Science In the Bible

This is our 10th year homeschooling our children. When we started our children were ages 9, 7, 2 and a 6 month old! WOW! Now, they are 19, 17, 12 and 10! It occurred to me that subjects that were covered with my older children now need to be covered with my younger ones, since they were so small and can't remember. Hmmmmm, second time around for me which is great :) I am not lost or unsure like the first time- experience really is the best teacher. Anyway, my daughter commutes to college in the day time and my oldest son is a Junior this year- he was excited to see us doing things we had done when he was his brothers age so decided to join in with us.
We were using Apologia Science, but it is REALLY detailed so I went back to my homeschool roots of the Weaver and decided to teach science to coincide with what our Bible lesson is about. I felt led this year to put together my own Bible and Church History lessons- the kids love it and ask for MORE!

I began implementing the "new" Bible lesson plan last week on Rosh Hoshanna and the Feast of Trumpets. It wasn't too hard because I recently taught about the Seven Feasts of the Lord in my mom and I former Adult New Members Sunday School Class. Here's a photo of my middle son blowing one of our shofars my mother bought for us from one of her trips to Israel and yes, he can actually blow it pretty well:

The rest of the week, we talked about Creation and the length of Creative Days. The boys decided to make a Garden of Eden out of clay. I wanted to make sure they understood that there were two main trees in the garden- the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and The Tree of Life:

 A arrowhead that I found a few years ago- if you look closely, you can see fossils.

 We also talked about the three basic rocks of the earth- sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. I got this from a place in Texas and they sent us various samples some years back.

Chore Box

I have seen plenty of posts about Chore Boxes on Pinterest and Face Book, so I made up my own. My middle son (12) has pleaded diplomatic immunity toward the box. lol Sorry, it applies to all the young people in the house (maybe the older ones, too :))

My version of our chore box is kinda a conglomerate of different ones. I decided to write my own little poem for the front. To me, it makes it more personal and unique. (My children's names names are erased for privacy).

I wanted something that would hold up so, I chose to use popsicle sticks for the chores. They are being held in a upside down water bottle. The kids are able to twist off the cap and whatever falls out, is their chore.

The Angry Birds idea came from my youngest son. While out yesterday, I saw the Angry Birds fruit snacks at Wally World. My son noticed that there are cut outs on the box- so we cut them out and used them to decorate our chore box :)


Also, when introducing this at our family meeting, it was also explained that every Friday evening at about 6 pm, the box will be cleaned out- whether the contents are emptied in the trash or taken to Goodwill that is right up the street from us :)

Does it work? Well, I haven't implemented it quite yet, but it appears to be helping already. They are really thinking before they walk out of the room and leave things lying around, which is exactly what I wanted!

First Communion!!!

God answered a long prayed prayer...He filled my sons with the Holy Ghost! Middle son got it March 20, 2012 and baby boy got it five days later on March 25, 2012!!! Yes, we totally lost it! Now, we have a saved household! God is good! This photo was taken the night of their first Communion:

Christmas 2012

Our tree and Christmas decor & Dad helping us make our Gingerbread House:

Helping Others

Helping out at our local soup kitchen for Thanksgiving. Its a family tradition that we have enjoyed doing for about 10 years now. We get up around 5:30 Thanksgiving morning, meet with our church group, help out where we can and around 12 we leave to go have our holiday meal with our family and loved ones.

Our Sports World

Senior Photos

So, I really wanted to take my daughter's Senior Photos in the Fall, but on the nice pretty days, something would pop up and I couldn't get them done. Then, we had the one week of Indian summer weather and low and behold, I end up with the flu! Ugh! I prayed and the Lord saw fit to give us one more day of beautiful, warm weather in the middle of November AND I was able to take her photos!!! Yay!!!