Happy Birthday to me!

The devotion today was called “Mission Impossible.” It was about the space walks in 1965 and the moon walk in 1969 and how they are now talking about going to Mars. With out technology today it seems nothing is impossible. Then it transitioned into the One who can do the impossible. After all he spoke, and the world came into being. He has control over life and death.

JD reads his own book daily, but mostly at the end of our school day. We still read the Purpose Driven Life together right after the devotion. Today’s lesson was called “Sharing Your Life Message.” Once we became a believer we became God’s messenger. There were a few steps to writing your Life Message: 1. Your testimony - of how you began a relationship with Jesus. This is easier for nonbelievers to understand than a sermon. 2. Your life lessons - the important lessons God has taught you, because there simply isn’t enough time in our lives to learn everything by trial and error we should be learning lessons from the bible and not making the same mistakes. 3. Your Godly passions - the issues God shaped you to care about most. 4. The Good News - the Message of salvation. I personally don’t have a problem telling people the Good News, it’s when I get shut down I seem to be at a loss for words and I get angry that the person has a hardened heart. Imagine the joy we will experience meeting someone in heaven that we had a hand in leading to Christ.

With protractor in hand we tackled the geometry lesson. Amazing how easy it was to answer the questions with the right tools. It was measuring what degree the ramps were. We did the rest of the short lesson that we had to stop yesterday and onto the quiz. He scored a 100%. He’s all over geometry. He has mastered all the terms. (I wonder what he will be when he grows up.)

Oh my where do I start on the civics lesson? It was called “Your Personal Health and Safety Net.” Otherwise called TAXES! Remember I said JD was livid about the whole taxes issue? Well he was just the same way today. It was like trying to teach Glenn Beck (from Fox News channel) that tax was a good thing. Sure some of our tax dollars are going to good programs like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), but we all know those dollars are not being spent wisely. JD’s biggest problem with taxes is the amount of money we get taxed on. That would include: Federal, State, Social Security, Medicare, Sales, and all those unseen taxes. He totally understands helping those people that need the help, but despises the people who “won’t get off their lazy butts” to help themselves. There were two questions that cracked me up when he answered them. 1. Taxes take ALL of the earnings of every working person or business in the USA. True or false. His response. They take MOST of our money. 2. What best describes the work of the Federal Government? His response, “leaving us broke.” (JD for President!)

We used the email/snail mail lesson time to catch up on some school work started earlier in the week. We tackled the Lindbergh questions from a biography and we completed the research on Washington, D.C.

The language arts lesson was accomplished side by side so we could get through it quickly. I read the two different passages and he answered all the question. (What’s sad about my mind is I can’t recall those stories one day later. Maybe that’s why I write everything down and blog about our days. Smile) The lesson was called Theme and Main Idea on fiction stories.” He scored another 100%

We were rushing to get through our lessons today so all we did for science was check on out bread experiment and record the observations. No mold to behold.

I dedicated my "evening blog time" today to complete the second phase of the Lifeway writing assignments. The writers block was finally gone (whew) and I have researched "forgiveness" until I was blue in the face. (Breathing)

Jeff asked to review and edit them both if necessary. I wrote one 500 word article about Understanding and Relating to Children and a 3-4th grade Sunday School lesson on Forgiveness. That was the toughest one. It's four pages long and includes the bible story and TEN activities.

Pray...I'll be sending it to Lifeway in the next couple of days. Thanks for your prayers.

It was a Happy St Patrick’s Day!

The devotion today was about the real St Patrick. His name is Maewyn and he was uneducated. At age 16 he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish bandits. During his captivity he became closer to God. He escaped after six years of captivity and studied in a monastery. He returned to Ireland to convert pagans there. Patrick devoted his life to serving Christians and building schools and churches. Be sure to thank God for devoted missionaries like Patrick. God used him and a multitude of others (maybe even you) to spread the “good news.”

The Purpose Driven Life reading today was the start to purpose five. You were made for a mission was today’s theme. Our ministry is our service to believers, but our mission is service to unbelievers. Our mission is to continue doing what Jesus was doing as his mission on earth. That is the great commission. I laughed out loud when I read what Rick Warren wrote, “It’s the Great Commission, not he Great Suggestion.” Our mission should be looked at like a wonderful privilege. Telling others about eternal life in heaven is the greatest thing we can do for them. Our mission had eternal significance. Our mission gives our lives meaning. God’s timetable for history’s conclusion is connected to the completion of our commission. So many people want to know when Jesus is coming back. Well, it should be when every person has heard the good news. For anyone who has read this book day 36 has the story of Rick’s dad on his death bed. He’s having nightmares and calling out, “Got to save one more for Jesus.” We should all be so faithful and obedient as Rick’s dad.

Today’s geometry lesson was not nearly as painful as yesterday. Today it reviewed the different types of lines and they are: intersecting (lines that cross or meet at a point), perpendicular lines (form a 90 degree angle or a right angle), parallel lines (never intersect or they are side by side.) Then it quickly moved to geometry angles. I emailed Jeff the list of geometry angles and made a comment that it was like a foreign exercise routine. (I just picture some big Swedish lady yelling out the commands…Acute! Hold it…hold it…and breathe. Obtuse! Holding…and breath!…AGAIN!) The angles are: Acute, Right, Obtuse, Straight, and Reflex. They did teach us a great way to remember the different angles degrees or points. The sentence is…Alligators Rest On Sunny Rocks. That’s the order if you will. Then if you combine that with a clock it’s really fairly simple. So if "0" is noon, then "180" is 6:00. An acute angle (F or E) is anytime between noon and 2:59. A right angle (D) is exactly 3:00. An obtuse angle (C or B) is between 3:01 and 5:59. A straight angle is 6:00. And last but not least a reflex angle is anytime past 6:01. (Got it? OK test time!) We started another lesson but stopped it because we needed to purchase a protractor. (We went out and got one. We’re now armed and ready for combat with geometry.) I told Jeff how quickly JD absorbed all that information and what a good teacher he is to explain math to me. (Yeah, this home school thing is really working out well.)

JD did another word bank lesson independently again. Today’s words were eminent, brash, and bawdy.

We opted not to do the journal lesson today because we were having such a good day and we had errands to run. I made a deal with JD that if I cancelled the journal lesson would he work doubly hard for me tomorrow. Before he answered he asked, “Wait! Does that mean I have to do journal tomorrow?” I said, “No you just have to give me a great attitude and do all your lessons as well as you can.” (We signed the deal.)

The history lesson was based off of the History Channel. They did a documentary on Charles Lindbergh. He's the first guy that ever did a non-stop flight from New York to Paris. He earned $25,000 for that. We learned a lot of interesting facts about Mr. Lindbergh. I typed up a document with some questions from the documentary and a biography on-line. He'll do that tomorrow.

Today during music I asked that JD just write me a song. We he didn’t write it or make one up. He just started playing “Joyful, joyful, we adore thee” by ear! And not just the chorus. Here take a listen for yourself. We had to film this a couple of times to "get it right" and bleep out the anger when he got it wrong. But look at him. What you can’t see is the tongue sticking out to concentrate. The movies before he was rocking back and forth on the organ bench. This time I think he was showing off by not even looking at the stink'n keyboard. Did I mention he plays by ear? So he practiced this today during music and ta da we have a beautiful song played by an 11 year old child with absolutely no piano lessons.

We checked the four slices of bread from yesterday's experiment and I'm happy to report we are not yet producing penicillin in my house. In other words, there's no mold to behold.

The homemade paper art project from Monday is finally dry. It is very sturdy paper. It took the help of a blow dryer last night and staying out over night to completely dry. I think I'll get a good picture of JD and I together and use the homemade paper as a mat.

I've been spending a considerable amount of time preparing the Sunday School sample for Lifeway because the clock is counting down for the deadline. So pray that I turn in a great sample and on-time.

Fun and easy going day

The devotion was about today being “Freedom of Information Day.” It is celebrated on the anniversary of the birth of James Madison. Madison noted that knowing the truth and having knowledge were important elements in a free society. Jesus also taught that knowing the truth was essential to being free. Jesus is after all “…the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 4:16) Jesus’ perfect truth gives us the freedom to be all that God intends for us to be.

While I don’t like to think about my weaknesses the Purpose Driven Life spoke all about it. Today’s topic was “God’s Power in Your Weakness.” God uses our weaknesses for His glory. The first step for God using us is: 1. Admitting our weaknesses. (For me this means stop acting like I’ve got it all together.) 2. Be content with our weaknesses. (This will force us to depend on God.) 3. Honestly share our weaknesses. (Strengths create competition, but our weaknesses create community.) 4. Glory in your weaknesses. (Think of Jacob who wrestled with God and God dislocated Jacob’s hip. Jacob will forever walk with a limp, but he will never run away again.) *Moral from Rick Warren…If you want God to bless you and use you and use you greatly, you must be willing to walk with a limp for the rest of your life, because God uses weak people. On a great note I asked JD what he thought his biggest weakness was. I halfway expected him to say, "Having ADHD." But to my surprise it was, "Being afraid of the dark." Maybe he FINALLY sees it as a gift.

The internet was messing up so we did the social studies lesson next. It gave JD a choice to pick a place that he would like to visit. He picked Holly wood. So we figured out that it was 2,643 miles driving and it would take 1 day and 18 hours to drive straight through (without any sleep.) We decided taking a plane ride would be better than driving. He will be researching Hollywood and give facts, landmarks, and different information about it. He will also pick five cities and compare information about them like: biggest population, hottest/coldest weather, and oldest/newest city. He will award each city in each category. He’ll work on this for his next social studies lesson next week too. He did that lesson and then he took a test. He scored an 80% on the chapter quiz.

Just when I was feeling confident about measurements we closed that math chapter and moved onto geometry. I feel like a “cage fighter.” For those of you that don’t know what that are. It is where two people are put in a 32’ x 32’ octagon type ring and it’s an ALL OUT BRAWL! Pretty much anything goes in cage fighting. I researched the rules and there are 33 “fouls” like: biting, eye gouging, butting heads, hair pulling, and the list goes on. I like watching cage fighting but never fantasized about “being in the ring.” Well today my worst nightmare came true. My opponent...Geometry! First the right hook…learning the terms of geometry. They were terms like parallel (lines that never intersect), perpendicular (these intersect to form a right angle), collinear (these are on the same lines), and coincident (these occupy the same space or point.) (You think I’m doing drugs don’t you? I can’t make this stuff up.) Ducking, bobbing, weaving, now comes the dreaded uppercut…practice identifying these lines on a graph. (Leave me in the fight coach…I can take him.) The knock out punch I never saw coming…the quiz! Together we scored a 70%. Not the lowest score ever received, but its right beside math “reasoning.” Speaking of reasoning…someone please tell me the reason I need to know geometry? Because in my 40 some years of blissful life without math I have NEVER done this line mess!

Language arts was fun. The 2010 Census paperwork showed up in our mailbox. So JD and I read it and filled it out together. It only took about 10 minutes to fill out. Could you imagine if “The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe” received one of these forms? She would need a continuation sheet for all her young’ns. Have you received your form yet? Don’t freak out, but there’s space in that form packet for a dozen people! (Suppose what Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are going to THIS year? That’s that family with 19 kids! The last census they only had 11 kids.)

Last week in science it taught JD how to record the desserts observation using charts. It expanded on this lesson today with an experiment called “Behold mold.” We took four pieces of bread and put one teaspoon of water on each one. Then we put two in sandwich bags. The other two piece of bread went on a plate. Then we labeled them. 1. Refrigerate/no air (sandwich bag) 2. Refrigerate (on a plate) 3. Room temperature/no air (sandwich bag) 4. Room temperature (on a plate.) Then we put two in the refrigerator and two on the counter. We will be observing them everyday for two weeks and charting the presence of mold on each piece. (Yum!)

Email/snail was fun today too. It kind of branched off of the social studies lesson when we were looking at Google maps and zoomed in on 10019 Isaac Drive, Midwest City, Oklahoma (the house we lived in when JD was born) and 2118-4th Street Greeley Colorado (my childhood home.) Google maps allows you to view in satellite and it actually looks like you're driving right to the location. So we printed a real picture of each house and wrote down facts about each one. We "drove" around each neighborhood in Colorado and I showed him places I went on my bike. I showed him how far I walked to school and friend's houses. For the house we lived in when JD was born we "drove" around the road I walked nightly with him in his stroller. I showed him the fence extension Jeff and I built (that's falling down in the picture) and right where he received his first bee sting. It was cool to reminisce about childhood places and JD's first home. We had a great time sharing memories and disbelief (especially about how far I walked to school.)

Beautiful day

We did two devotions today because the one for Saturday was about genealogy. It listed the two places you can find Jesus’ family tree. One is in Matthew 1:1-17 showing Jesus was related to the Jews. The other one was in Luke 3:23-28 showing Jesus was related to all humankind. The next devotion was “The Ides of March. “ That is the 15th day of March on a Roman calendar. Most famous for the assassination of Julius Caesar by his “friends and followers.” Years later Jesus was betrayed by his so-called friend named Judas Iscariot. It reminded JD to take an inventory of his true friends.

We read the Purpose Driven Life together today. Then just before I called school done for the day I had him read independently for 15 minutes. He’s about halfway through “Hero’s Don’t Run.” The Purpose Driven Life was called Thinking Like a Servant. It listed five attitudes to have while serving. 1. Servants think more about others than about themselves. 2. Servants think like stewards, not like an owner. 3. Servants think about their work, not what others are doing. (This one is hard for me.) 4. Servants base their identity in Christ. 5. Servants think of ministry as an opportunity, not an obligation. The last couple of weeks I have been burdened with my relationship to God. I’m lacking in the constant prayer area and working on the die to myself and pick up my cross daily part. I definitely believe in God but without constant visual reminders I forget he’s with us during our school days. It’s easier to think about God at home rather than a work environment but I’m still disappointed that I fail to “feel, hear, or sense” that God is with me. I know there are times when he’s testing me. This is when I visualize think he’s busy with someone else who needs him more. I’ll just keep being burdened and doing what I sense he wants for Faith Christian Academy.

Today in math we learned “Volumes of solids.” More specifically, we learned the volume of cubes and rectangles. Cube formula: A cube is 3 inches high, tall, and wide. So the formula is 3 x 3 x 3 = 27. Rectangle formula: A rectangle is 3 inches high, 2 inches tall, 2 inch wide. So that formula is 3 x 2 x 2 = 12. We have now graduated out of “measurements and tomorrow we will move onto “geometry.” (Um, help!)

The keyboarding lesson today was Level 4, stage 11. It taught JD about “/” and “.” He did this independently while I mowed the dog yard. Therefore, I don’t know how many times he looked at his fingers. If I had to guess…probably the whole time.)

I took Jeff’s suggestion for JD’s journal time. If you remember he suggested having JD write instructions or a recipe or something that didn’t require “creative” thinking. The anger started outside when I told him, “It’s time for journal.” He started whacking away at the weeds in the yard. (Note to self…when the mower breaks down, tell JD to write in his journal.) I asked if he preferred typing it or writing it. His response, “I prefer not to do journal.” (Oh I didn’t see that one coming…wink, wink.) After I calmed him down he came in and I offered the topic “How to tie your shoe.” I didn’t think it would include all the drama that was attached to the assignment. He still required a lot of assistance getting the visual motions into words. He was freely able to demonstrate the movements but hit a wall when he had to form words for those actions. We even had a shoe on the table for demonstration purposes. (I’m not giving up yet…)

The on-line art lesson was acting funny so I had him stop that and we created our own paper. First, we made a drying rack from a coat hanger and old panty hose. Next, we took two pieces of paper and cut them into thin strips. We added some crumbed leaves and some water. Then, came the “fun” part for JD. We liquefied the concoction in the blender. Next, we gave that messy concoction a glue bath. The last step was to pour in onto the rack and set it out to dry. It’s kind of thick but steadily drying. I’ll let you know how it “turned out” tomorrow.

The spelling words this week all homophones. That is the pairs sound the same but are spelled differently. There are words like: horse/hoarse and poll/pole. Once I had his list in hand I moved the lesson outside. We sat in the sun making up partial sentences for each word to distinguish the differences. When Jeff asked JD how his day was and how he liked each topic he said, “Spelling was fun.” I guess it’s all about the location, location, location.

That relaxation thing I discovered is REALLY NICE. I like cuddling up in my bed with all the pillows fluffed up. I get most of my reading done when everyone else is asleep. I finished the book “The Shack” last night. It kind of makes me take a second look at my relationship to the Trinity. For a fiction book I liked it. But as for me, its only fiction. Jeff suggested I start reading Max Lucado next. He might have a point there. It will teach me some more theology.

Great day

Today was rather uneventful but great nonetheless. Now that I’m reflecting on the entire week…I love home schooling. (That’s no secret though.)

The devotion was about the Girls Scout’s promise “…to serve God and country…to help people and to live by the Girl Scout law.” In Matthew 5:16 it is written, “In the same way let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly father.”

JD was extremely sleep this morning and struggled to get out of bed. We got started late so he read “Hero’s don’t Run” independently this afternoon. I read the Purpose Driven Life this evening because I didn’t want to go two days without reading it. Today’s title was “How Real Servants Act.” (We all know Jesus set the bar high when he demonstrated that as the son of God he too was a servant. So What makes us any different?) Did you God may test your heart by asking us to serve in ways we’re not shaped for? Rick helps us understand this by defining six characteristics. 1. Real servants make themselves available to serve. Not only when it’s convenient. So every morning we all need to remind ourselves that we are God’s servant. That way when he throws a wrench in our plans we won’t freak out. 2. Real servants pay attention to needs. Seize the moment when there’s a need and don’t put off until tomorrow what we can do today. 3. Real servants do their best with what they have. The bible says, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” It doesn’t have to be perfect either; God uses it and blesses it. 4. Real servants do every task with equal dedication. I personally don’t have a problem doing jobs at the church which could be classified as “beneath me.” I have a problem being the 20% doing it all the time. I guess this characteristic hit me the hardest. I just need to do what needs to be done as though I’m doing it for God himself. 5. Real servants are faithful to their ministry. I know these people and am disappointed when my children’s ministries suffer because of lack of commitment. I try hard never to be this servant. 6. Real servants maintain a low profile. Meaning don’t do “eye service.” I really don’t know any of these servants in my church. I do however see it down Main Street when every other month there is a new church open. There are 8 churches on that street!

Math was fairly easy to do today. It was very similar to yesterday’s lesson. Only today they taught the area of parallelograms and triangles. A parallelogram is a four sided shape. When you cut it in half from corner to corner you have a triangles. We used the skills we learned from yesterday to solve all kinds of “area” questions. JD really mastered this quickly. (I’m going to need a tutor.)

JD got almost all the way through his keyboarding lesson when he got distracted at hit the “full screen” button. This made him lose all the work he had already accomplished and brought him all the way back to the start. He was working on Level 4, Stage 10. This lesson incorporated the letters “x” and “z.” They do “warm-up” first. Then, the left hand and right hand next. The last step was working with both hands while typing sentences. I re-typed the lesson and got him caught up to where he was prior to losing it all. I wanted him to get through the whole lesson.

We utilized the edit/rewrite time to finish typing the superhero story called “Bombhard.” (Yes, one word.) It’s of course a fictional story that incorporated characters, setting, plot, cause and effect. (Thank goodness that one’s done.)

The health lesson today was called “Have a safe and fun time.” I loved this lesson. It taught him safety about the following topics: car, biking, swimming, fire, and streets. There we’re points in this lesson that I as a parent have never had the opportunity to tell him. Things like: bicycle hand signals, don’t swim when you are tired or experience cramps, diving into unfamiliar water, escape routes from the house in case of a fire, chasing a ball or animal into the street, and boundaries for our neighborhood. Last year the bicycle boundary was into the next cul-de-sac. The world is just not the same as when I was a kid. I told him he is never to turn left towards the highway. That his boundary ends at so-in-so’s house. I worry so much for him when he’s on his bike. I worry that he’s so into “his world” that he will forget about everything else. And with all the distractions car drivers face today, they may be too distracted to see a wild boy on his bike.

The spelling test went well. He received a well earned 100% on 15 four letter words. I think 15 was a lot too, but it should decrease next week.

I think I have discovered the art of relaxation. I have been trying to put it into practice the last couple of days. I may have found a new hobby. I curl up on the couch and read. Jeff made mention that I haven’t read this much the entire time we’ve been married. I started reading JD's books to make sure what he was reading was age appropriate and for DETAILS for book report and that led to reading a book he started back in public school and never finished. (Whew...I finally found out the end of the story. Earlier today I started a book called “The Shack.” I'd heard a couple of things about it and was interested. I just finished the sadness chapter.

A compatible day

Today was a compatible day for JD and I. We really enjoyed each other’s company. When I asked JD how he liked today he said, “It was awesome.”

The devotion today was about “The great blizzard of 1888.” The Northeast was buried in 46.7 inches of snow. Can you imagine the loss and chaos? Then it transitioned to the storm that hit the lake all of a sudden. Jesus stopped the storm and asked the disciples, “Where’s your faith?” Remember, in the middle of life’s storms, Jesus is with us and he can calm whatever storms we are facing.

Today JD read his book “Heroes Don’t Run.” I started reading his last book yesterday. I finished it today. The story was pretty good. I like the way Harry Mazer writes. That Adam is an angry teenager. Some of JD’s details in his book report were sketchy so that’s why I read the book myself. I NEED details. About the only big detail he missed from the book report was a character named Nancy. She is only Adam’s friend but he likes her. They even (*kissed*) Oooh. Maybe that’s why JD left her out of the story. (Smile) I did not do the Purpose Driven Life today.

Math makes me dizzy too…Math was a bit more complicated today than yesterday. Yesterday if you’ll remember was perimeters. That’s easy for me. Today was "area." That means the square number of centimeters, feet, yards, etc, INSIDE the perimeter. We learned (Ok I learned) what the terms parallelogram and trapezoid were. JD already knew. But today was multiplying sides, or widths by lengths, or lengths by height divided by height. (Does it ever end? AND…why do I need to know this information?)

We finally graduated from the lemonade stand lessons in civics. Today we learned about “taxes.” That’s a HOT BUTTON issue with JD if you ever want to get into a debate with him. Now he’s armed with more information about our “contributions” to the government. The lesson referred to our MANDATORY giving’s as “contributions.” (HA!) Forget the census information that will be coming in the mail shortly. I want the form that I can check the block “I would like to stop my contribution at this time.” JD also learned about the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration. I showed JD my social security card and my W-2 for taxes. He was amazed at how much I “contributed.“ The lesson gave JD an two examples of taxes. If he was paid $1.00 for allowance a week and $0.10 of that went to taxes over five years he would pay $26.00. The it increased the amount from $1.00 to $5.00 and the taxes stayed the same. He would pay $130.00 over five years. Crazy contributions.

The email/snail mail lesson time was used to produce more results on that superhero comic book. Those elves must have snuck into our school room and nibbled the colored pencil lead out of the pencils because before he got started today he sharpened ALL the pencils again. Oh and let’s not forget the bathroom break too. (Head shaking - I wished I knew how to get over this writing issue.) He worked on the book for about 10 minutes total. I finally told him to forget about the book and that together we would type the story out. We’re still working on it.

I had JD do two language arts lessons independently. I listened while I did the dishes. In the first lesson he learned about the different story elements like: plot, setting, characters, cause, effect, and such. The second lesson was teaching him how to write his own story using all the elements. That made him think about the book he wrote in 4th grade called “Turkey Wanted for Free for Lunch.” So I went and found it and we read it together. Then we found another one he wrote about the Army. His mind is so creative. Now if I could just get him to write it down. (More work needed there though.)

For science JD charted his observations from the dessert survey. There were 41 people surveyed. Here’s the list showing the first choice first:
Ice cream - 14 people
Cake - 8 people
Pie - 7 people
Misc (Brownie, cobbler, cheese cake) - 5 people
Cookies - 3 people
Candy - 3 people
Fruit - 1 person

I have completed one of the two assignments that Lifeway tasked me to complete to secure the second phase of my application. It was a tough article to write. Though it would seem like it shouldn’t be. It had to be 400-500 words long. Mine is 498 words long. (Whew, close.) The article is titled “Understanding and relating to children.” Good thing they didn’t say “your” children. I would just have to say to Lifeway, “Hey thanks for the opportunity, but I’ll just bow out now.” The second assignment is to write a Sunday school lesson to include four other activities to accompany it or a VBS lesson and four activities. I think I will do mine for one day of VBS. Total story time and activities will be 1 hour and 15 minutes. It will be based on Mark 2:1-12 where Jesus healed the man that could not walk. One hour and 15 minutes seems like a long time but with all those birthday party activities under my belt I think I can handle it.

WOW! AMAZING!

It's been a great day! I was enlightened during math and amazed during music. I am humbled to be in the presence of such a brilliant young man. Jeff and I used to say, "If one one teacher would just understand JD it could change his life." (Thank you God for having the confidence in me when you selected me as that "one teacher" that finally “gets” JD. I am certain this will make a difference in his life and for your Kingdom.)

The devotion was about the love of money. The first sightings of paper money was during the Revolutionary War. But it wasn’t until 1892 that the government issued “Legal Tender Notes.” People often put their trust of security in money. After all we understand and speak the language of money in our culture. But wise King Solomon recognized the money trap. The people were depending on money instead of God to meet their needs. (I know something about that. We became a one income family in January and God is taking care of our “needs.”) We have definitely added to our spiritual bank with the prayers of thanks to God for what he’s doing in our lives.

The Purpose Driven Life was about “Using What God Gives Us.” Mr. Warren warned us about doing something different from what God designed us to do. He compared it to trying to force a round peg into a square cutout. (Ouch.) Next, we are to discover of shapes. We can begin by assessing our abilities and gifts. Just because we think we’re good at something, wait until someone confirms that suspicion. Then, he talked about serving FIRST to discover if you’re good at it. How can you say you’re not a good teacher if you’ve never taught? (*Side note… Have you ever written a spiritual journal? I have and it is very enlightening. I can see where God was molding, shaping, and preparing my life. I just did the journal last year and oh the changes he’s made in just one year. Thanks God.) Unlike my body shape we are to enjoy and accept our specific “SHAPE’s” for God’s service. The book also warned about trying to be like someone else. Remember also, if we don’t exercise these gifts they will be lost.

I took 1 ½ pages of notes on the math lesson called “Perimeters of a Polygon” and JD took…you guessed it…zero notes. He EXCELLED at this topic. I think what amazed me most was the sheer number of numbers and steps he could keep in his head without writing a thing down. It wasn’t a hard lesson to do but the lines of numbers to add together, then multiply, then simplify…(My fingers are sore from all the writing I did.) A polygon can be a triangle, pentagon, octagon, or any shape with any number of sides. Most of the ones we looked at today were odd shaped and not symmetrical. I found out that when JD looks at a 3D picture of a rectangle or square that it upsets him and throws him for a loop. Why? Because the back keeps coming forward and the front keeps jumping to the back. Visual Spatial kids can see in 3D pictures in their heads. But JD let me know today that he did NOT like that picture. Here are two examples of what problems he kept in his head 1. There’s a shoebox that measures 6 1/5th” x 11 ½”. So what’s the perimeter of the box? He did EIGHT steps in his head: find a common denominator, times the top numbers to get them correct, add the whole numbers, add the fractions, get answer, times it by 2 for the other two side of the box for an answer of 33 and 14/10th, improper fraction - convert to proper fraction, final answer was 35 2/5ths. (Meanwhile I’m still trying to multiply my top part of the fraction so I can add the numbers…) 2. The shape was really odd looking but we knew the total perimeter was 40 feet. The dimensions went as follows: 3, 5, 5.4, 5, “x” (unknown) 5, 4.3, and 5. Before I could get that string of numbers written on my paper JD had them added and gave his answer for what “x” equaled.

There were more times today that I had to stop and ask how he got the answer but I couldn’t translate it well. I did ask how he kept all the numbers of the perimeter in his head and all the steps in the right order. He said, “The perimeter is an Army base.” (Ok makes sense to me.) The numbers are kept in files in my mind and one guy calls from inside a box for another guy to pull and slide the numbers into a thing like church signs. They slide all the numbers and “+“, “-“, “x” and division signs too. The guy in the box tells JD the answer. If there are more steps the files keep coming. The files are numbered like this: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. Whole numbers are kept in one, fractions in another and so on. (All I can saw is astonishing. What an imagination.) He moves the numbers in his head sort of like pointing and clicking in the computer with the mouse. It’s kind of cool to FINALLY get to see inside his mind. At the start of home school he was unable to tell me ANY of this. It was as though I had to earn his trust or something. All I do now is sit back and let him moves his eyes and before you know it he has an answer. I have NEVER caught him looking at my paper to cheat either.

The word bank lesson was fairly easy for him to do but he found everything he could to do before doing the writing. This gave me time to do stuff around the house. The words today were ritzy, stupendous, and Utopian.

I had JD start his superhero comic book again. There was about 20 minutes before lunch. He must have sharpened every colored pencil in the cup before he started coloring with only black. (Ugh.) He only completed a little bit today and I told him it was now homework.

We took our usual lunch break. I say the morning prayer where I ask God into our school day and for strength, wisdom, and patience and such. JD says the lunch blessing. It’s usually only, “Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food , and let it be used for the good of our bodies, and our bodies for the good of your Kingdom, Amen.” But today there was a pause before Amen, and he said, “…And…thanks for letting math be fun today, Amen.”

Before the music lesson I went online and found “free piano lesson” sites. I showed JD the song “Brother John” and “London Bridge.” They both taught him how to use both hands for playing. He said, "That's not London Bridge. That's Mary had a Little Lamb." It took him all of a minute to figure out “London Bridge.” I wrote it down for JD so he could play it for Jeff when he gets home. I asked that he try to figure out "Amazing Grace." Within a minute or so he did part of it for Lyndell and me. I was on the phone with her telling her about the previous song. WOW! is all I can say.

We were suppose to do a social studies yesterday, but I accidentally did history instead. So today we will back track and do the social studies lesson. We looked at major cities across the USA and taped them to the map in our classroom. Then we did the flash cards on the state capitals. We did not score well. (By we I mean JD. If I had to give him a hint then I marked them down to be memorized. But there were still quite a few that I didn‘t know.) He missed 36 out of 50. So I wrote ten down on an index card and posted it near the computer. We’ll study and memorize them and work on another ten later.