Are you planning to attend a Real Refreshment Retreat this year in Baltimore (March 8-9) or Atlanta (March 22-23)?
Then you'll definitely what to check out what our friends say about what NOT to pack!
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Are you ready for the Facebook party tonight? We are gearing up and we are SUPER excited!! We are hosting a Facebook party with Homeschool Mosaics, the Homeschool Scientist and the 2 to 1 Conference! (more info here: http://www.facebook.com/events/375170569216851/ )
Would you like to enter to win a copy of Debra Bell's "Ultimate Homeschool Planner"? Would you like to be part of the anticipation and excitement for tonight's party?
YES!! (that's what I said too!)
I have a way that you can both of these things, TODAY! That's right! No waiting.
Here are the rules:
- Tweet from your Twitter account using the #RefreshMom hashtag
- Tweet needs to be about the Pamper and Plan FB party - http://www.facebook.com/events/375170569216851/
Here are other necessary pieces of information:
- Apologia will randomly select one tweeter from these to win a copy of Debra Bell's "Ultimate Homeschool Planner"
- Contest is open to US residents 18 and older, and no purchase is necessary.
- The winner will be announced tomorrow, Friday, August 3
If you have questions, shoot me a tweet at @RealRefreshment
ENJOY and we'll see you tonight!!
~ Liz
Teach Them Truth by Rachael Carman
So here it is, at the end of the day, the most important thing you can teach your kids about is: God. Learning about God comes from studying and knowing His word. Through study of His word your family will come to know what real Truth is and who Truth is. This knowledge of God will draw them to Him and grow within them a desire to glorify Him in all things.
One of the huge advantages of homeschooling is that we can make being out in God’s creation a priority as we educate our children. We can take the time to make a plan or change our expectations for the day when we intentionally seek an opportunity to admire and explore the wonder of God’s handiwork. In our home school we have had many circumstances which have presented themselves wherein we have been able to see God’s creations up close and personal.
Here are just a few examples:
-When my boys found fresh frog eggs in the creek out back, we paused to make a habitat for these little creatures.
-When the black birds came by the thousands through our back yard with all of their loud talking as they eat the early berries and bugs. They were in our woods for over 30 minutes chatting among themselves, and then they were gone.
-When a hummingbird got trapped in our garage, we took about an hour to get a ladder, find some gloves, mix some sugar water and rescue it. I was praying a bunch too. We were able to get the bird’s wings free then after it drank a little sugar water, he flew off, apparently uninjured.
-When we found a baby squirrel that had fallen from its nest, we brought it in and abandoned the whole homeschooling plan for the day while we researched and called experts to find out how to nurse the little guy back to health. We released him about 6 weeks later.
There have also been bats, caterpillars, deer, comet showers, owls, a baby rabbit, and countless lizards. Each of these have been tangible examples of the true existence of a marvelous God. Each of these creatures/situations have given all of us the opportunity to interact with God as we take the time to really see Him in His creation.
“Man is without excuse”, Paul writes in Romans. And as we look at His creation we see that it is true there is such obvious evidence of God’s hand — His actual fingerprints in all aspects of creation.
Teaching our children truth, just like the other points in the book, means living out loud what we already know to be true. It means glorifying God in all we say and do, pointing our kids to Him as their Answer to life’s questions. Teaching our kids truth means trusting Him with their challenges and dreams. It means praising Him together and praying to Him together. Teaching them truth means resting in God’s sovereignty — all the while being confident that He is faithful.
Thank you all for the blog posts. Each one was insightful and encouraging. May God continue to bless you as you seek to have a HEART for your kids.
In His grace,
Rachael
*image by WonderKris
HEART, Chapter 4 by Rachael Carman
This aspect of having a heart for my kids has been the scariest and the most rewarding. Having been under the impression for so long that I was in control, the idea of letting go was terrifying. I was really convinced that I knew what was best. I was so wrong.
Space does not allow for the whole story, but as you read the book you have come to know Charles and Anderson — my two oldest sons. Well, they have both graduated now. Our journey together has substantially changed; they are young adults. Both of their lives have taken turns that I could not have predicted. Both of them have gone in directions that I would have made me anxious years ago. But I am confident that both of them are seeking God and His direction. That knowledge gives this mom the peace she needs to let them go.
You see, Charles has moved in a direction that has taken him to college in New York City. Yes, he goes to school in the city — actually on the island of Manhattan. And yes, he rides the subway. And yes, he has encountered some hurting, angry, suspicious people. I know, I know, New York City is a dangerous place. I get it — we’ve visited. Mothers whom I do not even know have questioned the wisdom of allowing Charles to go off to NYC. “What are you thinking?” they ask. Well, I’m thinking that Charles is where God wants him and that is all of the safety assurance I need.
I could choose to let the fact that Charles is living in the city keep me up at night, depriving me of sleep and subsequently sanity. But that is not of God. God desires that I would not only let Charles go, but that I would trust Him with Charles. God is really growing Charles through this experience. I have commented several times that he is getting a multi-dimensional educational experience via navigating his studies, the subway, and the culture. He just smiles. God is preparing Charles for something big to bring Himself glory.
As a side note, my second son, Anderson, is studying animation through an online school. God has gifted him with some incredible talent. Talk about a questionable industry in which to send your kid. But his desire is to glorify God through animation. His dream is in Los Angles or San Francisco, California. Yeah, the exact opposite side of the country — I’m just saying.
If you are reading my book and you are a mother to little ones during this season, then take advantage of this time — snuggle long, smile often, and sing loud. If your children are in the pre-teen stage, start dreaming with God. Look for opportunities where you can begin to let them go in little ways. Let them go and watch them shine. If you are the mom of the high school students, then seek God with them, and embrace letting them go wherever God needs them to be. They are safe with Him!
Don’t delay, pray about this today!
Enrich Your Marriage
Over the last several years Davis and I have witnesses several marriages implode. Marriages that we thought were solid, friends we had had for years. But behind doors over time things started declining.
This last summer we had a fabulous celebration of 25 years of marriage. We had a great party with friends and family. It was our desire to set before our kids an example of what marriage looks like, to celebrate God’s goodness and faithfulness.
In those 25 years we have, by God’s grace, developed some good habits. We pray together regularly. We have found this to be a valuable investment. I love to hear Davis’ heart during these times. We write each other love notes and leave them for each other to find. I love to come across one of these hand-written notes from Davis. I have several boxes of them from over the years. We also still date each other. We put them on the family calendar so that the kids know we are going out together. It has been a priority for us over the years to have these times for just the two of us. We only lived near family for a couple of years when we had young children and not at all since. God blessed us with inexpensive sitters and friends who helped us get these times to recharge together.
As for interactions and habits that we are still working on, that have not to date been worthy of imitation, there are always areas to work on.
At our Facebook "Blogwarming" Party today we had a question about entertaining preschoolers while you teach older kids. Here is Rachael Carman's preschool box list.
Enjoy!
Liz
§ Pegboard
§ Mag letters
§ Foam number set
§ Chicken soup with rice (book)
§ How many veggies? (book)
§ Little last rabbit (book)
§ Five little monkeys jumping on the bed (book)
§ Miss spiders tea party (book)
§ Red bears fun with shapes (book)
§ Mouse count (book)
§ Down in the garden (book)
§ 123 (book)
§ The king’s numbers (book)
§ Snappy little numbers (book)
§ What will you wear? (book)
§ Wooden number puzzle
§ Number puzzle
§ Sesame street puzzle
§ Number flash cards
§ Ten items or less (book)
§ A color of His own (book)
§ Animal talk (book)
§ The itsy bitsy spider (book)
§ Discovery toy: nested boxes
§ Frederick’s alligator (book)
§ Jiggle wiggle prance (book)
§ Henny Penny (book)
§ Harry the dirty dog (book)
§ Duck duck (book)
§ The king’s animals (book)
§ A chocolate moose (book)
§ Snappy little bugs (book)
§ Snappy little farmyards (book)
§ I spy mystery (book)
§ Lace and trace pets
§ Blue mini
§ Zoo magazines
§ Trace and lace
§ Animals jigsaw puzzles
§ Colors (book)
§ Contrast puzzles
§ Juniors colors (book)
§ Flash cards
§ Snappy little colors (book)
§ Shapes and colors puzzles
§ Glad monster, sad monster (book)
§ Go fish for letters
§ Alphabet flashcards
§ Whatley’s quest (book)
§ Ten little ladybugs (book)
§ Precious moments flash cards
§ Archibald’s opposites (book)
§ Animals jigsaw puzzles
§ Anno’s alphabet (book)
§ A is for angry (book)
§ A busy year (book)
§ ABC (book)
§ Clock puzzle
§ Bird puzzles
§ Macy’s ABC’s (book)
§ Chicka chicka boom boom (book)
§ Color flashcards
§ Mini puzzles
§ ABC (book)
§ Alphabet (book)
§ Alligators all around (book)
§ More alphabet flashcards
§ Sesame street puzzles
§ Wooden puzzles
§ Into the A,B,Sea (book)
§ D is dinosaur (book)
§ Bob and Larry’s ABC’s
Starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern on Thursday, January 26, we are hosting a Blogwarming event on the Apologia Facebook wall.
Part of the celebration will be a blogger link-up. If you blog, come add your blog to the link-up so other homeschooling parents can visit and enjoy the ideas, encouragment, and inspiration you share via your blog.
If you don't blog, you can still enjoy visitng the folks who have listed their blogs. We'll leave the link active so you can visit the blogs over the next few weeks. Each blogger has their unique content–sharing everything from art projects to recipes, and more!
One participating blogger will win a free blog header from Art Designs by Christi.Check out her portfolio here! You'll get just the header you want to adorn your blog–so link up, and you be automatically entered to win! Must be 18 years or older to enter.
HEART blog-post for book club by Rachael Carman
Chapter 1
H-Have a Heart for God
I believe the best news in this chapter is that God doesn’t leave me alone in my mothering. He wants to walk with me through each day so that we can face it together! Having time with Him in the morning before the craziness ensues helps me focus on Him and reminds me that He is there, that I’m not alone.
It is way too easy to feel lonely as a mom. To feel like no one understands, that no one cares, that no one is willing to listen, but none of this is true; they are all lies. The enemy wants me to feel forsaken and worthless he wants me to believe that what I do all day is menial and mundane without any real purpose or meaning. But I must remember that he is a liar!
Waking little children, dressing them, setting the table for breakfast — no matter how simple, washing little faces, changing diapers, wiping noses, reading “The Story of Ping” again, cleaning dishes, rotating laundry, folding clothes, changing another diaper, making PBJ sandwiches, cleaning up sticky jam, laying down sleepy heads for an afternoon rest, putting dinner on, hemming a choir dress…mundane maybe, but meaningless — no way. When these things are done in step with our Father, with His praise on our tongue and His word in our minds, these things take on eternal value.
Putting God first in our mothering changes everything. It fortifies our hearts and minds with the confidence we need to face each day knowing that we don’t face it by ourselves, but that the King of glory is with us, that He loves us, that He understands and stands anxious to help us. He’s only a prayer away!
May we not resent the call to a quiet time with Him as a legalistic requirement or another item to check off or our ‘To Do’ list, but may we look forward to worshiping Him and seeking Him as we start off our day with Him in sweet anticipation of the aspects about His nature that He reveals to us and our children — as He becomes more and more real in our life. Praise His name.
The Teach Them Diligently Convention and Apologia Live have teamed up to bring homeschooling parents double the discipleship and refreshment!
This March, you can attend two homeschooling events designed just for homeschooling parents.
On March 15-17, attend the Teach Them Diligently conference and enjoy the encouragement from Apologia speakers Zan Tyler, Joe Tyler, and Jeannie Fulbright. .Be inspired by attending sessions led by Ken Ham, Voddie Baucham, Stephen Kendrick, and many other popular speakers.
Apologia Academy Director, Larry Blythe, anchors the Teen Track entitled four 12: Stand Strong in Your Faith. Enjoy over 200 helpful workshop! Plus, browse the exhibit hall and discover all of your curriculum choices
The following weekend, March 23-24, join us in Atlanta for Apologia Live–a refreshing retreat designed just for homeschooling moms. Rachael Carman, Jeannie Fulbright, Zan Tyler, Elizabeth Smith, Sherri Seligson, and Debra Bell will help us refresh in God's Word and celebrate the journey of homeschooling He has placed in our lives! This is truly a retreat design with the needs of you–the homeschooling mom–in mind.
Special guest speaker at Apologia Live – Atlanta, Pam Tebow
Pam Tebow, homeschooling mother of five children (including NFL quarterback, Tim Tebow), will be our special guest in Atlanta. She'll encourage us to trust the Lord with all our hearts for all our lives.
Save almost 20% on a joint ticket to both events!
Register for Teach them Diligently and Apologia Live to get a great rate! Regular prices are $40 for a family registration at Teach Them Diligently and $115 for a one-mom registration to Live, for a total of $155; register for the joint ticket and receive a discounted rate of $125!
Register for both events today and save almost 20%!
Rachael Carman will be participating in the "How to Have a H.E.A.R.T. for Your Kids" link up with Amanda from ThePelsers.com. You can check out the Monday link up posts here, join the Facebook group here, or join the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #HEART4YourKids.
HEART Introduction
Hello everyone-so delighted to get to ‘meet’ all of you via this book club. I am praying that each of you will be blessed as you read HEART. God has been so good to me as He has grown me through motherhood. Maturity was an ideal that I wanted to achieve, but I had no idea what challenges it would mean.
The story I share in the introduction of the book still seems like it happened just yesterday and yet it was over 16 years ago now. Just this last Saturday, Charles — the one who started it all — my strong-willed oldest son, returned to New York City where he is attending college. He isn’t shorter than me anymore; no, he’s several inches taller, but his smile is still sweet and the hugs are sweeter still.
On this side of my journey (at least with Charles as I am still home schooling 5 others!), I am profoundly grateful and humbled by all that God has done. I am so glad that God got a hold of me, that He was in pursuit of my heart. I am so grateful that He loved us both so much. I had my plan. I thought I knew what I wanted. I am so glad that my plan fell apart. God’s plan has been so much better
I will be praying for each of you throughout this book club. May the God of peace grant you insight and wisdom as you face each day. May He draw you and your husband and your children to Himself. May He be glorified in your marriage and your family relationships. May you be strengthened even today for the days ahead when the time comes for your children to answer God’s call on their lives and they leave on their life’s adventure. And may you hunger and thirst for righteousness which is the truth of God’s word, teaching it
diligently to your children.
I would be blessed to hear what God is showing you as your read.
In His Grace,
Rachael
Jn 3.30
