Category:

R is the Rock Hyrax

3/2/2016

The Mammals book that we are reading through had us learning about animals called Dassies. I thought the who??? As we read further we learned that dassies are animals such a Rock Hyrax or Siberian Hyrax. The book didn't provide any pictures so I went searching for some. If you want to hear a boy coo... show him a picture like this:

Click image to go to source

My lad was SO fascinated by these little creatures. You can see more images of them here. Rock hyraxes, as you might guess, live in rocky areas, in places such as Egypt, South Africa, and Syria. They have thickly padded feet that are kept moist through a numerous sweat glands and are experts at rock climbing. They shelter within the crevices and fissures found within these rocky areas.

They eat plants and fruit for the most part, but also insects, lizards and birds' eggs. They eat as a family, in a circle, facing out so they can keep a close watch for predators. They will take a bite and look around and repeat. They have a unique eye lid that allows them to look into the sun to watch for predators. (source)

Although they are terribly cute and look a lot like rodents, rock hyraxes are in a class all their own, more related to elephants and manatees than to the rabbits (which aren't rodents either) that my son thought they were like. They even have tusks which are elongated incisor teeth (rather than canine teeth).

Rock hyraxes have at least 21 different vocalizations, including trills, yips, grunts, wails, snorts, twitters, shrieks, growls, and whistles. Males also sing complex songs that can last for several minutes and serve a territorial purpose, like bird song. (source)

They have a three-chambered stomach and I found it interesting, that like rabbits, the young NEED to eat the poop of adults in order to develop proper gut bacteria to digest the foods that adults eat. The young are born after a 7-8 month gestation.

They are a small, careful animal. They lives in colonies, love to sun bathe and are also known by the name of rock badger, dassie or the cape hyrax.

Joining up with week with blogging through the alphabet.

Hymn Study: Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates

12/28/2015

    [7] Lift up your heads, O gates!
       And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
       that the King of glory may come in.
(Psalm 24:7 ESV)

Starting a New Feature I think this week. I had a lot of fun looking up hymns last week in preparation for Christmas and wanted to continue with that. :) Talking about one hymn (or possibly more if so inclined) each week from our sermon on Sunday.

This week, being that that blogging through the alphabet group is doing the letter "H" I chose to do Lift Up your Heads, Ye mighty gates.     I for .. it's an interesting hymn. :)

Based on Psalm 24 this advent hymn was written by Georg Weissel in 1642, it was translated by Catherine Winkworth. Weissel generally wrote hymns focused on the Christian Year.   This hymn is sung to several tunes among them Turbo and Macht Hoch die Tür,   Originally six verses, nowadays only four are generally found in hymnals.    This hymn was written during the 30 years war in Europe.

“Lift up your heads” first appeared in posthumously in 1642 in Preussische Festlieder in five stanzas of eight lines each in an 88.88.88.66 meter. The famous British translator of German hymns, Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878), rendered the hymn into English in five, eight-line stanzas as well for her Lyra Germanica (1855). The version that appears in hymnals today usually reduces the hymn to four, four line stanzas in Long Meter (source).

Just as David called for his people to open up the gates of their hearts to God, Georg Weissel calls for and imagines what a place would be like where the people worshipped God with their whole heart.

Lyrics:
Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates;
behold, the King of glory waits;
the King of kings is drawing near;
the Savior of the world is here!

A Helper just He comes to thee,
His chariot is humility,
His kingly crown is holiness,
His scepter, pity in distress.

O blest the land, the city blest,
Where Christ the Ruler is confessed!
O happy hearts and happy homes
To whom this King in triumph comes!

Fling wide the portals of your heart;
make it a temple, set apart
from earthly use for heaven's employ,
adorned with prayer and love and joy.

Redeemer, come, with us abide;
our hearts to thee we open wide;
let us thy inner presence feel;
thy grace and love in us reveal.

Thy Holy Spirit lead us on
until our glorious goal is won;
eternal praise, eternal fame
be offered, Savior, to thy name!

Hymns and Carols of Christmas has two different versions. One and Two.

Sources
HymnSite.
Hymnary.
CyberHymnal.
Discipleship Ministries.
First Presbyterian Church.
Lectionary

Homeschooling Resources:
printable advent lapbook.
In a foreign language, but good for ideas: Make an advent calendar.

Linking up with Blogging through the Alphabet.

Missionary Monday: George Richmond Grose

12/14/2015

George Richmond Grose was a Methodist Missionary to China. It was actually rather difficult to find a lot of information on Mr. Grose.

Mr. Grose married his college sweetheart and went on to father five children. He served in various churches for several years. Eventually being elected to serve as president of the DePauw University in Indiana. His service there brought stability and financial strength to the school.

After serving there for 11 years he accepted a position as Bishop Missionary to the church in China. A missionary bishop was appointed to oversee churches not already organized under a bishop. For more on what a missionary bishop is see this link.

Linking up with Blogging through the alphabet. This week it's the letter G. :)

Missionary Monday: Jim Elliot

11/30/2015

I think almost everyone knows the Story of Jim Elliot and the Auca Indians. I first read his story when I was a teen and it has stuck with me ever since. The courage needed to serve a people known for their savagery. The sheer trust in God needed.

BUT on to who Jim Elliot was.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Jim Elliot was interested in missions from the time he was a little boy. Listening raptly to visiting missionaries and asking countless questions of them. He was not afraid to speak out about Christ even through to his highschool years, carrying a bible with him wherever he went.

Before working among the Aucas, Jim Elliot and his partner, Pete Fleming, worked among the Quichua people in Ecuador.    They worked hard to learn the Spanish and Quichua language, and to pick up some of the Auca language.

The Aucas were much feared, they killed anyone who ventured onto their land.   They were a very fierce people, but Jim Elliot and his comrades knew how much they needed to learn about who Jesus was.

First they tried to show their friendly intentions.   Giving gifts and living safely across the river.   Showing kindness in every way they could.    But it was in vain during Jim Elliot's life. He lost it to the Auca's. He had a choice... defend himself with a gun or allow himself to stand by what he was convicted of.. that he would not take the life of an Aucan, a man who didn't know the love of Jesus.

BUT (and this is the cool part).... within a couple of years Elisabeth Elliot, her daughter Valerie, and Rachel Saint (Nate's sister) were able to move to the Auca village. Through their witness many of the Auca's became Christians.

I learned through the Brinkman Adventures what the Aucas, now called the Waodoni people are doing now.   You should check it out.   It's a neat story of trust in God, of choosing to stand by one's convictions, and to not let fear stop you from doing what you know God is calling you to do.

E is for Elliot, Jim Elliot missionary to Ecuador.

Sources:
Christianity.com.
Inspirational Christians.
American Evangelicals.
Wikipedia.

I am joining up with the ABC Bloggers this week. Check link below.

A grin, a word of the day... the letter "A" blogging the alphabet

11/6/2015

This morning my son grinned at me.

Not that unusual... but it was a grin worth noting.

One of the things we TRY to do daily is "A word of the day". We are looking at adding words to our vocabulary and I read about this in a couple of different fiction books, about how folks pick a word and then try to use it throughout the day. People were always amazed at the vocabulary the young people would have.

Currently we are still working through the letter "A".   We're taking our time but being more diligent about doing it. It only takes about 5 minutes tops.

I read the word, as I blog it into facebook, giving my lad's sentence and sometimes my sentence after defining it.   Here's one post we did:

Word of the day: Accessible. Adjective. Easy to approach or to reach. Lad's sentence : a sentence is not accessible to me cause I am not feeling well. My sentence: Milo is accessible to you. Dad's sentence: Fireheart, the snake, is not accessible to the cats.

As you can see, sometimes Dad takes part as well, particularly if the lad is having a hard time understanding how to use the word in a sentence.

Today our word was Accomplice....this after I went through no less then four words that the lad said "I know that one" and then reamed off a sentence with the word in it to prove it. He just grinned!

Then we reached "Accomplice" and he had no clue what it meant and that was okay.   He didn't mind since he was still so tickled pink at how many words he already knew.

The sentence the lad came up with was "The Carpenter ant was an accomplice to the termite when he ate the house". My sentence "I had an accomplice when I hid the candy from the child".

This post is my Letter "A" post for the blogging through the alphabet meme hosted by Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg @ Adventures with Jude. A is for "A" word of the day.

#abcblogging: T is for Making TIME

9/10/2014

At the end of August I talked about how we managed our computer game time. In that post I mentioned how my son needs to earn his computer time over and above the 1 hour he gets to play daily. It's sometimes hard to come up with things for him to do, and we've been working on getting him motivated.. over the past week he's been very diligent about working on the new pond.

You may recall that back in June my son made a small pond with a friend. He did an excellent job with it, but it was...in a couple of different ways not satisfactory.

1. the toads kept escaping.
2. the space between it and the rose of sharon bush was tight making it hard to navigate the back yard
3. the pond just wasn't quite big enough...his pond fish were a tad crowded and
4. all the plants he put in it were "mom.. they are just too big now mom!"

So we thought that perhaps a bigger pond was in order. We'd need a couple of supplies.. like a pond liner and eventually an outdoor pump (still need to find that).

At the end of July/beginning August I found a pond liner on sale and said okay.. here's the liner. Let's get building, we considered a few different spots but finally ended up with right beside the old one, using up an flower garden that I've been unsuccessfully battling weeds in.

My son had me take this picture to send to our international student to show himself hard at work. The student promised to help our son finish it when he got here, but the lad had it mostly all done before he arrived. All he needed to do was help us put the liner in yesterday.

So what do you think? Did we do good? Think the fish will be happier now? Think it will be easier to raise toads and frogs and encourage snakes to come around? That's what we are hoping for. :) We have some pond liner left over that the lad is saying.. Mom.. can I use this to make a couple smaller ponds? For the toads I don't want to have them escape? Think I can mom?

I'm figuring we probably have room along the side fence for a couple of smaller ponds. :) We plan in the spring to put flowers and plants in that will lean down into the water, and put in some flowering plants around the edges a bit. Possibly throw a water lily or two in there along with some pond plants. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we hope to catch our fish and crayfish and show them their new abode (though that might have to wait until Thursday evening).

It's supposed to rain today which is one of the reasons we didn't fill it all the way up (besides it was getting late and didn't want to risk forgetting the tap on).

Let me give you a quick run down on how we did it. The goal had been for the pond to stretch along the fence, but we ran into an issue with an old sewer cover (at least that's what we think it is).   That cover didn't allow us to dig down deep enough.   So with went with coming out into the patio area.   The back half and one side are about 2.5 feet deep, and the front corner is about 12 inches deep. This gives frog/toad eggs and little fishes a place to slip away from bigger fish.

We cut away all the roots really short, cleaned out all the rocks and added a layer of sand from our old sandbox to the bottom. The lad doesn't use the sandbox anymore so we figured we'd might as well make good use of that sand.   The lad took a good amount of time making it as smooth as possible.

The stones around the top are from our old rose garden/small pond. We have a piece of wood in the new pond as already small finches have slide on the plastic in their attempt to get down to the water. We don't want birds drowning in it. Hopefully the wood will help. We may need to make a small island of some sort. We saw those at a pond place in London and that gave us ideas of our own to try to recreate.

My son has learned
1. A big project is made smaller if you just work at it for 30 minutes at a time.
2. Asking for help doesn't mean you aren't doing the job, just means you are asking for help with things you can't figure on your own.
3. Things work best sometimes with a team (mom, international student, lad and sometimes dad).   We couldn't have gotten the liner in all by ourselves, it took a team.
4. Paying attention to detail matters when it comes to making an area smooth.
5. To use the right tool for the job. sometimes he needed a spade, other times a square edge shovel and sometimes a trowel was the best tool.

Anyways, that's T for Making Time.... our new pond. This post is part of a series from Marcy at Ben And Me. You can find that post here. :)

click image to go to source: Ben and Me

R is for Rabbit #abcblogging

8/29/2014

I mentioned to my son that I was on R for the alphabet this week.
"Mom," he responded "you should do your post on Rabbits".
I replied that I really didn't want to, that I'd think of something, and he pleaded with me to change my mind, that I really SHOULD do a post on rabbits, so here I am, doing a post on rabbits. :) In exchange, next week he's going to do a post on Snakes.. so stay tuned. :) One of the things I do is raise rabbits. :)

Four meat cross boys and a wee polish boy.

I have been raising rabbits for a long time. I raised them when I was a child, took a break during my college early work years, and then started up again when I got married. I like rabbits.. they are such a multi-purpose animal. Good for food for people and critters, good for showing, pets, competition, companionship, being a service animal, fur/wool, just a very useful animal. Good as livestock or a pet.

I maintain a website here, called AT Home Pets. I put a lot of work into that website trying to make it highly informative and useful for a variety of people. Not sure if I have succeeded or not, but it does draw a fair amount of the South Western Ontario rabbit traffic. :)   Makes me happy. :)

So what can I tell you about rabbits?
1. NOT everyone makes for a good rabbit owner.
Believe it or not, there are some people out there who need to learn how to own the rabbit they have (and in some cases would be better suited never owning a pet). They tend to think of rabbits as being docile snuggly critters. Well .. they can be. But they can also not be. God gave them teeth and claws and powerful back legs and they most certainly know how to use them.    So if you are a shy, or hesitant person, before long the rabbit says "I"M IN CHARGE!" and a rabbit that thinks that it is in charge is a rabbit that can become a terror to live with (and then people bring them to me to deal with). :)   Often being handled by a confident person helps the rabbit to chill out and become the nice rabbit that it is supposed to be. :)   Confident firm hands with a quiet spirit is what you want for a rabbit owner.   Shy, nervous people need to develop confidence and surety when handling their rabbit.

2. Rabbits are NOT vegetarians.. they are herbivores.
A common error that folks make is thinking that rabbits choose to be eaters of plants and vegetation.. they don't choose to do so, it's the way they are designed. ERGO they are herbivores.. so they should eat the foods that herbivores eat NOT that of human vegetarians. So one needs to think green or woody when feeding rabbits. Thinking carrot greens, not carrots. Apple branches.. not apples. Uncooked oatmeal vs.. animal crackers or oatmeal cookies. A plain basic green pelleted feed, rather than pellets with coloured bits and pieces in it. And rapid changes in diet can be dangerous for rabbits, throwing their gut flora out of whack and potentially killing them. Mine get nothing from the cabbage family of plants as it causes some (not all) rabbits to bloat and since there is such a huge variety of greens in the world, why risk it? They eat the following fresh herbs: parsley, basil, oregano, cilantro, sage, savoury. They eat all types of grasses: timothy, brome, twitch, lawn grass, white clover. They eat various "weeds": plantain, chicory (with the blue flowers), dandelion, queen anne's lace (without flowers), prickly lettuce, mallow and so much more. They eat my bean plants, pea plants, lettuces etc.

3. Rabbits often don't tell you when they are sick.
This summer I lost Biscuit to cancer and Triscuit to weeds sprayed with pesticide or something (at least that's my best guess as my neighbour neglected to inform until the following day that he sprayed). I saved a young doe who ate a piece of plastic because one day she looked "odd" and I couldn't see anything until I wedged open her mouth and dragged the plastic out. NOT FUN. I had a wee kit get a leg stuck (first time ever for that happening). Odd things happen when you have rabbits and you won't know you have a problem if you aren't watching them carefully. You need to watch for changes in behaviour (more quiet, less quiet), wobbliness, eye squinting, seizures, hunched over, grinding teeth, not eating and the big one --------- change in poop. If the poop changes you have problems.... smaller, larger, squisher, liquid, mucous.. any change warrants an IMMEDIATE trip to the vet. Generally speaking you have about three days to save them, sometimes less.. so sooner is better than later. :) MOST Rabbits, if fed and watered properly, won't have a problem in their life. They are made to be healthy little critters meant to be an easy food supply for a large number of carnivores. (this of course after the introduction of sin into the world).

My favourite girlie Biscuit. Still miss this doe. She was MINE all through.

4. Rabbits can be as easy or as difficult to care for as you wish.
In most climates (not all) rabbits can be raised outside 24/7.   In other climates they need specialized care (for instance in the desert where they need underground caves to protect them from the heat).

MOST of the people I sell rabbits to keep them indoors. They have plastic bottomed cages, with varying amounts of freedom. Some give them whole rooms or half rooms to call their own, some give them designated time out of their cages, and some don't give them any time out.   And in all those situations, if the rabbits are fed and watered and cleaned out properly, the rabbits thrive.

Interesting eh?   How adaptable rabbits are? I find them simply amazing at how adaptable they are. Some folks put them on a complete herbivore diet.. not pellets, just a variety of greens, hay and branches. The rabbits are healthy. Others feed them a touch of grains, greens, and hay. Still others feed just pellets and nothing else. Some follow my regime of pellets and then a choice of hay, greens or grains.

You can buy them greens, or take the cheaper route and grow your greens or find them growing wild (mind you watch for spray).    So many options and ways to provide care. It all works as long as you are mindful of the rabbits needs and health status. A diet of carrots and celery simply doesn't cut it (and I've rescued one too many rabbits raised that way).

Wire-bottomed, plastic bottomed, free range in your house with a litter box.   Colony style (well made) and living alone.. so many ways to house your rabbits. Be creative.. maybe you'll convert an old dresser into a living space like one of my clients did. :) it's all good as long as the rabbit is safe.

6. Owning ONE rabbit can cause you want to own MORE rabbits..
It's called rabbitosis. :) And if you do get inflicted with such a disease.. come visit me.. I'll have a rabbit to send home with you and then you can go visit my friends over at rabbittalk.com. :) And they'll help you raise them too. :) Cheers!

My son showing off his rabbit Peyton. The judge was very kind. :) He's the second lad in.

This post is part of Marcy's Blogging through the alphabet series. This week we are on the letter R. The anchor post isn't up yet.. I'm sure it's coming though. :)

Quiet times with quality films

8/21/2014

Not sure how long back it was, but I entered one of the few homeschooling giveaways that are open to Canadians as well.

Anyways, I won!

It was rather cool as I've often thought, can I afford these? They all come from Moore family films.

I have to admit, that I am not sure if I want to listen the ABC say it with me one. It seems younger child oriented so not sure anyone in my family would want to watch it (so it will make for a good giveaway of my own I suppose (grin)). But the rest intrigue.

In this second episode of It is Your Life, we’ll take you to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina to visit the home of the Moody Family. You will be encouraged, challenged, and inspired as Trent and Angela transparently share the joys and challenges of raising a Christian family in an ungodly culture.

Join the Moore family in this timely documentary as they briefly expose the evil history of the birth control movement on the 50th anniversary of "the pill." (View the trailer below.) Listen as they transparently share their testimony of how God, in His grace and mercy, opened their eyes in spite of their own sinful beginning. Be encouraged as they casually answer questions often posed to large families. Then, experience the joy of Biblical family life as they anticipate, give birth to, and welcome their tenth child into their home. Most of all, be inspired to look to the Word of God for answers to everything in life, but specifically to see that Children are a Blessing. Though I have to admit to some trepidation about watching this one...as I wanted a larger family but have just the one child. Just a matter I think of excepting the flip side of the coin all the more.

We make maple syrup from our tree every year. Mmmmm GOOD! So I think I'll be saving this to watch next March. From the tapping of the trees on their beautiful Virginia farm, to the final process of canning the delicious syrup, More Than Making Maple Syrup will be sure to delight and inform the young and old alike. In 7 simple steps, you'll learn more than just how to make your own syrup. With family unity as a theme, and with a good dose of adorable two-year-old antics and humor, your family will be inspired to work together on your own projects in your neck of the woods!

In this first film of the It Is Your Life series, get a refreshing glimpse into the daily life of the Mosses, a Christian family training their children in the ways of the Lord. Learn about:

Why they educate their children at home
Why Beverly stays home to care for the family
How George leads his family in Bible reading and prayer
Why they trust God for children after 6 c-sections
How God brought their family through a time of trial
How brothers and sisters can be best friends

Be encouraged and inspired as the Mosses work together, play together, and pray together. See for yourself how a Biblical vision of family life results in a strong family who loves each other and desires to glorify the Lord together. This is their life...

Anyways, I showed the ABC DVD to my son and he was like, we can watch it mom, maybe it will be good. :) I have to admit, I am just a bit intrigued... :)
ABC Say It With Me – Bible Memory Verses teaches children of all ages (and adults too!) a memory verse for each letter of the alphabet. But that’s not all! Each letter also has a corresponding one to two minute vignette showing a visual depiction of the verse put into practice.
For example,

In “B” a brother remembers to be kind by sharing with his little sister.
In “D” children are encouraged to pick up their toys without complaining.
In “H” children honor their parents through loving acts of thoughtfulness.
In “T” a 13 year-old brother takes time to read the Bible to his younger siblings.
In "Y" a young lady and her family are the "light of the world" to a harried restaurant waiter!

Filled with delightful music and endearing scenes of home, farm, and family life, ABC Say It With Me promotes family unity, Scriptural truths, and, most importantly , the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

So go on, check out Moore Family Films.... they might have a DVD that you are interested in as well. :)

This post is part of the alphabet blogging series put on by Marcy over at Ben and ME. This week the letter is Q.

Essentials in Schooling at Home, Day Two -- The P's

8/12/2014

I was thinking off and on today about some of the ... not sure how to put it.. the less obvious essentials in schooling at home.

I thought of persistence and time and long-term views.

Then I had a phone call tonight from a friend who has been fretting over a perceived "being behind" in her son. And I asked her does fretting help? Honestly, if she looks at the long term view does fretting help? If her son is behind.. does taking an extra year hurt anything? Does the fretting HELP her son now?

And so I thought.. that's what I want to write about..it's the not so obvious things of Parenting, Persnickityness and Patience...

You know what parenting is right?   It's folks who given birth to, adopted in, foster over.. children. That's what parents do. We have children under our care that we are mindful of. We strive to teach and train and assist them in love throughout life. And sometimes, when we teach, we got so caught up in we need to make sure they have these facts that we forget what is most important... the raising and training of our children to be functional people in society. That's our job too.   And as believing parents we have that added responsibility to train up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord God as well. It's a heavy burden,.. no.. not always a burden it's a strong calling.   Sometimes it is a burden though, despite the calling that it is. Parenting is NOT easy. It takes thought and action and a whole whack of love.

This is what lies behind the homeschooling movement you know. The need that parents have to mindful of their children.   Not only in their becoming people of God but also being mindful of what they are learning and how they are learning it.

Folk who do home education want to provide some guidance that may be lacking in other schooling venues. We can't forget this. We are parents first.

So as we parent, we also teach.   We teach knowing that we can't teach it all. Did you know that?   We can't. NO school system, not matter how well meaning, can teach it all. They can try. They can push. BUT they can't. It's impossible there is SO much information out there that you MUST pick and choose what you teach.    I honestly believe it matters NOT what you teach so long as you teach something. It doesn't matter how quickly you teach.. as long as you teach.   Patience matters in in this game of teaching you know.. patience to know that God will move hearts. God will develop minds and abilities.

My son.. a slow reader (worried me some until it was pointed out that he is learning.). I see his books and learning coming out in his play. I hear him asking questions.   It's just a matter of patience and it will come. AND.. so it comes. Same with holding a pencil the right way.. it didn't happen for a VERY long time (so it seemed to me) ... but research tells me that some children take time to develop those muscles. And.. so it came. Patience... not worry, not concern, just determined patience to trust God as he leads me. THIS is what he calls me too.

Persnickety as well. YES I can be persnickety. And that's not a bad thing. You know what it is to be persnickety right?   That means details matter. They do.    When you make a bed, you fold the sheets just so. When you do math.. 2 + 2 ALWAYS equals four.   When you start a sentence the first letter is ALWAYS capitalized.   So persnicketyness does matter. :)   We can and should teach facts!   But in that persnicketyness (and yes I have learned it can go too far) we can make the one way too important. For instance does it seriously does it matter which medium my son prefers to do his art in?   No it doesn't. I might prefer one way but does it really matter?   Does it REALLY matter if he learns his math facts sitting down on a chair or jumping around a yard? NO.   Sometimes we need to get over our preconceived ways of doing and see that it doesn't matter as long as the learning is happening.

Fast or slow. frontwards or backwards (my son often does math in what I think is a backwards fashion but he comes up with the right answer every time so does it matter?) At this point NO. I just find it fascinating.

Oh friends, oh readers.... Do you hear what I am saying?
I do hope so... sometimes we forget the student in our aim for the future and we need to see the student we have in front of us.
Bright and eager, stubborn and fighting, slow or smart.. they are children under our care and does our fretting truly help them? Don't teach them to fret, teach them to learn at the pace that suits them, in the manner that works for parent and student.
Does it matter really how fast or slow they learn something?
It's all just learning. Let them love you, let them love God, let them love to learn and fast or slow.... You'll get there .. HONEST. :)

This is some of what I think is essential to schooling at home?
What things are essential to you?

Other folks from the TOS review crew are talking about essentials and methods and what not this week. Won't you come join the party? Visit us, leave a comment or two, we'd all love to encourage you and to be encouraged.

Here are some to get you started.

Amy @ Counting Change... Again (our decision)
Shawna @ Tenacity Divine
Adena @ AdenaF (the four year plan)
Jenn @ Simblissity Cottage (school days)
Emilee @ Pea of Sweetness (keeping children on task)
Kathy @ Kathys Cluttered Mind
Sara @ Embracing Destiny

This post will also go with letter P of Blogging through the alphabet which is hosted by Marcy over at Ben and Me.

Others in this series.

BOOKS.

O is for Office equipment

8/8/2014

One of the things God has been laying on my heart lately is the need for missions and people supporting them.

I've been struggling with how to implement this as in today's environment it's sometimes hard to do so without compromising the people who work in some difficult fields.

I received a prayer letter this week that contained an element that surprised me and I thought Office equipment? Seriously?

But yes, the prayer request mentioned office equipment and how hard it was to maintain in field conditions.

click image to go to source: lesson planet

Every where you go you find the need for internet, computers, printers, scanners and other such equipment.

They aren't useful just for us in our air-conditioned, bug free, protected well from the environment homes. They are also useful in areas with bugs, dust, heat, humidity, mud walls and more. MOST equipment is not built to deal with such hazards, and therefore prayer is needed for this supportive equipment.

I had never thought about this before?   Have you?

To think of what I consider such a basic thing, being of such high need for prayer.

Computers make the job so much easier for folks on the mission field.
Being able to put together needed pamphlets, work through linguistics, and so much more.
Then having the materials with which to print it off... scanners break down easily in heat. And how about getting dust into those delicate parts?

Not fun!

So let us please, take some time to today to pray for the office equipment of missionaries working out there.   They need that support just as much, if not more then we do don't they?

This post is part of the blogging through the alphabet series that Marcy holds.    This week the letter was "O".