Author Archives: Lisa @ Me & My House

Prayer Project – Focused List

By | |
Comments Off on Prayer Project – Focused List

One of our Family Prayer Projects is our Focused Prayer List of those we pray for regularly. We have a schedule to help us remember to pray for various people and areas of need. We’ve used both a simple page in my Redeeming the Time Journal and a more elaborate Lapbook format for this project.

Sundays we pray for our own pastor and church leaders.

Mondays we pray for other Ministries and Missionaries.

Tuesdays we pray for Government Leaders.

Wednesdays we pray for social and civil issues.

Thursdays we pray for friends and neighbors.

Fridays we pray for extended family.

Saturdays we pray for the salvation of the unsaved.

We pray for immediate family daily.

We have a list of the specific people and issues for each day. Generally, each of us chooses 1 or 2 or more of the people on the list and prays for them during our family prayer time. Sometimes more than one person will pray for the same one. Sometimes mom needs to “take up the slack” to make sure all of them are prayed for.

The goal is to pray specifically for these things, for their current situations and needs. This means we need to be attentive throughout the week to the needs of each of our prayer focuses.

This is just one of the ways we teach our children to pray. Read more of our ways here.

Q&A ~ T

By | |
Comments Off on Q&A ~ T

qa-t-09

Seminar Alumni – watch your email box for details.

If your email address has changed since attending or ordering Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ ~ The Seminar, (or you are a previous attender/purchaser and haven’t received the email) please contact me and let me know so I can get the information to you.

Are you an alumni of The Seminar but can’t make it to our T? Let me know if you’d like an online Q&A ~ T. If there is enough interest, I’ll schedule it!

Are you NOT an alumni? Order Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ ~ The Seminar today and listen before the T. Then join us for the T.

 

End of an Era

By | | ,
Comments Off on End of an Era

littlebear-yorkSaturday morning found me and our daughter sitting in a General Session at the CHEC (Colorado) homeschool convention, listening to one of our long time favorite speakers, Little Bear (Richard Wheeler). He is a history reenactor, dressing in authentic costumes and telling the stories of God’s Providence in the lives and events of those who have gone before us.

Our family has followed Little Bear since nearly the beginning of our home ed journey. We’ve seen him in person, at many homeschool conferences and attended his Family Camp. We have audio Historical Devotionals, video reenactments, and books both by and published by Little Bear. One of our fondest memories, of course, is spending time personally with Little Bear, back in the early 90’s at the Wyoming homeschool conference, where he was the keynote speaker and we were vendors and there weren’t many people there. We went to dinner with him.

Saturday morning, before Little Bear mounted the platform, the conference hosts went through the normal announcements and preliminaries. As they introduced Little Bear, a bombshell was dropped. This would be Little Bear’s last performance. We weren’t prepared for that, and were so glad we’d gotten up early to make it to this sesson. No more Little Bear?

This got me thinking about us “first generation” homeschoolers. Are we fading away? What will the future in homeschooling look like? Has a stable, foundational legacy been passed on? Or will the next generation, like our President, prefer change? A “new” face? I still have many little ones, and will still be home educating right alongside the second gen-ers. What will that surrounding look like?

There’s been much change in home ed since we began in the early days of “legalized” home eductaion. Much of that change has been healthy growth. But some of the change is troubling. To quote Little Bear’s most quoted Scripture, Psalm 78, “I will open my mouth [saying that] which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of THE LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. … That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.”

Future generations must know the history of what God has done in times past. Learn from it. Build on it. Not reject it. Little Bear helped us to do that. Who will be the “Little Bear” to our children’s generation in home education?

Mr. Wheeler will continue to pastor his flock, but he will be greatly missed in the home education circles. “See you there or in the air”, Little Bear. We will miss, but never forget you.

 

Rabbits & Elephants

By | |
Comments Off on Rabbits & Elephants

Today Jeff Myers had some great things to say about Passing the Baton – how small things can be more effective than large things, and mainly how we freeze when we see the impossibility of large things. Among the tips he gave was this:

Yet you can pass the small baton through everyday experiences by remembering a variet of the old speech-class dictum: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them.”

1. Tell them–explain your convictions
2. Take them–gain experience together
3. Talk to them–debrief the experience

Quote from Getting Ready to Lead Vol. 10 #18

In other words, (as I’d put it,) disciple through 4 Real Resources:

Real People

Real Ideas

Real Places

Real Experiences

Share your heart, as a Real Person in relationship with your child/student/other person.

Go somewhere, do something – act upon those things in your heart, with your child alongside you – at Real Places through Real Experiences.

Talk about the Real Ideas involved. What was gained from the Experience? How did it impact your child? What have they learned? How have they grown from it?

For Discipleship for Life!

 

Making a P.R.A.Y. Journal

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Making a P.R.A.Y. Journal

faveformsOne of the Prayer Projects we utilize with our children is a P.R.A.Y. Journal. This is for them to record their prayers, giving them 4 areas to pray about, using the acronym P.R.A.Y. Daily specifics are written for each area. We want to teach them to think about their prayers, not utter vain repetitions.

P. is for Praise and Thanksgiving. We write our Praise to God and what we are Thankful to Him for.

R. is for Repentance. We ask for forgiveness and help to turn away from our sins.

A. is for Ask. We ask that our needs and those of others be met.

Y. is for Yield. We surrender all to Him, for His service.

We utilize pretty P.R.A.Y. Journal pages that are 1/2 letter size. You can put them in a 8.5 x 5.5″ binder, or spiral or comb-bind them. (Spiral is probably the easiest for children to use them.) Utilizing these journal pages works best, at least until the children are old hats at this, because each page has a section labeled as to what area they are to pray and write about.  There are many styles to choose from, showing the wonders of God’s creation. You can make a whole journal of just your one favorite, or mix and match them for variety.

If you don’t want to print off a page for each day and bind them, you can just print off the instructional page and paste it into the front of a Composition Notebook, to serve as a reminder of what to pray for and write. This works OK with older children who are already doing P.R.A.Y. Journals well, but is not as helpful for younger children or those just starting.

Enjoy this helpful way of teaching your children to Pray through Journaling. It is an awesome tool for both your children and yourself.

See other ways we help our children learn to pray here.

 

It’s Our Birthday

By | | , ,
Comments Off on It’s Our Birthday

It’s our BIRTHDAY!

Well, really it’s MY Birthday. Our business doesn’t really have a birthday/anniversary, so
we’ll celebrate MY BIRTHDAY instead – with a get together and gifts!

The best birthday celebration is a get together, and in June we have our  biggest annual get together for Me and My House ministries – Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ ~ The Seminar LIVE!


We’d love to have you join us for this full day seminar on Biblical home education!

Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ ~
The Seminar LIVE! 2009

June 13th from 9:30-5:30
Fun, bonus session for registrants Friday 7:30 pm-9:30
North Platte, NE

Registration $30, due June 5th.

The full day seminar will take you from establishing a Biblical foundation, philosophy and principles of education, to learning the Freedom & Simplicity™ methods of home education through L.E.D., to the practical application of scheduling and planning. Discipleship yoU! follow-up exercises will help you apply what you learn.

Join us for the LIVE Seminar – presented by Lisa Hodgen, mom of 10, home educator of over 22 years, and founder of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ – and get your Biblical Principles education off to a great start.

Click here for more details and to register.

No birthday celebration is complete without gifts of blessing either. For our birthday celebration , you get the blessing. For the month of  June we’re offering 3 of our core Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ Exclusive Resources for 1 fantastic special price.

Freedom & Simplicity™ of Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™ ~ The Seminar (audios and handouts) AND
Freedom & Simplicity™ of HisStory AND
PIPEline of HisStory

These 3 resources will help you lay a good foundation and get started in Freedom & Simplicity™ in home education – for ONLY $45 for the month of June 2009!

Teach us to Pray

By | | ,
Comments Off on Teach us to Pray

In discipling our children one of the things we need to teach them is how to pray. If we don’t, they will be forever stuck in their vain repetitions. Prayer will hold little meaning if they don’t “get it” that we are praying to a real Person – the One who made us, loves us, cares for us. The ONLY One who is powerful enough to help us in all our needs. He cares for us and wants us to talk with Him. He’s always available to listen.

Our Lord has taught us to pray and we can use that to teach our children. But we must beware that this also does not become a vain repetition. Prayer needs to be from the heart.

In our family we have several tools we use to assist our children in learning to pray.

1. I pray around them and with them. They see and hear mama praying all through the day about all things. As I go about my day and something comes up, I pray. When they come to me with a need – or I go to them! – we pray. Whether it be a skinned knee, or a discipline problem, they know God is interested and is there to help.

2. We all pray together as a family. Each one prays aloud during our morning and evening family worship times. They hear not only mama, but also all the other family members praying.

3. We teach them specifics about prayer, from God’s Word. We take note throughout the Bible as to what He teaches about prayer, but we also specifically study His teaching to His disciples when they asked Him to teach them to pray.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives a good summary of this teaching, and we really enjoy the book, Training Hearts Teaching Minds, which gives a short daily devotional that helps explain the questions and answers to children. Although we do memorize the questions and answers, it is not just rote memorization, it is in the context of reading and discussing the questions and answers and the Scriptures they are based upon. We also use other books and resources, especially with the older children. (Read more about Notebooking our way through the Shorter Catechism.)

4. We utilize Prayer Projects, usually within our morning family worship time. One is a Family Journal of Prayer Requests. In this Notebook (spiral bound or Composition) we list needs as they come up. This may be the needs in our own family, or of friends and neighbors, or others God brings across our path in our community, nation, or world. We list the need and the date, then check it off and date it when the answer comes.

5. Another Prayer Project is our Focused Prayer List of those we pray for regularly. We have a schedule to help us remember to pray for various people and areas of need. The goal is to pray specifically for these things, for their current situations and needs. We’ve used both a simple page in my Redeeming the Time Journal and a more elaborate Lapbook format for this project. (Read more about our Focused Prayer List.)

6. I also teach our children to Journal their prayers. It is such a blessing to go back through these and see what God has brought us through. Our P.R.A.Y. Journals help us in this. We write specifics for 4 areas of prayer, based on the acronym P.R.A.Y.  (Read more about P.R.A.Y. Journals.)

Begin using one of these tools today to help your child develop a meaningful prayer life. Add other tools as the Lord leads you. Don’t feel you have to do all of them all of the time. These aren’t a ritualistic format. They are just tools that help us teach.

 

America: A Christian Nation?

By | |
Comments Off on America: A Christian Nation?

Perhaps you’ve heard the quote from the past, our early years as a nation, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” Do you know where it came from or why?

I haven’t read this new ebook yet, but it addresses this issue.

America had tried to accommodate Islamic terrorists before. In 1797 a treaty was made with the Islamic leadership of Tripoli that stated that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” Of course, this was false, but to appease the Barbary pirates and their Muslim protectors, the statement was put in the treaty.

Download America’s 200-Year War with Terrorism: The Strange Case of the Treaty of Tripoli from American Vision – for free (free offer ends May 20th):

American VisionIf you purchase other books from American Vision, consider using our link to give our ministry credit for the sale. Thanks.

Here’s a link to more Free Christian downloads from American Vision.

What else is new? Arrethtrae!

By | |
Comments Off on What else is new? Arrethtrae!

Are you keeping up your reading in one of the most exciting family read aloud series there is? The sequel series to The Kingdom series (our favorite!) is the Knights of Arrethtrae series. The second book in the series came out 2 months ago and the next will be out soon. Order Sir Dalton NOW! so you can continue the adventure.

421265: Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart, Knights of Arrethtrae Series #3 Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart, Knights of Arrethtrae Series #3By Random House, Inc

 

New Mind Mapping

By | |
1 Comment

2 of the companies we have partnered with for Mind Mapping software have upgrades coming up with some pretty exciting new features. Click their links to check them out. If you don’t know what Mind Mapping is, or how we use it in Lifestyle Education through Discipleship™, read our article on Learning Maps™.

iMindMap will release its new version this week! (See blog post from last week for details.)

And NovaMind will be upgrading this fall. But don’t wait until then if you want NovaMind. One plus for NovaMind is that there is a corresponding mind mapping app for iPhone/iPod Touch called iBlueSky that integrates with NovaMind.

When you purchase NovaMind now, you will receive a license key that will work for both NovaMind 4 and NovaMind 5.

This means you will not have to pay the upgrade fees and you therefore get NovaMind 5 for the price of NovaMind 4.