Last Sunday, our pastor spoke on James chapter 2, which talks about favortism. He pointed out different areas in which we can be snobs. We can be social snobs, spiritual snobs, financial snobs.
He failed to mention homeschool snobs.
Those who have been around the homeschool community for any length of time know what I am referring to.
Some homeschoolers seem to think they are better than other homeschoolers because they do certain things a certain way, or use a certain curriculum.
Some examples of homeschool snobbery:
I only use xyz curriculum.
I only use text books and have school at home.
I only use the Charlotte Mason approach.
Unit studies are the best.
We get all 180 days in by April.
We homeschool year round.
My child could read by age 4.
My child graduated at age 15.
I grow all my own food, make my own clothes, bake everything from scratch, bake my own bread, grind my own wheat,etc.
I homeschool, homebirth, work at home, home church, etc.
There is nothing wrong with any of these things. But doing them will not buy you favor with God, and not doing them will not cause God to turn his face away from us. God cares about our hearts. If we are doing these things out of pride and vain glory, we are missing the mark. If we place those who do these things in a place of honor, yet snub our noses at those who don't, then we are showing favortism. We elevate all the good things about homeschooling to a place of idolatry, and those who do them become our gods.
If you enjoy doing all the things I listed, that is fine. But in doing them, lets make certain we are not putting pressure on others and setting goals for them when we have no authority to do so. Let's be certain we do not belittle those who cannot perform to our expectations.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
The Lord working in me
Some verses the Lord continues to bring to my attention lately:
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Philippians 1:27
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3,4
Oh, Lord. Please forgive me for the many times I failed to conduct myself in a manner worthy of you. And for the times that I selfishly cared only of my own interests and ignored the things that are important to those you have brought into my life. Please help to to consider others better than myself.
Amen.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Philippians 1:27
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:3,4
Oh, Lord. Please forgive me for the many times I failed to conduct myself in a manner worthy of you. And for the times that I selfishly cared only of my own interests and ignored the things that are important to those you have brought into my life. Please help to to consider others better than myself.
Amen.
More on Josh's eye
The new drops for Josh's eye caused him to be extremely sleepy. So much so, that we could move him around and put him in various poses without him waking. The pediatric ophthalmalogist wanted us to call him if they made him drowsy. Well, drowsy was an extreme understatement.
The ped. ophth. ordered a different eye drop. When I picked it up, I read on the package insert that it could, over time, cause increased pigment of the iris and the eye lid.
He has brown eyes, so I was not concerned about how the increased pigment of the iris would look. But I was concerned about how darkening of the eye lid would look. If just a bit dark, no problem, but I kept envisioning darkening that looks like a birth mark.
I contacted our doctor. I told them I know I sound petty, since we are dealing with potential loss of vision. But his affected eye already looks different, and my hope is for as close to normal vision as possible, with as close to normal appearance as possible.
The doctor told me he is running out of options. The origanal medication was losing its effectiveness, then 2nd medication made him too drowsy. There just are not too many options, as far as medication, for Josh.
My heart is heavy. I know that the new medication will most likely lose its ability to control Josh's eye pressure before we have to worry about it causing pigment changes. When that happens, then we will be looking at more surgery. It breaks my heart that there is so little that can be done for my son.
The ped. ophth. ordered a different eye drop. When I picked it up, I read on the package insert that it could, over time, cause increased pigment of the iris and the eye lid.
He has brown eyes, so I was not concerned about how the increased pigment of the iris would look. But I was concerned about how darkening of the eye lid would look. If just a bit dark, no problem, but I kept envisioning darkening that looks like a birth mark.
I contacted our doctor. I told them I know I sound petty, since we are dealing with potential loss of vision. But his affected eye already looks different, and my hope is for as close to normal vision as possible, with as close to normal appearance as possible.
The doctor told me he is running out of options. The origanal medication was losing its effectiveness, then 2nd medication made him too drowsy. There just are not too many options, as far as medication, for Josh.
My heart is heavy. I know that the new medication will most likely lose its ability to control Josh's eye pressure before we have to worry about it causing pigment changes. When that happens, then we will be looking at more surgery. It breaks my heart that there is so little that can be done for my son.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
My Daughter on a Mission
On a mission trip, that is. Bethany 15yo left on Sat. morning with our youth group to go on her very 1st mission trip. They went to Cherokee NC.
As I was leaving the church parkinglot, I had to feel sorry for the person who was driving the van my daughter was riding in. She was with 3 of her friends. So, at 4:30am, they embarked on a 10hr trip with 4 very noisey teenage girls. I sure hope the driver had earplugs.
Bethany called me the 1st day to tell me about a rash she had on her face and ask what to do about it. Instead of "phone a friend" it was "phone a nurse". When she called 2 days later to ask me if it is ok to use things that had bug spray spilled on the wrapper, she did not mention the rash. I am assuming the hydrocortisone cleared it up.
She said she hurt her knee, but is having the best week of her entire life! The knee must not be hurt too badly.
We recieved an email update from one of the leaders. The group is doing home remodeling and repairs for a single mom who has 3 children. They are doing drywall, laying flooring, repairing a roof, and painting. What a blessing to be able to minister the love of Christ in such a tangible way!
I can hardly wait for Bethany to get home. I am eager to hear how the Lord has been working in her heart this week, and I am eager to see pictures!
As I was leaving the church parkinglot, I had to feel sorry for the person who was driving the van my daughter was riding in. She was with 3 of her friends. So, at 4:30am, they embarked on a 10hr trip with 4 very noisey teenage girls. I sure hope the driver had earplugs.
Bethany called me the 1st day to tell me about a rash she had on her face and ask what to do about it. Instead of "phone a friend" it was "phone a nurse". When she called 2 days later to ask me if it is ok to use things that had bug spray spilled on the wrapper, she did not mention the rash. I am assuming the hydrocortisone cleared it up.
She said she hurt her knee, but is having the best week of her entire life! The knee must not be hurt too badly.
We recieved an email update from one of the leaders. The group is doing home remodeling and repairs for a single mom who has 3 children. They are doing drywall, laying flooring, repairing a roof, and painting. What a blessing to be able to minister the love of Christ in such a tangible way!
I can hardly wait for Bethany to get home. I am eager to hear how the Lord has been working in her heart this week, and I am eager to see pictures!
The Saga Continues
Josh, my 5yo with PHPV, was seen by the pediatric ophthalmologist yesterday.
His eye pressure is creeping up again, which indicates the Cosopt drops are not working as well. We knew this was going to happen. The ped. ophth. warned us when Josh was diagnosed with aphakic glaucoma that the drops would lose their effectiveness over time. Now he will be getting another drop, as well as continuing with Cosopt.
Josh is amazing. I am certain none of my other children would sit patiently on the big chair while the doctor tapped their eyes with the tonopen. I would have a hard time with this myself. But Josh sits there and is so brave. As long as they give him Hershey Kisses afterward, he will do just about anything.
The appt was not all bad news. Josh's vision in his affected eye is now 20/50 with correction. The doc said typically you will have about 20/100 with correction in an eye with PHPV. One would expect possibly less than this, since Josh has had so many complications and surgeries. God is good!
The doctor attributed Josh's good vision to God looking out for him and to me, for persisting with the daily patching. I think it is God blessing Josh's hard work with daily patching.
We go back in 6 wks to see how the new medication is working.
His eye pressure is creeping up again, which indicates the Cosopt drops are not working as well. We knew this was going to happen. The ped. ophth. warned us when Josh was diagnosed with aphakic glaucoma that the drops would lose their effectiveness over time. Now he will be getting another drop, as well as continuing with Cosopt.
Josh is amazing. I am certain none of my other children would sit patiently on the big chair while the doctor tapped their eyes with the tonopen. I would have a hard time with this myself. But Josh sits there and is so brave. As long as they give him Hershey Kisses afterward, he will do just about anything.
The appt was not all bad news. Josh's vision in his affected eye is now 20/50 with correction. The doc said typically you will have about 20/100 with correction in an eye with PHPV. One would expect possibly less than this, since Josh has had so many complications and surgeries. God is good!
The doctor attributed Josh's good vision to God looking out for him and to me, for persisting with the daily patching. I think it is God blessing Josh's hard work with daily patching.
We go back in 6 wks to see how the new medication is working.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Like Christmas in July
Fellow homeschoolers, can you relate? Our order arrived from Rainbow Resource Center today. The children were so excited. Before the box was even opened they were calling "dibs" on things. They were begging to know what I had ordered for them. What excitement and anticipation filled our house!
When we opened the box, we got an added surprise: wads and wads of brown packing paper! The boys were so tickled to discover there was actually enough for each of them to have a piece. Thank-you Rainbow folks!!
While I looked through the new school books, the boys enjoyed outlining each other on their paper and drawing faces on their life-sized likenesses. Are my kids the only ones that get so excited over packing paper? This was almost as much fun as bubblewrap, but much quieter!
I love new school books! The look, the feel, the smell of them. The pages all clean and smooth.
I took some time to highlight some things in some of the books for some of the children. For some reason, some of my children will completely overlook the instructions to take a quiz, unless it is highlighted. My life in the shoe can quickly overtake me at times, and I can easily overlook things to, only to realize several days later that certain things were missed. That is why I am trying hard to organize now.
I have one child, my little worker bee, Sarah, wants to start school today. She thinks the new books look much more exciting than the old ones we just finished. Funny, I think I remember her saying the same thing last summer.
When we opened the box, we got an added surprise: wads and wads of brown packing paper! The boys were so tickled to discover there was actually enough for each of them to have a piece. Thank-you Rainbow folks!!
While I looked through the new school books, the boys enjoyed outlining each other on their paper and drawing faces on their life-sized likenesses. Are my kids the only ones that get so excited over packing paper? This was almost as much fun as bubblewrap, but much quieter!
I love new school books! The look, the feel, the smell of them. The pages all clean and smooth.
I took some time to highlight some things in some of the books for some of the children. For some reason, some of my children will completely overlook the instructions to take a quiz, unless it is highlighted. My life in the shoe can quickly overtake me at times, and I can easily overlook things to, only to realize several days later that certain things were missed. That is why I am trying hard to organize now.
I have one child, my little worker bee, Sarah, wants to start school today. She thinks the new books look much more exciting than the old ones we just finished. Funny, I think I remember her saying the same thing last summer.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Homeschool Planning
While the children are all enjoying their break from homeschooling, I am busy planning for the coming school year.
We will be using the Prairie Primer, which is a unit study, which is based on the Little House on the Prairie books. I used this with my 2 oldest children many years ago. I look forward to reading through the series again and doing the crafts and home arts with my children. I look forward to reading Bible passages with the children, passages that held special meaning to the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, that were relevent to her life and see how they apply to our lives. It will be fun singing "Three Blind Mice" and "Bean Porridge Hot" with my little ones again.
We will be using Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons, for language arts. Aaron will be improving his writing skills with the help of Wordsmith Apprentice. I also used this for my older ones and they enjoyed it. Beth and Sarah will be using Wordsmith. I have never used this level, so I am eager to see if it is as enjoyable as the Apprentice.
Math is always a toughy. Beth will be doing Keys to Geometry. Sarah wants to do CLE math. Aaron and Seth will be doing Mammoth Math. Seth used this last yr and we liked it, however, it does seem a bit advanced and I try to just ignore the numbers on the front and let them work where they need to be.
Jesse is still working his way through Alpha Phonics. Josh is still enjoying his Rod and Staff workbooks and his marker board. Christopher 3yo is working on his fine motor skills, speech and gross motor skills. (I will blog more on him another time.)
We will be using the Prairie Primer, which is a unit study, which is based on the Little House on the Prairie books. I used this with my 2 oldest children many years ago. I look forward to reading through the series again and doing the crafts and home arts with my children. I look forward to reading Bible passages with the children, passages that held special meaning to the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, that were relevent to her life and see how they apply to our lives. It will be fun singing "Three Blind Mice" and "Bean Porridge Hot" with my little ones again.
We will be using Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons, for language arts. Aaron will be improving his writing skills with the help of Wordsmith Apprentice. I also used this for my older ones and they enjoyed it. Beth and Sarah will be using Wordsmith. I have never used this level, so I am eager to see if it is as enjoyable as the Apprentice.
Math is always a toughy. Beth will be doing Keys to Geometry. Sarah wants to do CLE math. Aaron and Seth will be doing Mammoth Math. Seth used this last yr and we liked it, however, it does seem a bit advanced and I try to just ignore the numbers on the front and let them work where they need to be.
Jesse is still working his way through Alpha Phonics. Josh is still enjoying his Rod and Staff workbooks and his marker board. Christopher 3yo is working on his fine motor skills, speech and gross motor skills. (I will blog more on him another time.)
Where have I been??
My life in the shoe has been very busy, in a different sort of way lately. One of the things I have put on hold is this blog.
June 19 my children were scheduled to have their homeschool evaluations, as required by state law. I had worked hard on portfolios, cutting and gluing pictures of our school yr and sliding them into plastic sleeves. Sorting through school papers, picking out which ones to include as examples of what each child had done, progress they made. We were happily looking forward to getting done, we had plans for our summer, beginning with one son going to summer camp June 21st and the 18yo daughter starting beauty school the same day.
But God had other plans. I awoke at 3am on June 19th with horrible pain below my right rib. I couldn't lay down, I couldn't sit up, I couldn't walk around. I tried to wait it out til my family doctor was in his office. By 7am I had had more than I could take of the pain and asked my husband to drive me to the ER. After being examined and being scanned by ultra sound, it was determined my gallbladder needed to come out.
The doctor led me to believe I would recover quickly. It has not been that way. Three weeks later, and I am feeling much better. But it has not been a speedy recovery.
The difficult thing has been the order to refrain from lifting anything greater than 15lbs for 4 wks!! My 7month old daughter, Trinity, weighs over 18lbs. I am so thankful for my older daughters, who have graciously done all the heavy work for me.
We finally went to see the evaluator June 28th after Aaron 10yo came home from summer camp. Allura has three weeks of beauty school behind her. She is doing well with her tests and did her 1st official haircut yesterday.
Now the next step, planning for the new shcool year.
June 19 my children were scheduled to have their homeschool evaluations, as required by state law. I had worked hard on portfolios, cutting and gluing pictures of our school yr and sliding them into plastic sleeves. Sorting through school papers, picking out which ones to include as examples of what each child had done, progress they made. We were happily looking forward to getting done, we had plans for our summer, beginning with one son going to summer camp June 21st and the 18yo daughter starting beauty school the same day.
But God had other plans. I awoke at 3am on June 19th with horrible pain below my right rib. I couldn't lay down, I couldn't sit up, I couldn't walk around. I tried to wait it out til my family doctor was in his office. By 7am I had had more than I could take of the pain and asked my husband to drive me to the ER. After being examined and being scanned by ultra sound, it was determined my gallbladder needed to come out.
The doctor led me to believe I would recover quickly. It has not been that way. Three weeks later, and I am feeling much better. But it has not been a speedy recovery.
The difficult thing has been the order to refrain from lifting anything greater than 15lbs for 4 wks!! My 7month old daughter, Trinity, weighs over 18lbs. I am so thankful for my older daughters, who have graciously done all the heavy work for me.
We finally went to see the evaluator June 28th after Aaron 10yo came home from summer camp. Allura has three weeks of beauty school behind her. She is doing well with her tests and did her 1st official haircut yesterday.
Now the next step, planning for the new shcool year.
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