Savoring the Scriptures

We have been implementing our new and improved efforts to study the scriptures and I'm so thrilled with the results.

For years I have held morning devotional every day - without my husband.   Finally, I responded to the idea that we should include him - or more likely - encourage him to lead us out.  So in the evenings before saying family prayers, we've undertaken to read the Book of Mormon as a family - reading, discussing, marking, and testifying of its truthfulness.  Whew.  I felt amazing and proud of myself for handing that responsibility over to him.  I'm anxious for his growth as well and the families response to his leadership.  Granted, it is hit and miss due to his hit and miss work schedule but that is the plan in the evenings. 

And so our daily devotional shrunk... dramatically.  I wasn't sure exactly what to do during that time since we turned the family study time to the evenings.  We dabbled a little with scripture master and personal scripture reading for 5 minutes, but basically the substance of our starter was weak and meaningless.  I'd thought and played with the idea of customizing devotional activities for the special day child and had done it a little on Fridays - Joan of Arc's special day.  But the other day, I sat down to brainstorm how to study scriptures without it being simply scripture study and discussion.  How could I approach it so that my children get specialized attention for their needs.  I did a little research, made a master list, and this is what I came up with.

Daily:  Individual Personal Reading from the scriptures for at least 5 minutes.  (I'm hoping to work that up to 30 minutes.  Also, we are taking a conference talk and listening to it, taking notes, discussing. etc.  The neat thing is that when we do the same talk the very next day - it's as if it were a completely different address but we got different notes the next day.  Our intent is to clearly identify what the brethren are counseling us to do and then analyze whether we are doing it and implement an action plan to more completely follow the prophets voice.   This is going to be fun.

Mondays - Doctrines and Principles Day:  This is the day that we choose a doctrine and really get to the depth in research, analyzing what our understanding of the doctrine is and compare that with what the scriptures say.  We identify the underlying principles in a verse.  We analyze the scripture references found in their personal progress/faith in God/ or lessons.  We choose a subject that we've studied and give a talk and bear our testimony on it.  Eventually we will be making scripture journals and compile our faith promoting stories. 

Tuesday - Markings and Values Day:  This is the day that we learn how to mark our sciptures, not just the scripture mastery or meaningful scriptures, but putting titles on the top of the page, sectionalizing the entire chapter, color-coding, recording insights, stickers, and cross-reference notes.  We practice the rule of three (reading a verse or selection three times - recording more insight with each reading).  This is also the day that we recite our family value for the month and the scripture we have  chosen to represent it.  We find examples in the scriptures of that value being exhibited and then we find examples of ourselves exhibiting that value. 

Wednesday - Scripture Master & Hero Day:  Wednesday is our day away from home so we will use the travel time to memorize our scripture mastery.  Using a combination of flashcards, repetition, fill in the blank, first letters, and scrambled words.  We also are doing a combined Hero Study to make the people in the scriptures come alive and personal to each of us.  We've chosen to start with Esther and will not only do a biography study but compare her character with our time lifestyle choices (media, Sabbath, Friends, gospel principle application, etc.) 

Thursday - Storied Scripture Day:  This is the time that I read directly from the scriptures the account of a particular story, and while I read, each child is creating a story book - drawing and writing a summary of the story on folded and stapled pages.  Hopefully we'll have a large collection of little scritpure story books that the child has a relationship with.  We will also read from the scripture readers.


Friday - Scripture Snack Day:  Yes a snack, a treat of some kind that the kids get to eat as I tell the account from the scriptures in my own words, followed by a verbal testing of their understanding or application of principle discussed.  Sometimes the scripture snack (for my drama loving kids) will be re-enactment the story.  Sometimes it will be to play with some special toys during the story. 

We've only just begin this regime this week, but already our morning devotional is rich, filling, and spiritually satisfying.   So between evening family study and personally challenging  devotional, I'm hoping the scriptures will take on sweet personal meaning.

Adventures in Music

We chose to go with a theme for our adventure box this week and we chose to taste a little inspiration from music. 

 

Spiritual lives of Great Composers

Discussion of what the ancient philosophers defined music

Classical CD's & Bio's of composers

Listen to a wide variety of music and compare the spirit they bring

Invite a guest musician to perform here in my living room

Find samples of music from different locations and different time periods

Study the mechanics of instruments & how they create the sounds

Watch youtube videos of an orchestra performance & discuss the different types of instruments

Make homemade musical instruments.

Overview basic musical notations - fill in a blank staff & then play it (compose)

 

The Math of Kahn

Yes, I'm using someone elses title but it was just too good to pass up.  We've discovered a valuable free resource that is so inspiring.  Kahn Academy has over 22,000 youtube clips  (about10 minutes each) with explanations of most academic subjects.  These videos are not boring or uninformed as you sense Salman Kahn's mastery and passion of the subjects he's teaching.  Even though he is obviously well advanced in understanding the concepts, he can explain it to the student in the simplest and thorough manner.  Obviously, I'm in love with this concept. 

At first, I was thinking this might be something that Shakespeare could look into in her preparation for the GED test, but as I looked at all the subject matters, I got excited about learning some subjects myself.  And as I was working through the knowledge map so I could see where gaps in my math learning are, several of my children stood around desiring to have their turn to work on the problems. 

Yep!  I'm loving it.  Anything that inspires my children is worth a few moments of internet use. 

A Dollar Well Spent

I love 'Les Miserables'. I love that my mother had a relationship with it. I love the story line and its depiction of the transformation of the soul. I love the movie and in concert. I would love to actually go see it in live concert with my husband and older children. And I'm planning to actually read the unabridged book (one of these days). I was shocked to find out that Victor Hugo was not part of the Great Books.

So when I saw the sheet music for 'Les Miserables' at the DI for only $1.00, I quickly grabbed it and put it in the cart. Granted, it was only treble cleff, and the notes were huge, but I didn't care - I don't play the piano anyway (even though I took lessons all throughout my childhood). I would love to have access to the words to all the songs. I knew Wilberforce wanted the real sheet music but it was the best I could do.

For the past three days, not only has Wilberforce been tinkering around on the piano, but Shakespeare, Austen, and even Hypatia have consistently been fine tuning their rendition of these simplified masterpieces. I've been loving it. Our house is full of music and singing.

So often I buy a super expensive book or curriculum hoping to inspire my children to fall in love with the subject - but true to form - it's my passion and relationship with the subject that has inspired them. It was a dollar very well spent.

School on the Moon

I don't know how many times we've driven straight past it in the last twenty plus years, but this time we stopped. I remember going to Craters of the Moon for a grade school field trip and although I didn't really get anything memorable out of the experience, I always assumed we'd stop there as a family so my home schooled kids could have the same experience. And since it was between my home and my extended family on the other side of the state, we had plenty of opportunities that we didn't have to plan a special excursion. But usually we were pressed for time to visit relatives and exhausted and eager to get home on the way back.
So this time on our way to family camp, I promised myself that we would stop on our way back. After all, my oldest daughter IS 19 years old - she's not getting any younger. Even though it was raining, and we were exhausted and filthy after four days of camping, I pulled into the visitors center. After using the restrooms, and browsing at a few displays in the corridor, we worked our way into the gift shop. BOOKS! All my kids found something they found interesting and explored to their hearts content. Eventually we continued walking into the rest of the visitor's center displays and watched a few documentaries, read several plaques, and pointed out things on the displays. As we learned the history of the site, my kids questioned the scientists calculations when the lava flowed based on the inconsistency with the scriptures or how it might compare with events in history (such as the earthquake that happened when Christ came to America). I was impressed as my children were well versed in much of the concepts, plants, and wildlife that were depicted, as they had a relationship with it.
Soon we were invited to listen to a ranger give a presentation regarding Craters of the Moon. I was able to listen for a short while before my two year old lost interest and wondered off. After this the kids asked to learn more by watching another documentary. By now, I was tired and wanted to get the rest of the journey behind me, so we decided to postpone going on the trail for another day when I wasn't carrying an infant and it wasn't raining.
I think it's impressive the stamina my children have for learning. I know that when I was a kid - I was so anxious to leave and what I did have to sit through - I tolerated because I did my duty. But my kids seem to actually enjoy learning this stuff. I love homeschooling.

Cats

     c                                          c

  Cats                                      Cats

 I love                                   Cats so

much. Cats are small cats are soft and 

smart. Cats black and wight, yellow a-

nd orange, brown and tan, Green eyes

blue eyes        orange        brown eyes

small cats big cats  rare cat tabby cat  

 Pershin, Manx,      calico, shorthair,

   longhair, bu rimes, Rex cat house

         cats and Russian blue 

                I love cats

  

Thats My Bike

When my papa went on his mission, he had a companion named Pomatae.   Pomatae was a Samoan Samoans are big and strong.
        One time my papa's and Pomatae's bikes were stolen, my papa was mad but Pomatae only said "Its OK ossy the lord will provide." ( Ossy was my papa's Nick-name).  Latter that year my papa and Pomatae were walking down the sreet, when a  man came riding past on a bike.  Pomatae started  to run after the man on the bike, and yelled "HEY THAT'S MY BIKE."  The man jumped of and ran, the bike kept on going for a little and then fell.  Pomatae whent and picked it up and brought it back to my papa and said "See ossy the lord will provide."  My papa said to pomatae "Elder you just stole that bike."  Pomatae said in return "Its not his anyway