Eternity in our hearts

Warning: Homeschool update ahead.

We are on Day Two of homeschooling.  Yesterday we went to the Farmer's Market and impressed a few people with our basic math skills. (3 bars of fudge for $10?  Oh, that's $3.33 each.)  We also got to tell several people (including a mom from our old school) why our kids weren't sitting in classrooms for the day. Overall it was a great experience with really positive feedback from those within our community.

We were on vacation last week, getting home on Labour Day, so I hadn't been home to get lessons ready. So our first day of school was rather abbreviated. We started by picking up where our family left off in Genesis.  The kids devoured their math books, as I figured they would, then got back into piano practicing.  We also created outlines of our vacation, remembering as many details as we could so we could write it all down through the remainder of the week.  With two trips out to stores (field trip!  Math, home economics, social studies) and a trip to Dad's work, we didn't do much else.

This will be a favorite activity for the kids - math!

Fractions with Legos?  Yes please!

Today, we started as we mean to go on.  We decided to read something else from the Bible so we could still enjoy reading Genesis with Dad at the end of the day.  The youngest begged for Revelation as our book of choice since he's been enjoying the pictures of it from his Action Bible.  So we read Rev 1-2:11.

As we read that last verse, Rev 2:11, about the second death, the youngest said, "I'm kind of scared of this part."  It was a great launching point for our discussion.  I asked why he was scared and he explained that the second death was scary to think about.  We talked about how it's only scary for those who are not following Jesus, who haven't committed their lives to him as Christians.  I reiterated (for the gazillionth time) the story of God and man, from Genesis to Revelation, from the Fall to the Day of Judgment, and how God's plan has always been for us have a beautiful, sinless life where we can be God's friend.  I told them once more that we need to repent of our sins, ask God for forgiveness, and be baptized to show people we've decided to follow Jesus.

That caused a moment of silence as the kids thought and then one of the kids asked when I was baptized. I thought for a brief moment and realized that yesterday was a pretty big day for me.  I was baptized on September 3, 1989.  We did the math and realized that yesterday was my 24 year birthday of being a Christian.  That puts me at 2/3 of my life spent following Jesus.  We all had fun figuring out the math there.

All this to say that I'm really enjoying the chance to sit down and read the Bible as part of our time together. We do have these discussions when Dad is home as well, but I see more opportunities for them now as we make a concerted effort to learn together throughout the day.

I'm looking forward to seeing the fruits of homeschooling.  This is such an exciting experience to be starting!