Blessings of a Large Family!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Curriculum Review

Today's review is going to be pretty short.

Bob Jones

I grew up doing their Bible and Spelling. As a student I liked it well enough. My kids used it in their third, and last, time being in a private school. I think it is very similar to Abeka. It's great for a classroom, but not so much for homeschool with multiple grades. They learned a lot while using it. I didn't find much objectionable with it. I think I probably don't like all their pictures, but nothing horribly offensive I guess. I like the way they do the curvy printing so that it's easier to switch to cursive when they're older. I did end up using their history for part of one year at home. The reason I stopped using it...My children were failing the tests! I was like "Didn't you guys study?" They were telling me that the stuff on the tests wasn't in the book. I checked it out and sure enough, it's not in the books. I'm not sure where the extra info was coming from, but it was not in the textbook. For some of the older grades there were some extra workbooks that go along with it and I wondered if some of it was in there, but we couldn't afford to get it at the time. We did end up just reading through the books and not doing the tests and the information was good. The kids all enjoyed it actually! The other reason for not using it, is the money. It's quite pricey! Definitely not within our budget. So while I have very few complaints, I do not recommend Bob Jones for larger families such as mine. I think it has the same problems as Abeka. I do really like some of the reading books from BJUPress though. Not all, but a lot of them I read as a kid and love to have my children reading them and enjoying them now!

Blessings, ♥T

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

A Song

I haven't posted a song for a while and I can't remember if I've posted this one before or not, but I thought I'd post it as it really speaks to me where I'm at right now :D

The Sun's Coming Up In The
Morning

Once again, I faced Satan this morning,
And I battled him all the day long.
But in my weakness, God sent reinforcements,
And at sundown, I sang Victory's Song.

Chorus:
Oh, the sun's coming up in the morning,
Every tear will be gone from my eye.
This old clay's gonna give way to Glory,
And, like an eagle, I'll take to the sky.

In a world, filled with doubts and confusion,
It's so hard when you don't understand.
Oh, but I'll stand on a Solid Foundation,
And I'll hold to an Unchanging Hand.

Chorus:
And the sun's coming up in the morning,
Every tear will be gone from my eye.
And this old clay's gonna give way to Glory,
And like an eagle, I'll take to the sky.

Blessings, ♥T

P.S. Yes that is a sunset not sunrise, but I don't have any pictures of sunrise's! I'm not an early riser, what can I say?! :D

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Family Time???

The other day we all went outside. James was watering the yard. The girls were holding rabbits and riding bikes. (not simultaneously☺) The boys were herding goats and riding bikes, somewhat simultaneously! :D I decided to go out and take some pictures of my beautiful family and nature. There was no organization to it. It wasn't planned. I didn't even consider it "family time". But then while looking at all the pictures with my kids, James Michael said "That was really fun, we haven't had family time like that in a long time!" Wow, that struck my heart! I always want to have "family time", but I always have this image of what it must be like. If it's not like that image I just assume it's not family time. But when he said it, it really made me think...What do the kids think is family time? If that was his idea of family time, then why don't we do it more often? It wasn't a big deal. It wasn't all floofy and exciting. It was just time spent outside as a family. How simple! How effective! How easy to do! And if it makes my kids happy and makes them feel more loved, then you bet we're going to do it more! So here's some pictures of our "Family Time"...