"May is Over and June is Coming"

'Yeah for May and Fun in June'. Many homeschool families are heading for summer fun. Why not incorporate it into learning? Now you can head for nature parks and bug studies, animal fun at the zoo, and even water studies with chlorine and salt water. Just because summer break may be here for many of you, just remember, your kids never stop learning. They are always soaking in what's around them. Take advantage of it, especially with God's word. Don't let any day or any moment be without your impartation. Your children are always looking to you and as you share the simple things in life, especially God's word and prayer, and what you believe about the Lord and His ways, filling everyday with information about the simple things around them and how they work, you are teaching your children in relational ways. That's the best part of learning and the best part of it all~

God bless you in all you do with your kids!
Pastor Kim

Home Schooling is Worth It!

If you haven't noticed, home schooling your children is worth it. Your children will find themselves advanced and informed and 'loving' to learn. There is a difference with learning and having an interest in learning. Have you ever watched a child before entering in school? Your pre-schoolers and toddlers are always gaining and processing information everyday of their lives. They watch, they listen, they process, and before you know it, they are talking, walking, and following your lead. As parents, if you can take that process and continue with it, realizing that children learn from all these various different areas of their environment, you can gain an revelation of education from the Lord's perspective. That's why the Lord tells us in the book of Deuteronomy 11:19 to teach His ways and His word to our children with specific instruction. He says,

"Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

The Lord knows that your children are always gathering and gaining information at all times and in every part of their day. He wants us to realize that we are to teach them His ways and live them before them every moment of every day. You can see, children are obtaining information and processing it at all times. Take this opportunity to see them as sponges that retain, not only the water of His word but all the things you put before them, even in your home schooling curriculum.

To simplify it, what you put before them is what they will learn. Watch what you put before your children. That's why many parents have chosen home schooling. They want their children to have excellent things put before them that they may gain greatness and achieve their highest potential as individuals.

As you move forward with your home schooling plans, and as you fulfill the requirements to fill a certain amount of hours each day with teaching, remember, your children never stop learning. Learning doesn't turn off when school is over, so take advantage of every moment. Don't just teach your children at one scheduled time. Rather impart to them God's word and live a gracious example before them. Not just a Godly example, but also an example of a Godly and quality education.

Importance of Home Ec

Have you ever realized the importance of Home Ec? A subject I mastered and majored in, ( I am a graduate from the School of Home Economics and have a BS degree in Foods and Nutrition from Ohio State University). I would like you to know that Home Ec is very important to study and would encourage you to teach in your Home Schools. Home Economics lays the ground work to running an excellent home and gives you the ground rules to follow to make things come in order and have a smooth operating house.

The "older generations" used to refer to Home Ec as Domestic Engineering. In all reality, Home Economics is more than a guide in how to clean, cook, sew, or do laundry. Home Economics is defined, "management".

Management is a subject that the whole family could benefit from studying, after all "home" involves the whole family and 'management' is needed in every aspect of our lives. God is the best in 'household management' over all. As we look to Him and study Home Economics, we allow Him to teach us how to bring our households into great order and define His Home managements to teach to our children.

God bless you in your home schooling,
Jane

Mid Summer Fun!

Here we are, right in the middle of summer fun! How is your Home-schooling plans? My children are 2 years old and under. We have been working into their daily habits school fun. With toddlers you would be surprised at how much fun you can have teaching them their ABC's, the sounds of the letters, their numbers, pictures, animals, and more. My five babies love to learn.

You know, as you spend your summer, maybe a trip to the zoo, a fun day in the park, or whatever you decide to do, make it an experience that takes the opportunity to teach your kids about the world God created around them. Surprise, they will be learning. If you spend some time with them and teach them while you are having fun, you will find your kids will love to learn and come to know all about the things around them. They then can be taught that learning is fun!

Have you ever thought about how badly you would feel if you knew nothing about the world outside of yourself? Bringing kids into an environment that is outside of home, outside of just their world and showing them the greatness of God is important. Showing them in God's world and in His creation, means to go beyond self, and it His desire that it lead outside of each persons 'little space'! This will show your children that their is vast wonder to find outside of 'their' own understanding.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding..." Teach your children to lean on the Lord and to find out about all that He has created and done. Going after and learning about all His wisdom, His world, His ways, everyday of their lives! He is the author of science itself, math, creation, words, and... life! What a beautiful way to learn! "In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths!"

God bless~ His riches your way as you teach your children about His creation, His wisdom, His world!

Pastor Kim

Foggy?

Here's a great home-school idea for you. Do a study on fog. As you study fog you can count it as science. But, one part of your studies can be studying the fog of God. What is the 'fog' of God? One thing, the F.O.G.is, The Favor Of God! The scripture base for your fog studies?

"For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield." Psalm 5:12 (NKJ)

Let your kids learn about how fog is a fallen cloud and all the details. Then connect those details with the Creator of the Universe Himself! Talk to them that God has caused His favor to fall on us like a cloud!

First, through Jesus coming from Heaven to earth. He is the fog.

Secondly, then after He raised Him from the dead and into Heaven, Jesus has come by the power of His spirit to pour out on us, His fog again. To pour out His power and His healing in the F.O.G.

Thirdly, the blessing of the Lord, who has made us righteous, has poured out His favor on us and surrounded us. Surrounded us so much that His favor has become a sheild. A sheild of His good unmerited favor in our lives. His favor, meaning His love, joy, peace, and wonder-filled outpouring of Himself to us. His favor is for all us, is a cloud that touches life after life, after lives after lives! The favor of God!

“My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant."
Genesis 18:3 (NKJ)

God's favor is for your children! Teach them about it in your school! Use it with science studies and Bible. Use it for your litature too. Tthe greatest lit piece ever written- The Bible! As your kids study the verses in the Bible, as they read it, teach them how God has poured out His promises to us like a fog and that we are free to be who we are in Him, through Him, and by His fog! Use it for spelling as you make a test of spelling words from your fun studies about fogl Your children will grow in stature and in favor!

"And the child Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with the LORD and men. " 1 Samuel 2:26 (NKJ)

God bless, and remember, "We've got the F.O.G."

Pastor Kim

Continuing my thougths on wisdom!

I talked in my last blog the importance of wisdom. Again, simply put, wisdom is the ability to take the things you know and apply them. That is a great way to understand wisdom. We can teach our children so many things everyday of their lives but... if we do not teach them wisdom then we have taught them nothing that they can apply in their lives. If our children cannot take what they have learned and apply it, then we have done an injustice. You can teach your children about God's word, and if they never act on the wisdom of God to apply it to their lives and receive what the Lord has for them, then... we have not completed the training.

The Bible tells us that Jesus has been made unto us wisdom! He is the Wisdom of the ages, the spoken word of God that became flesh, and has become the absolute in our lives. When we realize and believe that it is He that brings to pass those absolutes then we release His wisdom working on our behalf in a very special and powerful way. First and foremost we must again remember that the Bible tells us that "the fear of the Lord, which means to HATE ALL EVIL, is the beginning of wisdom!" In that our children can learn to apply wisdom by simply walking away from evil! It's one thing to know that stealing is wrong But it is wisdom to know it is wrong and walk away from doing it!

I watched 2 movies this last evening in order to do reviews on them for families. These two were in the genre for young adults. "They were so awful!" Watching something that goes against God's word and His character goes against the grain of what I believe in and stand for and I very much dislike it! I actually HATE the evil that is set before me such as; murder, sex, swearing, bitterness, hate, debauchery, and the more! Right here is a great place to start teaching your children wisdom! Don't put evil before them letting it get in their eyes, their ears, their hearts! Then don't just tell them no you can't but, teach them "why" your are telling me this and why you want them to do what you are saying! Show them what's wrong, what is evil and tell them how one should not follow it! Keep these movies and TV stuff that supports things contrary to God's word and Jesus off! Keep them away from what is ungodly and goes against His word and ways in every area of their lives! Teach your children to hate evil and not allow it to grace their lives in anyway! Then wisdom will begin to work highly in their lives and "He" Jesus will do great things for them in honor of their faithfulness and obedience to His word! God Bless!

Charles Spurgeon said,

"Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is wisdom."

love,
Pastor Kim

"Short-Cut Math"

This is a wonderful book aimed at grades 4-8.

The greatest advantage of home schooling is the freedom to use whatever method, products, and books that will do the job and do it in such a way that your child will gain knowledge and feel successful at the same time.

I first discovered this book with one student in our Christian school who could not - no matter how hard he tried - get math concepts in his head. He was in the 9th grade and was functioning on a 4th grade level in math at the time. I gave him a copy of the book and promised him that if he would read it and just do one section at a time he would be amazed. I even told him that there were sections he wouldn't need at all. This encouraged him as it wasn't "another book he had to read".

He took the book and "went after it". It wasn't very long until he was getting better grades and he told me he had read certain parts of the book. That's the beauty of it. He went to the area that was hard for him and he was successful at it because he tried it. He found confidence to go after knowledge because he found hope that he could obtain it through something so simple and very inexpensive!

Success is contagious. Others soon wanted it to become better at math. It became a competitive thing to see who could do more in their heads or faster on paper than the others. Competition is not necessarily bad. It worked in a Christian school and it certainly can work for your Home School and your students will have fun with it! Making math fun is important! This was definitely a win-win situation.

Trudi

Don't Forget Your Home Economics

Home Economics Can Count for some of your Home School Required HOURS!


Be sure to include Home Economics in your Homes Schools! I am a graduate from the School of Home Economics and have a BS degree in Foods and Nutrition from Ohio State University. One of the last courses I took in college could have some good ideas for home schooling your children and have fun at the same time. It was Home Management and the responsibilities of managing a home were broken down into various areas such as fulfilling the management tasks of being a: cook, waitress, housecleaner, laundress, child care etc. Can you image getting a college degree to teach how to manage your home? Well, it's true! Ohio State University has the classes to prove it. These are really old fashioned terms but describe what you do as a mother and manager of a home. Teach your child how to sort laundry and look for stains and how to use a washer and dryer without overloading it with clothes or soap. It can be lots of fun teaching by example and they will see it differently and you might find that you will have help with your laundry. This also will give them credit towards that Home Ec class. Switch the various tasks around and one week you might show them how to plan a weeks worth of meals and them have them help grocery shop for those meals. Get creative in your teaching. I'll be blogging with ideas for your Home Economics class and include Food and Nutrition ideas for your Home School. Keep in touch and remember; "Who knows how to run a house better than you mom?"

Jane

We're Excited About "KICKS Academy" for Home Schoolers

Hey moms and dads,

Today I was thinking about how excited I am about this new outreach of our ministry. KICKS Academy for Home Schoolers is a heart's desire, its a dream, and it is so exciting to see it coming forth. I love homeschooling. My grown son has such fruit in his life from it and, I was able to enjoy him daily! Today, with all my other adopted children, we are now offering them the same blessing. That's the blessing when you realize how you can teach your children and how you can start before they reach the typical school age and teach them ahead. Letting them go for it as they are ready without limits with nothing holding them back from a classroom setting! After all, you've started teaching them from the day they were born and gotten them to were they are right now!

When my son was in second grade in the public school system, I was called in for a teacher's conference. His teacher proceeded to tell me how far advanced he was and that he was completing his work "to soon". "He is beating all the rest of his class," she said. I asked her to please give him more work. She said, "I already do and I can't give him anymore because he will be to far ahead of all my other students." I wanted to shout, "Let him!" But, that wasn't the answer in the norm for public classrooms.

Well, in Home School you can have your kids move forward as they need to. EVen in whatever subjects they can while staying with the subjects they may need more work on. Your children can move forward at a pace that meets their own speed and need. Today I have 3 two year olds that "already" know their ABC's. They can read 'EVERY' letter upper and lower case! They know the sound of each letter! They can recognize their letters isolated! Even one of them can spell their name. How exciting to see the Lord bring them forth with such academic advancements! That's homeschooling for ya!

We were talking with a 'teacher of 30 years'. She said in all her years of teaching in public schools she had never seen any children under three capable to do what they are doing, especially three of them from different genetic lines. (since they are adopted). Her statement, "You must be doing something to make it fun for them! They must love learning!"

So you have it... That's our goal for you and your kids. Learning is fun! Make it exciting and interesting. Fun and creative. Make your Home School academically excellent and challenging enough to keep interest and equipped with advanced achievements, or just great achievements, but, make it fun and exciting!

Our desire with the Academy is to help you get some creative ideas and encouragement to help make your Home School fun and equip you with academic ideas that will enhance your children and cause them to achieve higher excellence in learning. Learning has become such fun and is a great character building tool, so go for it!

God bless you in your Home Schooling!
"raising faith filled kids thru the word of God"

Pastor Kim