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He Does All Things Well
The ideas behind this poem come from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (a popular benediction) and Psalm 42:4-5. I quote a few lines directly from both passages, and then try to summarize a couple of the main points. I put these two passages together on purpose. God sanctifies us through our suffering. Though He may hide his face for a little while, He promises to be with us no matter what comes our way. I hope that hearing these two passages together encourages you as you face whatever trials are before you. Lean on Jesus as your strong support, and trust the Holy Spirit to refresh your heart. He will surely do…
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Fresh Minds and Focused Hearts
In her book Home Education, Charlotte Mason encourages homeschooling parents to keep their lessons short. She says, The brain, or some portion of the brain, becomes exhausted when any given function has been exercised too long. The child has been doing sums for some time, and is getting unaccountably stupid: take away his slate and let him read history, and you find his wits fresh again. (pg. 24) Along the same lines, Charlotte Mason also encourages parents to vary lessons so that each lesson is a mental break, or rest, from the one before. The Ideas Behind Varying Short Lessons Let’s say math and copywork challenge your younger student the…
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Quotes From Our Current Reading Material
“Little Sal picked three berries and dropped them in her little tin pail…kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! She picked three more berries and ate them. Then she picked more berries and dropped one in the pail–kuplunk! And the rest she ate. Then Little Sal ate all four blueberries out of her pail!”Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey *** “They came round the corner, and there was Eeyore’s house, looking as comfy as anything.‘There you are,’ said Piglet.‘Inside as well as outside,’ said Pooh proudly.Eeyore went inside…and came out again.‘Its a remarkable thing,’ he said. ‘It is my house, and I built it where I said I did, so the wind must have…
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What I Took for Granted and What I Can Never Find
The coronavirus pandemic has done strange things to my life. I would guess that most of you reading this could say the same thing, but maybe in different ways than me. Because we homeschool, our school situation has not changed very much in the last couple months. We missed out on the last few weeks of our Classical Conversations Community Days, which was sad, but ultimately didn’t have a huge impact on our daily routine. The kids and I don’t go shopping together once a week anymore; instead, I go once every other week by myself. (Maybe I’m not so sad about this one!) We don’t meet at the play…
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The Good and Not-So-Good of Bible Reading Habits
How often do you read your Bible? What goes through your mind before you sit down to read? I often find myself reading or not reading my Bible out of guilt or frustration with myself. I wonder why I don’t “feel” like reading God’s Word, and question if I should even read the Bible when I don’t feel like reading at all. If God’s Word is good for teaching, training, and building up in righteousness, and if I claim to love God’s Word, why do I spend half an hour reading something else first and then rush to fit in my daily devotional time? I claim to rely on the…