Christi has
read 20 books toward her goal of 100 books.
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By Christi, on January 17th, 2012
We all are, really. It’s that whole dying-to-self thing, yk? It’s hard. And so not fun. I was going to blog about how God has shown me my selfishness and how it has been hurting me and my family, and others around me. Then I came across this blog post and realized she pretty much took the words out of my mouth!
God has been steering our family towards Thomas Jefferson Education for years now even though we had no idea. Man, I love how He does that! I started reading Leadership Education about 2 months ago and it just was so obvious that this was what our family needed to be doing. It all makes so much sense. And God’s hand is so obviously in it.
We’ve been actively DOING it for about 3 weeks now and I already see changes. Not just in my kids – as if those aren’t enough! R1 is READING on his own, voraciously, at that! R2 is reading, writing poetry and WANTS to do chores with me. And R3, well, she’s just amazing all the time. 
But I’ve changed, too. (And so has Mr. Fox, maybe I can get him to blog his perspective!) Used to, if I had an appt and a sitter I’d draaaaaaaag my feet going back to pick them up. I just didn’t want to go back home and do the “mom thing.” I desperately sucked out every.last.second that I could be by myself.
Today, I had an appt. and I actually found that on the way back I was anxious to pick them up and go home. Turns out that the more quality time I spend with them (quality being the key word here) the more time I want with them. We spend hours a day piled up on the couch reading and it has done something to us. It’s gluing us back together. It’s teaching and ministering to our hearts. And it’s lovely. I want more.
God is SO good. He’s so good to me.
By Christi, on January 15th, 2012
I’m putting together some things for us to study about civil rights and wanted to have it all in one spot so I can easily refer to it, so, like everything else, I’m putting it here. Plus, maybe it’ll save someone else time!
The “I Have A Dream” Speech
The King and His Dream video
List of books to get from the library
Vocab. list and definitions
Biography of MLK Jr.
Other Links:
Lapbook
By Christi, on January 5th, 2012
Well, last night I had a mini-freak out (which, after posting to the TJEd-Muse group, turns out to be perfectly normal) and so today, God took the opportunity to once again reassure me that I am doing the right thing.
This morning I told the kids about our new morning routine and how it was going to go. R2 was begging to read to me from her Fancy Nancy reader from the second she got up but I told her she had to wait til we got to that part of the morning. Anyway. I read from the Bible, read our Bible story and we said the pledge. Then I let each kid pick a book from the stack of books I got from the library yesterday. After I read those I told the kids that I was going to listen to R2 read. Last night I brought up some things from the school room downstairs for the girls to do during reading (quiet things like dry erase board, crayons, coloring books, stickers, foam shapes w/cards, etc). Ry has no problem just sitting and listening but the girls can’t be still, yk? Anyway, while R2 was reading to me R3 took to coloring and R1 grabbed the dry erase board (I was totally expecting doodles or pictures) and he WROTE A POEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Y’all, this is the kid who LOATHES writing ANYthing. He hates it, and it’s always been a battle to get him to write and here he is writing on his own, a poem, no less.
Wanna hear it? 
I have a cat
his name is mat
he likes to nap
and read a map and rap, do the tap!!!
I’ve been beating myself up a bit because we’ve really not done any school the last 2 months or so – turns out that was God ’cause it’s been the perfect detox for my boy. 
I got another surprise last night. I started reading Anne of Green Gables to the kids. After one chapter the girls told me they didn’t like it – I was expecting the same from Ry but he said he DID like it and wanted to keep reading it. So I started another book for family reading and will continue to read Anne to him, since I want to read it, too.
I’m sure I will have many more freak outs – public school conditioned me towards instant gratification so I still have to work on that.
By Christi, on January 4th, 2012
Back in November I came across this blog post about Leadership Education and it resonated with me SO deeply. One of the main reasons I HS is because I don’t want my children’s core to be influenced by people who don’t believe as we do. I firmly believe that I can’t raise my child to know what I believe, behave the way the Bible commands and be the light if they are spending 3/4 of their time under the influence of others. If I want to teach them these things they need to be with me more than anyone else. I mean, what does it matter how smart/schooled you are if you SUCK as a person?
I did some reading but didn’t really go anywhere with it. Then, about a month ago I took the leap and ordered Leadership Education and dove in. A friend whom I’d shared the blog with dove in before me and we were both blown away with how much sense LE makes.
R1 hated school, every day was a fight and as I watched him pout and stomp and hate his schoolwork I started to think that I’d missed something and that as crazy as the above may sound to some it might be just what I was looking for.
Fast forward to today and we have now rearranged our house so that we have a family room with book shelves full of good books and NO media. We are working on getting our morning routine ironed out, we read for at least an hour every night (in addition to at least an hour during the day) and I’m starting to freak out a little bit, LOL. Mainly because I didnt’ have a LE, man I wish I had, and that makes me doubt myself. But that’s the thing about TJEd, you go back and GET/GIVE yourself the education you need and in the process your children learn by watching you and doing it along with you.
It’s scary. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen or known and the unknown is scary. BUT, here’s the thing. I’ve wanted (and not wanted, out of fear) to back to school for years now. I never really knew what for but more and more lately God has laid on my heart a desire to learn Hebrew, to go to a Bible college and really learn theology. So, it seems that maybe He’s lead me here not only for the sake of my kids’ education but for my own, also. And the fact that I looked at Mr. Fox the night before last and told him I wanted to get the TV out of the family room and he didn’t look at me like I was nuts, but actually said, “I think that’s a great idea” really makes me believe that God’s hand is in this – He’s put us on the same page!
No matter what, after reading up on the true origins and purposes of Public Education I can say without a doubt thatI pray my children will never step foot into a school.
By Christi, on November 9th, 2011
We are reading The Wizard of Oz. Today we finished chapter 10 and last night Mr. Fox got the movie from the library so we decided to watch up to where we are in the book. It’s quite interesting the differences the kids and I have noticed:
Book – Movie
* Toto runs under the bed in the book, doesn’t in the movie
* She chases Toto in the book, thereby missing the chance to get in the cellar – she can’t get the doors open
* during the twister, D goes to sleep in the book – gets knocked out in the movie
* Scarecrow; she picks him up off the pole – she bends the nail to get him off
* the encounter with the apple trees doesn’t happen in the book (at least not in the first 10 chapters)
* Tinman groans – they find his can when looking for an apple
* you don’t see or hear mention of the wicked witch until they get to Oz – you see her in the beginning and again along the trip, right after they find the Tin Woodman
* the poppies’ smell is poisonous – the witch poisons the flowers to kill D and crew
* after D falls asleep in the poppies the scarecrow and tin man carry her and Toto to safety. Then the field mice queen calls her subjects and they use a truck built by the Tin Woodman to pull the lion to safety — in the movie the Good witch makes it snow and that wakes D
* all the people in Oz have green skin – not so in the movie
* no color-changing horse in the book
* Oz says to sleep in the palace and see him in the morning – he tells them to go away
* D sees Oz alone – in the movie they all see him together
Other Questions:
Where does the RED brick road go?
Why is the wizard of OZ also named OZ?
By Christi, on November 7th, 2011
http://www.momsmustardseeds.com/2011/11/ten-days-of-growing-leaders-day-1-core-phase-of-learning/
This isn’t the first thing I’ve read about this idea – but it really resounds with me. One of the main reasons I HS is because I don’t want my children’s core to be influenced by people who don’t believe as we do. I firmly believe that I can’t raise my child to know what I believe, behave the way the Bible commands and be the light if they are spending 3/4 of their time under the influence of others. If I want to teach them these things they need to be with me more than anyone else.
And as I watch Ry pout and stomp and hate his schoolwork I’m starting to think that I’ve missed something and that as crazy as the above may sound to some it might be just what I’m looking for. I mean, what does it matter how smart/schooled you are if you SUCK as a person?
By Christi, on October 13th, 2011
I saw this blog and thought the girls would love it. Instead of popping the bubbles with their paper, though (partly because I missed that part in the directions) they just blew until the bubbles overflowed onto their papers. They had a blast!
By Christi, on September 12th, 2011
This was fun!
Watching the soap in the microwave – they were thoroughly impressed by this!
Adding the toilet paper:
Add a little color and viola! FUN!
By Christi, on September 4th, 2011
Some pics of the girls during the school day this last week.
Some great Target scores:
By Christi, on September 1st, 2011
I’ve found some really great blogs with really great ideas – now how do I organize them all so I can plan to get around to doing them? For now I am going to list them here with links – to share and to help me remember.
For All:
Package Art
Leaf painting
Crunchy Leaf Pictures
Photo Scavenger Hunt
For R3:
Letter Crafts – must start these this week.
Puppy spots – I wanna print separate cards for her to draw from to see how many dots to put on the puppy.
Name soup
For the activity shelf/bin:
Water Math Bag
Halloween:
http://www.amazingmess.com/2010/10/water-bottle-pumpkin-jack-o-lantern.html
5 Lil Pumpkins
http://activitymom.blogspot.com/search/label/Halloween
Thanksgiving:
http://tonsoffunpreschoolactivities.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-15T21%3A24%3A00-06%3A00&max-results=5
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Michael in Ghana 
Compassion Sponsor Child Damali in Uganda 
Correspondent Child
Goodreads
Christi has
read 9 books toward her goal of 100 books.
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