When you think of the Creation Museum, the first thoughts that pop into your head are probably things like Bible truths, dinosaurs, Noah and the flood, the need for Jesus and so on.  We took a tad different approach to the normal routine of simply touring the museum this time around.  Even though it rained the entire day, we spent time enjoying the beautiful and wonderfully varied nature trails.

Even though we probably would’ve had a lot more time to observe and look closely at plants and such on a pretty day, the rainy walk was a great way to see things we might not normally see.  God’s creation is beautiful in any weather!

Water was dripping from everything, including us!

They have several water areas like waterfalls…

marshland….

And ponds

Plant life is just as varied from native to tropical.

Five different bridges make for a fun walk.   My children’s favorite is the swinging bridge seen here.

Water, water everywhere!

Even clinging to the spider webs!

Trying to stay dry… Caleb found the leaf a bit too late.  If you can’t tell, he’s soaked through and through.

And my personal favorite find of the day -  itty bitty, teany-weany, less than 1/4″ each Bird’s Nest Fungi!  It’s hard to tell, but each little cup has little egg-shaped pieces that are actually the mushroom’s spores and are ejected into the air by the rain!!  How cool is that??  Now, see what we would’ve missed on a pretty day?

On Sunday nights at church, I teach a Kidz Group class for children in 1-5th grades.  Right now, I have only little boys in the class.  What better way to catch their attention than to talk about dinosaurs!  Dinosaurs and church??  Of course!  Dinosaurs are a great topic for teaching the authority of the Bible as compared to evolutionary teaching.  And for children, dinosaurs are one of the biggest “hooks” public schools use to disprove Biblical authority.

Just how do you educate yourself on the truth of the Bible vs. what the evolutionary world believes?  It’s really as simple as children’s books!  There are so many wonderful children’s books available now that teach Creation vs. evolution.  And not only do they educate your children, they educate you as well!  I’ll include just a few dinosaur themed books here and if you’re interested in me posting more wonderful creation-based children’s books, just let me know.

Some of these are more in-depth than others.  If you’re hoping for a simpler book, I would suggest What Ever Happened To Dinosaurs or D is for Dinosaurs.  The others are more detailed and best suited for upper elementary and above.

Listen for yourself.

I was particularly moved by “As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children…”

Fast forward to today.  I was browsing blog posts from my Homeschool Buzz widget and ran across Redbud Lane’s blog.  In her side bar I saw this:

Add the abortion ticker to your blog or site.

Did you read that number?  Did you really think about what that number represents?  Seven and a half MILLION babies.  People.  God’s people.  His babies have been murdered.

Think about this…

We had raccoons infesting our barn when we first moved to our farm.  They were creating a mess and destroying hay, feed and structures.  We had to secretly catch and kill these destructive creatures because it was illegal to kill raccoons at the time.  They weren’t “in season”.  We could have gotten in big trouble.  I guess we still could now that I’m mentioning it.

Deer are all over the place on our farm (and the roads that we travel daily.)  Did you know you can get in BIG trouble – fines, removal of personal property, and possible jail time – for killing a deer out of season?

Did you know you can face the same consequences for fishing without a paid license?

Did you know you can go to federal prison for killing an eagle or taking one of its eggs?

I’m almost done, but there’s one more real example I have to give.  I used to work with a Teen MOPS group.  It’s purpose was not to support teenage pregnancy, but to teach teenage moms how to raise a child, to teach them how to *not* get pregnant again, to encourage them to see God’s will for themselves and their child and to hopefully lead them to Him through our teaching and example.

We fed these girls and their children before each meeting.  Many of them weren’t getting very wholesome meals because, like most teenagers, they thought McDonalds offered all the food groups in a healthy way.  The local churches would each sponsor one meal a year for our meetings.  I went to my very own church one month asking the ladies to come up with something really great for these families to enjoy for the next meeting.  All I recieved were rolled eyes and accusations that I was supporting teenage pregnancy.

Hear that.  In my own church (and I venture to say many others that were approached) the main thought wasn’t turned toward uplifting these teens for taking the high road and not aborting their babies.  It wasn’t on loving these girls who made mistakes and are now trying to be better moms.  It wasn’t on asking, “What else can I do to help these girls learn to follow my Jesus and raise their children to follow Him, too?”

The main thought was something that a Pharisee might have had.  “You want ME to support THEM?  Cindy, what kind of so-called ministry are you part of?”

I don’t mention that story for any other reason than to point out more of the obvious.  Our priorities in this world, in our country, and even in our churches are not in the right place.  Casting Crowns’ song asks, “America, will we go down in history as a nation with no room for its King?”  I ask, “Christians, are we doing all we can to make room for Him – in our own hearts and in our nation?”

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”  Psalm 139:13-16

“Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateway of the cities she gives her speech: ‘How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?  How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?  If you would have responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you.  But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you -  when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.  Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me.  Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.  For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”‘ Proverbs 1:20-33

I chose not to include most of the other suggestions from the unit since we were already doing other things each day.  It has given my children the chance to really focus on the meaning of each of Jesus’ names and plenty of time to create a daily scrapbook page.

Take a look at a few of their pages.  What a great memory maker for them!

This is a devotion I had the pleasure of giving at co-op this week.

Living as Children of the Light Leads Children to the Light

Read Ephesians 4: 17-32, 5:1-33

This passage gives us a very clear picture of living in the light vs. living in darkness.

Light being things like:

Truthfulness

Peace

Honesty

Wholesome talk that only builds others up, words of thanksgiving

Kindness

Compassion

Forgiveness

Purity

Sobriety

Submission to husbands

Whereas darkness would be the complete opposite:

Lying

Arguments, anger, resentment

Stealing

Words that tear down, yelling, coarse jokes, obscenity (or even obscenity that “walks the line” – poopy head, stupid – always ask, does this word build anyone up?)

Slander, brushing people off, refusing to help when there is a need

Thinking only of selfish things, turning a blind eye toward a need, greed

Not forgiving, bringing up past grievances, becoming bitter

Lust, adultery, even feasting upon sexual shows, music or books. Impurity would also include media with coarse language, disrespectful actions, anything that promotes “darkness”

Drunkenness

Being disrespectful to your husband, not allowing him to take the lead in your family, defying him, going behind his back to do something, talking ugly about him to your children

How do our children learn? Does it come from the words we speak to them? Sure. Does it come from the books we give them. Yes. Does it come from the discipline we hand down? Yes.

God tells us more than once in this passage things like:

“no longer live as the Gentiles do”

“put off your old self”

“be imitators of God”

“live a life of love”

“now you ARE light in the Lord. LIVE as children of the light.”

“be very careful, then, how you live”

“make the most of every opportunity”

All of these things involve LIVING our daily life in Him. From what do our children learn most? Our actions. How we live daily. How we talk when we aren’t teaching, disciplining or lecturing. How we treat others. How we treat our husbands. They soak in more of US than we probably will ever realize. So, “US” – how we live daily – needs to be full of light if we expect our children to learn to walk in that light.

Have there ever been times you’ve watched your child act a certain way or say something that you’ve been horrified about – only to think back that what they did came directly from you? That’s one of the scariest things I find to being a parent. I know I have lots of growing to do in my walk, yet I desire that my children won’t struggle with the same sins I struggle with.

What to do? First and foremost, turn your children over to God. Pray for them to walk in the light daily. Turn yourself over to God. Pray that you will be a good example daily. Recognize your sins and ask forgiveness from your children, as well as God. When children grow up learning that you aren’t perfect and that you see the sin in your life, they are more likely to learn to see the sin in their life for what it is. When they see you actively trying “to put off the old self” and hear you talking to God about it, they are more likely to go to Him with their struggles. And the closer you get to stepping completely out of the darkness, I believe the fewer sins of darkness your children will have to deal with. For what do they imitate? You. If you live in the light, they most likely will, too.

]]> http://ourjourneywestward.com/2008/03/living-in-the-light/feed/ 0 http://ourjourneywestward.com/2008/01/the-peace-place/ http://ourjourneywestward.com/2008/01/the-peace-place/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:00:00 +0000 Cindy http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/westward/453807/ This is an idea that’s been mulling over in my mind since I first read Preschoolers and Peace’s blog Part 1 and Part 2.  The idea first originated at Holy Experience’s blog last April in a post called Making a Peace Place: Godly Anger Management for Children.

A peace place.  A place for my children (or myself) to go when we are not being peaceful.  A time-out of sorts, but focused on God and His desires for us.  A quiet and comfortable place for us to reflect on why we haven’t been peaceful and to ask forgiveness.  A place to rid ourselves of frustration, focus on the Word and work through forgiveness towards the person or people who have offended us.

In this place, you’ll find a Bible, a peace notebook, paper, pens and a servant jar.  The peace notebook includes everything included on Holy Experience’s post about making a peace place (above).  As the kids read through the pages in the notebook, my prayer is that their hearts begin to soften.  That they grow closer to the Lord and learn to walk in His ways more readily.  That they learn how to better handle the frustrations of life (especially life with brothers and sisters.)

The servant jar is an idea that’s just brilliant.  Preschoolers and Peace talks about it in Part 2 (above).  When one of the kids gets angry and offends someone else in the house with ugly words or ugly actions, not only do they get to spend a little time in the Peace Place, but they get to choose a slip of paper from the servant jar.  On the little slips are jobs that person can do to serve the person they’ve offended.  What better way to ask forgiveness of someone than to serve them.

We’ve only just begun our Peace Place, but I’m praying that God will reveal Himself to us when we visit.  I’m praying that our walk will grow closer to His as we learn better to ask forgiveness and to forgive others.  I’m praying that, eventually, we won’t need the Peace Place anymore because our hearts will have turned towards Him in such a way that our actions and reactions are generally peaceful.  Ah, peace.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  Matthew 5:9

I am truly humbled to have been a part of the Homeschool Blog Awards.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote for my blog!!  For a little while I was second only to By Sun and Candlight in several of the categories.  As I told her, she is my blogging “hero” and to be second to her was an honor!  lol

Many congratulations go out to the winners and especially my blogland friends Eclectic Education and One Child Policy Homeschool!

Here’s a peek at our Christmas Lapbooks that we finished last week.  Mahayla’s is red, Caleb’s is green.  We used many activities from the Symbols of Christmas lapbook unit from Hands of a Child.  All the extra math/logic/problem solving worksheets, plus some science worksheets were stapled together inside the large panel on the right side.  This keeps all the unit work together in a nice, neat package.

This week is light.  We’re working on math everyday, putting together our newsletter and just having some Christmas craft and baking fun.  At the end of the week, we’ll be officially halfway through our school year!  And on a well deserved break for a couple of weeks.

Welcome to my Holiday Open House!  This is a post I did back in November that I’m revamping a bit for the open house.  Please visit Tiany’s Blog to find links to many more open houses!

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Our family loves to spend the entire month of December celebrating Christmas!  From school activities and baking, to movies and family outings, it all seems to revolve around the excitement and wonder of Christmas.  Keeping Jesus at the center of every tradition is our goal.  Below, I’ve listed links to some of my other Christmas related posts and a list of lots of Christmas internet resources.  I’ll continue adding Christmas ideas as I find them, or as we do them.  Be sure to visit again!  Merry Christmas!!

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Silver Packages Study

Christmas Science Activities

December Planning

Peppermint Playdough

Christmas Movie Marathon

Advent

Advent Wreath

Advent Ideas Galore

Jesse Tree

Jesse Tree Decorations To Print

Jesse Tree Direction and Readings

Jesse Tree Readings and Questions

Jesse Tree Readings and Ideas

Names Of Jesus

Names of Jesus Unit Study

Symbols of Christmas

Symbols of Christmas Unit Study

Christmas Symbols Lapbook

Christmas Hymns

Christmas Hymn Unit Study

Hymns To Hear

Various Wonderful Christmas Ideas

Easy Fun School Activities

The Homeschool Mom Christmas Resources

The Twelve Days of Christmas

History and Story

Christmas Story Coloring Pages

DLTK

Christmas Literature Ideas and Units

Book List (Scroll Down)

Tomie dePaola Unit

HomeschoolShare Unit Studies and Lapbooks

Enjoy an Organized Christmas

Organized Christmas

Melissa was our speaker in the Mom’s Room at co-op this week.  She was wonderful!  Her message was titled “The Voice of Truth” and was about overcoming depression and anxiety as homeschool moms.  So, the verse of the week was tied into her message.

Verse of the Week

I will lift mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.  My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.  Psalm 121:1-2

1st Corinthians 13 Inspiration

Encourage your younger ones to make the Fruits of the Spirit part of  their lives by creating a Fruit of the Spirit tree.  Each time you catch your child displaying a “fruit”, let them hang a construction paper fruit on their tree.

How to:  Place a tree shaped stick in a bucket full of rocks.  Cut out fruit shapes from construction paper and label them with the Fruits of the Spirit.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  Hole punch and tie yarn through the holes.  Hang on the branches.

And sometimes, I’ll be adding a Teaching Tip of the Week

What one activity can bring excitement and anticipation to your children, teach manners, draw you closer as a family and be a great time of learning?  A weekly tea party, of course!

Gathering your children weekly for tea and cookies (or any snack that suits your fancy) can be a time of such sweet memories.  Your weekly tea can be as fancy or as simple as you like.  You can pull out the fine china and make homemade scones or open a CapriSun and place some Oreos on a napkin.  Either way, use the tea party time for something special that’s reserved only for this weekly gathering.  Below are some ideas that will hopefully inspire you to start a tea time…..

*Read poetry or recite memorized poems

*Do an artist or composer study  (can’t you just hear the classical music playing in the background?)

*Share writings each person has worked on throughout the week.

*If your tea party is all girls, you might read from The Girlhood Home Companion.

*If your tea party is all boys, you might read from a Henty novel.

*Share a character building story.

*Do a drawing lesson together.

*Tell stories or make up a chain story.  That’s where one person starts a story, then passes it on to the next person at an exciting point.  The story keeps getting passed until it’s finished.  Beware, this makes for some really long and fun stories!

*Learn and practice a hymn.

*Listen to a book on tape.

*Play a card or board game.

*Do a seasonal craft.

*Work on a handi-craft (like knitting or sewing)

*Scrapbook

*Take a weekly trip around the world with a chapter from a book such as A Child’s Geography of the World.

*Dawn from our co-op had this brilliant idea – - At the beginning of the year, preprint several postcards with a message such as, “We just wanted you to know that the West Family prayed for you this week!”   Print out address labels with all of your family and friends addresses and paste these on the cards at the beginning of the year, too.  During tea time, draw out one card, pray for the family and send one of the kids to the mailbox with the postcard.

~~I would love for you to add other ideas in the comments!

Here’s hoping you have a glorious week with your children!

From the time they were preschoolers and we started reading Storytime With the Millers and on through each of the other books, my children have intently listened to and learned from the stories.  I think they’re so good, in fact, that they were read during devotion time usually.

Even though the books come from a very conservative Amish-Mennonite perspective, I found them to be very useful in teaching topics like trusting God, manners, friendship, obedience, respect, forgiveness, self-sacrifice and much, much more!  Each story centers around a Bible verse and that verse is used at some point within the story.  Many of the stories are full of some excitement, too.  That helps to keep my son’s attention!

Choosing a favorite is hard, but I would probably choose Missionary Stories and the Millers as my personal favorite.  This book is just full of the true adventure stories of actual missionaries.  Some I had heard of, some I  hadn’t.  I have read other reviews that said the stories in this book were a little too much for their younger children, but mine had no problems it.  Be warned, though, that the real stories of missionaries aren’t always smily, joyful stories.  But in each, God’s faithfulness and care shine through!!

Timberdoodle sells these books at a very reasonable price.  I hope you enjoy (or have already enjoyed) them, too!