Introducing Blogging the Alphabet.

HEY

Guess what?   I was talking with the folks over on the Homeschool Review Crew forum and some how we got on the topic of Blogging through the Alphabet. 

I thought it might be fun to host it!  (I know bold of me eh?)

BUT I am not  in this alone (YAHOO!!!), a lovely co-member is going to help me out.  Isn't that great?   Amanda from Hopkins Homeschool is going to be my co-host.  

So just what is blogging through the alphabet?

Every week we do a letter of the alphabet.  Everyone who participates write a blog post starting with the letter of the Alphabet... for instance if we were doing the Letter A, folks could write about Apples, Alpaca, Aristotle, or Aardvarks...just something that begins with the letter A.   Then the next week we move on to the next letter of the alphabet.

Some folks chose to do a series... such as Animals of the World, Counties, Field trips, people of the bible and such like. Others just jump in with whatever word pops into their minds each week. It all works.   The most important thing:  we want you to join us!

So what to you think?   What to join in?  It is so interesting to read what others come up with  up.   I would LOVE to see what you would write over the next 26 weeks.   Get your thinking caps on and come join us.   We'll start next week.    

This page will be the stopping zone, if you want to look back at what others have done for inspiration... just come here and look back at each letter.  :)   

Rules:  

1. Linking time is Tuesday through Saturday.   
2. Family friendly posts on a variety of topics.  If you aren't sure, ask one of us.
3. If it isn't family friendly, it will be removed. :)
4. Linking back to us would be great.   You can grab the blog button or link back to one of the alphabet posts.  It's only polite you know.  :)
5.  If you wonder on a hashtag, you might want to use #abcblogging
6. Visiting and commenting on others is always a great social thing to do.  Let's other people know you are reading them, and encourages them to read and hopefully share your great posts.
7. HAVE FUN.   That's the point you know?   Have fun and share what's on your mind.

 
  

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We get started next week January 17th.

A  B   C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  

A: Sidney Altman, Canadian Scientist. 
B: Beavers!
C: Chant National/O Canada.
D: Dog Sledding.
E: Edgewalk.
F. Tailed Frogs.  
G: The Greats of Canada. 
H: 
I:: 
J: 
K: 
L: 
M: 
N: 
O:
P: 
Q: 
R: 
S: 
T:
U: 
V: 
W: 
X: 
Y: 
Z:  

Trials, Tears and Triumphs

My family parentage is Dutch.

My dad came over on a boat, my mom I think on a plane (can't recall for sure).  Dad was a child, mom an adult.

 My hubby's mom came over a boat.  She came as a child with her family.

Working was a part of a their lives since they were young.  Life was hard.

So when a friend of mine told me she wrote a book about her early life coming to Canada and the various things they want through.   How God's grace was shown in her life I asked if I could please read it and if I liked it, could I put it on my blog.

She ever so graciously gave me a copy.  :)

I know I've reviewed this book before, but I had a quiet snowed-in Sunday afternoon and thought I'd read it again.  :)   AND I can't find the old review so there yah go.

27 chapters.  Leading from coming over on the boat through to life as a teen and then as a married woman, whose husband became a pastor.   Through childhood troubles, the joys and sorrows of being strangers in a new land, wild acting horses, not being able to speak and through it all.. the grace of God manifest throughout.

135 pages of immigrant history and seeing God in action.   To see a person healed when she needed surgery to remove polyps around her throat preventing speech.  The surprise of the everyone involved in the case.

It's a good read that helped me to understand some of what my heritage, some of what my people went through in their hopes of a better life.   It was good to see faith in action and the promises of God seen in real life.  

If you are interested in learning more about where to get this book, let me know.  I will put you in contact with Greta Zwaan the author.   Selling for about $12 the last I heard.

Hymn Study: God Of our Fathers

Here's an hymn that is oft sung in our church.   It is a hymn written to help celebrate a national holiday but speaks much to God's care for his people and our thankfulness to him for all he leads us through.

 God of our fathers, whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies
Our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our ruler, guardian, guide and stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chosen way.

From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense;
Thy true religion in our hearts increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way,
Lead us from night to never ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.

This hymn was written by Daniel C. Roberts and put to music by George William Warren.

The history to this hymn:

This hymn is a 19th century hymn written to commemorate the 100th year celebration of the  United States Declaration of Independence in 1876.  At that time Roberts was the rector in a small town in Vermont and he wrote it to help his town celebrate Independence Day.  At that time it was sung to the tune "Russian Hymn". 

Later he was invited to submit his hymn for inclusion in Episcopal Church hymnal on which Mr. Warren was a committee member.   He was the organist for the celebrations of the 100 years since adopting the Constitution.  The committee wanted to use the song for their celebrations but didn't want to use a tune called "Russian hymn" so Mr. Warren wrote a new tune called "National Hymn".

Ever since that 100 year celebration this hymn has become widely known and is included in many hymnals.

Scripture associated with this hymn is Psalm 46:7 where we read
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Sources:
Lectionary.org.
CyberHymnal.
Center for Church Music.

King of Tyre, lamented, destroyed

Last time we met, we lamented the Prince of Tyre due to his need to see that he was not God.  It's a  important lesson to learn. 

Today we lament the King of Tyre. Today's reading is from Ezekiel 28:11-19

First we are told who the King is, who the king was MEANT to be.   The king was meant to be: 

• the signet of perfection
• full of wisdom
• perfect in beauty
• covered with a variety of precious jewels
• an anointed guardian cherub
• blameless in his ways.

 “You were the signet of perfection,
    full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
¹³ You were in Eden, the garden of God;
    every precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
    beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
    and crafted in gold were your settings
    and your engravings.
On the day that you were created
    they were prepared.
¹⁴ You were an anointed guardian cherub.
    I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
    in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
¹⁵ You were blameless in your ways
    from the day you were created,

BUT THEN ...unrighteousness was found in him. 
So much trade, the abundance of it changed him (or at least that's what I am implying from text).
Violence was part of that trade.   So violence became a part of the King of Tyre. 
The King sinned.
So God took action: 

• casting him down from his holy mountain
• destroying the guardian cherub

The king has corrupted his wisdom for the sake of spendor.   His beauty and riches were too important to him..

So the Lord continued to take action, casting the King down, exposing him before other kings.

This king who had everything and was meant to be so much more than what he was, has now had fire brought into his midst.   A fire that consumed him, so that all who caught a glimpse were dismayed, appalled actually.  The King of Tyre is God and that's the end of him forever.

 

¹⁶ In the abundance of your trade
    you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
    and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
    from the midst of the stones of fire.
¹⁷ Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
    you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
    I exposed you before kings,
    to feast their eyes on you.
¹⁸ By the multitude of your iniquities,
    in the unrighteousness of your trade
    you profaned your sanctuaries;
so I brought fire out from your midst;
    it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes on the earth
    in the sight of all who saw you.
¹⁹ All who know you among the peoples
    are appalled at you;
you have come to a dreadful end    and shall be no more forever.”

It's so easy you know... to get caught up in the things you have and to forget what you are supposed to be doing.   The King of Tyre had a heady responsibility.  God set him in place to be a shining light, and the King of Tyre (to me it seems) got distracted by the costs of doing business and let himself get caught up in it.   His name in essence became violence.

I'm imaging (hoping actually) that the change was gradual, that he just didn't see what was happening until he was immersed it in.   BUT a part of my brain niggles that he discovered this way of doing business and leaped right into action.

Either way... the position that God had placed in him, the position he was to have filled became dreadfully sullied, so God needed to remove him.   God showed the world what he had become.

So be careful.  Watch what he do and how you act.  God sees it. 

Interesting Courses through SchoolhouseTeachers.com

Hey, I don't know if you have heard about SchoolhouseTeachers.com yet...but if you haven't, you are missing out on an excellent resource, SERIOUSLY. Imagine a place, where you can get over 300 courses, NO additional fees, all for about $10 a month....OR if you bit the bullet.. $90 a year. 

I don't know about you but I'd be thinking.. Pretty good deal.. what's the catch?

Get this.. NO CATCH. Well okay.. One catch. You have until January 15 to lock in that price.  Cool eh?  Do note that I use affiliate links in this post which help my family and don't hurt you one bit. :)

You can learn more here:

 So let me tell you more about this wonderful resource.

As you may or may not know, my son and I have a on again off again study of Canada going.  Each year we start in a different place, go like mad for a while and then things change or get forgotten or complaints about methodology start and we stop.   I want to STOP that cycle.

To the end this year I bought a comprehensive history of Canada.   It's a fairly boring text but comprehensive.  I thought I could EASILY supplement and I can!  WOOT WOOT!!!!

 To go along with this book I plan to use a variety of hands-on learning options and worksheets and discoveries that I have picked up around the web BUT I have found THREE (and there will more than likely be more).. areas in SchoolhouseTeachers.com that I will be able to use.

First off:
EveryDay Explorers: Canada.

 This course walks us through every province of Canada, listing some highlights, 20 days to explore each province, with loads of sights to see, history to learn and geography to explore.

Add to that:
EveryDay Easels.

A big part of my hope is, as we finish each province, to use an artist study to capture something about the province that we wish to remember.   There are 5 and 10 day lesson plans in this course and you can jump around as you see fit.

 Daily Discoveries was an exciting find.

 My son loves all things animals and exploratory so adding a learning component is just awesome.

Anyways, as I said earlier they are having a great promotion on right now.  You really need to check it out.  Over 300 courses for 50% off with no additional fees.  It's a rock solid investment.

 Don't delay!   This special ends on January 15th.

Language Arts: Our Style

Welcome to the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2017 week two.  This week we talk all about language arts, how one plays around with words.   Our host is the lovely Susan.  You can learn more about the VFCF2017 right here.

I have to admit, it took a while to figure out a system to study Language Arts in our home.
Knowing that my boy (like his mother) tells stories as easily as breathing I thought, why not use that.

So I grabbed this freebie book from the library discard pile and off we set.

First he needs to draw a picture of the story he wants to write.  He spent days at this, getting all the details right and NO, I'm not allowed to show you.  :)

 Then you develop your main character.  This was harder than the lad anticipated.  He thought he could just do yellow, pointed ears character.   Then I asked : so how tall is he?   Does he eat meat or vegetables?   What makes him laugh?   Does he ever cry?   Does he have friends or is he a loner?

Once he had the character nailed down a bit better he moved on to writing his story.  Bit by bit he adds to it.  And bit by bit he learns.  Every day a 1/2 hour of work is required.

Each time he gets a chapter done, we sit down and we edit it together.  We make the changes right in his story, discussing spelling errors, word usage, sentence structure and all that fun stuff.

And you know what?   He's learning.  It's not a battle.  It's a sitting down and talking and learning together.  Sometimes I'll read a sentence and not know what it wrong with it, so I'll ask other folks and they'll show me what's wrong and then the lad and I both learn something new.

It's good to do this.  :)

I have to admit, I getting curious about what treasure his character is going to discover...

Anyways, this book has a variety of stories one can write out, from adventures to mysteries.
Draw it out, write it out chapter by chapter and just work your way through it.   We'll be working our way through it for a good time to come yet.  :)

I admit that we are taking our time with it, and we did get side-tracked when I was ill so are rather behind, but a new week is dawning and a lad will learn and grow, and I'll be there with him.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.   I do hope that you'll join us in reading through what some of us have put together.   Here's the list of the gang.  :)

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are writing about Playing with Words this week:

All posts will be live by Monday, January 9th at noon EST.

Delight Directed High School English by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds

Act Your Part Well- 2017 VCF by Lisa @ Golden Grasses

The Search For Language by Michele@Family, Faith and Fridays

Our Top Picks for Language Arts by Amanda H @ Hopkins Homeschool

Multiple Approaches to Language Arts in 2017 by Laura @ Day by Day in Our World

How We Cover the Language Arts in Our Homeschool by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Use Your Words by Laura @ Four Little Penguins

The Art of Perfecting Macarons by Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Loving Languages Every Day by Jen K @ A Peace of Mind

Speech Therapy & Elementary Latin by Yvie @ Gypsy Road

The Readin' and Writin' Part of Homeschool by Shecki @ Greatly Blessed

Children Who Love Books by Lizzy @ Peaches At Home

Customizing High School Language Credits by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool

A Poetry Feast by Sarah @ Delivering Grace

Teaching Language Arts without Curriculum by Brittney @ Mom's Heart

I know your pain and it is worth it! by Kim @ Good Sweet Love

Language Arts: Our Style by Annette @ A Net in Time

Words! Words! Words! by Lisa M @McClanahan 7

10 Wonderful Word Games (+1) by Lori @ At Home: where life happens

What About Reading Comprehension? by Kristen @ Sunrise to Sunset

Teaching Grammar and Writing Through Discussion by Chelli @ The Planted Trees