Back from Camp!

Happy Sarah in her camp t-shirt.

And we're back! Our family has been spending much of our time recently preparing for and attending a fantastic Homeschool Family Camp at Jenness Park. This years guest speaker was from the popular apologetics ministry, Answers in Genesis.

Dr. Tommy Mitchell- was not only an engaging and dynamic speaker, but a genuinely humble man we instantly admired. He took time over the four days to lay out the truth of God's Word, Science, the fossil record and Noah's flood in a way that kept all of us captivated.

In an age when Genesis is continually under attack, this was such a timely message.

All five of our kiddos with respected teacher Dr. Tommy Mitchell of Answers in Genesis.

Campers observing a "Flood in a Jar" - demonstrating how land layers are laid down and fossils are formed. The catastrophe of a worldwide flood may explain many popular landforms and fossils, such as the Grand Canyon and the trees at Yellowstone.

Is Genesis really important to our daily lives? The reality is, much of today's public debate is found right there at the very start of God's Word.

• Where is marriage defined? God said it was not good for man to be alone so He created woman to be man's mate~ Genesis 2.

• Where do we discover how life began? In the beginning, God~ Genesis 1.

• Where are we told about sin- where did it come from? Genesis 3.

• What about explaining the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and the fossil record? Catastrophe~ Genesis 7.

A mom and son explore the Fossil Discovery Station, which explained how fossils are formed and what comprises the fossil record. Camp attendees were even able to handle a real fossilized potato.

SIX LITERAL DAYS?

A few weeks ago my sister and I were talking with a neighbor (who also happens to be a secular public school science teacher) about various topics- including how things in our experience, such as language, seem to "wind down" and become less complex rather than grow in complexity as one might expect in an evolutionary model. She agreed that things do appear to be loosing information rather than gaining information- which she added- is what the scientific community is now finding and documenting.

When I began to talk to her about a literal six day creation model she told me that she didn't need to believe in six literal days because a Christian friend of hers told her that the Bible may not really mean six literal days. It could really mean a very long time instead because there are verses about a day being like a thousand years to God.

I shared with her that while it is true that there are passages of Scripture that state a day is like a thousand years to God, that is not the language God chose for Genesis. When it says "evening and morning" were the first day, the second day and so on, He's explaining that these were literal days.

The Wintons did such an amazing job leading worship and blessing those in attendance.
They are our very favorite band. Period.

By the way, in Genesis God also used the Hebrew word:

YOM with the words evening and morning- which always mean a literal day. In other words, God did not leave the creation week to our imagination.

My sister's cute family.

ET TU, BRUTE?

I thought it was odd that a Christian had encouraged my neighbor not to believe the creation account - then, yesterday my oldest daughter pointed this out to me- from the commentary "help" of the NIV Life Application Study Bible (Tyndale House and Zondervan):

"How long did it take God to create the world? There are two basic views about the days of creation: (1) each day was a literal 24-hour period; (2) each day represents an indefinite period of time (even millions of years). The Bible does not say how long these time periods were. The real question, however, is not how long God took, but how he did it."

Page 5, 1:3-2:7

Huh? The Bible commentary tells it's reader that the Bible doesn't say how long it took to create the earth... and then infers it's not really very important anyway?

Huh? Fun cousins. They always have a great time together. Lots of sillies.

Oh my! Tell me that I am not just being picky here- shouldn't we be concerned when the folks writing the notes for one of the most popular Bibles in our country won't clearly and boldly proclaim a literal six day creation teaching?

It got me thinking... fuming... whatever- Why is it that we Christians so readily bow the knee to "Millions of Years" molecules to man Evolution? I think it is largely in part to the simple fact that we forget that Science must be:

1. Testable, 2. Observable and 3. Repeatable.

We see so much around us that proclaims man's "wisdom" that we forget evolution is simply a theory- and one that goes against basic scientific law (such as the Second Law of Thermodynamics).

It is not science. The truth is:

Medicine is a product of Science.

Space shuttles are a product of Science.

Evolution is not a product of Science.

It is a belief.

REAL ANSWERS EQUIP.

There was a time when our girls would hear the word evolution and not even blink an eye. They didn't know the word- it simply wasn't a part of their reality. They spent most of their media time enjoying Moody Science videos. Now that they are getting older, we are seeking to equip them with more information that will enable them to boldly take on this well accepted falsehood.

Maybe you are doing the same- or maybe you are ready to start. Well, if you are still here sweetly reading my bit of a rant, I hope you will enjoy the following section that includes resources our family has enjoyed as we prepare to engage the world around us.

Richest blessings fellow warriors!

_________________

RESOURCES


FOR THE YOUNGER CROWD (5-11)

As they have gotten older, we've enjoyed these Family Night DVD's. (Great for all ages- but see editing notes below applicable titles):

Some editing/ muting may be required for limited immature humor.

Audio Programs. May require some "fast forward" editing; Intense, but highly equipping. A side note- Jonathan is educated outside the home in set 1 but becomes homeschooled in set 2; some people completely skip 'Mystery at McBain Manor' on set 2

For olders and adults- check out the AIG Clearance section for significantly reduced prices on their fantastic magazines (as low as $1.99 each- a really great deal!).

And Demolishing Strongholds. A helpful in preparing to engage the culture. Some editing may be required.

And just as a helpful tip:

When shopping the AIG website for DVD's- the covers with a very plain look to them like the one below, are college level lectures and semi-technical, not really family night material unless you have much older children.

Also remember there are always FREE resources out there.

Answers in Genesis (AIG) has many articles as well as video clips available for free! They are sorted by topic so you could study them subject by subject- maybe print out a few articles, have an older child to read them and write a report with their findings. Just think of it- free high quality Christian Science material for months!

Topics we've enjoyed researching include: How Long does it take to make a Fossil? Why do People From Different Geographical Areas have Different Skin Color? Why does the Almond Eye look different than other eyes? What did Mt. St. Helen's teach us about the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park? Is Natural Selection Evolution? Were dragons really dinosaurs?

All the information to answer these and questions and more is available on the website.

And don't forget to check out the free Unwrapping the Pharaohs video clips. We loved them!

Read Aloud - Creating Special Times

Although read aloud is a common format in our home for History and Science, which include all ages together, I began to see the benefit of creating special reading times with the "younger" and the "older" groups as well.






Not only were the younger girls (ages 4 and 7) missing out on some of our "team jones" favorites, but the olders (ages 10 and 12) weren't covering some books that we were ready to cover~ without littler ears.

It is interesting how setting up these different groupings changes the dynamic; creating opportunities for diverse conversations and prayer requests within each group. It mixes things up.

Because my husband works nights, I have slipped this time into our evening schedule, planning for sometime between 30-60 minutes with each group. That means we started getting ready for bed earlier. While I am reading with the younger girls, the older girls do a quick clean of the kitchen and family room.

Tonight Lydia (age 4) chose Adam Raccoon and the Flying Machine and Adam Raccoon and the Race to Victory Mountain. Long time family favorites that teach biblical truths. These were handed down from our sweet Aunt Holly. The younger children always love these and they make great gifts too.





Sarah (age 7) is really enjoying the Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. It was previously a book read to the older girls, so that makes it special. A little editing of attitudes, but not much.




I just finished Ivan and the Hidden Bible with the older girls (ages 10 and 12) and we decided to purchase the entire Ivan set from Grace and Truth Books. If you can only get one Ivan book, I would recommend the Hidden Bible.

We are currently reading Ivan and the Moscow Circus. Set in the context of a Christian family in communist Russia, it sparks interesting conversation. A great adventure series for boys as well.






Blessings to you as you lead little hearts home!
Rebecca


__________________________
Photo: Sweet Lydia on Mother's Day. A quiet afternoon at home; a new address marker put together by husband and wife and a lively game of Uno with the whole family on the front porch well into the night. Sweet day...

My new marker (with numbers edited out for the web):

The Spring Girlhood is Available!

HOT OFF THE PRESS
The Spring Girlhood Home Companion is now available! For those of you looking for a sweet, God honoring "finishing school" for your girls aged 10-18, the Girlhood is just the thing. A one year subscription is just $29.85.

This quarter's focus is: Making it Lovely, which focuses on Philippians 4:8.



ON THE AIR
For those of you who are subscribers, you should have received a code for the on-line Homemaking seminar. I am scheduled to be one of the mothers interviewed on May 15th, so if you are interested in hearing more about our family, including how the Lord led our family to live in a camper for 18 months, please join us at 9:00 pst for a fun chat.





God's richest blessings to you!


Rebecca



____________________
Our oldest daughter, Faith Jones, on the cover. Truly one of the kindest, most self sacrificing people we've ever had the privilege to know. To God be the glory.

The Girlhood Home Companion Magazine

We are so very excited to share that we have recently been asked to contribute to the Girlhood Home Companion Magazine.





The Girlhood Home Companion is a delightful Christian magazine, created to reach and minister to those in the splendid season of girlhood. And it is published by Christian homeschoolers! It is full of all types of encouraging and uplifting articles for young ladies seeking to grow in Christ and contribute to their home.

This quarterly publication is written with the older girl in mind (ages 10-18), but could be used as an encouraging read aloud for younger girls (about age 7). Listen to this sweet charge from their last publication:

"We must remember that a room is not just a launching pad for daily activities, but a sanctuary within a bigger dwelling- a place called home where our families seek to live in unity, engage in ministry and learn hospitality. In light of eternity, remember that it can be an act of worship to keep an orderly room."
~Mrs. Nancy Baetz .

... and it continues. What food for wonderful conversation with our girls. Words of wisdom a sprinkled around beautiful articles and photos.

Home Lessons in Conversation includes: "Say nothing unpleasant when it can be avoided. Avoid satire and sarcasm. Avoid exaggeration. Repeating kind expressions is proper. Never repeat a word that was not intended for repetition."


They have done a wonderful job here in guiding girls towards graceful womanhood. And their love for Christ really shines through. Do you wish for a "finishing school" for your girls? This magazine appears made to wear off rough and dull spots of the heart.

Their last issue includes articles such as "The Beauty of a Gentle and Quiet Spirit" by Mrs. Jill Novak, "Worship Wear" by Mrs. Ann Voskamp, "Beauty for Ashes" by Mrs. Nancy Baetz and "From the Inside Out" by Miss Amy Puetz serve as almost read aloud Bible studies written to encourage and guide the mind.

There were also fun topics such as "How the English Take Tea" by Page Alexanda, Instructions for making scones, soap, violet petal jelly and much more are included in the magazine's 50+ pages.

What a wonderful gift for the young Christian lady. The heavy pages and quality print make this a real treasure.

"During the Victorian era, when life moved at a much slower pace, there were distinct periods of development in a girl’s life: babyhood, childhood, girlhood, and womanhood. I have seen a marked difference between the girl my oldest daughter used to be, and the lovely woman she has become in Christ. One thing I firmly believe is that girlhood is a priceless training ground that should not be rushed. Make the Girlhood Home Companion a tradition in your home."
~Mrs. Jill Novak

We are honored to be a small part of this sweet work.


Blessings to you as you lead little hearts home!
~Rebecca

What can I do?

Maybe you've been asked the question 10 times today.

Or maybe, as you see young ones rattling around the house aimlessly, you are asking the question yourself.

What can I do? Am I supposed to play with the kids all day? While we want to have an "I'm available" attitude and to be the ones to fill our children's emotional tanks, there are also necessary tasks to be accomplished on a daily basis, right?

If you have children between the ages of 3-6 years of age, this post is for you.



ADDING STRUCTURE


When starting out as a young family, this feels like new territory. These sweet little babies are growing up. They aren't yet needing to cover too much on the academic side and they have picked up their toys, so... what do we do now?

As our children grow, their chore and academic load grows as well. They become valuable, contributing members of the household: cleaning the car, working in the yard, doing laundry, baking bread, helping with little ones. They don't have as much time to ask that question.

When they have free time, they make the most of it. Their question changes from "What Can I Do?" to "How Can I Help?"

But what about today?



SOME ACTIVITIES WE HAVE ENJOYED


If you are just beginning to assign activities, or if you are moving to a more scheduled approach because of difficulties between siblings, I would assign activities for a limited amount of time~ between 15 to 30 minutes each.

I might even let them know that you are setting the timer for however many minutes you deem appropriate so they will be ready to stop when you say the time is up.

Young children tend to have shorter attention spans. Our goal is to engage them, give them a pattern of happy play with one another, then end the task before they become weary of it.

I found on the days when this more scheduled type of play was required, I would need only about 4 activities per day and things would go smoothly.

My "What Can I Do?" binder was full of ideas I'd find from all over, but in the end it was the simple, inexpensive, open ended activities we enjoyed most:


1. Tactile play- For example, playing in a big tub of split peas.

I'm kind of a neat freak so instead of a sand box, my kids had a split pea box. Really. I kept it outside. No dirty clothes and no sand being tracked in on the carpet (thanks Holly!). I stocked it with measuring cups and bowls and they loved it. As a side note- I would recommend remembering to put the lid on top of your split pea box at night or you just might have a gigantic bowl of split pea soup one morning!

I think I've gotten a little better. We actually own sand now. We even enjoy Moon Sand and Play-Doh... outside. : )


2. Read Aloud Time- For little ones, we start with short character building books like:
Little Jewel Books by Rod and Staff,
Wee Lambs stories by Rod and Staff- this hardbound volume is a compilation of a lot of mini stories
Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers, and readers like
Happy Hearts and
I Wonder.
We have also enjoyed:
Pearables and
the Moody Family, and the
Castleberry Farm mystery series.

I've been asked for book recommendations from several moms recently. Here's a start!


Sitting quietly during read aloud time is a skill that starts small. I would expect little ones (between the ages of 3-6) to have very important ideas to pop into their heads right in the middle of a story or chapter.

My goal is just to train them to "hold that thought" until a good stopping point. They might get up and come over and put their hand on my shoulder. I'll stop, find out what they need to say, then remind them not to talk while Mama is reading, smile and go on. As they grow in self control, the interrupting becomes less and less.

Sometimes children will want to sit on your lap and listen. As the years have gone on, I have encouraged them to bring some sort of project into the family room to keep their hands busy while they listen. During that time they might color, bead or work on some other project that interests them.

For older ones: Now we can read a lot longer than we once did and every once in a while, when we have a free day and the house work is at a good stopping point, we've been known to get through a whole Lamplighter book in one or two days. Our most trusted Lamplighter authors are: Christoph von Schmid and Mrs. O.F. Walton. Our current read is the Shepherd of Bethlehem. It is well on its way to becoming a new favorite.


3. Easy Paper Crafts- sold by the Anabaptist Bookstore.



Easy Paper Crafts have been wonderful. They are sweet, God-honoring and make great gifts for children to make and give to others. They are very simple. You just make copies of the pages ahead of time. All you need to have on hand are scissors, glue, crayons and occasionally yarn. I really appreciate that type of simplicity.

Oriental Trading crafts are also inexpensive and great to have on hand. You usually order in lots of 12. These are great for company or to split with another family.

Or just "free craft" time with odds and ends you've saved. We went through a phase of making clothespin dolls. It took very little fabric to dress them and a little yard for hair. We talked about how girls in past times used whatever they had to play dolls- including corn husks or bottles.


4. Lauri- or other- puzzles. The benefit of Lauri puzzles is that if you lose a piece, they will replace it!


5. Open Ended Toys- Train Track, Duplos, Plastic Animals or "Loving Family" People. We have certain rules for these. In a nutshell, we would never play what we would not want to be true. If you wouldn't want to be robbed in real life, we wouldn't play that in pretend. At the end of our scheduled time, we might keep the project out or, if we decide not to, we might take a picture of it and save that instead.


6. Games. These little boxed games are fun, take very little storage and make great gifts for children. They are sold by Timberdoodle. One of our favorite companies to buy from.


7. Get "real." Start to do some of those chores and activities you want to see them doing as they get older. Have them clean the windows, wipe down cabinets, feed the cat, help bake cookies for someone, make a meal, and so on.


I'm sure you are far more creative than I am, but you get the idea.



The Bible says: "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." (Proverbs 29:15).

I would venture to guess that the more we leave our children to themselves, the greater our shame will be.


May God bless you as you lead little hearts home!

~Rebecca

Great Gifts for Children- Music by Judy Rogers

It never fails. Just before a birthday or Christmas I begin racking my brain trying to think of appropriate gifts for my little ones. I'll look in stores and on-line for resources that build into our family, mirror our values, encourage hearts and/or exercise the brain. What a task!

Because gift buying can be so difficult, I thought it might be helpful to add a new category entitled "great gifts for children" as a place to share some resources that have been a real blessing to our family. Please feel free to pipe up and add your 2 cents as well.

Hoping this category will be a helpful place for you as you lead little hearts home.

Blessings to you!
~Rebecca



MUSIC BY JUDY ROGERS






This previous Christmas we purchased this Judy Rogers CD, along with the Go To The Ant coloring book* for our 6 year old daughter. We have all loved it.


Judy's song, Seven Awful Things, discusses things God hates in a catchy way, while being respectful to God's Word. Not only do I find myself singing this song around the house, just nonchalantly turning Mrs. Roger's CD on after hearing a little one "causing trouble with his brothers" has literally brought tears of repentance in a way that a talking to would not have. There is just something powerful about music- especially when used for God's glory.


Seven Awful Things
"There are six things - even seven, that the Lord hates - things He cannot stand!
Proud looking eyes
A lying tongue
Hands that shed innocent blood
A heart that thinks of wicked things to do
And feet that run to evil, too
Anyone who loves to lie about others
And the one who causes trouble with his brothers"


Judy Rogers is a pastors wife, mom of three and an amazing talent. She knows how to put Scripture to music in a way that makes it enjoyable for the entire family, while not using the "rock" or "pop" sounds that you may be seeking to avoid.

To read more about her, visit her online here AND you can listen to her music here.



Some incredible testimonials you'll want to consider:


"Judy Rogers' music is one of a kind. Biblically concerned parents should obtain her music at all cost."

~Jay Adams, Author of Competent to Counsel


"Judy Rogers has done the impossible... 20 songs that cover the great themes of Scripture: Creation, the nature of God, the fall, sin, salvation, and the Christian life. Quality Music that is respectful of children, professionally performed, and not the least cutesy."

~Mary Pride on "Why Can't I See God" The Next Big Book Of Home Learning




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*It may be difficult to tell from the website, but the Isabelle is a Pig coloring book also goes along with the Go To The Ant CD.