Friday, February 26, 2010

The fruit of the Spirit

I just love using Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary. When you look up a word, it provides not only the definition of the word, but also a Scripture reference. Most of the Scripture references for the fruit of the Spirit were found in the dictionary. I only changed one or two references because I had a preferred Scripture verse for a particular definition (for example, I like Hebrews 11:1 for "faith" because it seemed to define faith better than what was in the dictionary).

The site administrator for the dictionary has updated the site with a comparison of the 1828 with the 1913 edition.


Love:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind -
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matt. 22.

Joy:
I will joy in the God of my salvation. Hab.3.

Peace:
Great peace have they that love the law. Ps.119.

Longsuffering (Patience):
The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness. Ex. 34.

Gentleness(Kindness)
mildness of temper

Goodness:
The Lord God--abundant in goodness and truth. Ex.34

Faith:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Heb. 11:1

Meekness (gentleness):
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth Matthew 5:5

Temperance (self control):
Moderation; particularly, habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Fruit of the Spirit study day one

We are in revival this week, so I am doing a Bible memory study with the boys instead of heavy schoolwork. Here is my link for resources I am using (so I can refer back).
http://www.lapbooklessons.com/FruitoftheSpiritLapbook.html

We are cutting and pasting right now. I will add some pictures later on, Lord willing.

The boys think this video is hilarious:

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Ways to teach a Bible verse

Learning Bible verses does not have to be boring.
Because I need to refresh my own memory to make learning Scripture more exciting, I am typing some of my own ideas along with a friends' ideas so I can refer back if I need more ideas. We currently have been singing the verses or doing hand motions, but I am planning on using some fresh ideas coming up next week.

  1. I have printed the verse on card stock with pictures representing words to give kids a visual (this especially helps pre-readers).
  2. Write words on a paper and put into a balloon. Kids pop balloons and assemble the words in order. Then say the verse.
  3. Write words on the balloon itself and after saying the verse, the kids pop the balloon so they have to remember the next word.
  4. Write words on theme related pictures (example: print verse on a picture of a loaf of bread if the verse is "I am the bread of Life....")
  5. Use objects to symbolize the verse
  6. Hand motions (make a muscle any time the word strong or strength is used, make an afraid face for the word fear, etc)
  7. Sing the verse to a popular tune or a made up catchy tune
  8. Post the verse on the refrigerator and repeat it daily at breakfast
  9. Have the children hop according to the theme (pretend they are frogs and hop on lily pads with the verse words written on it. Once I had dolphins with the verse typed on it going into the water. Once the dolphin (with the word written on it dissappeared, they had to remember.


A lady from our church (who is currently a Kindergarten teacher at our church's school) gave me a list several years ago. I have kept it all of these years and have also used her ideas with my kids and with children's ministry:


  1. Say first word quietly and second word loudly
  2. Erase a word at a time
  3. Cut out 2 sets of words of verse and let two children race at putting them in correct order
  4. Teacher say first word and chosen child say second word- repeating until verse is done
  5. Let children take turns covering part of memory verse by sticking a picture over words and saying entire verse each time
  6. Let children who are wearing green, stand and say verse. Those with only white shoes, etc...
  7. Raise arms on first word and put arms down on second word
  8. Divide class - one half say first word and other say second word
  9. Sing words of verse by going up and down the scale with words. Hum if not enough
  10. Stand on one foot
  11. Pat head and stomach
  12. Pass a stuffed toy - SAY STOP - person holding toy says verse

The possibilities are endless!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Historical Biographies

One of my favorite websites is Homeschool Freebie of the Day. As the title implies, each day something new is offered.

This week was especially nice. We enjoyed some great biographical stories....





"A nice collection of short stories about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln when they were boys, digitized by Ann Tatum."




"MY ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY by Frederick Douglass (MP3 audio / PDF) – Frederick Douglass was an American abolitionist, women’s suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer, and is one of the most prominent figures in African American and United States history. In this Audio reading, he shares a story he held back for many years – just how he escaped from his slave masters and gained his freedom. "




"CAST DOWN YOUR BUCKET WHERE YOU ARE by Booker T. Washington (MP3 audio / PDF) – An audio reading of one of the most famous and widely circulated speeches that Washington ever gave, on using what you have, where you are, to make a difference in the lives of those around you."

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Space study


We are in the middle of a space study. We started with earth, and then we ventured into space. We have been reviewing facts daily. Today we played a game to help the boys with review. I asked them what type of game they wanted, and they chose a jumping game (of course!).

Ryan was chosen to throw a stuffed animal at Justin and Jonathan to make it harder to jump to the next "level". If they got the question right, they were able to jump.


Here are just a few of the many questions I have been asking them in our morning review time. Facts are taken from Usborne Children's Encyclopedia.


  1. The earth measures how many miles around the equator? Answer: 25,000 miles
  2. The earth weighs apprx how much? Answer: 6,000 million million million tons (how could they possible KNOW this? :-O
  3. Where is the hottest place on earth? Answer: the Sahara Desert
  4. Where is the coldest place on earth? Answer: Antartica
  5. What is the layer of air surrounding the earth called? Answer: The atmosphere


    I also had questions about what fraction of the earth is covered by land and water, what is the largest mountain, and how much of the earth's surface is covered by ice. Further questions were asked about the planets. We are still reviewing and adding more facts daily.

    Jonathan was so fascinated the other day by the fact that a pinhead as hot as the sun could kill you from 90 miles away, that he had to tell Daddy when he got home from work.
I found this picture to use as a model for our project:
I found a tray box lying around. They painted it black for the back-drop of space and then added some stars.

Back to the my favorite cornstarch dough recipe (recipe on the bottom of the post):



The Encyclopedia we are using. The pictures are really nice:

We formed the dough into balls. We looked at the picture I found online to give us an idea of the right size.

Ryan had paint on his face, of course...



The almost finished project (I finished it up by painting the outside of the box too).


This probably will get dropped or broken or smashed, but I hope the memories will stick.

Doing a hands-on project like this had a huge affect even on me. We talked about how just thinking about the size of our earth, trying to compare that with all of the other planets in our galaxy, and knowing that doesn't even touch what is really out there. Our God is really AMAZING!

Cornstarch Clay
  • 1 cup cornstarch
  • 2 cups salt
  • 1 1/3 cups cold water
Put salt and 2/3 cup water in pan and bring to a boil. Mix cornstarch with 2/3 cup water and mix well. Blend 2 mixtures together and knead into clay. The dough has to be heated as it is combined to set. Makes about 3 cups. This clay can be air dried and then painted. Store unused clay in airtight container in the fridge.
Found this recipe here

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Lapbooks: A fun way to learn

I have heard of lapbooks in the past, but we had never tried them...until today.
There are some pros and cons to doing the entire lapbook in one day (as we did today). If you do it all in one day, you get the mess over-with and the lapbook finished. However, because kids aren't the most patient individuals, they tend to rush through everything. Then it is harder to make a nice, neat book. One really needs time to add all of the information.

My kids really enjoyed the experience, and and now they have a nice lapbook at which to keep and look. We plan to do more of them in the future, but I will probably have them work on one mini book at a time. Then when we are finished with each part they can assemble the completed book.


A lapbook starts with a file folder - folded in the middle. The tabs fit nicely together.


I had bought some scrapbooking supplies for a project that I was planning to do in December, but I never used it. Because of that, I have some nice colorful paper and Mod Podge (which is a wonderful glue. It dries clear and shiny).
We are using The Usborne Children's Encyclopedia for Science. We have been studying facts about the earth, so we chose this as our topic. I did a search for a true picture of the earth from space. We found a nice one, and the boys cut a circle out of the scrapbooking paper and painted it.




Here is Justin's accordian mini book with earth facts...

I can't remember what you call these, but you turn the top portion to reveal facts. We used brads to fasten the middle.

Justin decided to make an icicle to write cold facts about the earth and a sun to write hot facts.





He made a mini booklet to write more items about the atmosphere...

Justin's finished product...



I cut some old camo pants into strips and stapled them to the front to make a tie closure.
Jonathan's lapbook. The nice thing is that you can have them customize them according to their age and patience level. He made an accordian book and a little slider circle.
He also drew a cute sun and icycle to represent weather patterns.


Ryan isn't finished with his. After painting the earth and writing one word, he was ready to be done. Hopefully we will do more on his tomorrow. :-)

Thursday, February 4, 2010

New Time-line Characters

These are some time-line characters the boys have drawn.
Jonathan's George Washington and soldier It says "Washington winters at Valley Forge"
Justin's musket. It says "April 1775 Fighting between British soldiers and Patriots breaks out at Lexington and Concord."

Jonathan drew the little man and Justin wrote: " Sir Walter Raleigh returns to find the colonists of Roanoke have vanished."