Last Day of School!

We are done with our school year 2009-2010!  We plan on continuing Latin for a few more weeks and I will have the children doing independent reading through the summer.  And piano lessons will continue.  But, after the children finish their assignments this afternoon..we are done!  

The children have spent alot of time reading...

and writing...

We loved using Teaching Textbooks this year!  It's a keeper!

You all know how much I have loved using this!  I am passionate about this for sure!  I love this history course and am looking forward to the next Volume next year.  I also use this in conjuction with this... 

I feel very blessed to have my children home with me each day.  I realized again today what a great life we have here in SC.  Out in the country, where my children can ride the go-cart, have chickens to care for and gather eggs, see the horse in the pasture, run and be children...grow up with each other and learn every day.  I love being able to see the lights go on as I teach them something new.  Yes, this life is hard, but a blessed one.  In our weakness, He is made strong and may He be glorified in our home.

The Mystery of History!

After 2 years going through Mystery of History 1, we have reached a milestone. We are now at the birth and life of Jesus Christ who all of history revolves around. We have seen how God has been orchestrating all of history, in all the different nations for His glory and the good of His church. We have seen how all of history centers on our Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive work. And today we crossed over from B.C to A.D!! How exciting to view history in this light and see His glorious providential workings thoughout time.

As a side note...you have all heard the stories of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. You have also heard of the struggle for Roman power between Antony and Octavian. But, did you know that Octavian, who won the power, had another name....Augustus Caesar...Yes, the very one who had all the world to be taxed, so Joseph with Mary went to Bethlehem...and while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered of her first born Son...Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

History Lesson

The anticipation mounts as we get closer and closer to finishing up our Mystery of History 1. I am loving seeing how the Lord is orchestrating all the nations to be ready for His coming. I was trying to describe it to my children in this way...

Mommy in is the bedroom getting ready to have a baby...

Daddy is filling the waterbirth tub

J is painting the walls of the baby's room

W is in the basement making the baby's cradle.

R is in the kitchen preparing a meal for Mommy to eat afterwards

and E is sewing the baby's clothes.

Oh, and D and H are getting the baby's toys ready.

The Lord was lining all the nations up perfectly to fulfill the scriptures and bring forth the birth of His Son. Enter: The second triumvirate, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra and Herod the Great. This is fascinating stuff, people. Did you know that Herod the Great had the temple remodeled in a glorious fashion. He had the high priests trained in masonry and carpentry so they could go in and fix the Holy of Holies (since they were the only ones allowed in). The stones were so huge--60 to 80 tons! The Lord was using this evil man to prepare the temple to receive His Son. It puts new meaning into the time when the disciples were walking with Jesus and marveling over the beauty of the temple and Jesus replies "destroy this temple and I will rebuilt it in three days".

Excitement mounts as we see the events leading the Christ's birth who truly is the Mystery of History!!

History Lesson

We have been spending a couple of history lessons on the first triumvirate in Rome and what followed with the fascinating, but tragically selfish life of Julius Caesar. What a lesson for the children on the greed of man! They learned where the phrase "you are about to cross the Rubicon" and the Latin phrase which means "I came, I saw, I conquered". Such lessons for the children when you look at these things through a Christian worldview. It is exciting to be now at 46BC!

History Lesson

Alright, I have a confession to make. I think I inherited my mother's passion for history. She used to get so excited as she taught us history. Now, here I am jumping up and down inside as I pass these things on to my children. Why is it that you really only appreciate these things as you are older? We are excited though...we officially today began our last 1/4 of our Mystery of History course. The homestretch folks! We have 300 more years to cover in this MoH vol. 1, culminating, of course, in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in whom all history centers.

So today we finished up learning about the last of the Old Testament prophets, Malachi. The significance of the 400 year silence that is about to begin for the Lord's people begins to hit home after all we have learned this year.

We also have now learned about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Did you know that Plato's real name was Aristocles (but he was nicknamed Plato that meant Broad Shoulders.) Also, he was the first to call their school an academy, because they met in a grove of Academus. Also, Aristotle was a tutor--a private tutor to someone very important. None other than the son of the king of Macedonia...Alexander the Great!

We also tried our hand today at a Greek style of writing called Boustrophedon, which meant ox turning. They would write from left to right then the next line right to left. Here is an example.

Hello, we are really enjoying history

krow fo stol si ti tub, nuf si ti

(it is fun, but it is lots of work)

To make it even harder they did not put spaces between their words. Stef has threatened to start sending me emails this way. smile. That's all for now!

History Lesson

I know I just posted a history lesson on here. And I normally do not use my blog for political purposes. But I could not help see the correlation between what we just studied today and our recent political events. Today we learned about Hippocrates and how he changed the study of medicine. Did you know that the original Hippocratic oath said this? "Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy." How tragic in light of our recent heath reform bill that now has opened the door for insurance companies to pay for abortions. If you would like to read the original hippocratic oath click HERE.

History Lesson

We up to the Golden age of Athens...only a little over 400 years before Christ! It is exciting as we see the finish line, still a little ways off, but within sight! We will be excited to start Mystery of History 2, and study the time of the life of Jesus.

So yesterday we learned about Socrates and his tragic story (remember, "Know thyself"). Do you want to know what Socrates looked like? Well, here you go.

Didn't Socrates look alot like my son?

History Lesson

I get so excited about our history course. If you remember we use Mystery of History and it is chronological from creation on. We study biblical history along with secular. It is giving us such a wonderful worldview of the Lord's dealings with His people, and also a perspective on the events in scripture and what was happening in the cultures around them.

Well we are up to about 460 BC now. Today we read about Xerxes bridge of boats over the Hellespont. FASCINATING STUFF! Xerxes was the son of Darius 1st (who started the first real postal system) He literally built a bridge using boats as his floating foundation. He built roads with high fences on top of the boats to get across. It took his army 7 days to cross. But you want to know the best part of all? His other name was Ahasuarus....Queen Esther's husband!!

History Lesson

As some of you know, the core of our schooling this year is our history program. We absolutely LOVE Mystery of History. And with the help of another curriculum Illuminations I am able to have our reading and writing, etc. center around what we are learning in history. It is a chronological history, taking in biblical and secular at the same time. What a marvelous tool it has been to help the children grasp a biblical worldview. Now when they read in the scripture of the Philistines, or Tyre, they have a cultural education of where those pagan nations were coming from. When they learn of the Israelites going after the false gods, they have more details to make the Scripture come alive. Why the prophets used certain phrases or terms might be because of the local culture, etc. Why was Rome such a world power by the time of Jesus' birth etc? History is His Story, so all must center around the work of the Lord in the lives of His people.

I thought that I would from time to time give you an update on what we are learning in our history program. I will title these posts "History Lessons". If you are not interested, you can just skip the posts, but if you are like me, you might realize that history is a lot more exciting than you thought it was as a child. :) Did you know that Elisha, the prophet Joel and Homer lived around the same time?

As you know from the "Olympic Night" posts, We just were studying the beginning of the Olympics as the Greeks would have originally had them. Did you know that was around the time of Jonah? Less than 10 years after Jonah was in the belly of the fish we now have the beginning of the Roman City. So this week we will be focusing on how Rome first built their city. Remember the Roman City and the Roman Empire are two different things. At first they were just a city only in part of Italy. As time went on, the Romans actually created the empire. Did you know that the first Romans were Latins and named their new settlement "Roma"? The children and I discussed different latin words that we recognize in our own language. So today we are learning about how they built a roman city. It really is quite fascinating to see how our modern towns are patterned after the early roman cities. Our main streets, blocks and grid are very much the same. Of course we do not have great walls around our cities nowadays as they did then.

As I am typing right now, my children are watching a video called Roman City by David Macaulay. It is giving them alot of details of how a roman city was built. I don't know about you, but I get excited about learning and passing on these things to my children...I sure hope that enthusiasm can carry over into their own passion for learning.

So there you have your first "History Lesson"!