5-Minute Fridays

• 5-Minute Friday: Two-Gether

  20 April 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Mathematics / 1 Comment

  On Fridays we link up to Lisa-Jo at www.thegypsymama.com for a 5-Minute Friday prompt word.  5-Minute Fridays are a chance to just let the words flow out...no over-thinking, no over-editing allowed!  Write because words are awesome!

  I like to add a challenge and try to connect Lisa-Jo's prompt word (this week it's TOGETHER) to the theme here on the 7 Sisters blog for the week.  This week we looked at MATH and FINANCIAL LITERACY.  Can I do it?  Ready, set, go!

  Typically I'm a pretty good speller, but this morning I'm going to spell the way I want to.

  This is a post about the word TWO-GETHER!

  2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2

  Sabrina's Top-Five List of Homeschool Math and Financial Literacy Things That Go Two-Gether:

  5.  Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

  Okay, it's only one book title, but it has 2 dads in it, and this book is a real eye-opener about our personal finances and the core philosophy flaws that many of us have about how to plan for financial stability and success.

  4. Work and Pay.

  I'm a big believer is having chores that my kids have to do simply because they are members of this family and residents in this house (personal responsibility and service, in other words), but also in giving them the opportunity (even when they are quite young) to do extra work that is NOT on their chore list to earn money for special things they'd like to buy or do.  I think it models from the start that no one has to just GIVE them money; they need to work for it.  Also maintaining a list of other expected chores, however, shows them that we don't ALWAYS get paid for everything we do in life; some of it is just done out of personal responsibility to those around us.

  3.  Math Notebooks and Super-Sharp Pencils.

  I have enough trouble dealing with the math problems on the notebook page; I can't bear to have a dull, smudgy pencil in the mix as well.  A super-sharp point on the pencil creates a neat and tidy sum on the page, and somehow it's less intimidating to me that way.  (I know, I know....I have issues!)

  2.  Math Textbooks and the Internet.

  When the explanation in our Math text just aren't quite getting it for me, I think the internet is a great help.  I can Google examples of problems, other math-savvy-people's explanations, and if it's REALLY bad, I can email a homeschool pal and say, "Help!  I will gladly do something for you and your kids if you will explain this to me and my kid."

  1.  Sabrina and the Homeschool Community.

  Without the support of homeschooling in community with Math-savvy moms, teaching Math to my kids would have been overwhelming to me!  I am mighty thankful for my friends who have helped me along the numbered way!

  =========================================

  If you don't have much community in your homeschool neck o' the woods, check out these FREE resources in our EBookstore:

  Why You Need a Homeschool Support Group

  How to Start a Homeschool Support Group

  How to Start a Learning Co-Op

   

  

• 5-Minute Friday: Good-Bye

  13 April 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Personal Growth / 9 Comments

  On Fridays, we link up to Lisa-Jo at www.thegypsymama.com and use her prompt word for a 5-Minute Friday post.  According to Lisa-Jo, "We set a timer, throw caution to the winds and try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not."

  I add a challenge for myself; I try to connect the prompt word to whatever our blog theme has been for the week.  This week it's been our Spiritual Walk.

  Ready, set, go!

  We all know the feeling of calendar overload.

  It's that knot in your stomach when you look at the upcoming day, or week, or month and think, "HOW is all of THAT going to fit???"

  In the last couple of years God has shown me the importance of taming my calendar, of scheduling backwards by starting with the things that are truly important to me on the grand scale, the long-run picture of my life.  Once I have put time aside for those pursuits, then I add in all the "stuff of life" that can quickly run my whole world if I allow it to.

  Saying goodbye to things that aren't truly important is an oddly painful experience.  I would love to be so wise that when I recognize something is actually unnecessary according to God's plan for me, I would casually toss it aside.  But I have found that this not the case at all.

  The expectations of other people sometimes makes it hard to say goodbye to an activity that for them is important but to me is a waste of time and energy.

  The way I've done things for so long, the habits I have formed, yammer at me in the silence of my mind when I try to say goodbye to something that has always had a place on my calendar squares.

  My fears of falling short, of mis-hearing God, of leaving out something that I should have realized was needed...these fears hammer on my emotions when I decide that goodbye is in order.

  Isn't everything in our spiritual walk a part of learning to trust God?

  Don't I know that He is faithful?  Unfailing Love guiding my life?  Yes, I know it; sometimes it's hard to trust it.

  Especially when I'm supposed to say goodbye to something....

  ============================================
  If you need to take a look at what perhaps deserves a heart-felt, "Goodbye!" on your calendar, click here to download our FREE time-management tool Scheduling Backwards.

  For literature study guides that will encourage you and your homeschoolers to dig into the true stories of other Christians who learned to let go of things they had always held dear in order to embrace the abundance God had planned for them, visit the EBookstore for Joni: An Unforgettable Story, Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God, Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge, Corrie ten Boom's The Hiding Place, and Brother Andrew's God's Smuggler.  These books will improve your understanding of what really deserves priority in your life...and thrill you as well!

   

   

• 5-Minute Friday: Light

  06 April 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Special Needs, Sports / 2 Comments

  On Fridays we link up to Lisa-Jo at www.thegypsymama.com and try a 5-minute post from a prompt word she suggests. No over-thinking. No over-editing. Just let it flow. Writing like breathing.

  I like to try to connect Lisa-Jo's prompt word to our theme for the week.

  This week we've been looking at Special Needs, and the prompt word today is LIGHT.

  Ready-set-go!

  There's a light that seems to radiate from people with special needs when they are in the presence of someone who loves them.

  One of the loveliest stories in the news in our Delaware area this spring was about Elena Delle Donne, an extraordinarily gifted University of Delaware basketball player. While my husband is the sports-nut and I am the sports-dummy in our house, I found myself riveted every time Elena was on tv this spring, whether she was on the court or off.

  Here's a clip from ESPN about her unique story, and her unique sister. If you are pressed for time, just watch from the 5:00 - 8:00 minute marks.

  Lord, give me eyes to see the light coming out of the lives of each of your children. Help me see their giftedness, whether the gifts are obvious like Elena's skill and coordination on the basketball court, or harder to see like Lizzie's strength and determination and loving heart.

  Give me eyes that see that light of YOU in others, no matter what special needs they may have, and teach me to love them so that my our love may help others to see that light of YOU in us.

  =========================================================
  If you have never read the autobiography of Joni Eareckson Tada, you need to! Click here to view excerpts from our new study guide to accompany this extraordinary story of God's power in the life of a young woman paralyzed by a diving accident. Joni's story will change your life!

• 5-Minute Friday: Gift

  30 March 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays / 3 Comments

  On Fridays, we link up to Lisa-Jo at The Gypsy Mama for 5-Minute Fridays.  Here's what Lisa-Jo says about why she loves FMFs:

  "We set a timer, throw caution to the winds and try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not."

  So, without over-thinking or over-editing, I grabbed her prompt word for today, and here I go....trying to tie this week's theme of "humor" into the post!

  This week's prompt word is:  GIFT

  Ready...set...go!

  That's my youngest on the right.  Each of my kids has special qualities that are a GIFT to me, and part of Jonah's giftedness is his ability to make me laugh really hard. 

  I have often taken that GIFT for granted.

  Jonah makes me laugh when I'm trying to get after him for some low-key misbehavior.  He loves to goof, and sometimes that goofing is not well-timed.  I try to give him the hairy-eyeball so he will stop, and even his look of, "Ok, Mom; gotcha.  I'll behave," is so silly that I crack up.

  He is witty as well as goofy.  We were recently driving along the road on an errand, and he said, "I've been thinking..."  I started to smile right away, even before I knew what it was that he was thinking, because anytime he starts a sentence like that it's going to be completed with some outrageous observation about normal life from a goofy perspective.

  When we are struggling with a problem, he will offer the funniest take on things, and while our problem is not solved at that moment, our blood pressure is lowered by a few numbers because of the laughter that ensues.

  Little GIFTS like these, from my kids, are not to be taken for granted.  They are actually GIFTS from God, wrapped in the package that is my child.

  What can you appreciate about your kid today?

  
  For more encouragement to take notice of your child's unique gifts and abilities, check out Vicki's Career Exploration Workbook that helps you and your teen uncover the gifts God put in them that may help them determine a career path to pursue.  The Questionnaire to get you started is a FREE download.

  Click here to visit the EBookstore today!

• 5-Minute Friday: Loud

  23 March 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Elementary Homeschool, Kindergarten / 4 Comments

  On Fridays, we link-up to www.thegypsymama.com and use the prompt word Lisa-Jo posts for a 5-minute post.  Here's what she says about why 5-minute posts are important:

  "We write because we love words and the relief it is to just write them without worrying if they’re just right or not. So we take five minutes on Friday and write like we used to finger paint. For joy in the process. No matter how messy the result."

  I like to give myself an additional challenge, and find a way to tie the prompt word in to whatever our theme has been at 7 Sisters for the week.  This week's theme has been KINDERGARTEN.  This week's prompt word from Lisa-Jo is: LOUD.

  "Inside voices, please!"

  "Sweetie, hold on; let Mommy help with that."

  "Oh, my! Can we please turn the volume down?!?"

  Little ones have a way of raising the noise level.  I was in the store the other day and a little girl about 4 years old was joyfully riding in her shopping cart singing,

  "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...HEY!  Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...HEY!" over and over and over.

  She wasn't trying to send the other shoppers into therapy, she was just in the mood for a good song.  Her volume control was set to about 8, and from time to time her mom would ask her to be quiet, and she would drop down to a whisper, only to be back to 8 by the end of the next, "HEY!"  (Really, how can you sing, "HEY!" in a quiet voice?  C'mon, mom!)

  The ability to discern appropriate volume, to notice the effect of one's actions on the surrounding people, or the awareness of when something is crossing into obnoxious behavior is simply not present in the little guys.  It makes parents a little crazy, but it's not a matter of disobedience; it's a developmental process that has to be completed step by step.  Playing the guitar with one's feet truly does not seem like an inappropriate idea to a 5 year old; he needs mom to stop him before he damages a musical instrument, but he isn't insane for wanting to try it.

  When my children were little, I was BIG on good behavior.  (I still am, honestly!)  But sometimes I forgot that little people need time to grow up, to develop, and to learn to control those voices and bodies and attitudes.  Looking back, I wish I hadn't worried so much about whether they were small savages, destined to live a life of anarchy.

  I am glad that I told them "No" when they needed to be stopped, but I wish I hadn't wasted so much energy sweating the small stuff.  They are only that age for awhile.  It's a LOUD age, no doubt.  But praying as I helped them move through it step by step was my job as mom; it was not my job to worry about the process.  God had it covered; He didn't call me to worry about it all.

  I think sometimes my WORRIES were so LOUD they managed to drown out the happy sounds of little voices....with faulty volume controls!

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  For more on the developmental process that gets our little ones ready for Kindergarten, and for more encouragement on worry-free homeschooling in the early years, download Vicki's A Developmental Approach to Teaching Kindergarten from our EBookstore today!

  

• 5-Minute Friday: Empty

  09 March 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Literature, Personal Growth, Prayer / 7 Comments

  On Fridays, we link-up to www.thegypsymama.com and use the prompt word Lisa-Jo posts for a 5-minute post.  Here's what she says about why 5-minute posts are important:

  "We write because we love words and the relief it is to just write them without worrying if they’re just right or not. So we take five minutes on Friday and write like we used to finger paint. For joy in the process. No matter how messy the result."

  I like to give myself an additional challenge, and find a way to tie the prompt word in to whatever our theme has been at 7 Sisters for the week.  This week's theme has been CHARACTER STUDIES.  This week's prompt word from Lisa-Jo is: EMPTY.

  Ready, set, go!

  Could I really empty my life of all the familiar stuff that makes me feel significant if God called me to?

  Could I empty my schedule?  My email contacts?  My closets?  Could I just give it all away, even the shoes???

  Sometime around 1650, a man named Nicholas Herman gave away everything that was familiar and significant from his 40 years of life thus far, and he entered a Carmelite monastery in France, taking the name Brother Lawrence.  Because he had not received enough education to be a priest, he was a simple lay-brother, and served first in the monastery kitchen, and later in a sandal-making shop.  His life was emptied of all that had defined him for 40 years in answer to a call from God.

  I don't know whether it was that radical step into a cloistered order of monks or not, but SOMETHING in this man's life caused him to take hold of a very concrete "practice of the presence of God," and later he also encouraged others (he never considered himself a teacher because he was untrained) to adopt a similar attitude in their relationships with God.  The little book that was published as a collection of conversations with and letters from Bro. Lawrence has been a huge impact on my life.

  He learned that every activity is FULL of the presence of God, no matter how EMPTY it might superficially appear.

  He learned that every moment of our day is FULL of conversation with God if only we will EMPTY our ears to listen to His voice instead of the noise of life around us.

  He learned that a kitchen with a FULL sink of dirty dishes is just as holy as an EMPTY stretch of floor before the altar in a church.

  I want more of the kind of EMPTINESS in my mind and heart that will allow for the FULLNESS of the presence of God!

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  Click here to download the study guide I wrote that accompanies Brother Lawrence's Christian classic The Practice of the Presence of God.

  Your homeschool high school student can get a lot out of this little Christian classic, and the study guide questions and background information will help turn this literature assignment into a Character Study.  It was said of Brother Lawrence, "his example was a stronger inducement than any arguments he could propose.  His very countenance was edifying."  Add this often overlooked man's life-story to your list of Character Studies in your homeschool!

• 5-Minute Friday: Ache

  02 March 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Bible Verses Revisited, Personal Growth / 1 Comment

  On Fridays, we link-up to www.thegypsymama.com and use the prompt word Lisa-Jo posts for a 5-minute post.  Here's what she says about why 5-minute posts are important:

  "We write because we love words and the relief it is to just write them without worrying if they’re just right or not. So we take five minutes on Friday and write like we used to finger paint. For joy in the process. No matter how messy the result."

  I like to give myself an additional challenge, and find a way to tie the prompt word in to whatever our theme has been at 7 Sisters for the week.  This week's theme has been Drama/Mother Teresa.  This week's prompt word from Lisa-Jo is: ACHE.

  Ready, set, go!

  Some of you may not know that 7 Sisters' Allison Thorp is my real-life sister-by-birth, too.  I am blessed to have her for my sister and my "Sister!"  The cute blonde in this picture is our other sister, Heather.  Heather went home to be with the Lord in December 2009 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

  This week in our homeschooling community here where MD/DE/PA come together, we lost a brother who had been battling Ewing's Sarcoma bone cancer for two years.  He was 23 years old.  His relationship with Christ had a radical impact on our community as we were privileged to be a part of his battle against cancer in prayer and service.

  His home-going, like Heather's, is bittersweet for us.  Sweet because we know that the unfailing love of Christ sustained them here and welcomed them to a pain-free, glorified new body in His presence.  Bitter because we know Jesus to be our healer, we prayed with faith in His healing power for our loved ones, and we don't understand why His answer was, "Yes, but not there; here."

  The ache of incomplete knowledge is always there for Christians.  I Cor. 13:12 says, "Now I know in part, but then (when the imperfect is made perfect in the fullness of Christ) I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."  There is so much we CAN understand from the word of God, from the wisdom of his Spirit, and from life experience as we follow Him.....it ACHES when we hit something we can't wrap our understanding around.

  As my 5-minutes is almost over, I look to Mother Teresa's example.  When she experienced a long, long (try 50-years-long) "dark night of the soul" during which she knew by faith that God was present, but she could not seem to feel His presence, she concluded that accepting His will when we do not understand it is something to rejoice in.  It is a reminder of our complete and utter dependence on the God of the universe.  It prevents us from foolishly running off in our own strength, because we are reminded that we just don't get it all.

  The ACHE we feel keeps us safely at His side where He may guide us in all things.

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  For more on Mother Teresa, visit the EBookstore for a sample copy of my play A Weekend in Calcutta or literature study guide to accompany Malcolm Muggeridge's wonderful book Something Beautiful for God.

  If you need a little encouragement to just get through a rough patch in your home and homeschool, here's a video of my paraphrase of Romans 8.  What can separate us from the love of Christ?

• 5-Minute Friday: Grit

  24 February 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Bible Verses Revisited / 4 Comments

  On Fridays, we link up to www.thegypsymama.com and get a prompt word from Lisa-Jo, and then I write without overthinking or overediting for 5 minutes...and post the results! I add an extra challenge for myself and try to tie the prompt word to our 7 Sisters theme for the week.

  This week our theme was SCRIPTURE VERSES (paraphrased for homeschool moms),

  and this week's prompt word is: Grit.

  Philippians 3:1 - 4, and 7-8 for Homeschoolers:

  Homeschool mamas, rejoice in the Lord!  It's no trouble for me to write the same things to you again (I'm used to repeating myself, anyway...), and it is a safeguard for you who (like I am) are tempted to look to the wrong things for your identity.

  Watch out for the scary Homeschool Cops, those folks who criticize the life out of your homeschool, who tell you everything is wrong about your family because you don't homeschool exactly like THEIR family.

  For it is we who are depending on God for our homeschooling inspiration and perseverance....we need His GRIT to make us tough enough to muddle through the academics, the household management, and the sometimes-messy relationships.

  We are worshiping God by saying, "Okay! Let's do it!" to whatever He guides us in.  We are glorying in Christ Jesus by saying, "Thank You for saving us from the mess we would make of life if we did it on our own!"

  It is we who don't put any confidence in the perfect curriculum, or the perfect "I bake all my own organic everything all the time no matter what" menus, or the perfect everyone-gets-along-beautifully and we-are-learning-calculus-in-second-grade co-op.

  ...but whatever was to my profit - my mad teaching skills, my ability to sew window treatments that would shame a pro, my super-smart kid who could probably go to college at 13, my ability to stretch a dollar to cover a week's worth of groceries - WHATEVER was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things!

  (Okay, I can ususally hammer out posts in the 5-minute time-frame, but this one took me 8 minutes.  Just keeping it honest, y'all.  Honesty takes GRIT!)

  

  =========================
  Homeschool parents with GRIT read the Bible AND Pray!

  For resources to encourage your time in the Word and in prayer, visit the EBookstore and check out Vicki's Prayer Journals and our free Genesis 1 In-Depth Bible Study Guide, or literature study guides to go along with classic works by Christians with grit like Corrie ten Boom's The Hiding Place and Brother Andrew's God's Smuggler.

• 5-Minute Friday: Delight

  17 February 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays, Fine Arts / 4 Comments

  On Fridays we link up to Lisa-Jo at www.thegypsymama.com and "stop, drop and write" for five minutes.  The idea is to refuse over-thinking and over-editing, and just write for the joy of it, using a prompt word she picks.  My extra goal is that I try to connect her prompt word to our blog theme for the week.  This week at 7 Sisters we've been looking at Drama.

  Lisa-Jo's prompt word is "DELIGHT."  Ready, set, go!

  What brings that look of DELIGHT to homeschool actors' faces?

  

  Is it the bright lights of the professionally designed theater?

  Is it the elaborate set pieces on which they perform?

  Is it the expensive costuming, sewn by expert hands?

  I've seen literally hundreds of delighted faces among homeschool student actors over the years, and in my experience the lights, the sets, the costumes are not the source of delight.

  Take a look and tell me what you think:

  

  Our sets are folding tables and chairs, a couch, or a wooden box.

  Our lights are the track lights installed in the ceiling above our church's platform.

  Our costumes came out of our closets, or were picked up at the local thrift store.

  So what is the source of delight?

  It's delight that comes from TELLING WONDERFUL STORIES.  Actors are storytellers, and when we encourage them to step out in a character's skin and tell an amazing story to the audience, they can't help but get excited.

  It's delight that comes from TEAMWORK.  A cast is a team, and working together to produce a show helps them learn to truly have each other's backs.

  It's delight that come from DOING ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD.  Being in the spotlight isn't the same thing as hogging the spotlight.

  An actor with his or her heart set on God steps into the spotlight and instantly makes us all aware of the greater Light that came into the world to bring us salvation and life.

  ==================================================

  Interested in learning more about Drama, and all the delightful ways you can include it in your homeschool?  Download the FREE white paper, Why Drama is Important in Your Homeschool.

  Going to Teach Them Diligently Convention in Spartanburg, SC in March?  Sabrina is speaking there about Drama....it will be a blast!  Comment and let us know you're coming to TTD...we can't wait to meet folks!

• 5-Minute Friday: Trust

  10 February 2012 / 5-Minute Fridays / 9 Comments

  On Fridays we link up to Lisa-Jo at www.thegypsymama.com and "stop, drop and write" for five minutes.  The idea is to refuse over-thinking and over-editing, and just write for the joy of it, using a prompt word she picks.  My extra goal is that I try to connect her prompt word to our blog theme for the week.  This week at 7 Sisters we've been looking at Elementary School.

  Lisa-Jo's prompt word today is TRUST.  Ready, set, go!

  

  Bekah and Jake did their favorite brother-sister dance to "Footloose" at Bekah's wedding last year. They grow up whether we are comfortable with it or not!

   

  Vicki had a terrific post about setting goals for our homeschools in the elementary grades.  She articulated goals very similar to my own when my kids were starting out:

  1) Immerse them in the faith

  2) Establish wonder

  3) Develop creativity and imagination      

  4) Learn perseverance

  5) Learn academics

  All of these goals are foundational.  They are things that WE as the homeschool parents want to do to lay a firm foundation for our kids' futures.  But then comes the tricky part:

  We have to TRUST GOD to take those seeds we have planted with stewardship and grow them into mature adult Christians who will serve God on their own.

  OY!  That sounds like I don't get to draw the blueprint for how it will go once the foundation is laid!

  As parents we want such good things for our kids, and we have a responsibility before God to sow seed that is good into their hearts when they are young.  But as they get older, we have a responsibility before God to TRUST HIM to complete the process.

  Our children will never mature in Christ simply because their parents love Jesus passionately.  They must pursue their own personal relationships with Him, and that is something we can encourage but can never do for them.

  Trusting God as our children move beyond elementary grades....beyond middle school....beyond high school...and into adulthood: this is the challenge for me on more days than not!

  I know He is trustworthy.  Will I TRUST HIM with my kids?

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  Trusting God requires time in prayer and in His word.  The EBookstore has resources for your spiritual walk...and many of them are FREE!  Click here to download some encouragement in trusting God!