A few weeks ago, while reading in my Book of Mormon commentary (Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon: Second Nephi Through Jacob) I came across an idea I'd never heard before. One that I've been thinking about off and on since.
The author, Brant A. Gardner, states, "The conceptual problem we frequently have is that we consider heaven a place rather than a state of being. We assume that our goal is to get to heaven to be with God. Were that the purpose, we need never have left the premortal life, for we were already with God. We are not seeking a place: we are seeking a transformation."
He's talking about 2nd Nephi 25:23, and more specifically, about how we are saved by grace after all we can do. The grace comes into play because we can never merit the gifts God willingly gives us. All we can do is to transform ourselves into celestial beings, as Paul said, we must put off the old man and then put on the new man.
Have you ever thought about heaven as something you can turn yourself into? I haven't. Hadn't.
As this thought was percolating somewhere in my brain, I was reading another book about the swimmer Michael Phelps called, No Limits, The Will to Succeed. I really love books about athletes, probably because I find their determination and willingness to continue where almost anyone else would have some sort of mental break (I'm talking about me here) awe inspiring.
Somehow the percolation about heaven reached out and grabbed a little section of No Limits. Hey, I was as surprised as you, but it happened. In the book, Michael talks about the importance of being mentally tough. I don't have a direct quote (it was a library book that I've already returned), but he said something along the lines of, it doesn't matter how hard you've trained, the winner is the athlete who can ignore their body screaming at them to quit and continue their pace unabated. The best athletes are able to exert control over their bodies...take control and ignore what their bodies are telling them so they are able to push themselves longer and harder.
This is my thought. What if the ability to exert that control is our purpose in being here? What if that is the transformation we are seeking?
Our spirits were already with God. We were willing to leave Him to come to earth for a body. Now, we need to learn how to use these beautiful bodies we've been given. We need to learn how to use them consistently for His purposes. Talk about some serious self control.
But, if the reward is to be able to return to our Father in Heaven and continue progressing, I'm in.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Calendaring Curriculum
I spent a few hours today going through all the curriculum I ordered a few weeks ago.
Well, I spent a few hours a few days ago sorting through it and putting it onto the bookshelves and then today I went through it again.
Doesn't it all look so very organized? It makes me smile...and then I remember my shelves are full and I still have a few more things coming and I'm not sure where I'm going to put it when it gets here. But, then I take a deep breath, ignore that thought and admire the general splendor of well organized (for the time being) schoolroom bookshelves.
Anyway, that's not what I did today. Today I went through the curriculum again to check how many lessons there were and then decide how many we need to do every week and quarter to finish in the year.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Okay, not really, but it does help throughout the year when I wonder if we're on track. Not that these plans are set in stone, especially with new curriculum, it's more of a guideline that we work and then adjust as needed.
The first thing I do is figure out how many weeks we're going to homeschool. We follow the typical school year and so that means 36 weeks (for 180 days) with 9 week quarters. I like to break it down into quarters because it's easier for me to see how we progressing when I have smaller benchmarks to look at.
Then I do a little math (nothing too strenuous) to figure out that if we do a subject 4 days a week it'll be for 144 days, 3 days a week works out to 108 days, 2 days a week is 72 days and 1 day a week is a whopping 36 days. Why would I do that? Well, I'll tell you. When I pull out my curriculum and find that there are 100 lessons in James grammar, I know immediately that he'll have to work on it about 3 days a week in order to finish by the end of the year.
This helps immensely as I'm making out our checklists for the year. My checklists are my sanity. Or at least they allow me to hold onto a little more of my sanity that I would without them (which might not be saying a whole lot).
After figuring out how many days a week I need (or want) to work on each curriculum, I only have non-weekly things left to plan out.
I haven't done this yet. Nope. But I need to. Yep.
For me this will be scheduling out the books I've picked out for them to read (something an all-inclusive curriculum usually does for you, but I do for myself), which means picking the order to read the books and then assigning chapters to be read each week so we can get through them all by the end of the year. This is actually my first year doing this, so I'll let you know how it's working (and how many times I have to re-arrange our schedule).
It's also planning out projects to do during the year like book reports, quarterly projects and any holidays we want to do a project of some sort for.
It might sound restrictive, but for me it really isn't. Without a plan, nothing ever happens. With my plan in hand, I have the confidence to change things around while still seeing how much we get accomplished. It only takes a few hours a few different days (although, if you're a little crazy you could do it all at once) and I have the backbone of our entire year all laid out.
An added bonus is the more I go through our new curriculum, the more excited I get about delving into it with my kids!!
How do you plan out or organize your school year (or do you)?
Happy planning,
Leah
Well, I spent a few hours a few days ago sorting through it and putting it onto the bookshelves and then today I went through it again.
Doesn't it all look so very organized? It makes me smile...and then I remember my shelves are full and I still have a few more things coming and I'm not sure where I'm going to put it when it gets here. But, then I take a deep breath, ignore that thought and admire the general splendor of well organized (for the time being) schoolroom bookshelves.
Anyway, that's not what I did today. Today I went through the curriculum again to check how many lessons there were and then decide how many we need to do every week and quarter to finish in the year.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Okay, not really, but it does help throughout the year when I wonder if we're on track. Not that these plans are set in stone, especially with new curriculum, it's more of a guideline that we work and then adjust as needed.
The first thing I do is figure out how many weeks we're going to homeschool. We follow the typical school year and so that means 36 weeks (for 180 days) with 9 week quarters. I like to break it down into quarters because it's easier for me to see how we progressing when I have smaller benchmarks to look at.
Then I do a little math (nothing too strenuous) to figure out that if we do a subject 4 days a week it'll be for 144 days, 3 days a week works out to 108 days, 2 days a week is 72 days and 1 day a week is a whopping 36 days. Why would I do that? Well, I'll tell you. When I pull out my curriculum and find that there are 100 lessons in James grammar, I know immediately that he'll have to work on it about 3 days a week in order to finish by the end of the year.
This helps immensely as I'm making out our checklists for the year. My checklists are my sanity. Or at least they allow me to hold onto a little more of my sanity that I would without them (which might not be saying a whole lot).
(this is Makenna's schedule towards the end of her 6th grade year)
After figuring out how many days a week I need (or want) to work on each curriculum, I only have non-weekly things left to plan out.
I haven't done this yet. Nope. But I need to. Yep.
For me this will be scheduling out the books I've picked out for them to read (something an all-inclusive curriculum usually does for you, but I do for myself), which means picking the order to read the books and then assigning chapters to be read each week so we can get through them all by the end of the year. This is actually my first year doing this, so I'll let you know how it's working (and how many times I have to re-arrange our schedule).
It's also planning out projects to do during the year like book reports, quarterly projects and any holidays we want to do a project of some sort for.
It might sound restrictive, but for me it really isn't. Without a plan, nothing ever happens. With my plan in hand, I have the confidence to change things around while still seeing how much we get accomplished. It only takes a few hours a few different days (although, if you're a little crazy you could do it all at once) and I have the backbone of our entire year all laid out.
An added bonus is the more I go through our new curriculum, the more excited I get about delving into it with my kids!!
How do you plan out or organize your school year (or do you)?
Happy planning,
Leah
Monday, July 29, 2013
August Sharing Time - Week 1
To help us learn, we're turning to the scriptures focusing on the teachings of Alma and Amulek contrasted with the Zoramites perverted form of prayer. Rameumpton anyone?
I love the idea of acting out the Zoramites and there are a few different ways you can go with it.
I mentioned earlier in July that I thought it'd be fun to come in, climb up on a chair and give a Zoramite-ish prayer. You could expand on that by having another member of the presidency come in after you and say the exact same prayer. Ham it up a little by wiping your brow as you get down and say something like, "Whew, I'm glad that's over until next week."
Or you could use some sort of dolls with a lego/duplo tower, having different kids hold the dolls/stuffed animals/lego guys (or whatever you have laying around your home) waiting in line.
You could even use the pictures from lds dot org depicting the story. Whichever you choose, I would modernize the prayer a little so the kids understand what's going on. Something like this:
"God, we know that you're holy. We also know that you are a spirit, always have been and always will be. We don't believe the silly things that everyone else does, like in Jesus, because you've made us extra special.
We'll be saved while everyone else is going to be thrown into hell. Again, we know that believing in Christ is silly and just leads us away from the God who has made us His chosen people, thanks again for that by the way. Amen."
After going through the prayer, ask the kids what's wrong with it. Then talk about how and even why we pray.
On Pergler's Primary Place she has a whole list of pictures you can use to teach the kids about prayer using a homemade box tv. I like the list. In fact, I love the list. I love the idea of teaching the kids all the different things you can be thankful for and then how you can ask for blessings about the very same items. It's kind of awesome.
As I read through the blog post, another idea occurred to me, a prayer sandwich. Last school year my kids made a sandwich book report and I decided to mix that with the list of prayer ideas from Pergler's.
Each bun is the start or end of the prayer, while all the ingredients are the different items we can pray for (of course, the list isn't exhaustive, but there are lots of great ideas). I'm really not a great artist (no really, this isn't false modesty). But I know how nice it is to just be able to download what someone else has already done, so I sketched out a full sandwich and labeled them with different things we can both be thankful for and ask for blessings about. Then I scanned them and turned it into one pdf, which you can download from google doc's. It's just black and white, so you can print it as is and color it or print them on colored paper...or just leave it black and white. :)
You can hide the ingredients around the room or have the kids draw one/pick the one out of a dish they would like to add. As you add them to your sandwich, talk about different ways we can be thankful for and ask for blessings about the item. The good thing about this is you can do as many pieces as you have time for! I love having wiggle room to go short or long depending on how the rest of the hour is going.
Don't wait until time's over the help the kids feel your love for prayer (not that baring your testimony at the end isn't a fantastic way to wrap up).
And then challenge the kids to remember to make a multiple ingredient sandwich with their prayers everyday.
Have a PRAYERful week!
Leah
ps. You can read more about my thoughts on this months theme on this post and week 2 ideas over here.
August Sharing Time Theme
I love this months theme! Do I seem to say that a lot?
I'm pretty sure I do. I'm also pretty sure it's because the gospel is amazing.
It is such a gift in our lives and I'm finding that one of my very favorite things about it is getting to teach and share my seemingly ever growing love for it with those around me.
We know that our Heavenly Father knows and loves every single one of us individually and we are blessed to know that he loves to hear from us "unceasingly."
I also love the scripture this month (one of my very favorite hymns is based off of it).
We print these off each month for our kids and reward them with a smarty if they memorize it sometime during the month, you know, for being such a smart-ey (you can download a pdf here if you'd like to use it)!
It's been taught over and over that pride is a terrible sin AND that it's one we all suffer from. Too often I find prideful thoughts (over usually silly things) enter my mind and I'll try to crowd them out by singing Be Thou Humble in my head (I'm thankful that I'm only off key when I sing out loud).
This is a great "packet of light" to put into our minds!
The first two weeks this month talk about how and when to pray using the story of Alma, Amulek and the Zoramites found in Alma 31 - 34. I love what Amulek teaches us about prayer in Alma 34:17-27.
He tells us all the places and reasons we should be praying and then says, "But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls..." Is that how you pray? I think I need a little more work (and by little, I sort of mean a bunch).
The last two weeks focus on how we receive answers to our prayers. How do we, or can we, receive revelation. I started looking for some conference talks on the subject to help me feel more inspired when I walked by the August Ensign we received a few days ago.
Have you gotten yours yet? Have you had a chance to look at it? On the front cover, in large print it says, "Opening the Channels of Revelation, pp. 22, 48." Perfection.
Elder Oaks teaches us that the Lord's time is often different than our own and that we need to work for revelation. He says, "We will get promptings of the Spirit when we have done everything we can, when we are out in the sun working..."
Elder Kearon, of the Seventy, tells us that the Spirit will not always wait for us to hear Him, "if we do not heed the gentle feelings, the Spirit will withdraw and wait until we come seeking and listening."
If you're using the Amor of God for your primary this year, this is the month to add the Knee Pads to your guy. We can only choose the right by consistently getting on our knees in prayer!!
Have a wonderful month teaching and inspiring those you are blessed to teach!
Leah
Week 1 Ideas
Week 2 Ideas
Week 3 Ideas
Week 4 Ideas will be coming next week!
I'm pretty sure I do. I'm also pretty sure it's because the gospel is amazing.
It is such a gift in our lives and I'm finding that one of my very favorite things about it is getting to teach and share my seemingly ever growing love for it with those around me.
We know that our Heavenly Father knows and loves every single one of us individually and we are blessed to know that he loves to hear from us "unceasingly."
I also love the scripture this month (one of my very favorite hymns is based off of it).
We print these off each month for our kids and reward them with a smarty if they memorize it sometime during the month, you know, for being such a smart-ey (you can download a pdf here if you'd like to use it)!
It's been taught over and over that pride is a terrible sin AND that it's one we all suffer from. Too often I find prideful thoughts (over usually silly things) enter my mind and I'll try to crowd them out by singing Be Thou Humble in my head (I'm thankful that I'm only off key when I sing out loud).
This is a great "packet of light" to put into our minds!
The first two weeks this month talk about how and when to pray using the story of Alma, Amulek and the Zoramites found in Alma 31 - 34. I love what Amulek teaches us about prayer in Alma 34:17-27.
He tells us all the places and reasons we should be praying and then says, "But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls..." Is that how you pray? I think I need a little more work (and by little, I sort of mean a bunch).
The last two weeks focus on how we receive answers to our prayers. How do we, or can we, receive revelation. I started looking for some conference talks on the subject to help me feel more inspired when I walked by the August Ensign we received a few days ago.
Have you gotten yours yet? Have you had a chance to look at it? On the front cover, in large print it says, "Opening the Channels of Revelation, pp. 22, 48." Perfection.
Elder Oaks teaches us that the Lord's time is often different than our own and that we need to work for revelation. He says, "We will get promptings of the Spirit when we have done everything we can, when we are out in the sun working..."
Elder Kearon, of the Seventy, tells us that the Spirit will not always wait for us to hear Him, "if we do not heed the gentle feelings, the Spirit will withdraw and wait until we come seeking and listening."
If you're using the Amor of God for your primary this year, this is the month to add the Knee Pads to your guy. We can only choose the right by consistently getting on our knees in prayer!!
Have a wonderful month teaching and inspiring those you are blessed to teach!
Leah
Week 1 Ideas
Week 2 Ideas
Week 3 Ideas
Week 4 Ideas will be coming next week!
Thursday, July 25, 2013
I Finally Did It
It took me a little more than a week to gather the courage (silly, I know), but I did it and ordered all our curriculum and supplies.
Finally.
Doesn't it look pretty? Or chaotic. Take your pick, but I think it looks a little dreamy.
All that fun just waiting to happen.
I love learning. I love hanging out with my kids and discovering new things. Experiencing new places from the comfort of our schoolroom or couch.
Come on, it's pretty cool. You know it is.
Now I just have to finish organizing (yes, that mess is partially organized already), make my lesson plans for the year (just general ones, I think...this is my first year attempting this and I really feel like I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing...or want) and get our rough draft weekly checklists ready to go.
I'm actually a little giddy. See? This is how I convince myself to press the finalize order button, I know it gets better.
How do you get organized? I would especially love to hear about lessons plans, but I'm up for anything.
And if all else fails, remember...
Just keep swimming,
Leah
Finally.
Doesn't it look pretty? Or chaotic. Take your pick, but I think it looks a little dreamy.
All that fun just waiting to happen.
I love learning. I love hanging out with my kids and discovering new things. Experiencing new places from the comfort of our schoolroom or couch.
Come on, it's pretty cool. You know it is.
Now I just have to finish organizing (yes, that mess is partially organized already), make my lesson plans for the year (just general ones, I think...this is my first year attempting this and I really feel like I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing...or want) and get our rough draft weekly checklists ready to go.
I'm actually a little giddy. See? This is how I convince myself to press the finalize order button, I know it gets better.
How do you get organized? I would especially love to hear about lessons plans, but I'm up for anything.
And if all else fails, remember...
Just keep swimming,
Leah
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sharing Time - July Week 4
I sometimes think we forget the remaining worthy part. And if we don't remember that, we can't remember to attend. It's not enough to become worthy, we have to remain that way and then ATTEND!
Sorry for the shout, but it's been such a great blessing in my life I feel like I want to jump on a roof and yell it to everyone. I made a goal a few years ago to go twice a month and while I don't always even make it once a month, I make it a lot more often than I did before I set the goal.
More than that, as I go, I can see a difference in my life. It's not been a sudden change, it's more like water carving stone into a new shape. It takes years and years, but there is always slow change. The temple leaves me a little better each and every time I go.
I have such a love for the temple and the blessings that they have brought and continue to bring into my life and my goal for this week is to share that love with our primary.
I really like the idea of getting a few wedding pictures from couples in the ward and having the kids try and guess who each one is. To go along with the temple marriage theme, I'm going to try to get ones with the temple in the background and then I'll have the kids guess which temple they got married in also.
After going through our couples and temples I'm going to use an object lesson I found on lds dot org to talk about how one choice can ripple out and affect so many other parts of our lives using small rocks from my yard and a bowl of water. The kids will love dropping the rocks and I can have them tell me about different important choices as they drop them.
Then I've asked a member of our ward to come and talk about how temple marriage has blessed the lives of her and her family for a few minutes. I'm pretty excited about this because the kids love the person I've asked and I know they'll feel her love of the temple.
The last thing we'll do is turn our newfound, or rekindled desire to attend the temple into daily actions. I'm going to print out a picture of a temple close to us and cut it into a few puzzle pieces (I'll hide the pieces around the room before primary).
Sister Elaine S. Dalton said, "Prepare now for the temple, the mountain of the Lord. Never allow the goal of the temple to be out of your sight." I'll tell the kids that we need to figure out how we can "prepare now" and tell them that we have some helpers who will help us think of ways we can get ready.
I'll then have the kids look under their chairs to figure out who gets to help us out. As they find the pieces they'll come up with one thing we can do to be worthy to enter the temple. We'll write each goal on the puzzle pieces and slowly fit them together into a picture of the temple. We'll talk about how we learn little by little, but it's important to know where we're headed so we can make sure we're headed in the right direction.
Being worthy to enter the temple is such an important goal and is one that all of us should always be striving for. President Bednar said,
"Within the sound of my voice are many young women, young men and children. I plead with you to be worthy, to be steadfast and to look forward with great anticipation to the day you will receive the ordinances and blessings of the temple."
Isn't that amazing?!
I'll then end with my testimony and challenge them to choose one of our puzzle pieces to work on so they to can enter the temple and be sealed to their families for eternity.
Have a wonderful week!
Leah
Sunday, July 21, 2013
July Family Home Evening - Week 4
Okay, after talking about how much I really liked have all my lessons picked out in the beginning of the month, life taught me a lesson. One I already know, but get re-taught all the time.
All the darn time.
There is no one right way. And even when there is ONE way I particularly like, that way still might not always match my life.
Which is why instead of one day (and one post) to figure out my month of FHE's, I've had three.
What I've learned along with the no one right way lesson is one of the most important lessons of my life and has been expressed by many people in many different ways.
Do it.
Just do it.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Just keep swimming.
I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that popped into my head. The point is to not stop trying. Even when things don't work out the way I want. Even when I fail miserably.
Okay, this has veered off my original topic, but I feel pretty strongly about it. You can do it. And so can I. WE CAN DO IT!
You know, whatever it is that we're trying to do.
Like family home evening. Yep, I'm finally back to my original topic.
This week has a strange holiday, Pioneer Day. I wasn't raised in Utah (although I live here now) and so I'd never heard of Pioneer Day until about seven years ago. Even if you don't reside in Utah, you can still celebrate it (you just won't get the day off work like we do, I know strange). It's also a great excuse to take some time out to talk about the sacrifices made by those who began our church.
And then you can talk about how we, today, can also be pioneers. Have you read the first article in July's Ensign? I hadn't until today. In Primary our fill-in chorister had the kids sing "To Be a Pioneer" and she talked to them about President Monson's article. It's great. You should take a few minutes and read it, it's not very long.
Then, while thinking this would be a great family night topic and wondering if the Ensign article would work as a family night, I found this lesson on Parenting in the Latter-days about the EXACT SAME TOPIC. Really. It's based off the song and is almost like she and President Monson got together (the Ensign has some great ideas how to adapt the article to teach older kids and you can use those to adapt the lesson).
Have a wonderful Pioneer day!
Leah
All the darn time.
There is no one right way. And even when there is ONE way I particularly like, that way still might not always match my life.
Which is why instead of one day (and one post) to figure out my month of FHE's, I've had three.
What I've learned along with the no one right way lesson is one of the most important lessons of my life and has been expressed by many people in many different ways.
Do it.
Just do it.
Keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Just keep swimming.
I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that popped into my head. The point is to not stop trying. Even when things don't work out the way I want. Even when I fail miserably.
Okay, this has veered off my original topic, but I feel pretty strongly about it. You can do it. And so can I. WE CAN DO IT!
You know, whatever it is that we're trying to do.
Like family home evening. Yep, I'm finally back to my original topic.
This week has a strange holiday, Pioneer Day. I wasn't raised in Utah (although I live here now) and so I'd never heard of Pioneer Day until about seven years ago. Even if you don't reside in Utah, you can still celebrate it (you just won't get the day off work like we do, I know strange). It's also a great excuse to take some time out to talk about the sacrifices made by those who began our church.
And then you can talk about how we, today, can also be pioneers. Have you read the first article in July's Ensign? I hadn't until today. In Primary our fill-in chorister had the kids sing "To Be a Pioneer" and she talked to them about President Monson's article. It's great. You should take a few minutes and read it, it's not very long.
Then, while thinking this would be a great family night topic and wondering if the Ensign article would work as a family night, I found this lesson on Parenting in the Latter-days about the EXACT SAME TOPIC. Really. It's based off the song and is almost like she and President Monson got together (the Ensign has some great ideas how to adapt the article to teach older kids and you can use those to adapt the lesson).
Have a wonderful Pioneer day!
Leah
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