I recently found Tim Challies’ 2016 Reading Challenge post. Since I am trying to make a conscious effort to do more reading, I decided to jump in with both feet, even though 2016 is half gone. In his challenge he lists 104 categories of books to choose from and the idea is to read one book from each category, from as many categories as you decide to (13 categories is considered a “light reader” while the full 104 makes you “obsessed”). Some of the categories include things like a biography, a classic novel, a book more than 100 years old, or a title recommended by a family member.

As I was working through the list it occurred to me that I would LOVE to have this type of goal for my kids, as well.

Often they focus their pleasure reading on one particular category (animal books, or books in a series, for example) and this seems like a great way to help them diversify a bit.

With that in mind, I made my own list of 50 categories for kids. Today is July 4th so we have about 25 weeks left until Christmas. My kids can work their way through the whole list reading just 2 books a week. If that seems too aggressive, maybe your goal would be one book a week and get half way through the list. It doesn’t matter, as YOU can tailor the goal for your own schedule and whatever you feel would work for your child. I am printing out a list for each of my kids–the younger ones may get through all 50 categories and the older ones might only get through 10 (since their books are much longer). I hope to post updates periodically about some of their selections (and mine!) and I would love to hear from you if you decide to take the Reading Challenge. Happy Reading!

CounterCultural School Kids 2016 Reading Challenge

We recently took a few days off. Part of this time, for me, was spent evaluating our year. What is working for us this year? What needs to be changed? Which subjects are going well, and which need tweaking now so we can maximize the rest of the school year?

Mid-year  Teachers Institute Days are also a good time to start organizing filed work so that assembling that end-of-the-year portfolio is not quite so daunting.  Update your list of “books read this year”.  Order photos from first semester field trips or fun projects and slip them into an accordion file before you forget what you did first semester.

If you are planning to do standardized testing in the spring, go ahead and submit your testing application now so you’ll be ready to go when the time comes.

I got this great idea from my good friend and fellow blogger, Homeschool Dawn, who blogs at Olive Plants.

You can read all the details about this “chore time strategy” at the above link, but here’s the idea in a nutshell:  take index cards and write a job on each one.  Assign each task an amount of money that the task is worth, if completed well.  Put all the index cards in a jar and allow the kids to draw out the cards….once they finish one task, they can draw out another card.  At the end of the allotted cleaning time, add up how much money each child earned doing their various jobs and give them their wages.

I love this idea, and it works great with my boys.  I use different colored index cards for the various jobs so that each of my boys has their own color.  This way I can make sure that no one gets a job that is too difficult for them.  I don’t want my Kindergartner getting a job meant for my high school aged son, and vice versa.

My boys know that some cards are only worth 3 cents, while others are worth 25 cents….and believe me, they want those 25 cent cards!  No one is allowed to look at the job they are drawing out until the card is in their hand; once they’ve drawn it, they must complete it before moving on to another card.

There are a couple of ways I keep the boys motivated.  They thrive on competition, and I take advantage of that whenever we do the Job Jar.  First, I set a timer so the boys know how long we will be cleaning.  The quicker they do their jobs, the more cards they can draw out of the job jar (and the more money they will be able to earn).  I do check each job, however, to make sure it is also done well; if they have done a poor job, the job must be re-done before they can draw another card.

Since I am using different colored cards for each child, they are not really competing against each other to get the highest paying jobs.  But they are competing against me!  I do not have an assigned color, but can draw cards from any color.  If I draw the card and do the job, I don’t have to pay them to do it.  I make sure to draw at least one higher-paying job from the jar sometime during the cleaning time (wink, wink), just about the time that energy is starting to flag.  The reminder that mom might get some of their higher paying jobs is enough to light a fire under the little cleaners, giving them renewed zeal for their tasks.

One benefit to homeschooling is that we do not need to be bound by a traditional school schedule.  Our family has been starting school in July for a few years now so that we can have longer breaks at Christmas and in the spring.

It’s January.  At this time of year I find my energy seems to wane.  But I don’t want our homeschool to suffer from the winter blahs!  Here are some tips which help to keep me going during the winter months:

•  I start every week with a “must do” list.  I write out a sheet which tells me exactly what we need to read for the week, which activities we’ll do, and what I want to accomplish for the week.  I do my planning in advance, so this is just a “short list” to remind me of what we have lined up for the week.  I check each item off, one by one, as they are completed.  This helps me to stay on track for the week, and gives me a motivational boost as assignments are checked off the to-do list. I also jot down doctor appointments or other “interruptions” on this list, so I can be aware of anything we’ll need to compensate for.

•   I have a to-do list for each day, as well.  My younger kids use charts which tell them exactly what they need to do each day.  Their motivation to complete their chart is contagious, and the accountability of having it all laid out for everyone to see means that nothing gets skipped.

•  I have a chart, too, which tells me exactly who I need to be with and what each of my younger children should be doing at any given time of day.  I have “office hours” each day for my oldest, when I have time set aside to work one-on-one with him.  He is free to schedule the rest of his day in whatever order he wants, as long as he gets all his work done.  But for the younger children, I need a fairly rigid schedule to ensure that I get an equal amount of time with each one, and that no one is wasting time while I’m working with a sibling.

• I reward my children for a good attitude and a job well done.  I’ll write more about our system soon, but for now, suffice it to say that there’s a pat on the back for getting ready on time, being cheerful about getting school work done, and for saying, “What’s next?”.

•  I start early.  This winter we’ve been doing some of our reading at the breakfast table.  It feels great to have one thing done before we’ve even cleared the breakfast dishes!

• We start on the right foot with devotions, immediately after breakfast. If we don’t, this most important part of the day will easily be squeezed out.  For us it works best to do fairly brief devotions twice a day (morning and evening).  Bottom line: we are more faithful to our morning devotions when they are scheduled to last about 20 minutes than if they last an hour.  A little, done faithfully, has produced more fruit than a lot, done unfaithfully.

•  I divide the day.  We get all our “hard work” done in the morning….phonics/reading lessons, spelling, dictation, and math.  This is the meat of our day.  After a brief recess and lunch, we get to the “cake”:  history, science, and enrichment subjects.  These are the most enjoyable subjects for us, and it works well for us to save them as a reward for a productive morning.

•  I add in a mid-morning “snack break”.  I’ve put an electric kettle in our schoolroom this winter and it has really raised everyone’s morale!  About 10 a.m. I make a cup of decaf coffee for myself and a cup of tea (or occasionally, hot chocolate!) for the boys.  Our basement schoolroom is a bit chilly at times, and we enjoy this pick-me-up.  I keep it very brief (no more than 10 minutes) so it doesn’t derail the whole morning!  If we’re eating a late lunch I’ll add fruit, crackers or a granola bar to the hot beverage.

• I look ahead.  I add up how many days we need to complete to finish our school year, and set a target date for completion.  Unforeseen events (hospitalizations, out of town guests, and can’t-miss-opportunities) have to be factored in, as they may occur, but this gives me something to aim for.  I always take stock, every month, to make sure we are on track to finish our coursework by the end of the school year.

• I incorporate some basic daily chores into the day.  Nothing saps my motivation faster than a messy house.  The childrens’ schedules include a few minutes after meals to unload the dishwasher, sweep, take out trash, and straighten up the public areas. I keep the laundry going in between subjects.

• I limit time on the computer during school hours!  This is key for me.  I used to just “check mail” constantly and found that frequently, an email would need an “immediate response”.   My home-based business cannot be allowed to encroach on school, so I’ve had to set a schedule for my computer time.  I check email in the morning before school, during recess, and in the afternoon once school is finished.  I’m not perfect about this, and find it very tempting to check any time I am near the computer!!  Sometimes I yield to this temptation, but I find that I am far more productive–and motivated–when I focus on the task at hand and forget about checking email!

How do you stay motivated during the blah days of winter?  I’d love to read your comments! We can all use a little inspiration this month!

It’s that time again! We’ve started back to school. Have you? We’ve left the Ancients behind, and have moved on to the Middle Ages. New books, new projects, new feasts await.

But first, I always have to get organized. One of the most important things, for me, is to get my history and science boxes set up. I hate it when we have to skip experiments or projects because we were out of vinegar, or I didn’t have Epsom salts on hand!

Here’s a picture of what my younger boys have in their science box. My oldest son gets his own box of supplies, since he is using a different curriculum than the younger boys are.

Sure, it takes a few hours at the store to pull all this stuff together. I guess I could let the boys use tinfoil, salt and baking soda from the pantry. But would you trust your kids to search here on their own?

You can read more about how I set up these boxes in my post Gathering Supplies in Advance.

Several months ago, when I started this Home Library Builders series, I promised to write a post about finding books and organizing your library. This is a topic near and dear to my heart…I am always on the lookout for a treasure!

I use Tapestry of Grace, a curriculum centered around living books. Some weeks I might use as many as 20 different books for my students. My children are getting a rich and broad education, but it can be a strain on the budget and difficult to stay organized.

So what is my strategy?

Planning ahead

First, I take a look at my book lists, week by week. Tapestry gives me a breakdown of all the books I need every week, for a total of 36 book lists in all. I put each week’s list in a page protector, so I can mark on it with a Sharpie marker, without defacing the reading list. Tapestry is a classical program, which means that four years from now, I’ll be repeating this material again, albeit at a more advanced level for each child. My current 3rd grader will be reading books that his 7th grade brother read this year, and my preschooler will need the books my 3rd grader is reading. It helps to keep a record of what we have and what we need and what we liked so that I can refer to it in future years. By marking on a page protector, I can make notes that will help me now and in the future. Four years from now, I can slip off the old protector and replace it with a fresh one, making notes for a new trip through the material.

Decisions, decisions!

Tapestry gives me lots of choices. If I don’t have a given book, there are several alternates listed. As a general rule, I try very hard to get all the literature books that are recommended, as there is only one Huckleberry Finn. I often am able to substitute history titles with something that is already on my shelves. If I don’t have a certain geography book about Japan, but another similar title is already on my shelf, I make a note of the title I’ll be substituting on the page protector. By staying flexible and being willing to substitute equivalent titles I can save my budget for those must-have books.

Keeping my Options Open

Next, I open several windows on the computer. One is for my local library system, a window for Amazon, a window for Better World Books, a window for My Audio School, a window for Audible, and a window for Baldwin Project.

I look at each book on the list, checking how many weeks it will be used. Anything that will only be used for one week is typically at the top of my library list. I do a quick search and if the book is available through Inter-library Loan, I mark an L on the page protector by that title. When the time comes, I’ll order it through the library. My library can be slow, so I don’t use it for critical or time-sensitive titles. Often, I’ll order the suggested resource as well as all the alternates, and use whichever one comes in on time.

The library is a great place to get those hardback picture books for my young children. Those are expensive to buy, and typically will be read a couple of times and then put away. They are often readily available through the Inter-library Loan system.

Once I’ve gone through the titles, choosing which ones will be substituted and which ones will come from the library, I take a look at how to get what is left. Anything that is going to be used for multiple weeks, or which is critically important to our study, or which cannot be substituted (such as literature titles) is a good candidate for purchase. I have several children, and I know I’ll be using most of these books again.

Getting Books for Free

First, I check the free sites. Many of the old, classic literature titles are available in the public domain. Baldwin Project has lots of these titles available for free. There are also many available through Gutenberg Project, but I prefer the easy-to-navigate format at Baldwin Project. I don’t like sitting in front of a computer screen to read aloud, but my children don’t seem to mind silent reading from the screen. This is a good choice for us for those books.

Of course, I always check My Audio School, too! I say “check” even though this is my own website.  We have over 500 resources on the site now and I can’t even remember all the titles myself, LOL.

I can’t tell you how much money we’ve saved this year by listening to our books in audio format from public domain sources! It has been such a blessing to our dyslexic son and our emerging reader, and has saved my voice, too! I still read daily to them, but this gives them extra audio content while I am busy. My oldest son loves it as he can multi-task, listening to books in audio format while cleaning his room or building models. We stream the books from the computer, burn them to CD or download them to Mp3.

It does take a lot of time searching out these free resources. Now that I’ve done the work for you, you might want to take advantage of what My Audio School has to offer. Lots of free books are on the site, and for the cost of purchasing just one audio book you get links to hundreds of resources. Every single book on the site is available to download to Mp3, or individual chapters can be streamed from the site. I’ve also included links where you can read the books for free online.

Paperback Swap is another site I use for getting free titles. You post books that you no longer want online. In exchange for offering up 10 titles, you get two credits for free. Each credit allows you to request one book. Anytime someone requests one of your books and you send it to them, you get another credit. I’ve gotten a few of the books I need for next year for free through PBS. They make it very easy to mail the books, as you can print shipping labels and even postage from home if you have a paypal account.

Buy Used and Save the Difference

Next, I check Better World Books. This gem is my favorite place to get books. The used books are all donated by libraries, and used titles typically cost around $4 apiece. Profit from all sales goes to support literacy efforts around the world, and shipping is virtually free within the continental U.S. (and very cheap to other countries). Better World uses carbon offsets for shipping, and I typically pay about 10 cents shipping on $10 worth of books. I also like Thrift Books for used titles. I like to refer to amazon to read their reviews, and occasionally I’ll buy a book from them, as well. Their shipping is so high now for used books that sometimes you can get the title brand new with free shipping for little more than the used title would have cost.

Books on MP3

Although we use our website My Audio School for public domain books, Audible is another good source for audio books that aren’t in the public domain. My curriculum makes suggestions for each child’s literature. Several times a year I choose one selection from my oldest child’s list and we read it aloud as a family or listen to it on MP3. We all enjoy these family read-alouds. They are not at a level that my young children could read them alone, but they are perfectly able to enjoy and understand them as a read-aloud. Rather than purchasing three separate books for that week, I can get one excellent audio book that we can all enjoy together.

Other sites

I also check Tapestry’s Bookshelf Central, as they have competitive pricing on many of the books that are recommended as primary resources. Book Closeouts is another favorite site for classics and biographies purchased inexpensively. One more site that I regularly check is Library and Ed, a wholesaler that only sells to libraries, educators and homeschoolers.

Book Sales

Usually, anything I haven’t found online goes on a list which I keep in my purse. When I head out to spring books sales, my list goes with me. I’ve been known to drill this list into my 12 year old’s head, so he can be on the lookout, too! Last week I bought an R.M. Ballantyne book for 50 cents at a book sale…the seller must not have known what she had! I came home a happy girl, indeed.

Of course, I watch “for sale” boards on my yahoo groups, and borrow books from friends, as well. Once a book has been downloaded or purchased or borrowed, a notation on the page protector reminds me that it is taken care of.

Organizing books…don’t knock it ’till you try it

I have a system for organizing my history and literature books. Since the classical cycle lasts four years, I label my books accordingly. All books for Ancient Times get a red dot on the spine of the book. I use the little dots purchased for tagging garage sale items, and secure them with a small piece of scotch tape to the spine of the book (as the sticky back doesn’t adhere well to the spines without a little help).

Before taping the label on, I write a number on the spine to show which week it will be used. Number 1 for our first week of school, or 2-5 if the book will be used weeks two through five. Then all the books are arranged in order on a particular shelf…one shelf for my oldest child’s books, another shelf for my younger children’s books. This helps me to see at a glance exactly what we have, and to find it easily throughout the year.

Since we are literally using hundreds of books a year, spread out over different grade levels, this system of organization is a lifesaver for me.

Books for Renaissance and Reformation get a yellow dot. Green dots are for the time period from Napoleon to Teddy Roosevelt, and a blue dot adorns the spine of all books about modern times. I have a couple of shelves for each color. Next year, we’ll be studying Renaissance and Reformation…but if I find a great book that I’ll need for Modern Times at a book sale this spring, I’ll go ahead and buy it. Purchasing books in advance, when the price is right, is another way to save money.

I won’t need to purchase many titles at all for next year, because I’ve been collecting the books I need little by little for the past few years. And thanks to my system of organization, all of my Modern Times books are labeled and together. If I find something new, I know right where to put it, and I can feel confident that it will be there in three years when I need it.

The next post in this Home Library Builders series will be Whatever is Excellent: My favorite books for the Classical history cycle

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

I know that several people have modeled their school schedule to be similar to mine, so I just want to throw out this advice: use it for awhile, but don’t be afraid to change it if it isn’t working for you! I always have to remember that I am master of my schedule, not the other way around!

At that time, we didn’t have much space for a dedicated school room, but we got around the problem by putting two children in one bedroom, making the other bedroom available for a schoolroom.

In our current home, we were able to finish a large room in the basement as a schoolroom. Here are some of the things we have put in our schoolroom.

The Floor

For the floor, we used Vinyl Composition Tile. You’ve seen it before. This is the flooring found in virtually every grocery store, Walmart and public school in America. It is sturdy and durable, can be easily swept or mopped, comes in dozens of color choices and typically costs the same as a regular vinyl floor. We were able to choose 3 colors and have them laid out in a design for no extra charge.

I love this floor! We can paint, use playdough, do science experiments, have snacktime….this floor cleans up so easily!

Work surfaces
We have some desks in our schoolroom, but the children don’t like to sit at them very much. They seem to prefer doing their work at our large school table. I like the table, too, because we can sit side by side when I need to help with handwriting or math. In the past, the boys used to set up games on the school table in the afternoons. I prefer to keep it clean, as games frequently aren’t finished in time, and the next morning the table was often still covered. I put another smaller, old table in the school room that is now designated a “game table”. We never do school work there, it is reserved strictly for play.

Bookshelves
This goes without saying, obviously! There never seem to be enough shelves. I am pretty particular about the books I use during a given school year. My current books, for example, are divided into different shelves according to age group. Each history book has a red dot on its spine, as that is a visual cue to me that it is a book about the Ancients. I have put a number on the dot to show which week the book will be used (1 to 36), and all books are placed on the shelf in order by week. This makes it easy for me to find the exact books that my 11 year old, 8 year old and 6 year old are supposed to be reading in a given week. I have a separate shelf for science books and field guides, and another two shelves for my personal books, homeschool catalogs and teacher manuals.

I try to keep all my history and literature books grouped together according to time period so that next year, when it is time to do the Middle Ages, it will be easy to find the appropriate books. If I find a book I will need in two years at a garage sale, I know just where to put it. It will be with all my other Civil War books when we get to that time period. I try to buy almost all of my books used, thinking ahead to what I will need in future years so that I can look for bargains.

I also keep an old aquarium that I bought at a garage sale on one of the bottom shelves. I don’t know if it is water-tight, but it serves our purposes. If we find a toad or a lizard and want to watch it for a few hours, it goes into the aquarium. Every year we raise caterpillars in the aquarium and watch them spin cocoons and eventually become butterflies.

Reclaiming Unused Space

We have taken some under-utilized space near our school room and repurposed it. There was a small vestibule at the bottom of the stairs, not much bigger than a walk in closet. I was able to put a small loveseat against one wall, and two bookshelves and a comfy chair against the other.

This is where we keep our books for the current year, and we call this little space our “library”. This 9′ x 8′ space is actually very cozy, and we love to curl up in there with our books!

We also have a long, narrow walk-in closet in the schoolroom (it fills the space directly under the stairs). At 3′ wide and 6′ long, it was really too narrow to put in shelves for books or games. I used to keep baby toys in there with a gate, as it was a perfect little spot for our baby to play safely for a little while.

He is a bigger boy now, at 3 years old. I have made this into a little “reading room” for him.

I painted one wall with chalkboard paint (you can buy this at Benjamin Moore). Once the wall is cured, you can write on it with chalk just like a chalkboard! There is a very small bookshelf in there with his own books, a small comfy toddler chair, a cassette player with a tape and a box of little toys that he enjoys. He will often sit and look at books or play in that cozy little spot all his own.

The School Closet

This closet looks like a mess, but I know where everything is!

I am rather fanatical about protecting my educational games. After the kids lost pieces to games I wanted to save for their siblings, I started putting all games away in a special “school” closet. No one can get a game out without permission, and before another game is brought out the first has to be put away. I have a similar system for my preschooler’s toys. There is a special shelf of toys he likes to play with during school, but each bin needs to be picked up before another can be checked out.

A high shelf in this closet keeps paint and other art supplies away from curious little hands. This is also where I keep my History and Science boxes. I also keep a snack bowl in this closet, filled with granola bars, little boxes of raisins or dried apricots, peanut butter crackers, etc. If the kids get hungry mid-morning, they can grab one item from the snack bowl.

School Supplies
I used to get each child their own package of markers, crayons, glue sticks, etc. before the beginning of the new year. I guess I felt sentimental, remembering how I felt about my own beautiful new box of crayons when I was starting back to school. This became expensive and impractical, so now we have 3 large bins (one for crayons, one for markers and one for colored pencils). Our bins are old 5 gallon Mayfield ice cream buckets. Once or twice a year we go through each bin, throwing away broken crayons and dried up markers, and sharpening every pencil in the bin. I am loving my new heavy-duty plug-in electric pencil sharpener, which is making that task much easier this year. I have another smaller bin which holds scissors and glue sticks.

A plastic 3 drawer cart holds lined paper in one drawer, specialty paper in another drawer (origami paper, cardstock, page protectors) and school-related coloring books in the bottom drawer. I have a basket on my desk full of mechanical pencils, lead and eraser refills, highlighters, and index cards in all colors.

Things we use all the time
I couldn’t do without my heavy-duty 3-hole punch. I also have a small filing system where I can keep attendance records, completed work which needs to be saved, field trip information and the like. I bought some inexpensive lap-sized white boards and dry-erase markers from Rainbow Resource, and we love these. Some of them have primary lines on them, and my 1st grader uses them for handwriting practice and writing out spelling words. My preschooler loves to use them, too, when he is “doing school”. We also have clipboards for taking schoolwork on the go. We have an inexpensive MP3 player which we use for audio books. With a radio-transmitter, it can be used in the car, as well. I finally got a photocopier for my birthday last summer and it has been such a blessing! I use it several times a week.

Making a Space for Preschoolers

Even when we had a much smaller school room, it was important to me to carve out a small corner for my preschooler. It is important that our preschoolers can be a part of our school. We are, after all, a family. In my preschooler’s space there are some of his favorite Fisher Price toys (a castle and a pirate ship). We have a train table in the school room, with bins underneath that contain some of his favorite toys. He can also get bins out of the school closet, with permission. All my preschoolers have loved their little play desk. My big boys don’t want to sit at a desk, but my preschoolers always do! He keeps paper and markers and safety scissors in his desk, and a white board and dry erase marker. He has a special binder with coloring pages and extra notebooking papers in it, and he draws in that when the other boys are doing their notebooking work.

Our preschooler’s schedule is set up so that he rotates from station to station throughout the day, so that he doesn’t get bored. We don’t spend our whole day in the schoolroom, either! We usually start our day with family devotions in the living room. Then we head down to the school room, and Cal goes off to play with one of his brothers. Later in the morning, he has a ‘school time’ when he is doing preschool work, usually at the school table with the other boys. Then he plays trains or toys in his little preschool corner. Next, he goes outside for awhile with one of his other brothers, and then comes back in to color pictures while I read aloud in the library. Sometime during the morning he may read or play in his little reading closet. By arranging his schedule, and creating various spaces for him to work and play in our presence, he is able to happily be with us all day. But I digress…

The Walls
We have not done anything to our walls, other than the chalkboard wall.

I have a good friend who bought white backer-board inexpensively at Home Depot and bolted it to the back of a bookshelf (turned sideways) to make a large, inexpensive white board. This could also be bolted to the wall. Another option would be to put cork on a wall, to make a large bulletin board (I had a cork wall when I was growing up, and I loved it!).

Our walls are mainly covered with maps. We have a large U.S. map, and several world maps. The children are encouraged to tape little pictures (which represent geographical locations we have studied) onto one of the world maps. I also purchased some art posters from Michael’s several years ago, and we have some of those on the wall. I have a long piece of barnboard with 3 heavy-duty clips attached to it for hanging the children’s artwork. At times we have also had a wall-timeline up, but at the moment we are doing our timeline in a 3-ring binder.

The Lights
I put track lighting in our school room. This has worked well for us. The lights burn halogen bulbs, which are quite bright, and they can be tilted in any direction to hit work spaces.

Keeping Track of everything
This has been a problem I hope to address successfully this year. One of my children is notorious for carrying books and schoolwork all over the house and being unable to find it when he needs it next. I am not much better, truth be told. We have a bin for all his work, but the bin has to be used in order to be useful! Now that I have 3 students who typically don’t sit at a desk to do their work, books can end up all over the place. Any suggestions??

Suffice it to say, some of my plans did not come to fruition. Poor King Cluck II, our chicken mummy, was not meant to be. We are not professional embalmers, and when life intervened, he didn’t get the care he needed. His body started to rot and stink and he had to be thrown in the trash. I don’t know if we will try again (Knox and Colin want to!) or if we will scrap it (my preference) but I think valuable lessons can be learned, even if we don’t pick this project up again.

It was worth it to try. We had fun. Sometimes you have to know your limits, and allow yourself to fail and move on. The Lord is sovereign over all our plans, and we need to yield to Him when His plans are different than ours. The Lord taught us much more through our recent trial than we would have learned in a week of school!

Our son Knox had a staph infection that caused an internal abscess. An internal “boil” of sorts. Next week we plan to pick up where we left off, at the Exodus. When we get to the plague of boils, I’m sure it will resonate much more now than it would have last week!