If you have never attended a homeschool conference, I highly recommend it. I learned a wealth of information at the one I attended a few years back. I understand that some of us cannot leave home this year to attend one. So, the wonderful people at Homeschool How-to Conference are bringing you one online. It runs from May 1-3, 2012.

Here are 5 Great reasons to attend:

1. Gain access to homeschooling experts who are homeschooling parents themselves. They’ve been in your shoes, and they understand the problems you face.

2. Avoid travel aggravation. No traveling with small children, hotel bills, fast-food frustrations, or vendor-hall fatigue. Listen from the comfort of your home, in your pajamas if you wish! Or listen whenever you like if you buy the downloads or CDs. Many of the speakers are the same ones who speak at the largest national homeschooling conventions.

3. Zero cost to you. Listening live is free with a Standard Pass.

4. Meet other homeschoolers. Interact with other parents, authors, and speakers, and learn from your peers via virtual networking and Q&A Roundtables.

5. Learn how to make biblical homeschooling practical, as our experts show you how God’s Word can be used in every part of your homeschool.

Speakers

One of my good friends Kelli from @adventurez in child rearing will be speaking on encouraging families to use the Bible as the cornerstone of their homeschool curriculum and to get out to explore God’s creation together. Some of the other speakers include: Kraig and Anne Elliott @Homeschooling Bible, Dave and Debbie Klein @Inkleinations, Davis Carman owner of Apologia Educational Ministries, Norman Willis overseer of Nazarene Israel, Lee Binz @The Home Scholar, Candace Allgood @SONbeams, Elizabeth Brown @The Phonics Page, Don Potter @donpotter.net, Susan Stewart @Practical Inspirations, Merle Reece designer of Student of the Word Curriculum, Jim Pence @jamespence.com, and Andrew Pudewa founder of Excellence in Writing.

Registration

You can attend for FREE with a Standard Pass or purchase a Premium Pass for $49 to get extra goodies and the MP3s of the sessions. If you use the code ADVENTUREZ you can save 10% of your Premium Pass ticket.

Goodie Bag

~1 full year Bible Curriculum from Foundations Press.

~ebook – Biblical Home Education – Anne Elliott

~2 Bible Based Nature Unit Studies: Wildflowers & Clouds – Kelli Becton, AdventurezInChildRearing.

~Plus, much more from the other sponsors and speakers.

Giveaway

One of my readers will win a Premium Pass ticket to the conference. All you need to do is comment on this post. Please comment by Monday April 30th at 8:00pm CST. A commenter will be chosen at random using Random.org.

{Material Disclosure: I received a Premium Pass in exchange for spreading the word about the Homeschool How-To Conference.}

…The disciplines of childhood would harden into concrete adult lives. I waxed eloquently. They listened politely and appropriately. When given a chance they ran… (Ted Tripp)

How often do I feel Tripp’s above statement. As I am explaining disciplines to my children, they listen but do they hear and when given the chance they smile and go on with their lives. Tripp explains the statement of shaping influences – events & circumstances in a child’s developmental years that prove to be catalysts for who he/she is to become. All the aspects of family living have a profound impact on the persons your children become.

This made me think of my day from sunrise to sunset. I enjoy getting up before the children and having a time with God. Praying and reading his word. This always gives me a better start to my day. Days that I do not have my quiet time with God, they lack refreshment. Knowing this, I have never started the kids days that way. I have never got them up and prayed and read God’s word with them to start their day anew. Would it not make sense that this would make for a better day for them as well?

Deuteronomy 6:2 says, “so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.” I enjoy life when I live it by God’s commands and when I start my days, seek Him through my days, and end my days with Him. I desire my children and my children’s children to enjoy long life as well.

Tripp goes on to say, “the person your child becomes is a product of two things. First is his/her life experience. The second (and in my opinion the more important of the two), how he/she interacts with that experience. It had me thinking how do I and my husband react to experiences?

We want our children to react Godly to situations. They see God through us, our testimony and how we react to situations. How we react is often how our kids will react. Do we stop in prayer and praise and thank the Lord for is grace and mercies in daily situations? Do we drop to our knees in front of our children when we need guidance? I know many times I do these small prayers in my head, when perhaps I should be taking the time to do them with my children. Nothing is more important than showing my children God’s love, mercy, and grace. Showing them God in everything around us and thanking Him for it. If they see that God is faithful would they not want to follow Him more?

I have been struggling with my oldest son and him having a thankful heart. Today, God asked me, does he see that you have a thankful heart? He responds according to the Godward orientation of his heart. What is the orientation of my heart? God says in everything we do and throughout our day to pray without ceasing. I need to include my children in this. If I can do this with my children and help them see and do this as well at such a young age. Their walk with God and the possibilities are endless.

Children hear everything
Children see everything

How do we react to others in family life? What is the structure of my family life? We often learn from watching our parents. This made me think of a talk I heard recently by Debra Bell, and what she had to say about God’s design. God designed us to learn and He designed the family as a place for our children to learn. I asked myself these questions. Do I respect my parents in front of my children? Do I respect my husband in front of my children? Do I show my children the joy and love of marriage? Do they see that God is first in my life? Do they see that their father is the head of the household? Do they see that God is the authority over my life and that his authority is one of love?

It is intriguing for me to look at my children as they are now and their attitudes, personalities, needs, etc; and apply those to if they were to be married now or going to be soon. Would they make a good spouse? Do you know that marriage is one of the hardest and also one of the most rewarding times of my life. In shepherding my child’s heart and in showing them the creator; one of their testimonies is to their spouse, and I want them to be a benefit and a blessing.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy,

which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world

rather than on Christ.  Colossians 2:8

I know that I fall prey to human traditions in raising my children.  The main focus of this book by Ted Tripp is that the only true guide book and guide that you need is God and his word.  With that being said, God uses people and I have found this book is as much for me then it is for my children.  It has really caused me to look at my heart, walk with God, marriage, etc,.  How do my children see me in my day to day actions?  How do they see me react to situations?  God has used Ted Tripp to write this book and I am grateful that he did.

In my conclusion for Chapter 2 of Shepherding a Child’s Heart I would like to restate something Tripp said, “If your child knows and loves God, if your child has embraced the fact that knowing God can enable him to know peace in any circumstance, then he/she will respond constructively to your shaping efforts.

So, my question to myself and you is… Does my child see that I have embraced knowing God and that I have realized that through faith I can know peace within any circumstance?

~thank you Amanda @ The Pelsersfor hosting this heart shaping book club. Please everyone go and check out Amanda’s take on the chapters and see the other bloggers that have also linked up and posted as well.

Till next time and Ch:3 of, “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Ted Tripp.

It started like any other morning of the week. Ha Ha, who am I kidding. I was dressed AND fixing my hair.

This was a retreat. A retreat for homeschooling moms. Last month, I went on an amazing retreat with a lot of other mom’s. Mom’s looking for refreshment, mom’s wondering if homeschooling was right for them, mom’s in the pits looking for a hand. God’s hand!

Its started at a nice 9 am. I got to sleep in, that in itself was a retreat. Seriously, the retreat started with inspiration and encouragement from the beginning.

The first mom to grace us with her experience and words of encouragement was Deb Bell.

Deb had more knowledge than I could possibly write down in my notes. Some of my favorite quotes from her were:

Your kids are hardwired to learn, by God’s design

God works redemptively, He works forwards & backwards in time. God will redeem those moments in you and your kid’s lives.

Looking through 50 years of research of seeing how kids learn best, and then if I was given the opportunity to build a school from the ground up, I would build a home.

I felt like Deb Bell was speaking directly to me. God used her to make me realize that God created the home as a learning environment for the whole family. Not just my kids, but all of us. God did not say anything in his Word about an institution to send our children too. God gave us a very rich environment in the home and the entire universe. He designed our children to search out the mystery of nature. While children are curious and designed to learn, parents are to help guide that learning. I think so many times that I am not smart enough or good enough to be my children’s teacher, but God says I am the perfect guide through him. I must put my faith in God and his design.

Please check out Deb at her site, to be inspired and encouraged.

Please stay tuned for my other posts on the wonderful homeschooling mom’s that spoke at, “Apologia Live 2012″. And, check out their schedule for next year on realrefreshment.com.

She is a beautiful ball of energy. (one of the reasons it is difficult to catch her radiant smile directed right at the camera) My sweet daughter I love her so much. God gave her to me to raise and I am failing her in so many ways. Me and this precious girl butt heads daily over quite simple things and I have tried and tried to change her behavior. I have been told that, “it is just a girl thing, you will get used to it”. While that may hold some truth, I know I haven’t been getting to the heart of the matter.

A few weeks ago, I was given the privilege of attending a retreat in Atlanta (more on that later), in attendance were some other amazing women and one of those amazing women was Amanda Pelser of the blog The Pelsers. Amanda invited me to join a book club, where we would be reading, “Shepherding a Child’s Heart”, by Tedd Tripp.

I am thankful for God for presenting this book to me to help me shepherd my little daughters heart. I know that I am not the only one that feels like frustration rules their decisions sometimes. Chapter 1 of this book has already given me confidence, and with God anything is possible.

Tedd Tripp said, “the Scripture teaches that the heart is the control center for life”. This is stated in several scriptures, one such is Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life”. He goes on to say later, “What your children say and do is a reflection of what is in their hearts”.

These are things that I know, yet I don’t try many times for my children’s sake to actual change their hearts, I try and change their behavior. I am too busy or too tired or insert whatever here that has either been interrupted or changed that me as a mother did not want to be changed or interrupted. Therefore, I snap or yell at them to change what they are doing and tell them to never do it again.

Do you know the hardest thing for me as a mother has been? To sacrifice what I want. My calling is my family right here, right now. My children need me to sit down with them each time they disobey and seek out the attitude of their heart. I liked this line, “Your concern is to unmask your child’s sin, helping him to understand how it reflects a heart that has strayed.” Do you know what this opens up? More opportunities to talk to your children about God.

Sacrificing what I want means for me to stop whatever I am doing at the moment and see to my child’s heart. God is working on my heart so that I may work on theirs. Thank you Lord.

Please join me and others each week as we post about our journeys through shepherding our children’s hearts@ Amanda’s blog.

Jesus feeds the four thousand. Did you know he broke bread and fish twice in the bible? Once for the five thousand and then once for the four thousand. Not my first thought, but I was thinking, hmmm; how many times did he do this and it wasn’t mentioned in the bible. Anyhow, onward to the scripture for today…

Scripture
Mark Chapter 8:1-3
During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ” I have compassion for these people, they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”

Observation
Compassion, Compassion, Compassion! Plus, the Lord our God will see to our needs, all of them. He is concerned for our daily needs, there is nothing to large for him to handle and no need to small to escape his interest. For me this was a double lesson. Its to always remember that God can and will handle all things in my life, but to also be used by him. God didn’t bring down bread from the sky to feed the four thousand (not to say he couldn’t), he used what was around him. I want to let God use me to show compassion to his followers and to the lost. To let his love flow through me.

Application
I am sure you have heard the saying that goes something like, “if its too easy its not worth doing”. There is so much truth in that. For me, it hit home when I realized that if I don’t want to do this (whatever this may be), then that is when I need to do it the most. When God presents the opportunity to show compassion to others, I do not always want to jump in head first, nor do I always trust God completely to take care of every need. I have realized that I must do these things to continue to grow in Christ, I do not want to grow stagnant in my relationship with Jesus Christ. Reading his word and praying to him is not enough, I must also do.

Pray
Lord, please help me to lay my fears, pride, and laziness at your feet. To joyfully go forth and be your hands and feet to the lost in this world. To show them your compassion and love. Help me to remember that the largest to the smallest need is yours, that I can bring them to you. Thank you for answering my prayers, even the tiny one this morning Lord. I love you.

Amen.

Scripture
Mark Ch.7:26-29
The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

Observation
My first observation was not what God wanted me to see. I honestly didn’t even want to write about these verses. They made me mad. My thoughts were, how dare he refuse a woman help for her child. He didn’t refuse her. He said, “Not now”. My disciples must learn from my knee if they are to go out into the world and preach.

The woman then showed such humility. I have never in my life been that humble.

Application
I fear to pray for things, for fear that God will answer. I obviously need humility, especially after my reaction to the verses in Ch. 7. I need to pray for humility. God for good reason shows us and gives us these characteristics by putting us in situations. This is where the fear comes in, what does He have in store for me. How is he going to teach me humility? But, I can either have fear, or I can seek joy. God showed me that I needed humility, therefore; I need to prepare myself, for hopefully He is going to use me.

Pray
Lord, I fear you. That is the only fear I ever need. With you by me, I have nothing else to fear. Lord, I am not humble. Please show me the way. Help me to find joy in humility.

Amen.

I sit here on my high horse, considering what to say without making too many people mad or upset. Chasing them away with my post. There are a few things in this life that people hands down do not want to discuss or once they began discussing it, they can’t stop. One of those is politics. Therefore, I have only given myself five minutes to write. With that, I may end up not finishing my thoughts.

So, last night I had a discussion with my dearest Geek Adonis, and he told me about a statement that Rick Santorum said dealing with his voting record. He defended his voting record, saying that nowadays he would have to vote no on every single bill to avoid there being any bad in it. Then dad gum it, for goodness sakes vote no! All these bill makers and lobbyists purposefully add that pork fat that is bad, because they know that politicians are more worried about their reputation than they are their character. I am so sick of them all making excuses about why they voted this and why they voted that. If you truly don’t like it, vote no. If enough do it, they will have to rewrite and rewrite until you can finally vote yes. We the people hire you for our best interests, not for your ho hum votes on well this one isn’t too bad.

I am sick of voters putting politicians in office because they are picking the best out of the worst. They don’t want to waste their vote on someone that may not make it.

That is the problem with our politicians and our voters, we are so worried about our reputation and not about what is right.

Five minutes are up! I will now just rant in my head.

Pop Pop was here!

He brought us kumquats and oranges…

(I know, I know, wordless wednesday, but I just had to point out the camp pancake stuck to Smiley’s arm) kids, love em…

This may be sacrilege, but I have never really liked pancakes. A piece of bread with an extreme amount of overly sweet syrup just makes me sick to my stomach. So, my poor kids only got them maybe twice a year. Until now! I named them camp pancakes because at first I was thinking of things that would be decently easy to make when camping, without too much mess. That and I wanted something that had some goodies beyond just empty carbohydrates.

So, first I thought of proteins, well I suppose you could add something like bacon, which believe me would be yummy, but it just adds another thing to make, so I figured the protein we put in our smoothies would work, right? It did, it did. We use hemp hearts for our smoothies, they are tiny shelled hemp seeds. These little gems provide not only protein, but a good amount of iron and some fiber. Hemp hearts have a slightly nutty flavor to them.

Next, I was thinking some fruit is always good for us, so we threw in some frozen blueberries (course you might used dried blueberries when camping, not frozen) and chopped bananas. YUM!

(You have to be careful though, who chooses the blueberries, because they may be all gone before hand)

Then, raw crushed almonds, I know it sounds weird, but I am a lover of crunchy food, plus I just like almonds.
(Sadly, I forgot to take the picture of Sugar Plum fairy using the mortar and pestle to crush the almonds, the kids love using it)

Last, but not even close to least, broken Hershey Bars. Or, if your a total health nut, we sometimes use raw organic cacao nibs.

As for the batter, you can use whatever you like. I don’t have a favorite, so perhaps you can recommend to us your favorite and I can try them out.

Oh, Oh! I almost forgot. We add our syrup to the batter, and in my opinion, maple syrup is the best. Plus, it doesn’t have that awful high fructose corn syrup in it.

So, after all that, you slap em on the griddle. (might be best to pour batter, not slap)

And, the let the most qualified flipper take over…

Then, you jump on the couch with your fresh camp cakes and ride with miss Sugar Plum fairy to the beach. (Well, that’s where she said we were headed anyway)

Or, you can just close your eyes and enjoy…

Linking up with Adventurez in Childrearing

Calling All Polar Bears – Jan. 7
The ninth annual Polar Bear Plunge will be held Jan. 7 at the “Boro Beach” outdoor pool at Sports*Com. The big slides at the new outdoor pool will be turned on to take the plunge to a whole new level. Brave men, women and children from around the area will don costumes and swimwear and take “polar” dips into the pool. There’s a reason to be freezin’ . . . families to be benefited by the Murfreesboro City Schools Family Resource Centers!

The Polar Bear Plunge is open to anyone 5 years or older who is a fan of having a good time for a good cause. For plungers under 18 years, a waiver/release form must be signed by a parent/guardian.

Each Polar Bear is required to bring nonperishable food items for the Family Resource Centers. Last year’s event raised over 1,200 pounds of food with over 600 plungers.

The average water temperature hovers around 40 degrees, but for the not-so-brave souls, there is a Chicken Plunge into the heated indoor pool. Registration will begin at 8:15 a.m. with plunges commencing at 10 a.m.

Sports*Com is located at 2310 Memorial Blvd. For more information, contact Niki Hensley at 895-5040