Have you ever tried this...?

Thank you, Beth Moore!

Yes, I am on the final week of her Esther Bible Study...my first Beth Moore study ever!

Today, we had an exercise, one I had never tried before...and it was really profound.  We were to fill in the blanks of parts of Psalm 30 (1-3, 11-12), with our own personal experience.

I've always loved the Psalms, and the Proverbs, and have related to them; but, have never thought to "personalize" the wording before.  Maybe you might enjoy and benefit from trying the same thing, and praising God for what He's done for you?!

Here is the original, and then I'll share with you two of the re-writes that I did.

Psalm 30:1-3, 11-12

I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up
and did not let my enemies gloat over me O Lord my God,
I called to You for help and You healed me,
O Lord, You brought me up from the grave; you spared me from the pit.

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you praise forever.

--This first one was just about my life, in general...

I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have given me purpose
and did not let my enemies gloat over me O Lord my God,
I called to you for help and You made the path evident and answered my prayers,
O Lord, You brought me up from the grave; you spared me from being lost and walking in my own way.

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gratefulness for all that you've done,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you praise forever.

--This second one was about my homeschool journey...

I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have made me to enjoy my job
and did not let my enemies gloat over me O Lord my God,
I called to you for help and You gave me ideas, creativity, and a new drive each morning,
O Lord, You brought me up from the grave; you spared me, and my children, from my own errors, my temper, and my failures.

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy and love for my children, new each day,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you praise forever.

Weekly Wrap Up and a Review

We've been busy this week with the Petersons, and yet have still been able to fit in some fun Summer School activities.  What has everyone else been up to?  Read on to see some of the fun we've had...

1 - We started a new read aloud this week, "Charlotte's Web."  I purchased the lapbook components from Confessions of a Homeschooler for $2.  We loved doing the "Treasure Island" lapbook that she created, so figured this one would be just as much fun!  You can see it here - http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2012/04/charlottes-web-unit-study.html

2 - Sissi is coloring one of our cover pages, and you can see the timeline that we started for the book.  First event was Wilbur being saved by Fern and then moving to Zuckerman's farm.  The lapbook from Confessions of a Homeschooler has worksheets to help children write about and discuss characters and story plots, craft ideas, and all kinds of typical lapbook components.  She has them prepared for 10 Children's Classics.  Maybe you can find one that you'd enjoy doing with your children?

3 - Gwangi spent part of his allowance this week to buy a $3 bow and arrow with knife set, all plastic of course.

4 - He needed a quiver to keep his arrows safe, so we made one out of a toilet paper tube, some craft paper, a hole punch, and some yarn that I had brought with us for crafts such as this.

5 - Krypto loves to play war games, so he created one, along with all of the troop movements and rules, for a battle between Zanzibar and Pemba...Using a Tanzania road map that we bought at the grocery store.

6 - Sissi decided that she wanted to give a speech, so she cut out one of the worksheets from the "Charlotte's Web" lapbook, and wrote in "cursive" what she would say in her speech.  Her "practice" session was quite humorous.  We're really not at all sure what the topic was; but, she introduced her self at the beginning and asked at the end if there were any questions...good first and last steps, right?

7 - For art, we're finishing up DaVinci... here again, we used a kit from Confessions of a Homeschooler, this time it was free!

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/06/worlds-greatest-artists-unit-study.html

8 - She recommended that we print off a coloring page of the "Mona Lisa" for them to paint, rather than starting from scratch. That worked well for us.

9 - Sissi really enjoyed this project.  She said that the "Mona Lisa" is her favorite painting now.  The "Artist Series" from Confessions of a Homeschooler recommends the book to read for each of 8 artists, questions to ask your student about the art that they are viewing, project ideas to keep them involved, and several lapbook components per artist.

10 - All of the kids working.

11 - Sissi's finished project.

12 - Gwangi's didn't turn out so well, only because he got impatient and rather than letting the paint dry, he tried to color her face in, and the black paint from her hair got smudged.  Lesson learned; but, he didn't want to finish it after it was "ruined" in his mind. :(

13 - Krypto's finished product.  He really enjoyed this one as well, fun was had, all around!

We've used many of the programs that Confessions of a Homeschooler has created.  Her prices are super low, her creativity level is high, and the age ranges for her products are right on.  We've enjoyed the following items from her website - http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/

Free Preschool Printables
Expedition Earth Geography
Road Trip USA
Greatest Artists Series
Treasure Island Lapbook
Charlotte's Web Lapbook

I hope you can find something there to enjoy as well.  Even if you don't homeschool, maybe you can choose something fun to do as an "extra" with your child!

Afternoon at White Sands with the Petersons

There is a new family that has come to Dar, the Petersons.  Bob is here to teach some of the Science courses at HOPAC for the next two years, I think Biology and Physics.  They arrived last week, on the 4th of July, and it's been a busy time for all of us ever since then.  I think we've seen each other every day since their arrival, except for one; but, if you asked our kids, it isn't enough...they keep asking to spend more time with each other.  SO, I guess that's good, they've made some great new friends!

Thought I would take a few pictures today of our outing to White Sands Hotel and Beach.  It was their first "fun" outing, as it's been mostly business, errands, and getting them established locally for the past week.

My boys, Krypto and Gwangi

The pool and restaurant area at White Sands Hotel

Sissi and her friend, Kalei, running on the beach at White Sands

Bob and his girl, Addy

My girl, dancing and singing in the water

Sissi and Kalei building a sand castle

Krypto, running to his Mommy :)

Gwangi and Caleb Peterson

Bob, relaxing for just a second, by the side of the pool.  He was quite the hit with the three little girls!

A couple of weeks of Summer School

I'm so glad that the Lord is working on my flexibility.  I really needed the work done on my character!

Seriously though, I planned so much for summer school, and I wasn't sure that I would really be "OK" if we didn't do it all.  I wondered if I would push us too much.  I'm happy to say, that over the past month, we've probably done as many days of school as we haven't....maybe even less.  That, for me, is a big step!

Krypto has also been reading up a storm, pretty much a book or more a day...and not short books either.  He read the first book in the Percy Jackson series, "The Lightning Thief," between breakfast and lunch...and in that time he had a violin lesson, too.  I had pre-read it, because I was concerned about the content and it being above his "maturity" level....well, thank you for the Focus on the Family website. They have reviews and comprehension questions for a plethora of books.  We got to have a great discussion about the gods and our Father God, about worship, about kids relating to their parents, all over our dinner.

Here are some pictures of things we have done over the past couple of weeks.  I'm also thrilled to say that we're enjoying it.  It hasn't felt like too much at all.  It's been just the right amount to keep us on our toes, amidst all of the other activities that we call "life."

We were finishing up learning about Michelangelo, for our artist series, and one of our projects was to paint upside down....like he did on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  We taped our papers on the underside of the dining room table.  Gwangi made a dinosaur scene.

Krypto made an ocean scene, complete with shells, sharks, and squids.

Sissi made flowers, squids, dinosaurs, and many other things.

Kind of like the Sistine Chapel :).

We also did carving and sculpture works out of soap bars.

It was fun using a medium other than paint for our artist studies.

Finishing up reading "Treasure Island," our next book will be "Charlotte's Web"

Completing our lapbook for "Treasure Island"

Working on our lapbook for Michelangelo

Sissi cutting our Michelangelo pictures for the lapbook.  We had the Pieta, David, the Sistine Chapel, God Creating Adam, and the Pieta Rondanini to recognize and write about for our book.

Putting it all together and doing the review.

For some reason, I never took any pictures of the countries we studied.  I think we've only done 3 though in the past 3 weeks, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France.  

Through all of this, we're still doing our math review books and music lessons as well, so the piano and violin are alive and well!

Have you been doing anything fun to keep your kids excited to learn this summer?  Share with us...not that we have time to do more; but, I love new ideas!