there I'll serve my King forever,
In that Holy Place.

Thank you oh my father,
For giving us Your Son,
And leaving Your Spirit, '
Til the work on Earth is done.


Amen
The Mummalady

ANOTHER LINK!

Here is a beautiful site to encourage and inform mothers.

Well worth a look.

mothering advice


Blessings
The Mummalady

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO HOME EDUCATION ... PART FOUR - FINAL PART!

And now here's the final part in our series :o)

*************

(The above image is a "Melissa and Doug" jigsaw puzzle. We like the quality and most of the subjects of these puzzles, but unfortunately because they are manufactured in the US they are very expensive to ship over here!)

**************



Home education on a shoestring is entirely possible – you might use your Bible, some simple art supplies, library card, book fairs and op shops, a dictionary and supportive, enthusiastic friends.


Later you can add: a computer, your own library of “how-to” and good non-fiction books (animals, plants, geograph etc), more art equipment, puzzles, games, tools (not toys!), musical instruments etc.

There is no mystery to educating children. It is not necessary for parents (or grandparents) who wish to educate their children to “do a course” or “get some qualifications”.

It is necessary to love your children. To want to be with them. You must learn to “read” your children – watch their faces to see if they are frustrated with something, or maybe they are stubbornly refusing to do something that you know they can do, but they might need a gentle push in the right direction.

An excellent relationship with your children, with healthy communication is extremely rare when your children are away from you for many hours at school where they will form relationships dependent on teachers and peers.

My advice for those considering homeschooling is to pray, seek and listen to the Lord's will for your family, ensure a unity between husband and wife - and then go for it! Soak yourselves in the Word and keep feeding yourselves spiritually until you are overflowing with joy and confidence. This joy does not come from ourselves – it is a beautiful gift from God!

Seek God's wisdom in learning what sort of family you are – structured/relaxed? Do you enjoy paperwork? Nature walks? Are any of you arty? Talkative? Hands-on? Bookish? This helps you to start, and then extend your areas of interest.

The Lord has chosen each and every member of your family and put them in exactly the right place for that family. Each family is a team that should not be split up for the purpose of education.

****************

Blessings
The Mummalady

ANOTHER LINK!

Just found this via Homeschool Freebie of the Day.

Lots of ideas and encourgement here.

Check it out when you get time!


http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/


Blessings
The Mummalady

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO HOME EDUCATION ... PART THREE

The above picture is a collection of wonderful Enjo fibres. We have our own collection that we use on a daily basis to keep ourselves and our house clean. For more information visit www.enjo.net.

**********************************************************


We have the freedom to come at a subject from all angles. We read “living books” full of rich characterization and history. We do not use dull, dry text books filled with facts and
figures to try to remember. The children enjoy and retain so much of what we learn that they will bring the subject up again some time later, and more learning goes on as they extend their knowledge base very naturally.

Over the past few years I've considered using a purchased curriculum – something that will tell us what to do every day. But it hasn't suited the style of our family – and I realised that a curriculum is SOMEONE ELSE'S idea of what your family should be learning.

With prayer and seeking we have found resources and ideas everywhere. And none of it has to be expensive! We DO use a purchased maths course, and for science too now that the older children are learning biology and physics, but we still work a lot with reading library books and using the internet for many things.

We don't separate our learning into “headings” like history, social studies, environmental studies etc. We learn so much that overlaps into multiple areas – if we had to put it all under headings it would kill the enjoyment!

We have never “schooled at home”. We don't need to!

Our home education is a total lifestyle where the children are playing, working and learning all the time. It is very natural and heaps of fun.

In the past I've struggled with teaching the children to do housework. It's quicker, easier and more effective to do the job myself – but I have learned that's not the case in the long run!

I am doing a lot better in this regard with the younger children – taking time to foster a healthy attitude towards work in their minds. I believe it is a disservice to our children to allow them a lot of play time while Mum does all the work for them.

Life is about work – and work isn't a terrible thing. A healthy attitude towards work makes the work enjoyable and satisfying. Spare time and play are a reward after the work is completed. And with our lifestyle we have adequate time for both work and play.

Daddy has learned to slow down when he does jobs around home, and to watch out for three little interested people who always seem to be standing right behind him holding his tools as he works.

***************

That's all for Part Three, log in at a later date for the final part in this series :o)


Blessings
The Mummalady

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO HOME EDUCATION ... PART TWO

Part two ...


It should not be the child's decision where they go and what they do – parents are responsible for their children and should prayerfully and lovingly make the decisions. This is not what the world teaches, and it took me some time to become comfortable with that truth. I hear many mothers who would like to try home eduation for various reasons (some of them to do with negative social issues their child is facing day after day when out of the home) say “But he/she really loves going to kindy and playing with all her friends.” (or preschool or school). Teaching our children to make decisions is a vital part of learning, but they should not be making major decisions about where they spend their days, and who will be influencing their thoughts and attitudes.

Another lie I believed was that our boys needed to learn to deal with other children by themselves. I realise now that is definitely not the case.

So from the start I knew that we would homeschool, somehow. My husband had a few reservations as he knew nothing about home education, but he knew me well enough, and was confident of the relationship we both had with our boys to know that we could continue with what we had been doing. I had to ensure that I informed my husband of things I learned, and how the boys were doing, as we believe the husband is responsible to God for the whole family.

So what DID we do during the early years? We read a lot, took walks together, went to the library, the park, the playground, lots of puzzles, games, making huts, collecting boxes and cans and making things, moving furniture to make cozy reading areas, memorizing scripture and poetry, simple maths games, learning letters and a tiny bit of handwriting practice from time to time, collecting things – acorns, feathers, shells, stones, gardening ... spending lots and lots of time together.

We have five children now (2 years up to 16 years old) and a baby due in a few months.

As each child has approached their sixth birthday (the legal age in New Zealand for enrolment in a registered school) we have applied for, and been granted an exemption from schooling by the Ministry of Education. This gives us official permission to educate our own children.

At this stage of the journey we still play a lot, read a whole lot, learn household and life skills together, do art, talk about a lot of issues. Over the years we have added a few text books that the older boys work through, foreign languages, more handwriting, notetaking, dictation, writing letters to people, Greek and Latin, oral spelling and a few other bits. These studies have come quite naturally, and from resources that the Lord has lead us to.

We work a lot on attitudes, character qualities, relationships, the pursuit of wisdom vs knowledge, household and life skills. We believe that when these children grow up they will have the ability to add to and learn new skills - but their own character qualities, attitudes, relationship/life skills are the ones that will make their lives healthier and better for those around them.

Over time I've had my doubts about whether we were doing “enough”, but with prayer, discussions with my husband and advice from more experienced home educating mothers I have been reassured that we are doing fine. Yes, there will be gaps in their learning – but the important thing is that these children love to learn, they know HOW to learn. We are not filling their minds with facts and figures so they can pass a test.

. . .

watch out for part 3 coming soon!

Blessings
The Mummalady

BOOK LIST

I've been asked to put my "Booklist" here for viewing.

This is a very rough list of what we like reading and have on our shelves, but it gives an idea of our tastes.

SOME OF THE BOOKS ON OUR SHELVES

King James Bibles

Living Bibles

Websters 1828 Dictionary

Strong's Concordance

Character Sketches Vols 1, 2 and 3 from ATI

Dr Jay L Wile: Apologia Science books

Steve Demme: Math-U-See curriculum

Rod & Staff: Many reading books and some workbooks

Learning Lanuage Arts Through Literature – (Old Editions) Red Book and Yellow Book

English From The Roots Up

Bible Discovery Worksheets

McGuffey – some books from the 1838 series

Andrew Pudewa Writing Course B

R M Ballantyne: The Coral Island, The Gorilla Hunters, Martin Rattler

M DeAngeli: The Door in the Wall, The Black Fox of Lorne

Bob Schultz: Boyhood and Beyond, Practical Happiness and Created For Work

L V Davidson: The Secret of Woodside Cottage, Tony's Temptation, Peter Joins In

Dorothy Canfield: Betsy

Captain Marryat: Children of the New Forest

Paul White: Jungle Doctor series

Corrie Ten Boom: The Hiding Place, In My Father's House, Amazing Love etc

Autobiographies and Biographies of missionaries and Christians throughout the ages

Michael and Debi Pearl: To Train Up a Child, No Greater Joy Vols 1,2 and 3, Created to Be His Helpmeet

Raymond and Dorothy Moore: Better Late Than Early, Minding Our Own Business

R & J Hess: A Full Quiver

Vicki A Brady: Basic Steps to Sucessful Homeschooling

Charlotte Mason: Homeschooling Series Vols 1,2,3,4,5 and 6

S McDonald: Raising Maidens of Virtue

L Bouke: Infant Potty Training

Martha Peace: The Excellent Wife

Dr H C A Vogel: The Nature Doctor

Ray Comfort – many books

Ken Ham books

Steve & Teri Maxwell: Keeping Our Children's Hearts, Preparing Sons to Provide for a Single
Income Family, Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit

Sarah Maxwell: books from the Moody family series (saving up to buy more of these excellent books - in New Zealand available from CES Books)

H & L Bluedorn: Teaching the Trivium

H & N Bluedorn: The Fallacy Detective

Arnold Pent: Ten P's In A Pod

Karyn Warburton: Baby Sign Language

Old 1970's children's Readers Digest reading books


"HOW TO" BOOKS: Cake decoration, napkin folding, gardening, landscaping, cooking, flower arranging, art and craft, model trains …

OTHER MISC NON-FICTION: People, places, animals, technology
Old Guiness Book of Records (pre 1990)
Old Ladybird books on people and places in history (very popular books)

MAGAZINES: Electronics, Creation, Above Rubies, Keystone, National Geographics, Look & Learn, Real Robots (with some pages stuck together as there is some very graphic yucky stuff in there).

Not technically ON OUR SHELVES as these are downloaded onto the computer:

G A Henty books - our favourites so far: Cat of Bubastes and Wulf the Saxon.


Blessings
The Mummalady