Hope for the New Year

Happy New Year! I don’t know about you, but I love fresh starts. Our local weather here in Russia seems to agree with me, because you couldn’t ask for a more beautiful couple of days. The sun is shining in a clear blue sky, and on the ground the fresh, white snow is sparkling and glistening. Everything around me speaks of hope…..hope for a great year ahead.

Hope…….It was one of our themes represented by a candle on our advent wreath over the Christmas period.

What do you think about when you think of the word Hope and as you look to the year ahead?  

Perhaps we have hopes for our children; we hope they will one day ask Jesus into their hearts, we hope they will grow to be wise, godly men and women, we hope they will look back and remember a happy childhood, we hope they will develop wonderful talents and use those talents for God, we hope that they would be willing to follow Christ’s call to the ends of the earth (but at the same time we secretly hope that they will stay close and give us lots of grandbabies!)

What hopes do you have for your homeschool or your children’s education? Perhaps we hope that this year little Danny will finally be able to read a sentence of three-letter words. We hope that Bethan will stop being so grumpy and just learn to get on with her schoolwork without us constantly standing over her. We hope that Hayley will succeed with her high school maths. We hope that the new curriculum we bought will be worth the money we spent on it, or that something of what we’re teaching each day really is connecting some wires inside their heads behind those glazed eyes.

What about the future? Perhaps your family, like ours, is facing some uncertainties. We hope that things will turn out OK. We hope that God will show us clearly the way ahead. We hope that we will make wise decisions when the time comes.

In the Christmas hymn ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ one of the lines goes:

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

How true it is that hopes often come alongside fears; fears that what we hope for might not come true.

We know a local family that has very little hope. They seem to be stuck in a pit they just can’t get out of. With five children to feed they struggle to have enough money just to buy food, let alone nappies and clothes. Their hopes and fears centre around whether they will get sick this winter, or whether they’ll have enough money to pay the gas bill. Last winter the temperature got down to minus seven inside their bathroom. We help where we can, but it’s hard to see how they can get out of this pit. It’s hard to know how to pray away the despair we see in their eyes. The hard thing is that they are believers and yet they feel that God has deserted them.

God impressed it on my heart to pray diligently for this family, especially the wife, and also to share Scriptures with her. We had recently enjoyed doing Ann Voskamp’s thanksgiving tree as a family, and I really wanted to share with her how Ann’s book ‘One Thousand Gifts’ had really helped me in the bleak days following my miscarriage in 2011. Unfortunately Ann’s book wasn’t available in Russian at the Christian bookstore in town, so instead I bought a pretty journal and copied out all the Thanksgiving scriptures onto some of the pages. I handed the book to my friend and asked her if she’d like to try writing down one thing to be thankful for each day. She seemed grateful and willing.

I don't know if my friend will keep it up or not, but writing down all those scripture verses was a powerful experience for me. God’s word really is living and active! When hope is lacking in our lives, God’s word can lift our eyes up out of our circumstances and into His loving face, which reassures us that He has everything in control and we do not need to fear.

Where is hope? It’s in the form of a tiny, helpless baby who was born over 2,000 years ago in an obscure town in the Middle East. It is because that baby was born that we can be sure that God has a plan to put everything right, and He’s working that plan out today. We may not see immediate results, but He asks us to TRUST Him. He asks us to leave our despair at the foot of the manger, to look into the sweet face of the divine baby - God incarnate - and allow Him to fill our hearts with hope.

"..that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.."   Ephesians 1v18b

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10v23

These are my prayers for you for this coming year. May God fill your hearts with his Hope as you look to what lies ahead.

Abide in Him!

Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net/ Stuart Miles

Outdoor Hour Challenge No. 23 - Moths

We actually completed this Outdoor Hour Challenge back on 21st September. However, you'll see below why it's taken me so long to post this.

We started this challenge with a brainstorming session about how moths were different to butterflies. Thanks to Barbs’ handy summary on the Handbook of Nature Study page we came up with:

1)      Moths come out at night (nocturnal) but butterflies are out in the daytime (diurnal)

2)      Moths’ wings lie flat down when they’re resting, but butterflies’ wings stand upright.

3)      Moths have interesting, feathery-looking antennae, whereas butterflies have plain, thin antennae.

4)      Moths have a fat body (abdomen) but butterflies have a thin body (abdomen).

5)      Moths form a cocoon, but butterflies form a chrysalis.

We used our Collins’ ‘Butterflies of Britain and Europe’ field guide to help observe all these differences.

We had a quick hunt for moths in our entry way between the front door and the main house, where they often hang out, and came across a dead one entangled in a spider’s web (oh, dear, I really must do some cleaning out there!). It wasn’t really in a good enough condition to be drawn, but then I remembered that last year we’d succesfully observed the metamorphosis of a White Ermine Moth, so Sophie (7) drew a picture of that for our nature diary.

And then, as luck would have it, Nathaniel (3) discovered a HUGE caterpillar calmly walking along the wall by our house:

We decided this could be the caterpillar of a Pine Hawk moth, noting its abdominal horn. The guide book said it liked to make its cocoon in the soil, so we filled a glass jar with some soil, put in a few bits of grass and twigs for good measure, and popped it in. Sure enough it immediately buried into the soil. A few days later I gave the soil a bit of a shake and there was the pupa. It twitched a bit as we moved the contents of the jar, which was interesting to notice.

And so we wait for the moth to hatch! And we waited….and waited….and waited…and two and a half months later it finally decided to make an appearance! It hatched out in the evening, so we let it dry its wings out overnight. It quickly found the stick that we’d put in the jar for that purpose and hung there.

The next day we released into the garden, taking a few pictures before leaving it on the tree. It was a sunny, warm day, so we hope the moth had time to find a good home for the winter.

As you can see, it was worth the wait!

Abide in Him!

Blog Carnival Giveaway

Amy over at Fisher Academy International is hosting the last of this year's Charlotte Mason Blog Carnivals on December 11th, and the theme is .......of course the Christmas Holiday Season!

She'll be giving away this 2013 Art Calendar to some lucky reader.

So head over there and either enjoy reading the various blog posts that are submitted and leave some comments, or submit your own holiday related blog post in order to enter the draw to win.

Abide in Him!

Creating a Spiritual Atmosphere in your Home School

 Over at the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival this week, we’re discussing Principle # 20 of the introductory synopsis of Charlotte's educational philosophy:

"We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life."

A Great Privilege for the Homeschooling Mother

For me, this is one of the great privileges of homeschooling, that as mothers who are teachers we’re ‘allowed’ to address spiritual topics and answer thoughtfully and fully questions of a spiritual nature that arise during the day with our children. Having been a teacher myself in a public/state school, I don’t take that for granted.

Indeed, I’ve been blessed with so many opportunites to discuss my faith with my kids, and it’s been amazing how things have come up just through seemingly ‘ordinary’ school work. We don’t have to leave our faith at the doorstep just because we’re ‘in school’ and then take it up again when school is finished.

My Own Insufficiencies in this Area….

Personally, I’m aware that I still struggle in my own walk with the Lord not to ‘compartmentalise’ my faith. My natural tendencies are to believe that I can be ‘spiritual’ while I’m having my quiet time, or during family devotions, but the rest of the day I just have things to do that I get on and do without giving God much thought. I’d love to think I was practising the presence of God like Brother Lawrence while I was doing the dishes, but that’s just not how it happens for me. I’m a sinner, and I don’t love God with all of my heart, mind and soul all of the time like I should do.

Part of my struggle in this area, I’m sure, comes from the fact that I was raised the only Christian in a non-Christian home, and so my faith was compartmentalised. We just didn’t talk about spiritual things throughout the day. However, although I love my parents, I’m so thankful that my children have the opportunity to be raised in a Christian home, and my husband and I are trying to be intentional about how that works out in practice and what difference it makes in our daily lives.

Scheduled opportunities

Here are some of the more scheduled ways in which we try to work out Charlotte’s 20^th Principle in our family:

-         Sophie (7) now has her own Bible reading and notebook time as part of her morning routine.

-         Every weekday morning we have Family Bible time together, involving reading (at the moment from a Children’s Bible) and praying for one another for the day ahead.

-         At lunchtimes we do Scripture memory together (this is the system we use) and sing a hymn.

-         During school time we read from the Russian children’s Bible as part of our Russian language time.

-         We try to play Christian music around the house and in the car.

-         At bedtime we pray with each child.

-         We make the most of  special times,  such as Christmas, Easter, to do meaningful crafts and have discussions together.

-         The children get spiritual input each week at Sunday school

Of course there are spontaneous opportunities to turn our children’s thoughts to spiritual things:

-         conversations arising from the school books we’re reading

-         general questions throughout the day

-         special prayers when the children are feeling ill or can’t sleep
-  directing praise to the creator God when we're out in nature

And then there are things I’d really like to do more of:

-         spontaneous prayers about our own needs and the needs of others as soon as they arise

-         exchanging and writing down prayer needs or items of thanksgiving

-         a weekly 'family church' time

-         praying more regularly for worldwide needs

Qu: How do you try to implement the idea expressed in principle no. 20 in your family?

Qu: What tips or advice do you have - what has worked well for you?

Abide in Him!

Photo credit: girl raising hands: freedigitalphotos.net/pat138241

Making the Most of the Holiday Season

It happened a few days ago. It was a strange feeling, a little unexpected but not unwelcome. My husband doesn't feel the same way, and thinks it's too early, but the kids have been feeling this for some time now. What happened? I started getting excited about Christmas!

Back in October I was following Cheri Gregory's 'A Holiday-Ready Heart'. I love her witty but poignant way of writing, and would recommend you have a look at her posts for the 31-day challenge over at The PURSEonality Challenge Blog. However, because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving (being British) the holidays seemed like a long way away back then.

Then came an invitation to celebrate Thanksgiving with some American friends, and I started thinking about what we could do to embrace the meaning of this celebration with our own children. I settled on Ann Voskamp's Thanksgiving Tree idea (you'll have to skim down to her entry for Nov 7th). Our leaves are all cut out and ready for writing on tomorrow!

And I guess once I'd decided to do that, I started remembering all the fun crafts we would be doing in December to prepare for Christmas, and that was it. I'm now thinking about where to put all the decorations this year whilst unconsciously humming 'Hark the Herald Angels' to myself.

If any of you are like us and live overseas then you've probably had to send out your 'Christmas present request list' to your families back home already. And if you're anything like us then you're resigned to the fact that most of these precious parcels will arrive in January or February anyway! Once a Christmas parcel arrived in sweltering hot June, containing a hand-knitted woolly sweater from Grandma. I put it on the baby, took a quick photo, and promptly took it off again!

So as we start getting excited about Christmas with our families, here are some things that I'm finding helpful and inspiring:

• A good place to start, if you're a perfectionist like me, is with a Christmas planner. There are some good ideas over at 'Christmas Your Way'.
• I'm really looking forward to doing Truth in the Tinsel again! It's a fun way to talk with your children about the meaning of Christmas whilst doing some simple crafts. I highly recommend buying the ebook if you haven't got it already. I've found it a good alternative to the more widely known 'Jesse Tree' idea, which just seemed a bit too much for my preschoolers.
• We're also looking forward to making our advent wreath again and lighting a candle every Sunday whilst reading some Scripture as a family together. There are different ways of doing this, but here's one link that explains what the wreath is. The first Sunday of Advent is the 2nd of December, so we need to have our wreath ready by then.
• Christmas music of course is a must! We have a CD of children's Christmas songs, and a more classical 'Carols from King's College, Cambridge' which we love. This year I'm looking forward to buying Kari Jobe's Bethlehem album.  I bought her two other albums while we were in England earlier this year, and I just love her voice, her lyrics and her music!
• Finally, I'm looking forward to joining in with the Christmas Bible study over at Good Morning Girls to prepare my own heart for the Christmas season. It starts on 26th November, so go and get subcribed if you haven't already!

Qu: What special things are you planning to do with your family this Christmas?

Qu: What special family traditions do you have around this upcoming holiday season?

Qu: How do you manage to keep Christmas meaningful amidst all the stress and commercialism?

I'd love to hear what helps and inspires you!

Abide in Him!

Linking up here:



Photo Credit:
small candle - freedigitalphotos.net/ graur razuan ionut
star ornament - freedigitalphotos.net/ suat eman

Homeschooling Overseas Part 4

In my previous post in this series on Homeschooling Overseas, I talked about the kind of answers I would give to local people asking me why I homeschool. Those answers are often quite different, for various reasons, to the answers I might give to friends and family back home.

Again, I'd like to stress that I'm not suggesting that homeschooling is in any way superior to other ways of educating your children. I believe it's a decision each family needs to make, and this is just the decision we felt was best for our family given our current situation.

However, as I reflect upon all that I've read and experienced, I've come up with, perhaps, my top ten reasons why we think that homeschooing is such a great thing to do:

1)      Homeschooling means I can instill in my children the beliefs and values which are important to our family, rather than placing them in the hands of someone else whose beliefs, values and teaching styles may well differ significantly from mine.

2)      I have freedom to decide what we should study, and make time for subjects such as Bible and Scripture Memorisation. I can talk about my faith in God as we discuss History, Geography, Literature and so on.

3)      I love the Charlotte Mason approach of using Living Books. I know that my children are not wasting their time on meaningless activities just to keep them quiet for 40 minutes (yes, I’ve been there and done that as a mainstream schoolteacher I’m ashamed to say!) but every day they’re being fed with interesting and challenging ideas. Even though I loved school myself as a child, I wished I’d had a chance to learn some of the things my children are learning through the Ambleside Online curriculum. I’m learning so much myself from having to teach it!

4)      Homeschooling is wonderfully flexible. You can work around important family events or crises or illnesses without your child having to miss out or fall behind. You can adapt the schedule to the weather and have spontaneous field trips if that’s your kind of personality. You can turn seemingly ordinary events, like shopping at the supermarket, into learning opportunites.

5)      Homeschooling helps you to work alongside your child in a way that a teacher with a class of 36 children simply is not able to. You can review material or push ahead as needed. You can follow your child’s interests. If they have a question, they know they’re going to be heard and have the chance to have a long discussion about it if necessary (usually culminating with a quick look for a suitable video on youtube!) The length and sequence of the lessons can be designed to fit your child’s mood, learning style and attention span.

6)      Homeschooling avoids the hassle of the school run, worrying about uniforms, needing to do homework in the evenings, and the time that is wasted at school by having to walk between classrooms, take registers and wait for the teacher to deal with disruptive pupils. There’s no need for parents evenings or school board meetings.

7)      Socialisation? Yes, we get to avoid many of the negative effects of that. We don’t have to worry too much about bullying or peer pressure. Our children have less exposure to the latest fads and trends and ‘must have’ expensive items. They have less exposure to unhelpful influences, coarse language, unsuitable images on cell phones or the pressure to start showing an interest in the opposite sex before they’re ready.

8)      Socialisation? Yes, what great opportunities exist in that area for the homeschooled child! They spend their days with people who are not all exactly the same age as them. They learn from older siblings and teach younger ones, and yes they learn skills of diplomacy, teamwork, delegation, leadership, forgiveness and consideration for others by being around them all the time! There’s more time in the day to get out and enjoy different interests, either joining in extra-curricular activities with other children, or following Mum about on daily errands or on her visits to friends and neighbours.

9)      It’s a cliché that people always say: ‘Enjoy them while they’re young because they grow up so fast!’ but we all know it’s true. I don’t want to just have my child for the first 4 or 5 or 6 years of their life. I want to spend as much time with them as I can before they leave the nest. I love to be a part of their growing and learning. I love that they’re so close to their siblings because they spend so much time together.

10)  Being a homeschooling mother is never boring. Yes it’s hard work, and some days can be really difficult. It requires self-discipline, consistency and great patience. But it is so rewarding. What a great feeling when your child starts reading on their own for pleasure and you know that it’s mostly thanks to you and your patience over their stumblings in the early days of ‘cat, sat, mat’! How wonderful to witness your child’s creative works of art take shape, to see the smile on their face when they’ve finally understood something or mastered some skill they used to find difficult!

"The noblest calling in the world is that of mother. True motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. She who can paint a masterpiece or who can write a book that will influence millions deserves the plaudits and admiration of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters whose immortal souls will be exerting an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have been destroyed,deserves the highest honor that man can give."                                     David O.McKay

Qu: What would you add to the list of 'top ten reasons for homeschooling'?

Abide in Him!

Homeschooling Overseas Part 3

I'm continuing my series of posts on homeschooling overseas. In the first part I looked at some of the schooling options open to ex-pats such as ourselves. In the second part I talked about our journey as a family down the road towards homeschooling. In this third part I’d like to address the question of what to say when local friends ask the question ‘why?’.

Sophie was 7 at the beginning of this academic school year, which means that here in Russia she should be going into Year 1. And so, like never before, I find myself being questioned by interested and/or concerned local friends and neighbours as to what exactly I’m doing with her and why I’m choosing to teach her at home rather than send her to local school. Homeschooling is so rare here that they just don't understand why anyone would even want to do this.

As I contemplate this, I realise of course that there are certain things I would say to some groups of people and not to others. For example, I don’t want to go into detail with local people about how I feel I can provide better teaching materials and resources for my child at home, or how I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of my child learning how some students ‘supplement their teacher’s income’ in order to ensure good grades, but I might mention those things to some ex-pat friends. With friends who are believers I would probably go into a few details about some of the spiritual advantages of homeschooling, but it's usually not appropriate with the majority of local people who tend to ask me questions.

So what would I say? Here are some things I came up with:

Friend: “Which school are you sending Sophie to?”

Me: “Actually, Sophie learns at home with me. We have ‘Home School’.”

Friend: “Oh! Why did you decide to do that?”

Me: “Well, I’m a teacher by profession (OK, I know not everybody can say that, but if you can then it helps!). We decided it was more helpful for her to learn in English so that when we go back to England it will be easier for her to go to an English university.”

Friend: “But how do you do exams? Do you have to show someone what you’re doing?”

Me: “It’s not necessary to do exams until she’s 16 or 18. And in England you don’t have to show someone what you’re doing in home school. (This may not be true for you depending on your home country situation). Exams are needed to check how the student is doing, and I can see for myself whether she’s learnt something or not.”

Friend: “How do you know what to teach?”

Me: “I bring lots of books from England, and I follow a curriculum on the internet that tells me what I should be teaching.”

Friend: “Isn’t it boring for her not to be with other children and have friends?”

Me: “Oh, she has friends and opportunities to mix with other children. She plays every day with our neighbours, she has friends at our church and she goes to an art class and dance class twice a week in town.”

Friend (running out of things to say): “Well, it must be really difficult. I couldn’t do it!”

Me: “It does take up a lot of my time, but I really enjoy it. I like to have all the children with me during the day, and they go to bed at 8pm, so I get some time to myself in the evenings.” (Russian children usually go to bed when their parents do. They make up for this by having an enforced 2 hour nap at kindergarten).

So that might be how a typical conversation might go. I tend to stress certain things (like the importance of learning in English) which aren't actually among the top ten reasons why I homeschool in the first place! In my next post on this topic I'll list those top ten reasons, but in the meantime, let me know how you deal with these kinds of situations, I'd love to hear how other people handle them:

Qu: What kind of questions do you get asked by local friends about your homeschooling? 

Qu: What answers do you give?

Abide in Him!