Several things have happened lately that gave me a kick in the butt in just the areas I needed it in.
#1 Kick: Sweetheart got a bad migraine this weekend that lasted about 1 1/2 days. She's had migraines before, but normally she tells us she's getting a headache and we dole out the pain medicine before it gets bad. She gets a lot of headaches, but they don't all turn into migraines.
Well, Saturday found her playing at the cousin's house all day and she was having so much fun she didn't stop to snack. She had lunch, (although I doubt she ate very well due to the fact she was ready to get back to all the playing!) but that was it all day long.
This has happened before at a friend's house when they didn't eat supper at nearly the time she is used to. And she got a migraine. And I had to go get her early. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. So, Saturday, on the way home (an hour's drive) she told me her head hurt and of course there was no way to get medicine in her quickly. She got nauseated, then sick, and lay around all day today.
Which is what made me get more determined about eating healthy.
More about that later.
#2 Kick: Since we started homeschooling I have tried about 50 bajillion things (it is TOO a word!) for Bible time. They have all worked great for a time. But nobody that I know wants to do the exact same thing every single day. And I'll be happy to tell you all about the things we've done because I made most of them up and they didn't come from a book.
Now, understand when I say "Bible time", I do not mean "family worship" or "daily devotionals" or anything like that. I just mean Bible, as in a subject in school. The most important subject in school. When Sweetheart began private school, Bible became a part of the schedule and she learned a lot. They did that as part of their morning routine, just like the pledge of allegiance. (should that be capitalized?) I like to begin our day with Bible too. And I have about 500 more things to say about that.
Later.
But before we go, I have a quick question: What do you use for Bible time (assuming you are 1. a homeschooler 2. a Christian homeschooler 3. a Christian homeschooler who uses a Bible curriculum)??Did ya get all that?
What do you use for Bible time at your house?
My children use the PACE curriculumn from ACE. They have Bible as one of those PACE subjects. My children really enjoy those PACEs.
ReplyDeleteWe also assigned Bible memorization each month. They must memorize quite a bit of a passage of scripture each month so they get the entire month to learn it.
Oh, I'm hoping you get a lot of responses to this because this is something I want to know, too.
ReplyDeleteWe read a Bible story every day for a week. Sometimes we do a craft or a color sheet related to the story. We memorize verses. But my two older kids are starting to need more, and I have yet to find anything that will work for us. ie: in depth, without being way over their heads!
Sorry to hear about Sweetheart's headache. I trust she's on the mend.
ReplyDeleteFor Bible study, we've used Pictures from Proverbs, oneyearbibleblog.com, and Bible Study Fellowship classes.
I'm always looking for a new idea, too--so I can't wait to see your responses here.
Well, we use the whole BJU curriculum, and their Bible stuff is excellent. It's engaging, age appropriate, and fun!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, bajillion is a word, as is ginormous.
And I would capitalize Pledge of Allegiance. But that's just me.
Four Penguins...I have the same struggle. I really want to do Bible together, but there are times we need to separate simply because my 9 year old knows all the stories like the back of her hand. She's ready for much more than "hear the story, do a craft". And Little Bit is right at the age for that kind of Bible lesson-but suddenly hates coloring. They are just a bit too far apart to do this together all the time. So I need...the same story and different activities? But there's still more needed than that. Oh I don't know.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I need help! :)
We are using Explorer's Bible Study- The Life of Jesus. We usually do it first thing in the school day but it doesnt have to be that way. I have some workbooks with crafts and word puzzles in it but we have used very few of them. I wanted to keep it simple this year. We have a memory verse a week. and are slowly memorizing Psamls 23. I like the Explores Bible Study a lot. it is a short story, questions about the story, a prayer adn the verse per week.
ReplyDeleteWe were not home-schoolers, but my husband used to read one chapter from the Bible to our sons before they got on the school bus. He would get up first and eat his cereal and I would get up next and drink my tea. Then we would get the boys up, see that they got showered and dressed and he'd fix their cereal. They would eat while my husband would read to all of us. Then we got them ready and on the bus. He started in Genesis, one chapter per day, all the way through to Revelation. He started when the older one was in
ReplyDelete7th grade and the younger in 5th. He got through the Bible twice by the time the older one graduated H.S. Very simple. I don't remember what we did when they were younger. We started this tradition when we moved to our present house in this town. The boys are grown now and in college.
I too have tried quite a few things in the last six years of homeschooling my sons. I have one of the Kay Arthur children's book & that is good. I like the precept study of it & my kids seem to as well. I've also tried a lot of free stuff off the internet. For Christmas we will be using the Grapevine Studies Life of Jesus book. These are fun. They teach the timeline & lesson using stick figures. There is a teacher guide to show you what to draw, say, do & then the children copy it. They have multi-level ones also. Another one I have tried & liked with some results but it may be better for older children is the Herein is Love series of books. They cover the first few books of the OT. I made up notebooking pages for the chapters we did on Genesis. This seemed to help "bring it home" so to speak. One last thing I've tried & I will probably go back to at some point is a study called The Narrow Way & it's put out by Pearables. Phew - hope something there helps! ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy kids read a chapter of Proverbs every day, we've been doing that for years, and we're using the book Training Hearts, Teaching Minds. I don't agree with every little thing in it, but it has been very valuable for memory work, basic doctrine and discussion.
ReplyDeleteLately, Brooke and I are enjoying working through Dannah Gresh's My Best Friend Jesus.
ReplyDeleteI too think of the Bible as our day's foundation, and struggled to find something that would engage all of my children at once and provide the meat my older children need.
ReplyDeleteLast year, I found Suffer Little Children at Christian Book Distributors, and I love it. We read a full chapter from the Bible each morning, and its Teacher's Guide provides an outline, including background information and, often, pictures of Christ throughout the Old Testament. There are also corresponding workbooks, starting in year two, which give my older children map-work and such. FYI: It's from a Dutch Reformed perspective in its commentary, which fits us most of the time. When it doesn't fit, I just skip over it.
There is an upper elementary edition, too. But, I find that reading the Bible and not an abridged Bible story is meat enough for my kids, who top out at ten.