Another enlightening day

The devotion today was about a fable writer named Aesop (ee-sop). The devotion says fables are fictional stories that tell a moral or teach a lesson. Some people think the bible is a collection of fables. They think the bible tells interesting stories and can even teach valuable lessons, but that they are not necessarily true. (I used to think that, before I was saved) Some of you grew up in the church since you were knee high to a grasshopper, but I was allowed to “pick” my religion. I know now, that the bible is true. And Jesus is the Truth.

We read two more chapters out of Exodus today. I’m glad JD and I are reading it together. This will means JD will be able 1. Say he’s read the bible when someone asks him and 2. Make informed decisions when unbelievers doubt his knowledge. JD is such a sponge when it comes to bible theology. Chapter 21 was all about the fair treatment of slaves and cases of personal injury. Each instruction came with a penalty; most were compensation; however, this is where JD’s eyes opened wide when I read “a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…” Chapter 22 was about the protection of personal property. Again, each instruction came with a penalty; most were compensation. Then, it moved to proper social behavior. JD and I had a long talk after reading these chapters. It would take too long to repeat all the information exchanged but I ended it with, “all those instructions were written for those people during that time frame. Today we don’t necessarily follow those instructions. We follow the laws written on our hearts. If you KNOW what you will do would be something that would disrespect God or bring dishonor to him, DON’T do it!” (I think he got it.) I also explained about the tabernacle and the time when Jesus died and the curtain ripped. That’s the point where we were no longer bound by that shopping list of laws and were allowed to approach God about anything.

I noticed JD was subtracting from the left to the right during the assessments and had questions about regrouping numbers when he borrowed from the number to the left. He also had questions about borrowing from a decimal number. So back to the basics we go. I copied three different house pictures and pasted them side by side. I told him the one on the left was Mr. Hundred‘s house and placed a $1.00 coin in it. Next, I told him the middle one was Mr. Ten’s house and placed 9 dimes in it. Lastly, I told him the one on the right was Mr. One’s house and placed 4 pennies in it. This visual seemed to help. I also taught him a poem I found online. “More on top? No need to stop! More on the floor? Go next door. Get one ten. That's ten ones more.” I also gave him an example of “194 kids in the neighborhood playing minus 15 kids who will do lawn work for the day.” The example 194-15 shows “more on the floor.” So you’ll have to go to Mr. Ten’s house and ask if his kids can come help do lawn work. I told JD Mr. Ten only gives ten kids as a bunch at a time (**for obvious safety reasons…) Even if you just say I only need 1 more he only give a bunch of ten kids. So when all ten kids move from playing in their yard to Mr. One’s house now there are those 10 from next door and the 5 already at Mr. One’s house for a total of 15 kids waiting to do lawn work. Meanwhile, Mr. Ten now only has 80 kids playing in the yard now. This visual and example worked out GREAT! Now that the concept was taught visually and I knew he understood regrouping or borrowing I gave him a worksheet filled with 24 problems ranging in difficulty. He only missed two! (This is one of those days where you actually get to see the light bulb go off and home schooling makes all the sense in the world.)

For the keyboard lesson I had him go to “Keyboard Climber” where the monkey climbs branches of the trees of you type the correct letter. If you do not find the correct letter he will get knocked in the head by a coconut. JD looked at his hands the entire time. I called him out and shortly there after he said, “I’m bored with this game.” So I had him close that down and type sentences. The topic was what will you be doing this summer. His first two sentences were: “This summer, I will have school and lots of it. I will have stacks of papers to do.” I stopped him and told him he was just mad that I was making him type sentences and that what he typed was hurtful because I am not a slave driver. I am only trying to improve his skills over the summer. I said, “Okay, type what you wish you could do this summer. He typed, “I wish I could drive a speed boat. I wish I could go water skiing. I wish I could go sky diving. And I wish I could climb a mountain.” (Wow! Those are pretty big wishes.)

This week for spelling I focused on the “Q-U” and “X-S” rules. Q and U are best friends. Wherever Q is U is right beside him. The next rules was X and S are mortal enemies. When they get close to one another they need a referee or mediator named E. JD admitted he did not study his words this week and missed one 1 out of 8 simple words.