Bible – Preparation Education

Armor of God

October 7, 2014prayingmother

Recently, Ace attended a Bible class about the Armor of God. At the end of the three-day class, his class put on a presentation for the parents, which included: marching for us, describing Roman armor, and also explaining the meaning of the fiery darts. He really enjoyed himself and learned a lot about the practical application of Ephesians 6, but the best part was the armor that he made. He was very proud of his armor and strutted around in it a for quite awhile at home after the class was long finished, and even went on to make some for his little sister and his big brother.

Cheers to his very excellent teacher (my cousin) for teaching a class he will never forget!

“Origins” Lapbook by Ace (Age 8)

July 31, 2014July 23, 2014prayingmother

Here is the third and last lapbook on Origins. This one is by Ace.

If you’d like to see the sources that we used for these mini-books please see my previous post. All of the writing in this lapbook was dictated to me by Ace, but he did all the fancy designing and coloring in his lapbook. He also completely designed his Creation Days Wheel.

The cover:

The spread:

Vocabulary:

The Flood:

The Fall:

Why history is important:

Tower of Babel

Science Hoaxes:

Mt. St. Helens for a Young Earth:

Why Creation:

Ice Age:

Dinosaurs:

Evidence of a Young Earth:

Creation Days Circle:

If you’d like to see the other posts on this topic, here are the links:
How it All Began Unit
Zippy’s “Origins” Lapbook
JD’s “Origins” Lapbook

“Origins” Lapbook by JD (Age 11)

July 30, 2014July 30, 2014prayingmother

Here is the second lapbook on Origins. This one is by JD Boy.

If you’d like to see the sources that we used for these mini-books please see my previous post. JD Boy designed his own cover. JD wrote in some of his books and he dictated for me to write in some, but all were his answers. They are fun to read. I also think JD did some mighty fine coloring on a couple of these mini books.

The cover:

The spread:

The mini books:

Vocabulary:

Science Hoaxes:

Dinosaurs:

Days of Creation:

Why Creation?

Mt. St. Helens Evidences of a Young Earth:

Tower of Babel:

The Flood:

Evidences of a Young Earth:

Why History is Important:

Ice Age:

The Fall:

If you’d like to see the other posts on this topic, here are the links:

Origins Unit Study
Zippy’s “Origin” Lapbook
Ace’s “Origin” Lapbook

“Origins” Lapbook by Zippy (Age 14)

July 29, 2014July 23, 2014prayingmother

I decided that I’m going to share one lapbook a day from our origins study. We will start with my oldest’s lap book.

As you can see, washi tape was popular for this project. You will see it on all three lapbooks. The kids said they won’t use it again because it curls so bad, but it’s pretty this time.

I did have sources on hand for most of these mini books in this lapbook. Our sources were: Old Testament Activity Pak by Homeschool in the Woods, Creation Science Lapbook by In the Hands of a Child, and Binder-Builder by A Journey Through Learning for Truth Quest History Beginnings Guide. I had all of these before we did this study, so we picked and chose from all three. Zippy designed her own cover and also her own Creation Days Wheel.

(I see a few grammatical and spelling errors in these pictures that we missed. Guess we’ll have to go fix those.)

The Cover:

The Spread:

The mini-book close-ups:

Vocabulary:

Why Creation?

Mt. St. Helens Evidences for a Young Earth

Science Hoaxes Used to Prove Evolution

Evidences of a Young Earth

Creation Days Wheel (Design and Art by Zippy)

Tower of Babel/Distribution of People Groups

Dinosaurs

The Flood

Why History is Important

Ice Age

The Fall

If you’d like to see the other posts on this topic, here are the links:

Origins Unit Study
JD’s “Origin” Lapbook
Ace’s “Origin” Lapbook

How It All Began Unit

July 28, 2014July 23, 2014prayingmother

We recently finished a unit on how life began. We had been studying ancient history for awhile, but had skipped over the prehistory sections, but I decided that for my older two children, in particular, it was time to address the theory of evolution. So we backed up and discussed some of the early chapters in our ancient history books. To be fair, I am a staunch Young Earth Creationist, so that did influence the course of our study. I suppose it was actually the study of evolution from the creationist viewpoint. I want my children to realize that evidence for the stories of Creation and The Flood are not only found in the Bible but in other ancient documents and that there is evidence for them in some scientific studies.

Here is a list of the sources that we used:

The Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World: Internet Linked (History Encyclopedias) (This is a secular history book.)

Streams of Civilization: Earliest Times to the Discovery of the New World (Vol 1) (79555) (The first chapter deals with different ideas of origin.)

Beginnings (Creation/Old Testament/Ancients/Egypt) (I love all of the other Truth Quest History Books that I’ve used, but this one is not my favorite. But I’m still using the parts that I like out of it, since I have it.)

The Great Dinosaur Mystery Video (Watch online for free.)

Creation vs Evolution by Terry McComb (DVD)

After we studied about origins from these sources, my three oldest children worked on lap books to show what they had learned. They all did a beautiful job on each lap book, but I plan to share those over the next few days.

Here are the links for:
Zippy’s “Origins” Lapbook
JD’s “Origins” Lapbook
Ace’s “Origins” Lapbook

Dare to Be a Daniel

March 14, 2013March 14, 2013prayingmother

This was recorded for the Adventist Home Educator Week of Prayer.

Homeschool Week of Prayer

February 20, 2013prayingmother

I’m so excited about this, I had to share!

Baptism

January 5, 2012January 4, 2012prayingmother

It was an exciting day, a few weeks back, when my daughter chose to be baptized. I know there was joy in heaven. There was certainly joy in my heart.

Being greeted by church members and friends after the baptism.

Young friends, cousins and siblings that came (some quite a long ways) to witness her public dedication of her life to Christ.

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Luke 15:10

Mount Saint Helens and the 7 Wonders Museum

December 12, 2011December 1, 2011prayingmother

We have been studying the Bible story of Creation for our Bible class, both from the Bible and from the book Patriarchs and Prophets. So I thought that it would be fun to visit a Creation Museum to confirm some of what we were studying. When my children were very little, my husband and I visited a Creation museum that is located at the base of Mount Saint Helens called the 7 Wonders Creation Museum. We called some of our homeschool friends and arranged a fun trip to the museum and the volcano. (I was the sole adult with eight kids! Call me brave! Not really, they are all really great kids and one of them was a very responsible 16 year old, so I had good help.)

At the 7 Wonders Museum, we were privileged with a lecture/PowerPoint show on different aspects of Mt. St. Helens that defy evolution. Because most of our group was kids, he limited it to three wonders, but in his normal presentation, he presents seven wonders–hence the name of the museum.

After that, the tour guide from the museum took us on a tour up to the volcano. First we stopped by the A-Frame that has been buried in mud. This A-frame was partially buried by the river of mud that came flowing through the valley about eight hours after the big eruption. You now, stand on the ground and look down on to the deck of the A-frame. It is quite a testament to how quickly the landscape can be changed. Here is a picture that one of the kids took.

Then we went to the top of a dam that was built for the sole purpose of holding back mud, in an effort to save some of the cities that are downstream from the volcano. This provided another evidence that changes can happen rapidly, but also continue after catastrophes. Still, major changes that happen in a matter of months are pretty rapid as compared to millions of years.

Here are a couple pictures of the dam.

Then we drove up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory that looks straight into the volcano. It is quite amazing to look face to face at a volcano. At the observatory, we attended a Ranger talk, watched the movie and all the kids worked on and earned their Junior Ranger Badges. We had one young lady with us, who spoke primarily Japanese, and we were happy to find out that we could sign up for a translator for her, so she could listen to translations of all the signs in the exhibit. They have the translators for several languages. The rest of us were a little jealous, because the little device that she used was kind of fun to play with.

If you ever have a chance to visit Mt. St. Helens and the observatory, do not miss out on the movie. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise that comes in the movie, but it is amazing. I also highly recommend the museum, but only if you call ahead. The museum is run by a man and his wife and if you call ahead, they will schedule to give their “Seven Wonders” lecture, otherwise, it is small and you won’t get near as much out of it.

I met a man on the airplane a few days before we were planning to go to Mount Saint Helens who got into a discussion with me about Young Earth Creationism. He was a Christian, but just believed that the facts of science were too compelling to accept the Biblical rendition of Creation. I sure wished that I could have taken him with me to St. Helens. He might have got a new perspective. I did my best to help him have a new perspective, but I’m not sure how much headway, I made. Now I have a little more in my arsenal for the next time I have such a discussion.

Margie Asks Why?

December 9, 2011December 1, 2011prayingmother

This last summer, I decided it was time to read the book Margie Asks, Why Do People Have to Die? to my children. I had read it to them four years ago, but everybody is four years older now and would understand it in a different way.

This is the best book that I have ever read for understanding why bad things happen to good/Christian people. That is a very difficult concept for adults, let alone children. It is the story of how some young children that were attending a Christian school lost their mother to cancer. A young friend of the children tries to grapple with why God allowed the young mother of her friends to die and leave them motherless. The girl with all the questions, Margie, has an aunt who takes the time to review how sin entered the universe, and then sets out to explain why God has to allow bad things to happen to good people sometimes. I highly recommend this book for everybody. I am an adult, and was very blessed by it. My children, ages 5, 8 and 11 were as well. The book was written for children, but I’d recommend it to adults too who have struggled with that question as many of us have at one time or other.

As you can imagine, the subject was one that was very pertinent to our family. You see my children had been praying for years and years, “Please, help Uncle Ben get better.” I knew time was getting shorter for my brother, unless a miracle happened, so I decided that we would read this book, because I was hoping that they would have a chance to think about these things before their Uncle Ben passed away. Unfortunately, we had just started the book when he passed away. We went ahead and finished the book. It had a lot more meaning after the fact then it seemed to before the fact.

I am very sad to have recently discovered that it is currently out of print. (The link, I gave above, is for used copies from Amazon.) I hope that it will get reprinted. However there is a New, Easy English version in print, that can be purchased new.

When we read this book a few years ago, we were doing it as part of the God, Creation and Me Kindergarten program. At that time, we made a little model of what it sounded like God’s throne looked like. So after we finished the book, this time, we pulled it out and set it up. Here is a a picture of it, all set up. If you’re curious how we made it. We got all the stuff from a craft store. The pillars were from the cake decorating isle. The bases were from the wood working isle. The cloud is pillow stuffing. The stars were from the gift wrap isle. And I printed the rainbow on the printer. The people are from some old Bible story illustrations.

This is the throne redesigned by G’tums to be what he thought David’s throne must have looked like.