inKLEINations

Home Education based on Matthew 6:33

2012-01-16T19:56:00.000-08:00

We were recently asked to write up something describing our method of homeschooling. We thought we'd post it here, too!

Summary

We have homeschooled for about 19 years. We began almost entirely out of academic reasons, but gradually have come to recognize that the Bible has a lot to say about how to train children.

We started off with a desire to have a biblical foundation for our teaching, and used a unit study approach which taught academics loosely related to selected Bible verses. As we parents began to dig in more to the Bible, we began shifting to a biblical focus (rather than just foundation) for our teaching and recognized our vital responsibility to disciple our children.

Because serving the Lord requires more than just reading the Bible all the day long, we seek to use real life as an opportunity for discipling our children and teaching character and skills which we anticipate will prepare our children to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another thing which has helped us in our pursuit has been to skip many popular children’s and youth activities, making our time more available for opportunities that keep our family doing things together. We tend to function as a 30-legged entity much of the time.

We believe the strengths of this approach are:

We have a lasting, strong reason to continue homeschooling. Our goals are not academic but eternal (that is, aiming our children to value the eternal things rather than temporal). When things are hectic or depressing, we know that it is not a sign to quit, but merely a reality of the spiritual pursuit and battle we are in.
Real life is not an interruption to teaching our children. Broken doorknobs, toilets and vehicles are real-life events our children will deal with as long as they live. We hope to deal with them both practically and through employing James 1 and other relevant scriptures!
There is simplicity because we have a tangible goal for our children. It is not impressing the grandparents, college entry requirements, or acquiring marketable skills, but aiming our children to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Aside from the cost of new toilets, educational expenses are pretty low and usually one-time purchases (except for well-worn books). Impulse buying at conferences is rare. In fact, we seldom shop for new homeschool-specific resources (though we frequently add to our family library).
We are preparing our children for the likelihood of them having their own families someday. The family today is in trouble. Much of this is because parents and children learn to be accustomed to self-seeking pursuits, which soon crowd out opportunities for relationships. Our weekly schedule includes mostly things we do together.

The biggest challenges to this approach are:

The constant pull, when dealing with broken things, messes to clean up, etc, towards expedience rather than seeing the valuable learning opportunities.
The ongoing struggle with our flesh as parents in becoming that which we wish for our children to become: more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

A little more explanation

In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t worry about the basic necessities of life, such as food and clothing. He reminds us how the Father clothes the plants and how He feeds the birds and how He cares much more for us than for them.

He concludes that section with this: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6:33

Our culture doesn’t really encourage us to live that way and it is a constant struggle for us adults. We are endeavoring to help our children get started with this mindset, hoping that it will make it easier for them as adults to continue to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness.

To do this, we have tried to make the study of God’s word the focus of our children’s education. It is the most important thing they can learn, so it is the thing they spend most of their study time on. We just figured that it makes sense to spend the most time on what is most important.

We use the Bible as a tool for teaching our younger children to read. We have them copy Bible verses to learn to write. Then when they are able, we start them on copying the Bible into notebooks. Besides being a great way to work on writing and penmanship skills, it is also an excellent method of learning the Scriptures. It is also the method that the Lord prescribed for the kings of Israel. In Deuteronomy 17: 18-19, where God is giving instructions for the time when Israel one day has a king, we read: “And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.”

When helping our children gain other knowledge and skills, we try to do all of it in the context and for the purpose of serving the Lord by serving others.

For example, we teach writing and language arts primarily by having our children write letters to family and friends. We emphasize that the goal of their writing is to be an encouragement and to convey information. Because of this, they should do their best at writing for the benefit of the person to which they are writing.

We encourage our children to learn practical skills that will help them to serve and we place more emphasis on these skills than on academics. In our training plan, academics have their place, but only as building blocks to enable them to better study God’s word and to equip them to put it into practice by serving others.

In acquiring general knowledge outside the Bible, we feel that we must train our children to acquire a taste for that which is beneficial for us to know. That is, for the most part, if learning a thing is of little benefit to us (as parents), it usually isn’t of much benefit to them. Exceptions would be in the area of skills: fixing the bus or learning Swahili. We feel it is a strength to the family for different of us to have different skills and areas of expertise. However, in areas of history, science, math, etc, we are aiming our children for competence in the things which we feel they will most need, realizing that there is no cut-off date for acquiring knowledge. These areas we try to pursue as a family through our family library of books and videos and the everyday occurrences that demonstrate the need or benefit for such knowledge.

To make this a teeny bit more concrete, consider the issue of testing. Many homeschoolers object to standardized testing because “Whoever determines what is on the test also determines what is taught.” Many homeschoolers reject non-mandated standardized tests for this very reason.

So our thinking is that as Christian parents, we have a standard by which to judge what should be taught to our children. We feel our goal as Christian parents is to diligently search the Scriptures and see what God requires. In our progress so far, we see it is drastically different from that of the world’s standards. Why is that?

We believe that the reason is that the world rejects, even mocks, the Lord Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 6:33. The world says, “If you don’t perform well academically, what will you eat? How will you be clothed?” The Lord has an answer to that:

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God,

and his righteousness;

and all these things

shall be added unto you.”

The 7 Wonders Science Center!

2011-11-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

We pulled off our first-ever attempt creating a museum at the Seven Wonders Science Center here in Ferguson this past October.

The city decided to do a temporary revitalization project, “temporary” as in “one day,” called the Better Block, to give residents a glimpse of what could be if more businesses opened up downtown. The public was given the opportunity to use vacant retail space for one day for free. We saw the ad and decided to volunteer an idea inspired by our limited experience in patronizing creationist museums.

We threw together a proposal, and it was quickly accepted!

Our shock at being accepted soon turned to immediate procrastination. Not intentionally, of course, but we did have a few oars in the water already, as usual. Those oars, along with some huge trials in the lives of dear friends, were on our minds and in our hearts as we put the finishing touches on our project.

The theme of Mount St Helens was chosen because it seemed to give us a limited scope that we were pretty familiar with, as we have listened countless times to the fascinating presentation by Lloyd Anderson of the original 7 Wonders Museum (the presentation is coincidentally available on our website). When we told the Andersons about our project, they wasted no time in sending us copious information and materials to help make our museum the success that it was (or the success it could have been if it were not us in charge). It was almost like a museum kit! We are very grateful for their enthusiasm!

NOTE: This is NOT a real volcano.

The heart and soul of our museum was this homemade volcano, constructed of chicken wire, twinkle lights, pieces of closet doors, batting from a worn out quilt, masking tape, craft paper and staples. Not visible is the cutaway “magma chamber” to the side, created with a red party tablecloth and a strobe light.

We wanted to make the volcano something that would be realistic, but not too scary, tangible, but not too scientific, and cheap, if not free. Free was the name of the game, and we only signed up because we felt that we could pull it off with very little cash outlay. So this thing was our highest cash expenditure (apart from Taco Bell). And we had never even built one of these things before.

(Can you tell?)

Actually, our inspiration for the volcano was that there was some ceiling damage to this large room which we were to occupy. The stipulation for the room's use was that no people could be under the hole in the ceiling during our event. So, we stretched our imagination to figure out a way to incorporate an off-limit area in our museum, and a volcano just seemed to be natural.

We shared the entrance with several other pop-up businesses. Abi made a stunning sign which we knew would attract crowds, but we also sent out emails to everyone we knew in the area.

We enticed the public to our museum through the use of newspaper clippings and photos of the 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens in Washington State which we attached to the walls of the entrance with clear contact paper. Our entrance also had that volcanic motif (we wanted to use up the extra craft paper). It was whimsical, but not too scary (and biodegradable too).

So what, you ask, are the 7 wonders of Mount St Helens?

We are so glad you asked!

The seven wonders refer to seven geological changes which were plainly observed during and after the volcanic eruptions, all of which have been generally assumed to require long periods of time (e.g. millions of years). Most excitingly, they point us to a miniature example of some of the effects of the greatest catastrophe the world has yet known: Noah's worldwide flood.

As Dr. John Morris of ICR explains:

"The comparison between a recent volcanic eruption and the Flood may seem tenuous, until one realizes that the Flood, while dominantly a hydraulic cataclysm, was also triggered and energized by a tectonic convulsion of earth's surface. The first mechanism God used to judge the earth was when "all the fountains of the great deep [were] broken up" (Genesis 7:11), sending tsunamis and mudflows across the continents, no doubt accompanied by mega volcanic eruptions. This was followed by an upwarping of the ocean bottom, spilling its contents onto the continents. Then came the months-long downpour of rain.
"Consider that most of the damage done by the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption was water related, not volcanic. The glacier on the mountain's summit suddenly melted, sending avalanches of water and debris cascading down the mountainside, depositing thick, water-saturated sediments on the lower slopes and throughout the drainage basin."

Mount St Helens was the most observed and documented volcanic eruption perhaps of all time, a perfect living laboratory for scientists... and average folks like us!

Abi quickly cranked out some simple, yet elegant, signs depicting the title of each exhibit.

Obviously, the number one wonder was the actual eruption. Though average compared to volcanoes in history, it included the largest landslide ever known on earth, as much of the summit fell to the valley below, causing catastrophic destruction at and near the volcano.

We had a video showing some of the eruption and its effects, and a hand out sheet for kids with an overview of the 7 wonders. The video really was amazing!

As Lloyd and Doris Anderson explain:

"MSH was acclaimed the most beautiful of the Cascade peaks. Cone-shaped and snow-covered, it towered over heavily-forested deep ravines with a crystal clear lake to its north. In March of 1980, magma began moving up into the mountain wedging it apart. A powerful earthquake at 8:32 a.m., on May 18, caused the north slope to plunge into the valleys below, releasing the pressure within with a lateral, northward, fan-shaped explosion. This initial eight minute blast destroyed 230 square miles of forest.
"The mountain continued to erupt until evening, expending the power of 20,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs. In those nine hours, the top 1/4 and entire center of the mountain disappeared, leaving a vast, gaping, horseshoe-shaped crater. Deep ravines were filled, 250' of material was deposited on the bottom of the lake, and the river that drained the north and northwest sides of the mountain was buried under an average of 150' of deposit. In just nine hours the region had become a hideous, lifeless moonscape.
"For 150 years geological evolution minimized the role of catastrophic events. Yet the enormous geological change produced by this nine-hour eruption of a minor volcano would take a million years of gradual change."

After the eruption, dislodged hunks of snow and glacier from the summit were buried under hot ash. As a result, several huge pits were created (not in millions of years, either). The result was topography similar to the Badlands!

Lloyd and Doris explain:

"Badlands topography is found in the Southwest and in South Dakota. It occurs where loose material has been eroded in areas of rock structures, leaving a jagged but picturesque landscape. The standard explanation for such landforms is that water, over the centuries, washed away the loose materials, leaving free-standing towering rock patterns.
"At MSH the massive landslide carried huge amounts of ice and snow with it, burying them in the deep valley to the north. Throughout the day 30' of 550 degree F. ash was also deposited, which quickly melted that ice, causing it to "flash" to steam. This is the same energy process that caused the explosions up in the mountain throughout the day. Water expands 1700 times when it turns to steam. When this happens instantaneously, it is an explosion. Eventually through similar explosions all the water was used up.
"When the red hot ash covering the buried ice and snow in the valley caused that ice to melt and "flash" to steam, something called "steam explosion pits" (up to 125' deep) were formed. They had nearly vertical sides until gravity collapsed them to produce a "rill and gully" effect, one of the features of badlands topography. (Rills are small gullies). The great badlands features in the US could also have been produced by catastrophic forces and some by volcanic action."

A video for this exhibit included clips of some of the bubbling and boiling, and we set up a hot griddle so kids could sprinkle water and watch the eruption of water flashing to a boil, from a safe distance of course.

A very cool and widely observable effect was the fine layered ash deposits — several feet of them — which were laid down in hours after the eruption. The ash was sorted as it fell to earth! The same effect is seen when you mix sand, clay, gravel, etc. in a jar with water. (We set some of those up, but broke one jar, and decided to nix that activity.)

The girls were able to crank out some stunning display boards for each of the wonders (using their scrapbooking and card-making skills). They used the information and photos which the Andersons sent us. We also had some wonderful panoramic posters for the walls. It was fun seeing things come together!

There were mudflows after the initial eruption, and those flows were documented as they produced canyon systems which bear amazing (miniature) resemblances to Grand Canyon! These canyons were formed in very rapidly, not in many years (and not at all millions of years). They contain all the same inexplicable features seen at Grand Canyon, except now we can see a explanation.

The pumice that the Andersons sent us made a fun activity, coupled with regular rocks of various sizes.

The video shows the canyon features and includes details about the mudflows and canyons.

Lloyd and Doris Anderson explain:

"In the five months following the eruption two canyons were formed by mud and pyroclastic flows, establishing drainages for the 1.5 x 2.0 mile crater. The primary drainage, Step Canyon, is up to 700' deep. To its east is Loowit Canyon. Both canyons cut through 100' of solid rock. Creeks flow through each canyon. The typical evolutionary explanation is that a creek slowly forms a canyon over vast ages. In this case we know that the canyons were formed quickly; then a stream began to run through them. Textbooks say the most spectacular canyon in the world, the Grand Canyon, was formed by stream erosion over a hundred million years. Now scientists who specialize in geological erosion believe it was formed rapidly just like these canyons at MSH. "

As a result of the mudflows and canyons formed, a river system soon followed. Water seeks its level, so a natural drainage basin was left behind. Ever heard that the Colorado River formed Grand Canyon slowly, eroding grain by grain of sand and rock over millions of years? Well, this river certainly didn't create this canyon. It was a rapid, catastrophic event... the same type of event now considered to be the cause of Grand Canyon!

“Did the river create the canyon, or did the canyon create the river?”

One of the awesome events happening with the initial eruption was that the landslide from off the mountain (the largest in recorded history) slid into Spirit Lake, which is at the foot of the mountain. This created a HUGE tsunami which blasted the nearby shore and snapped something like a million evergreens. They were washed back into the lake, and many are continuing to float on the surface of the lake after more than 20 years!

Quite a few, over time, have become waterlogged and sank... many in upright positions.... many at various levels, buried in the sediment. The sediment is peat...and the chain of events leading to its formation gives scientists a present-day example of coal formation!

After much study, many geologists are seeing this as the type of event that could have created the Petrified Forests, such as in Yellowstone National Park. Previously, it was thought that these petrified trees at Yellowstone were different fossil forests, which grew at different times and thus different levels.

In an effort to have more hands-on activities, we put this together: you weigh down one end of a straw with modeling clay and drop it in the water to simulate the logs at Spirit Lake getting waterlogged on the denser bottom end and sinking in a vertical position. (This was a very popular activity for guests as well as smaller Kleins.)

However, the logs at Spirit Lake are also being buried, missing root balls (just like at Yellowstone). The tree rings of many petrified logs at Yellowstone were later tested and it was found that they were indeed all trees that grew at the same time, were uprooted, and later deposited as we now see. This discovery was largely due to what was observed at Spirit Lake after the eruption.

Oooh, real petrified wood! Stuff like this really added a museum-like quality to our science center.

Lloyd and Doris Anderson explain more about this wonder:

"A million trees were washed into Spirit Lake the day of the main eruption. As the years go by one by one they become waterlogged and sink to the bottom. Dense root wood is still a part of 10% of the logs. Those logs sink to the bottom in an upright position and their roots quickly become covered by the continuing sedimentation washing into the lake. They give the appearance they grew and died where they are deposited, one forest on top of another over long periods of time.
"Such formations are found in other places, including Specimen Ridge in Yellowstone National Park. There, geologists found forests "rooted" in 27 different layers in the ridge and concluded they were observing 27 successive forests. The interpretive sign at Specimen Ridge expressed their error. It read: "Buried within the volcanic rocks that compose the mountain are twenty-seven distinct layers of fossil forest that flourished 50 million years ago."
"Today the truth is out and the sign is gone. Scientists realized that the Spirit Lake phenomena explains Specimen Ridge. The trees floated on a lake, became waterlogged and sank to the bottom over a period of time, giving the appearance of multiple forests that grew one on top of another. The 50 million year formation could have formed in just a few years plus the time necessary for petrifying the logs (100 to 1000 years)."

Here we just included some of the signs of life that have been returning to the area of the devastation. You can read more here.

We enjoyed seeing familiar friends pop in and check things out.

Behold!

The Build Your Own Volcano table was a hit!

Our friends at Missouri Association for Creation provided materials for a book table. We appreciated seeing several members!

Joanna surprised us all with her heretofore unknown volcanic building skills! We re-purposed some of our CocoaConf name tags to lend some respectability to our staff.

Well, it seemed like it took millions of years to set up for this event (which only took about 7 literal hours), but we found that after it was all over, we were really tired.

It was a great opportunity to work hard, meet the movers and shakers in Ferguson, spend time and have fun with lots of families, and share the things we have learned. It doesn't take a PhD to look at what happened at Mount St Helens and see that it didn’t take millions of years.

We are so thankful for our friends the Andersons, and their tremendous help and continued work at Mount St Helens.

CocoaConf wrap-up Part 2

2011-11-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

We will now resume our past-promised post on CocoaConf.

Part of our motivation for resuming is the impending arrival of CocoaConf Raleigh, which is coming up in December. We figured we didn't want to start doing a wrap-up of that one before this one's wrap-up is done. So, here we go!

Upon our arrival, we utilized the special CocoaConf entrance.

We turned down the gracious offer of help from the conference center staff, as we have lots of experience in hauling, and we have a system all worked out.

We provided special Joshie-sized boxes for Joshie's capabilities.

Alphabetizing the name tags.

Trying out the speakers' name tags. (Yep, they fit well.)

As you can see, sock matching is a skill foundational to many higher-level tasks.

Four on the floor!

(Says Joshie, "CocoaConf is a hotel. You can color and sleep there and go outside and throw rocks and play volleyball.")

Our experienced venue staff made set-up a breeze.

Big time.

Joshie found the accommodations satisfactory. He was okay with the lack of sippy cups, though he found it a bit odd.

Sarah sorts the official CocoaConf t-shirts.

We didn't have to remind the children to smile.

Susanna headed up the team of feedback gatherers. Attendees were given forms to fill out for each session, and earned a “CocoaBuck” for each form handed in. CocoaBucks were one of Daddy’s ingenious ideas. We had a high rate of response, and then the CocoaBucks were entered in a drawing for prizes at the end of the conference.

Finally, the day dawned on our first CocoaConf! With great anticipation, we awaited the attendees who flocked to Dublin, Ohio... because we put on a conference?????!!!!

We concealed our amazement as people actually put on the name tags that we made at home!

Checking out the program for the weekend's schedule.

Tad Lamb (on the right of Dave) was our host in Columbus for several nights of fellowship. We tracked down his homeschool website and saw it as a means for local advertising for the homeschool discount we were offering to CocoaConf registrants. Through that contact, we were able to communicate with him and let him know what our family was doing, and he graciously invited our whole family to his home while we were in town!

Sleep makes him very irritable: Daddy had a late night (picking up a key speaker from a late flight) and an early morning (hosting an optional time of prayer before the conference started). However, adrenaline kicked in. There were few opening hitches, and things got underway, praise the LORD!

Hitches were actually pretty minimal.

With a great line-up of speakers, much of the time was spent either taking in sessions or eating leftovers...

Who could resist taking a sec to fill out a feedback form delivered this sweetly?!

Noah tries to evade our official CocoaConf Columbus photographer, Mr. Ed Crockett!

The CocoaBucks were soon ripe for picking, as the close of the conference arrived.

A call was made for Daddy to have Susanna do the official CocoaBuck picking, and we agreed that a more appropriate picker could not be found. Her face turned as red as an apple as she approached the front of the room.

We were left with a lot of good feedback, a good stash of free ball-point hotel pens and tablets, and enough carbonated sodas to get us to Cupertino and back.

The response to this family-produced conference was overwhelmingly positive. A few asked if we were Amish, but we put those thoughts to rest with the high per-capita of iOS devices on board.

Solomon handled much of the behind-the-scenes (and in-front-of-the-scenes) details in advance of the conference, as well as much of the communication with speakers and vendors. He had the most time for focusing on that. Zak and Ben did the website. The girls were great with packing, setup, and doing the literature and name tags. It was a wonderful family opportunity to work together, travel, meet people, and learn a lot. (Plus, great cheesecake.)

We finished packing up, and Daddy and Solomon hosted a special dinner for the speakers that didn’t have to leave early. The rest of us headed off with the Lamb and Auer families for a pizza treat at a nearby park.

Both homeschooling dads, Tad and Ken Auer enjoyed getting to meet and chat.

Ken's classic programming book, a well-paged volume at our house, was the inspiration for Zak's insistence on melamine walls when he finished Dave's home office in Wisconsin. We knew from reading the dedication and acknowledgments in that book that he was a believer, and it was really an honor to have his family come out and join us.

Joshua Auer and Sammy consume pizza.

The pre-Dutch-Blitz photo of the girls.

When feeding Kleins, you can't go wrong with pizza. Thanks so much, Auers!!

The mid-Dutch-Blitz photos.

We had such a good time visiting (while waiting for pizza) that we didn't discover the trail and creek soon enough!

We really enjoyed a break from the brutal St. Louis summer. It was just delightful weather in Columbus.

Cool, shallow water flowing over flat rocks!

Enjoying new friends.... the post-Dutch-Blitz photo.

Everyone except for Daddy and Solomon with the Lambs and the Auers.

We enjoyed a couple more nights at the Lambs’ estate and embarked on the now-traditional, post-CocoaConf trip to the Creation Museum together. It was a fun, exhausting time!

Our return trip home was marked by an unplanned four-hour stop on the side of the road due to a clogged fuel filter. We failed to remember the lesson we learned in Mexico: always keep a spare in your vehicle... even if it’s a bus... especially if it’s a bus! We learned our le$$on, a$ a friendly road$ide repair guy fetched one for u$.

We have many fond memories and much for which to give thanks as we count down the days to CocoaConf Raleigh!!

(And we will definitely bring an extra fuel filter!)

Keeping busy!

2011-10-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the 7 Wonders Science Center and hope to post photos soon. Yes, we also have CocoaConf photos to post....

At the moment, we are praying for friends in a major trial, marvelling at fall, switching out our summer clothes for fall clothes, getting ready to dig up canna bulbs, reorganizing our house, thinking about homeschool conferences in 2012, blowing noses, contemplating our third school bus RV conversion, and making spinach linguine...not necessarily in that order.

Spinach linguine is calling....more later!

This Saturday in Ferguson!

2011-10-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

A one-day, free, creation science center!

Saturday, October 15 from 10 am to 8 pm!

North County St Louis

Free admission!

The 7 Wonders Science Center

The 7 Wonders Science Center is designed to help families understand the amazing geological changes brought about by the volcanic eruptions of Mount St Helens in Washington State in the 1980’s.

These extensively documented events brought about rapid changes in the earth’s topography and challenge evolutionary thought which routinely assigns long ages to such formations.

What are the 7 Wonders of Mount St Helens?

1. Mountain changed beyond recognition in minutes

2. Canyons formed in five months

3. Badlands formed in five days.

4. Rock layers formed in three hours.

5. River system formed in nine hours.

6. A fully functioning model for the formation of petrified forests, such as those at Yellowstone.

7. A new model for coal formation.

Come see the amazing facts for yourself! Hands-on activities as well as video viewing will be available. Select creation science materials will be available for sale, but the science center is completely free!

Invite friends and neighbors, especially anyone interested in the creation/evolution debate. It’s free!

WHAT: 7 Wonders Science Center

WHERE: 27 S Florissant, Ferguson, MO 63136

WHEN: Saturday, October 15, 10 am to 8 pm - ONE DAY ONLY!

This one-day project is being undertaken by the Klein family of Ferguson, Missouri. We are Christian homeschoolers and are long time supporters of Answers in Genesis. If you have any questions, daveanddebklein@yahoo.com

www.inKLEINations.com

CocoaConf wrap-up Part 1

2011-10-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

Customize name tags included a conference schedule.

We greeted the UPS driver nearly every day for over a week!

Paper: it's not just for airplanes anymore.

Getting ready to hit the road!

Didn't we say we would give an update on our first CocoaConf??? We figured since the next one is already open for registration, it's time to document the first one.

Wow. It was a really wonderful time. Even though we did the planning and initiating and work, there was a feeling that we didn't really do anything at all.

For one thing, the Lord provided Dave with connections to willing experts in this relatively new field (to us) who helped with speaking. They were very well received and did great jobs!

Secondly, we love the way the Lord brings people into your life… it is always amazing. I mean, for someone who doesn't even know you to invite your family of 15 over to stay at their house?

But the Lord did it. The conference received a lot of great feedback, and we have made some new friends, too!

More soon, relatively!

Ways with words

2011-09-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

"Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle,
even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
Moreover I will endeavour
that ye may be able after my decease
to have these things always in remembrance. "
2 Peter 1:14,15

Well, she didn't know how shortly she would be putting off her tabernacle, but August 2, 2011 marked the ten year anniversary of Dave's mom's death. She died in 2001, just before the Trade Center went down.

The anniversary has come and went, but we all definitely wanted to share about one of the wonderful blessings of Grandma Carmen's life to us, and how it continues to bless us.

About 4 years before Mom's homegoing, we moved away from California and began our sojourn in the midwest, beginning in Minnesota.

Grandma and "the top five" shortly before we left California.

Now, from almost the beginning of our homeschool, we have used letter writing as one of the primary tools for teaching our children writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and the whole enchilada. It really fit in with our realization that God intends real life to be a vehicle for teaching our children-- not an interruption. It also seemed like a really good way to teach our children to put the "golden rule" into practice!

All of our children have had fairly good motivation for writing simply because they knew that their writing had a purpose and destination. Great-grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles and former neighbors were put on a correspondence list, along with addresses. Enforcing good penmanship and spelling, etc. was simplified for Mommy as the children understood that a person outside our family, unfamiliar with the things which they were writing about, would have to decipher whatever they sent. And when the destination is a grandparent, the children are especially motivated!

So, after we moved, Grandma Carmen was added to the correspondence list! Ben writes:

Our procedure, which varies in complexity as the child gains skills, includes making a paragraph list, writing or helping dictate a draft, proofreading (including teaching spelling and mechanics of writing) with Mommy or an older sibling, writing a final copy.

Often, the child would include a picture they had made. Sometimes they would include illustrations in the text of the letter (which REALLY motivated them to plug away). On some occasions, older children would do a final copy on the computer, but the norm is handwritten.

A fun side-benefit is seeing the children's writing improve with each letter... a later letter from Ben...

Thankfully, we have rarely been without a photocopier in our house, so the originals of the children's letters have been saved through the years. We file them in binders, one for each child.

(You can see how the shelf is slightly bowed, right?)

The copies of the children's letters serve many purposes:

a record of the child's communications
a record of their progressive skill development
Since they usually record the current baby's doings, the letters provide fodder for the x number of baby books we have yet to put together (I have peace in knowing the data is all available!).
a family history of the things the Lord has done for us.

There are numerous blessings in this way of teaching our children writing. God has used their letters to touch many people. Many people are just so unaccustomed to receiving a letter!

But some of the most precious blessings are the return letters. We told our children from the beginning, we don't send letters because we expect letters in return. We desire that they learn to just try to bless others with their letters.

But of course, there is a lot of joy when letters are received in return.

All of the grandparents have been so appreciative of the children's letters and have sent precious correspondence and cards in return. Even with Grandma Carmen's disabilities (blind in one eye, hands deformed by rheumatoid arthritis), she always tried to faithfully answer each grandchild's letter with a thoughtful and edifying response. (Click to enlarge.)

In the letters she left behind, Grandma shared her prayer requests, her love of the Bible, exhortation to obey parents, fun memories of growing up in a household with 13 children, memories of their daddy's childhood, favorite meals and pastimes, and testimonies of her dependence on the Lord. She wrote about that which was most important to her and what she felt would benefit the children the most.

Our last family trip to California before Grandma's homegoing.

Our correspondence continued, and the younger grandchildren became additional correspondents as their abilities improved. Grandparents are always the preferred recipients! This kept all the grandparents quite busy, though it was probably the most labor intensive for Grandma Carmen.

On August 2, 2001, a few days after surgery for cancer, Mom unexpectedly went to be with the Lord after experiencing complications.

It was also days after Dave's sister gave birth to her first child, Lara.

Mom's funeral was a week later, allowing her children who were out of the area to have time to travel back to California. It was a 2 day drive for us, packed in our 15 passenger van, with our family of then 12. We were kind of dazed at times as we prepared for the trip.

But an idea coalesced as we collected a bunch of Grandma's letters to bring with us. And before we left for California, a dear friend brought over a beautiful memory book with plastic sleeves for keepsakes...such as letters.

As we made the trip back to Sacramento, from their seats in the van, the older children wrote drafts of what would be added to the memory book... for baby Lara. We rushed and prayed them through copying the final copies on the fancy paper. I cried at Kinko's as I copied all the letters, placing the original letters in the sleeves of the memory book.

I cried because it was just so cool to be able to do this.

"...that ye may be able after my decease
to have these things always in remembrance."

Zak, then 12, wrote the opening text for the memory book. God gave him the grace to do a good job reading it at her funeral as well. (Click to enlarge)

After Zak read his text, he presented the book to Lara's mommy. It was (and is) so wonderful is to have so many precious letters for Lara.

It was also a confirmation of the way the Lord had led our family, because it was our move from California that caused us to add Grandma to the correspondence list.

And it was the number of grandchildren that caused her to have to write SO MANY LETTERS.

So, teaching writing and language arts through letter writing has produced much fruit...much more so than any other kind of writing we could have pursued.

Dave and I look back on all the writing we were required to do in school and college...no, actually we don't look back on it; about every bit has been thrown away! We wrote almost nothing of importance.

But we consider what our children have opportunity to write of much more importance, and that affects the way we teach writing.

We don't bother grading; we just desire that our children are seeking to be a blessing, and that pursuit will have tangible results, such as legible writing, proper spelling, and punctuation, organized thoughts, and consideration for the intended audience. (Matthew 6:33)

Written communication often offers the writer the ability to test their words: do they meet the standards of Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Grandma's letters were certainly a lasting example of such writing.

Thank you, Lord.

=====

To encourage other homeschooling families, we have shared more specifics of what we have done, and just our excitement in seeking and receiving wisdom from the Lord regarding the teaching our children, in this session on our website.

Dream big

2011-08-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

The Lord greatly blessed our endeavors at CocoaConf, and we are working on a full report!

So much has been going on around here lately — not the least of which is in Gideon’s mind. Sarah recorded the following recent brainstorm, in which Giddy demonstrates his complete acceptance of the rapid burial hypothesis for fossil formation.

“I wish we had a big fish tank, like a mile-long fish tank, with lots of fish — even sharks — and we could dump cement all over it, and cover it up, and have a fossil dig.

“We’d need like three miles, ’cause three miles, that would be a lot to dig.

“We’d need at least six sharks, and hundreds of fish, ’cause sharks eat fish...

“...and catfish.

“And then you could have a fossil dig in your backyard... three miles...

“And you need a cliff, ’cause that will be funner, ’cause you could climb on it and make steps, and you could climb on the steps.

“So you need to have a cliff. Always.”

Blessed to be a blessing!

2011-08-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

It is the eve of the eve of CocoaConf, and we are bustling here, ready for a wonderful several days in cool Columbus, Ohio!

(But is Columbus ready for us?)

We are once again seeing the Lord bring together a lot of details for us in this upcoming event, and it reminds us of the ways in which he brought things together for our family's homeschool conference activities. Things really get cooking for us in June!

Our calendar filled up
(not unlike our nasal passages)

...must be conference time!

Deadline intertwined with deadline,
forming a springy, bouncy trampoline on which to bounce -- boing!

As every man hath received the gift,
even so minister the same one to another,
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10

Our purpose for going to the homeschool conferences, offering Christian literature and occasionally speaking, is to meet new people and help build up other families. In the process, we gain a lot of encouragement ourselves! If the Lord tarries, we still have many homeschool years to go. We can claim no credentials, but we just have a desire to share what the Lord has been teaching us.

This year we expanded our conference coverage by a whopping 33% by adding a new conference to our schedule!

It takes everyone working together to get our tribe out the door!

Sarah is getting pretty good at thinking through our lists in advance. That saves a lot of headaches!

It's a bus thing....mapping out the storage plans for the seat storage.

Producing copies of the booklets at our table. Some are articles we have written, most are by others. Many of them were written by our friend, Art Dappen, who went to be with the Lord in 2006. His family had a ministry based in Mexico, and so the articles were all written originally in Spanish for Christian parents in Mexico.

Folks perusing the Associacion Amos 5:24 table
at the El Hogar Educador conference in Mexico

The Dappens had literature tables at the homeschool conferences in Mexico, and folks could select from the various titles at their table. Through this and other ministries, they met and encouraged countless Spanish- and English-speaking families.

Art Dappen had the discernment to see the educational idolatry which was supplanting the discipleship emphasis in Christian homeschooling. What began, for most families, as an exodus from a godless institution has, in many places, evolved into a sure-fire attempt at getting kids into better universities (and at a younger age!) and high-paying careers.

We once thought Art's view was prophetic. (After all, he preached against television in Mexican towns that didn't even have electricity yet!) But we have since discovered that there were many similar voices pre-dating Art's!

We are currently working on an abridgment of a work by William Cowper, written in the 1780's, which offers many of the same Bible-based arguments against institutional schooling offered today! Cowper pointed out the educational elitism of his day! We were amazed.

John Bunyan, the "uneducated" author of Pilgrim's Progress, was spurned by the educational elite of his day, who insisted he must have plagiarized his best-selling allegory. However, because he didn't know languages, and had read almost no other book than the Bible, their accusations were pretty weak!

Anyway, we saw the tremendous potential in sharing like this at homeschool conferences, and when the Lord moved us north in 2006, we took the opportunity to do likewise. Since we don't sell anything, we have lots of opportunity to just talk with parents without them feeling some pressure to buy. It is so neat to hear what God is doing in the hearts of so many young families!

Producing the literature involves significant time folding and stapling, which allows us to employ some of the dominant skills in our family!

Hannah inventories each document so we can figure out how much to print of each.

We have a collation station.

As we have read and learned through the years, we have seen it is important to share what we are learning with our children, so they understand why we do things so differently from the norm. The Bible offers a better norm! We discuss the articles and love to listen to audio messages regarding the Bible and family issues together. (If they appear bored at first, we just keep on anyway until it clicks! It's just like teaching them to like healthy food instead of Cocoa Puffs!)

Through this exposure, our children are becoming discerning about the things they hear.

Sammy employs a special crease-forming tool, technically known as a teaspoon.

Piles and piles of paper!

Collation celebration!

All boxed up and ready for the road. Now, to find a safe, dry place in the bus...

The, um, open and spacious floor plan of the bus (read: unfinished) gives us flexibility to bring whatever we need from home, from tents and sleeping bags, and folding tables, to the mint condition sofa sleeper we find on the side of the road!

We are getting a little more organized with each conference, and we LOVE that we have plenty for everyone to do. It becomes a family effort. From printing, to proofing, to matching socks, to burning CD's, to Gorilla-gluing the covers, to folding and stapling, to scooping ice cream. Everyone gets involved.

Just getting the clothes packed takes a few weeks!

We lay out everyone's wardrobes in the den, and Sarah checks off everyone's list to make sure we don't run out of socks or anything. Non-stop laundering is employed during this phase — just like every other day!

----

Throughout the year, we pray for our homeschooling brothers and sisters to press on and be encouraged in the Lord. We pray that the things we have been privileged to share, things which the LORD has shown us and helped us in our j o u r n e y, will be a blessing and produce good fruit in their families.

We are up against a formidable enemy who wants to destroy families from every angle. But if we stay in God's Word, and teach our children to do likewise, the enemy is no match.

"...Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts."
Zechariah 4:6

On education

2011-08-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,
and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,
they marvelled;
and they took knowledge of them,
that they had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:13

"Education presents a positive image of humanity, but it is not true. Sinful man is not positive. Culture and science will not help him at all. Education has taught him to not understand his true condition and his danger. Only the message of the Bible can awaken men to their lost state, and show them that there is a way to avoid the eternal lake of fire. Education teaches that men do not need Christ because they are already intelligent and advanced, and that the Bible is not important. It is the principal force standing against the Bible. The educated men of Jesus’ day crucified Him, and persecuted the Church. The educated men of today deny Christ, and are the principal enemies of the truth of the gospel."

-- Art Dappen, The Education of Kings

Is the whole Bible as important to you as a phone number?

2011-07-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

This essay, written by a dear friend of ours, gives very practical reasons why copying the Bible (as the Lord commanded the kings of Israel to do in Deuteronomy 17:18, 19) is a fundamental way to not only learn and understand God's Word, but to elevate it in our hearts and minds as the supreme source of wisdom and understanding.

(You can read this essay, entitled "Exactness", along with a collection of related essays, in "The Education of Kings", available on our website in pdf or mp3.)

-----

Exactness

When our family began to copy the Bible, we did not understand the concept of exactness. Our copies of the Bible were very messy. We did not understand the importance of honoring the perfection of the Word of God. The idea of exactness can be summed up like this: It is not important to write more verses, but to write perfect verses. If our hearts do not honor the things that are truly inspired by God, then a careless attitude affects all the things that we do.

Exactness begins with the Word of God. It doesn't begin with teaching a child to add and subtract correctly. It doesn't begin with teaching a child to count his money correctly. Exactness begins with teaching a child to copy verses from the Bible perfectly. If we have an attitude of "that's good enough" with the Word of God, what will God think? If we train our children to think that other things are more important, and their copies of the Bible are messy, they will learn to put God last.

God is a Spirit, and spirits speak words. "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." (2 Samuel 23:2) Our attitude toward the words of God reflects our attitude toward the Spirit of God. We can boast that we believe in God, and say, "God is first,” but our attitude of indifference toward the Word reveals the actual condition of our hearts.

Exactness in copying the Bible costs us more time and effort than simply copying a certain number of verses. Exactness ensures that the letters are legible and written in the correct order. If an error occurs, it must be corrected. All of this is more important than correct mathematics, a clean house, and good manners.

Our family discovered that we had not dedicated sufficient time to exactness in the Word of God. Since the Spirit of God inspired the Word, it is important to make sure that we preserve that inspiration. Errors ruin the trustworthiness of the Bible. Our hearts should love the perfection of the inspired words of God. "Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." (1 Corinthians 13:6)

Carelessness can ruin a recording. Carelessness can ruin a business agreement. And worst of all, carelessness can ruin the inspired words of God. The Word of God is more important than the earth, but because of carelessness, people don't take it seriously. Many read the Bible carelessly, and do not dedicate time to it to get the right message. For this reason there are hundreds of Christian denominations, with an equal number of differing doctrines-- all supposedly taken out of the Bible. People dedicate eight hours daily for 16 years of their lives, preparing for a profession and to earn money, and do not dedicate more than 10 minutes a day to the Bible-- and during those few minutes, they do not treat the Bible as if it were as important as a telephone number, which has to be dialed exactly.

The carelessness of fathers toward the Word of God is reflected in their children's copies of the Bible. It is a sad commentary when our children have good manners, clean rooms, combed hair, straight teeth-- but their copies of the Bible are messy. Or some people don't think the Bible is even worthy to copy. When God is not first in the family, His Word is not first. These people consider other things more urgent and important.

Let's begin with the letters. Every letter should be legible, and not appear to be a different letter. For example, the letter 'e' sometimes takes the appearance of the letter 'c', or the letter 'o' can look like the letter 'p'.

Children should learn to make their letters correctly and carefully, so there is no confusion. It helps to not have the letters touch each other. A longer line in the letter 'd' distinguishes it from the letters 'a' and 'q'. A curve above the letter 'f' distinguishes it from the letter 't'. The letter 'r' should be different from the letter 'v'. These may seem to be small things; but Jesus emphasized the importance of every jot and tittle of the Word of God, because these are the marks that identify the letters. Neatness in the letters comes gradually, but exactness in the way each letter is formed is essential from the beginning.

Now let's look at words. Words may be misspelled. The order of the letters is very important, and care must be taken to maintain the order. Sometimes incorrect order of letters can produce a different word altogether. Letters must not be omitted, or substituted for other letters. These types of errors result from carelessness. The apostle John warned us that we should not add or take away from the words of God.

If you believe that all of this is straining out a gnat, what would you say if your bank reported a balance of $550 instead of $5500, omitting the last '0'? Only one small '0' makes a big difference. Would you not be worried? We can see that a small error is very important. Why would we think that our balance in the bank is more important than the inspired words of God, which communicates eternal salvation to mankind? Oh my friends, what must God think of our lukewarm attitude concerning eternal things?

Now let's look at phrases. A phrase is a group of words such as 'the Son of God,' or 'truly my disciples,' or 'in spirit and in truth.' Every word in a phrase is important to communicate the exact message. No word can be omitted, added, or changed. Changing the order of the words could cause a mistake, and thus a misunderstanding. We have a set of cassettes of someone reading the Bible, and in one instance, the reader omitted the word 'no' in a sentence. The omission of the word 'no' makes the phrase mean the exact opposite of the meaning of the original phrase.

Exactness is important because it guides those who want to know what God means. The correct words lead to the correct understanding, but incorrect words lead to an erroneous understanding. The serpent is the father of all those who twist the words of God.

See here the importance of the supreme care in the use of the Word of God. The basic message should not be changed, nor copied with errors. We are called to be witnesses, and a faithful witness gives true testimony of what he saw. The truth is important, and the truth leads to liberty. When we are mistaken, we are blurring the truth, and it will be more difficult for others to understand and be set at liberty.

Some people have the ability to write very beautiful letters. Nevertheless, it is more important to write correct letters than to write beautiful letters. Artistic letters please the eye, but they do not promote better understanding. Ugly exactness is better than beautiful mistakes. Proverbs 11:22 says, "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion."

The purpose of Scripture is to impart understanding so that people can believe in the Lord. I realize that it is possible to read, or copy, the Bible correctly, and still not understand. But such a writer was not thinking about what he was writing. This problem is not related to copying with exactness and fidelity.

To solve this problem, many things can be done that will promote the better understanding of Scripture. Copying the Bible is not the same as having faith, but if it is done properly, it will lead to understanding and faith. Copying the Scripture with exactness is the best way that I know to gain understanding of the Gospel, and such understanding leads to faith.

Copying the Bible is better than reading the Bible, because it involves more of the body and the brain. Copying the Bible includes reading it, but it adds another dimension-- the dimension of exactness. He who only reads the Bible really never knows if he read it correctly, or if he omitted or misunderstood words. But he who copies the Bible is sure that he saw every word, and that every word was correctly processed in his head, in order to be reproduced on the paper with his hand. This method produces, without doubt, better understanding and a more sincere faith, just as writing down a telephone number produces better retention than just hearing or reading it. For this reason God commanded the king of Israel to copy the Scripture with his own hand, and to read his copy all the days of his life. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)

Copying the Bible produces better readers-- readers who do not skip, add, or invert words. Copying correctly leads to less errors and better understanding. On the other hand, to attend religious services, and listen to hymns and messages on the Bible does not produce exactness. The listener is not required to reproduce anything with exactness. But he who copies the Bible will acquire that faculty of exactness.

Before beginning to copy the Bible, children should learn to copy words without errors. A good exercise is to copy Genesis 1:1 until one can copy it without error. Now that he can do this, he can begin his first copy of the Bible. Children should copy only one verse daily, or only one line daily, until they can copy without errors. One verse well written is better than ten verses with errors. A perfect verse, without errors in handwriting or punctuation, can be called an excellent verse. A student who can write perfect verses reaches a level of excellence: Excellence 1- he can write one perfect verse; Excellence 2- he can write two perfect verses in a row, etc.

There are different types of perfection-- perfect letters, perfect words, perfect verses, and perfect understanding. If a person doesn't even copy the words perfectly, there is no hope that he will understand correctly.

Let's give God the honor He deserves, and let's give the Word the honor it deserves. Let us honor the perfection of the Word of God.

Another high point of 2011!!

2011-07-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

Our year has had so many high points, it went from looking like a rainbow-shaped arc to a flat line! That's a lot of high points!

Joining us for the local homeschool conference were our friends from northern south-central Wisconsin (a.k.a. “the historic and beautiful doormat to the north woods”), the Dyer family. We used to live 25 or so miles from them, a fact we learned after the Wisconsin homeschool conference we exhibited at in 2007.

Anyway, we told them about the stellar line up of speakers offered this year in St Charles, and they began to pray about taking a trip south. Before we knew it, conference time was here, and so were they!!

O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. Psalm 34:3

Laps were heavily relied upon.

Dishes happily washed as needed.

Since both families were recovering from colds, we shared our favorite herbal cough remedies with each other....then we combined them!

Bus-pooling employed.

Putting their eyes to the grindstone (ouch!), helping us do some last minute proofreading.

Constructive encouragement (rather than criticism) is their specialty!

Helping us unload on set-up day, basking (did I mean “wading”?) in the toasty June breeze!

Josiah is anxious to help!

We can do it all blindfolded, but sometimes it turns out funny that way.

Visit, visit, visit all the while!

Back at the ranch, little Malachi explores the sprawling Klein estate.

Taco salad in the garden.

What a great idea for serving toddlers – a high-walled plate!

Playing “Canoes Across The Amazon” (our own invention)!

The conference began, and we prepared for 2 encouraging days, basking in warm fellowship and COLD air conditioning!

Our new materials this year: CDs of audio messages we have given.

A new article to encourage Christian moms.

Our friends from across the river.

If we had room at our house for one of these things, it would help us be more patient when waiting for the bathroom.

Joshie had to study this contraption for quite a while.

Time for a picnic lunch.

What a privilege to introduce friends to friends…

Exercising the new camera, are we, Abi?

Ups and downs.

One of our favorite speakers, Voddie Baucham. One of our favorite Voddie-stories is when one of his children were asked what grade they were in.

His child looked quizzical and said, "Grade?"

Daddy's favorite slide!

Fellowshipping with the little ones.

Kinda gives you goosebumps, huh? The sky, I mean!

Seating for 23, please.

Note taking and crocheting.

Joshie always feels at home.

Reserving our seats.

Whipping up some lunch in the bus.

Back at the house, Ben has some downtime.

Formulating the game of the summer, "Canoes across the Amazon."

Beware of anacondas!

They look sweet but they smell like garlic!

The dads are on duty.

The Missouri long goodbye begins...

Caroling on the porch before they head back north.

Somebody's gonna praise His name,
and it's gonna be us!

We love you all, Dyers!

Thanks so much for your fellowship and encouragement!!

Class of 2011

2011-07-10T05:28:00.001-07:00

Was recalling a really neat poem one of our daughters wrote several years ago, based on a sermon by a friend who is now with the LORD.

For christian families who have recently celebrated graduation with children, or really any follower of Christ, we heartily recommend that message. It's very realistic and practical and spiritual, too. It seems like a beneficial reminder of what our perspective and aim should be.

Here is the poem, based on that message.

Casting Nets Into the Sea

One time many years ago, on the shores of Galilee,
There stood Simon and Andrew, casting nets into the sea
But when Jesus came along and called them to follow Him
They left their nets behind to become fishers of men

Those nets they had always used for to catch fish
To make themselves a living was their only wish
To be sure, they weren't rich, but needed daily bread
And so they worked to further the meaningless lives they led

And today many people, many Christians as well
Live for nothing but to gain by what they buy and sell
They have no real purpose, no vision do they see
They only wish to get something, casting nets into the sea

But both Simon and Andrew soon learned to fish for men
Doing all they could to reach for people, their souls to win
The life that God had given them was too short to waste
They lived to fish for sinners, who knew nothing of God's grace

Let us follow this example and try these lost to save
Let us give up our lives as Jesus so freely gave
If our sin has been pardoned and we've been set free
Why should we spend our whole lives casting nets into the sea?

- A.M.K., 2005

How does one pronounce ICHE?

2011-06-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

We ventured into the Land of Lincoln in June for our first time exhibiting at the ICHE conference.

The three leisurely days after CHEA (Wisconsin) and before departing for ICHE (Chicago) were spent doing laundry, lounging around, doing laundry, eating watermelon, doing laundry, playing trackball, and doing laundry. The main goal was laundry, but we had to pass the time between hearing the buzzer for the dryer or the beep for the washer.

Another main goal is all the kids packing up their leisure activities for the drive in the bus. For some, this means yarn and crochet hooks. For others, pillows. For still others, celery.

Joanna was able to finish up her present for Ken Ham.

Noah is the self-proclaimed navigator, which means he watches our blue-ball progress on Daddy's phone. Sarah decided to brush up on learning sign language with some of the cool books she scored at CHEA...

We decided to not rough it this time, instead using Daddy's frequent flyer miles to secure a couple of very very very nice suites. So at least the routine waiting for the bathroom took place in air conditioned, relatively tick-free surroundings.

Some of Sarah's siblings chipped in to buy her a fairly chip-less new guitar for her 18th.

The rooms made for very restful evenings, and were conveniently located between the conference venue and a huge Goodwill.

The sleepy, ten-toe salute!

Compared to the low turnout at CHEA, ICHE was a big change...

Toto, we're not in Oconomowoc anymore...

We opted to register the whole family because the speaker line-up was fabulous. Jim Woychuk of Scripture Memory Fellowship gave an edifying and exciting talk on "Historical Examples of World Transformation," giving details of the lives of those whose lives were changed through the power of God's Word. It was one of the most profitable sessions at ICHE.

Joshie found the talk nutritious as well as inspiring.

The high point for some of the kids was sitting in the highest point of the huge auditorium during Ken Ham's sessions at ICHE. When we first took our seats, there were a lot of empty rows...

But in no time at all, we realized they were filled to the tippy top!

What we have appreciated and thanked God for was that Ken's message of the authority of the Bible has not changed or diminished in the 15 or so years we have been blessed to hear and read his materials. Our older kids grew up being able to recite "billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth."

There was a portable planetarium at ICHE, which the kids all enjoyed!

It was a homemade setup, very sophisticated, with tons of great information.

The igloo houses the planetarium!

Our ICHE table served as a meeting place (and our Klein meeting place). We had a great time talking to young parents, older parents, and parents in general.

Joshie was a trooper and felt right at home at ICHE.

Here is a dining area at ICHE where you can watch Ken Ham on the flat screens on the wall while you eat your lunch or sit with fussy little ones.

Here is our umpteenth photo of us with Ken Ham, this time at ICHE. He appreciated the koala bear Joanna crocheted. I wonder if it is the first he's received?

We caught all of Mr. Ham's sessions from the eagle's nest. Fortunately, we have lots of videos at home, so we can actually see his face.

Joshie could hear everything just fine, but really, you need binoculars at this altitude.

We tweeted for the first time at ICHE...

We were also blessed to finally meet Diana Waring, who has also been a blessing to our family for many years. She was one of the first to introduce us to wonderful missionary books and many creation science book titles, too! We caught several of her talks at ICHE, including the finale, which was on MISSIONARIES!

She really dug the matching outfits, too!

Everybody smile and say, "Isn't that the wildest thing you've ever heard?????"

Now, when it comes to photo-documenting, we are pretty small potatoes (although pretty numerous potatoes) compared to Team Weaver which kept ICHE covered and on the cover...

Whether they are eating cupcakes or pulling teeth, you will find at least one armed with a portable pixel-snatcher, so beware!

Our dear friends in Wisconsin...we meet again...

Big sisters understand these things.

Smile!

Here's Solomon keeping on top of things during the tense pre-registration days of CocoaConf -- ak! We're live now!

Time to pack it all up. We inventory our materials as we pack, so we can be ready for the next conference...

Everyone is quietly counting to themselves, then shouting out their total to Hannah, causing everyone else to say, "Drat!" and start counting again....five, ten, fifteen, twenty....

The perceptive blog reader will have noticed many instances of "ICHE" in this post. We are just curious as to how you mentally pronounced ICHE.

A continuing controversy here at our house is regarding how to pronounce "URL". Mommy continues to pronounce it "earl," while those in the know assure me that it's pronounced "You are L". This is totally inconsistent with the pronunciation of such things as DOS (DOS 3.0 rules!), ASCII, but of course, with terms such as CP/M, you could do nothing else. But with an acronym beginning with a vowel, it would seem obvious that you say it as a word..."earl".

Somehow, family unity prevailed in our pre-ICHE days; we ALL referred to the event as "itchy" (earl earl earl).

Is that what you did, dear reader?

As we registered for ICHE, we decided it would be wise to ask how one officially pronounces ICHE. As I was filling out the form, I asked, "Do you pronounce it 'itchy'?"

All eyes darted to the ICHE representative as she prepared an answer to this obviously unexpected question.

(In retrospect, I should have said, "How does one pronounce the name of your organization?")

While she did not roll her eyes, she had a somewhat quizzical look as she said,

"We say I. C. H. E."

Thank you, Lord!

2011-06-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

We are past homeschool conference season at the Klein residence... it was awesome! We will be flooding the internet with pixels ASAP.

The conference season often makes us feel like plastic wrap being stretched over a Pyrex bowl. We have stuff going on in every possible direction: staying up all night visiting with special friends who came to visit, overloading the garbage disposal with carrot peels, cleaning up carrot peels that exploded all over, cold virus, stomach virus, crazy work deadlines, last minute writing inspirations, hoping we can put off re-welding the back door of the bus, and trying to consume as much cayenne and raw garlic and honey as possible.

It's a little crazy, but it sure keeps us stuck to the bowl.

A thousand words...

2011-06-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

We are back from the ICHE conference, near Chicago, and the photos are being picked for another post. But the best part is not the sights, but the SOUNDS! We were so blessed to hear what the Lord is doing in so many families!

Here are some examples from Wisconsin and Illinois...

A mom of a 4 year old girl said the Bible was her daughter's favorite book and was looking for more ways to expose her to it (we suggested Bible on CD).

A dad of 6 children who teaches his children the Bible every night!

Parents of two little ones who have taken in two neglected toddlers, for a total of four children under age four. The father introduces himself to vendors by saying, "I'm a born-again Christian. I have four children and I want to train them in the ways of the Lord. What do you have to offer me?"

A grandma and grandpa in their 50's who have adopted 4 children from a Third World country and are teaching them at home, training them up in the way they should go, faithful amidst challenges and sparse encouragment.

A family that has homeschooled for many years, and had been copying the Bible for quite some time, because they had seen Deuteronomy 17:18 years ago!

A single Amish young man who had been invited to the conference by a close friend who had been homeschooled. He seemed very thoughtful about the things he had seen at the conference, and recognized that the Bible had much to say about how to raise children, even though homeschooling is not an Amish way.

And a dad who, upon seeing our display about copying the Bible, told Dave, "Sometimes you see something, and it hits you, and you know, 'This is true.' "

Well, that was only about 300 words. But you get the picture.

CHEA 2011: The end of it (May 28)

2011-05-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

The time seemed to fly! But eventually, the conference was through...

Guitarist to guitarist time.

Catching up face to face. The biggest part of the conferences for us is meeting up with friends old and new, and finding out what the LORD has been doing in each other's lives....

Pen pals.

Big sister, little brother.

Volleyball used to be a great time for fellowship, since we were always waiting for someone to go fetch the ball....but we've all improved a little through the years....

...so now...

... now we actually play volleyball.

Helping friends from Minnesota pack up their exhibit...

It's amazing how they do it!

Bearing one another's burdens.

Enjoying some celery time before we hit the road!

Sweet Malachi!

Who can out-cool his fellows?

Just enjoying time with good friends...

...photo-documenting one another...

...photo-documenting in love!

Getting the troops together for a final photo takes a while.

Finally we were organized and the timer button was pushed.....

Yay!!!

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58

And then we were on our way back to St Louis, for three relaxing days spent preparing for ICHE in Chicago!!!! Wa-hoo!!

CHEA 2011: The conference (May 26-27)

2011-05-30T09:41:00.002-07:00

We made it to the conference, and we were able to unload the dry stuff over the wet stuff.

As we set up our table space, Mommy was wondering how far the mold bacteria had multiplied in her hiking boots....

The girls can almost do it blindfolded.

Here are the "Amos booklets."

Susanna has the job of periodically rearranging the booklets.

We found a spinning literature rack at a thrift store. It was really neat! But we dismantled it to further improve it for our purposes. We took the once-vertical clear holders and mounted them horizontal. In this way, the covers to our booklets are easily visible.

And we are in business!

Visiting with friends we only see once a year.

We set up a table so that the children could work on their Bible copy. They were a little distracted by all the activities (not unlike the way in which the Pacific Ocean is a little covered with water).

Our table's location is chosen based on the location of Dave's Creation Resources: your AiG away from AiG!

The clearing skies facilitated....

..the drying of the tent! Every resort needs a tent in the parking lot, right?

Classing up the Olympia Resort!

The boys located themselves nearest the plush chairs and WiFi waves, putting in some hours on projects in the works.

Brothers!

Sisters!

Brothers and sister!

This young couple is contemplating the start of a family home business breeding exotic insects. (Hee, hee, hee!)

Chris Klicka's parents are regular supporters of the Wisconsin conference, and they come to share the encouragement God gave Chris during his battle with MS.

The Kleins are always looking for new ways to make noise. This noise was kind of grating...

The little Kleins are always looking for more new ways to make noise. This noise was kind of quiet! : )

Doubling their photo-documenting efficiency.

Gideon helps with marketing at our booth.

Correcting Sammy's Bible copy.

Abi's display generates a lot of interest!

Breaking for lunch. Joshie finds sandwich consumption easier without the greenery.

Fun with food!

Sisters!

Sunshine, dry my boots!

Missing the Mayos, as we spread the Mayo!

Whoa! Stop! We've spotted pillbugs!

Was this included in the price of the admission?

Don't worry, we're on the job.

We've come across these many times.

An upside down rainbow?

A young dad who desires to train up his children in the nurture and admonition of the LORD!

That's what it's all about!

Serving broccoli!

CHEA 2011: Leaving camp (May 25) — The foreshadowing stops HERE!

2011-05-30T09:41:00.001-07:00

We awoke in the middle of the night hearing a familiar sound. It was the sound of rain. We recognized it would add a few complications to breaking camp.

In keeping with our recent trend, the first order of business was keeping the cameras dry so that photo-documenting was unhampered...

Complication number 1: The shoes and boots we left outside the tent were filled with water.

Daddy cooked breakfast for the backup packup crew.

Complication number two: The tent contents were pretty dry, but we needed to remove them to the pretty dry bus through the very wet rain.

Complication number three: Should we wear the waterlogged boots, or not? Since they did not seem to accomplish one of their most important purposes (keeping feet dry), the packup crew opted to embrace the precipitation, from the tops of their heads to the toes on their feet.

Daddy's umbrella, normally reserved for opening up and tossing in the air on sunny days, actually came in handy. Hey, it sheds water!

Complication number four: That feeling you get as your thankfulness for dry clothing gives way to your thankfulness for extra dry clothing in your duffle bag.

What can you do but smile?

Complication number five: As the morning wore on, we realized that the rain was not letting up but increasing. The tent was almost completely dry...until we had to uncover it and pack it up.

Each raindrop further un-dried the tent...

We happily loaded up, ever so careful to keep the wet stuff away from the dry stuff, and headed for the conference. As we drove, we formulated plans to unload the dry stuff over the wet stuff...

CHEA 2011: Camping, Day 2 (May 24)

2011-05-26T16:09:00.001-07:00

The first night went really well, visiting past dark with our dear friends and awaiting visiting with even more dear friends!

Bible time around the old campfire.

Reviewing our Verse A Day work!

Enjoying the beautiful day that the Lord had made!

Walking hither and yon....coming back from the trash dumpster. It was all you can trash—our favorite!

Getting athletic.

Poetry in motion -- Sarah is a poet!

Where it comes down, nobody knows.

Looking both ways.

Track ball buddies.

Dear friends brought a hearty, delicious hot lunch for us all.

Fellowship with friends.

Keeping the kids off their feet.

Nothing is out of bounds.

Daddy time.

We were outnumbered!

3 John 1:13, 14

I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:

But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.

Time for more hot dogs! Hot dog!

HOT DOG!

Something about Wisconsin and eating cookies...

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone

And our children sift through all we've left behind...

May the clues that they discover

And the memories they uncover

Become the light that leads them

To the road we each must find

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

May the fire of our devotion light their way

May the footprints that we leave

Lead them to believe

And the lives we live inspire them to obey

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.

CHEA 2011: Camping, Day 1 (May 23)

2011-05-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

The weather was just beautiful for most of our time at Devil's Lake State Park. (Foreshadowing alert #2.) First order of business was popping up the pop-up tent.

This is not my father's Coleman tent. Many memories I have of arriving in the dark late at night and putting together the old green canvas tent with chunky, aluminum poles.

This baby practically sets itself up....

... even a child (or a few of them) can do it!

Not sure of the wisdom of this: we put a tarp beneath the tent, like thinking it will prolong the life of the floor of the tent, or keep moisture away from it, or kind of keep any potential rain water from flooding out the inhabitants of the tent....

...as well as acting as a door mat for those wanting to enter.

It was yet dandelion season in Wisconsin.

Dandelions in every phase of their existence!

The grass was dewy and had not yet been mowed.

Overall, the campground was fairly empty...until we showed up.

First order of business: cooking dinner.

Second order of business: eating dinner!

Yummy!

Joshie really enjoyed the long-anticipated camping trip. Especially the part where we used the "yellow screwdrivers" (plastic tent stakes)!

Special time with dear friends!

Everyone has grown!

Dear sisters in Christ!

I think I figured out why everyone is complaining that their arms hurt...

CHEA 2011: Packing and driving (May 23)

2011-05-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

As our new trend is photo-documenting everything, here are some photos of our trip preparation....

1. Do laundry. Find and wash every single item you can possibly find. Search the closets, under the furniture, under the washer and dryer. This is Mommy's response to any who dare to announce prior to departure: "I need more socks!"

2. Putting outfits together for each person. Certain children are prone to spilling cranberry juice all over themselves, so packing must take this into account.

3. Rebuild the bus-closet. The most bounce free-zone in the bus (if a zone could be bounce-free in the bus) is over the rear wheels. Ironed clothes are hung here in hopes that they will stay hung for the duration of the drive.

4. Take cute pictures of Joshie.

5. Everyone get on board.

6. Everyone get settled with their favorite past-time (for some, crochet).

7. Waiting for everyone to get on board can be a little draining.

8. This is not really a step. The bus has a couple of pop up tops for ventilation, great for photo-documenting your travels!

8. Clear skies for most of the drive, leaving severe storms in St Louis behind us for a while.

9. Scientifically organized to facilitate two wonderful days of camping prior to CHEA! Not designed to store wet campgear near things that should remain dry for CHEA. (Foreshadowing alert.)

10. Enjoying the drive....what drive?

Why teach your child to read using the Bible?

2011-05-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

As we prepare for conference season, we are about too busy to even post!

We are packing, and washing, and printing, and stapling, and revising, and shopping, and weeding, and mowing, and sewing, and flossing (not often enough), and pretty busy. The boys are getting ready for taking registrations for our family's first tech conference. We have stacks of pixels we'd like to post, but thought we'd just share some encouragement to our home schooling brothers and sisters!

Here is a little intro from one of our very own articles...things we are learning here at home. Nothing is new under the sun...we are just rediscovering what was a no-brainer for many who have gone before.

Why Teach Your Child to Read
Using the Bible?

1. It demonstrates that we reject the world’s assertion that reading the Bible is not for children, but agree with Paul’s commendation to Timothy “that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation…” 2 Timothy 3:15

2. Because our child is familiar with the Bible from their earliest days, using the Bible gives them a head start on reading comprehension.

3. Our child has portions of it memorized already. As reading begins, our child has a boost with remembering the many irregularities in English spelling.

4. Our child enjoys having their own Bible and equates it with being BIG.

5. Our child will need the Bible their whole life long.

6. Rather than giving our child a taste for silly phonetic characters, we are giving them a taste for God’s Word.

7. The Bible, unlike phonics readers, is SUPPOSED to mean something! Rather than sweating over consonant blends, our child asks questions about the meaning of the verse!

8. There are no pictures, so less invitation for our child to guess words.

9. They can begin to participate more in family Bible reading and follow along in church meetings.

10. We do not need extra accessories, and the Bible is totally portable. Washer on the blink today? Bring the Bible to the laundromat!

11. When we teach reading using the Bible, we don’t drop our child off at a certain "grade level".

12. Every time you sit down to learn to read with the Bible, you are guaranteed to be blessed!

13. The Bible is the most important book ever written.

Check out the whole article, Teaching Reading Using the Bible, at our website, or better yet, stop by our booth at one of the conferences we are exhibting at this year! (Dates and locations on sidebar!)

Words with impact

2011-05-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Our family has recently been learning the song "El Shaddai." This afternoon while Joshie was being rocked, he began to softly sing the song to himself...

"...To the outcast on her knees,
You were the God Who really sees,
And dynamite will set Your children free."

Ready for the storm

2011-05-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

After a very stormy April, the little boys have become very enthusiastic "weather spotters." Here is a written account by Joanna of one afternoon's play time (their most recent "storm chase").

* * * * *

The little boys are all around the dining room and living room, with MagicMath toys as "computers." They're sending out tornado warnings.

Joshie, armed with a tape measure, tells us his credentials. "I'm a weather spotter guy. See that over there?" he says, pointing out the window. "That's a tornado. It's up in the sky."

Our meteorologists are sending each other "information" on this dangerous storm. They are all under tables. Most are under the dining room table, but Noah's in the den because "that's the only place I can get a good connection." They have a pencil sharpener monitoring the storm. They're sounding the twin-bell alarm clock and crying, "Tornado! Tornado warning for Hong Kong!"

Now they're all under the dining room table. Josh explains the situation. "The tornado hit our computers."

"They're severely broken," says meteorologist Dr. Noah. "We sent the equipment to the nearest location, so hopefully it will be fixed soon, but the weather spotting equipment will be out of order for a few days. It was about an F.20 tornado, with dinner plate-sized hail."

Now I hear good news from Joshie.

"The tornado ran away!"

From 1882

2011-04-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

For those who are grieved by the current wave of watered-down Christianity, here is a challenging excerpt written by one of the first opponents of the church growth movement -- in 1882!

We feel it is very timely and important word for Christian homeschoolers. It was penned by one of our favorite of the "great cloud of witnesses," C.H. Mackintosh....enjoy!

====

"Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled." (Deuteronomy 22:9)

What a weighty principle is here! Do we really understand it? do we see its true spiritual application? It is to be feared there is a terrible amount of "mingled seed" used in the so-called spiritual husbandry of the present day. How much of "philosophy and vain deceit," how much of "science falsely so called," how much of the "rudiments of the world," do we find mixed up in the teaching and preaching throughout the length and breadth of the professing church! How little of the pure, unadulterated seed of the Word of God, the "incorruptible seed" of the precious gospel of Christ, is scattered broad-cast over the field of Christendom in this our day! How few, comparatively, are content to confine themselves within the covers of the Bible for the material of their ministry! Those who are, by the grace of God, faithful enough to do so, are looked upon as men of one idea, men of the old school, narrow, and behind the times.

Well, we can only say, with a full and glowing heart, God bless the men of one idea -- men of the precious old school of apostolic preaching! Most heartily we do congratulate them on their blessed narrowness, and their being behind these dark and infidel times. We are fully aware of what we expose ourselves to in thus writing, but this does not move us. We are persuaded that every true servant of Christ must be a man of one idea, and that idea is Christ; he must belong to the very oldest school -- the school of Christ; he must be as narrow as the truth of Christ; and he must,with stern decision, refuse to move one hair's breadth in the direction of this infidel age. We cannot shake off the conviction that the effort on the part of the preachers and teachers of Christendom to keep abreast of the literature of the day must, to a very large extent, account for the rapid advance of rationalism and infidelity. They have got away from the holy Scriptures, and sought to adorn their ministry by the resources of philosophy, science, and literature. They have catered more for the intellect than for the heart and conscience. The pure and precious doctrines of holy Scripture, the sincere milk of the Word, the gospel of the grace of God and of the glory of Christ, were found insufficient to attract and keep together large congregations. As Israel of old despised the manna, got tired of it, and pronounced it light food, so the professing church grew weary of the pure doctrines of that glorious Christianity unfolded in the pages of the New Testament, and sighed for something to gratify the intellect and feed the imagination. The doctrines of the cross, in which the blessed apostle gloried, have lost their charm for the professing church, and any who would be faithful enough to adhere and confine themselves in their ministry to those doctrines might abandon all thought of popularity.

But let all the true and faithful ministers of Christ, all true workers in His vineyard, apply their hearts to the spiritual principle set forth in Deuteronomy 22:9; let them, with unflinching decision, refuse to make use of "divers seeds" in their spiritual ministry, to "the form of sound words," and ever seek "rightly to divide the word of truth," that so they may not be ashamed of their work, but receive a full reward in that day when every man's work shall be tried of what sort it is. We may depend upon it, the Word of God -- the pure seed -- is the only proper material for the spiritual workman to use. We do not despise learning; far from it; we consider it most valuable in its right place. The facts of science, too, and the resources of sound philosophy, may all be turned to profitable account in unfolding and illustrating the truth of holy Scripture. We find the Blessed Master Himself and His inspired apostles making use of the facts of history and nature in their public teaching; and who, in his sober senses, would think of calling in question the value and importance of a competent knowledge of the original languages of Hebrew and Greek in private study and public exposition of the Word of God?

But admitting all this, as we most fully do, it leaves wholly untouched the great practical principle before us -- a principle to which all the Lord's people and His servants are bound to adhere, namely, that the Holy Ghost is the only power, and holy Scripture the only material, for all true ministry in the gospel and in the Church of God. If this were more fully understood and acted upon, we should witness a very different condition of things throughout the length and breadth of the vineyard of Christ.

Here, however, we must close this section. We have elsewhere sought to handle the subject of "The Unequal Yoke," and shall not therefore dwell upon it here. The Israelite was not to plow with an ox and an ass together; neither was he to wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen. The spiritual application of both these things is as simple as it is important. The Christian is not to link himself with an unbeliever for any object whatsoever, be it domestic, religious, philanthropic, or commercial; neither must he allow himself to be governed by mixed principles. His character must be formed and his conduct ruled by the pure and lofty principles of the Word of God. Thus may it be with all who profess and call themselves Christians.

From a late night discussion at our house

2011-03-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

[neat insight from Dave]

The Apostle Peter was a fisherman. Do you think he ever fell out of a boat? What would his experience teach him about stepping outside of a boat?

And yet, in spite of past experiences, when Jesus called to him, he got up and stepped outside the boat and walked on water.

If God is in the equation, we can never assume our past experiences will define the outcome.

Jesus addressed this after the famous "camel passing through the eye of a needle" discussion. Here was something which common sense, if not experience, would tell us cannot be done.

"With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

Orange you glad your thumbs are dry?

2011-03-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing we can never have enough of at our house, it's bandaids. But the more we stock up, the more perceived injuries we have! We always try to get the cheapest brand and buy in bulk if that is more economical, and we keep the surplus out of sight. Sometimes they are skin tone, sometimes clear, sometimes made from duck tape! (Bandaid quality is not really an issue for us, because their skin-life is not very long.)

Gideon is trying to kick the thumb sucking habit, and he decided that bandaids were just the trick to keep him alert to NOT sucking them. He puts one on each thumb each morning, and he keeps a stash in his pocket for backup.

Gideon's self-imposed objective is to keep the bandaids dry, which is no easy task. While he is not tempted to suck his thumbs while wearing bandaids, their location on the end of his thumbs makes them very susceptible to moisture from many common daily tasks. And as soon as they get a bit wet, they slip off and are unnoticed until the vacuum roller starts smoking.

A side benefit is we can track Gideon's movement, without the use of GPS, simply from the trail of bandaid wrappers.

One night recently we were at a meeting, and I took Gideon to the bathroom. I noticed he was mounding up the cool, foam hand soap at the sink, way more than is appropriate for a 6 year old. As I prepared to halt him, I noticed he had one bright orange bandaid, angled at about 45 degrees, on each cheek. He truly resembled a native American warrior chief.

My priority shifted from soap stewardship to bandaid stewardship. I quickly removed and disposed of the seemingly squandered bandaids, initiating one of my abbreviated lectures on bandaid budgeting.

Before I could get to point B, Gideon provided me with a helpful bit of unexpected information.

"Those were on my thumbs.
I was trying to keep them dry!"

Smile, God loves you!

2011-03-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

One afternoon while working in the kitchen, Hannah chipped off a bad spud spot. She did a double take before snapping this cute little picture...

A verse a day!!

2011-02-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

Our verse a day is going pretty well here in 2011, praise the Lord.

Our introduction to this idea came several years ago, while having friends over to visit at our house in Texas. Each morning, the families all gathered for songs and then working on their verse for the day. We found it so simple. One thing we really liked was the sense of routine and order it gave to the beginning of the day!

Now, years ago, we would think memorizing a Bible verse per day would be a bit to difficult and ambitious to keep up with, but we have found it quite doable, with the Lord's help. The key is not flannelgraph or mnemonic devices or index cards. Its just simple repetition and review!

Our habit has been to gather everyone in the morning before breakfast for devotions. Currently we are in our den, which is a huge room, but we used to meet around our kitchen table in our little house in the woods. We had a large white board in our old house, but ironically, there is barely any wall space for such a thing in our new huge den, so we use an easel.

Dave selects a passage for us to work on. We are just starting Galatians 6, but just finished the first part of Matthew 8.

The way it works is that every morning, after having some song time, Dave pulls out his Bible and reads the passage to us. At first, he just reads phrase by phrase, and then we echo it back, kind of like a responsive reading, except we are just repeating.

After day one, we have memorized the first verse, so on day 2, we all RECITE verse one together, and then continue the rest of the passage echoing Dave phrase by phrase. Because we RECITE together, those who have it down solid, or have PARTS of it down solid give a leg-up to the rest of us who may be a little slow.

After the reciting part, one of the big kids writes the day's verse on a whiteboard in our den where we gather. We discuss the verse's meaning, find related verses elsewhere, define words, etc. If applicable, we then make an illustration of the verse, too.

The little boys get our notebooks and pens out, and we write the verse on a new page of our book.

(We get out the notebooks after the verse recitation and discussion so as not to be a distraction!)

The little ones who cannot read or write have a notebook and we can make the words in dots for them to trace.

Despite their lack of reading, our little guys easily NAIL the entire passage, even the two year old! They can recite the passage with just a hint word here or there; sometimes they don't even need that and we hear them saying it in the shopping cart! Its not because we give them vitamins or because they are super-smart, either. Children are wired for memorization and, boy, do we wish we had taken advantage of this fact when our oldest were still very young!

[It is sad that some homeschool experts recommend that parents have their young children memorize all kinds of Latin and facts and figures, but then only recommend a Bible story book for teaching Bible.]

Certainly, their understanding may be limited, though not as much as you might think, but we are convinced there is great value in their participation at this early age. Because of the fruit we have seen, our older kids are all fairly determined to begin Bible reading with their babies from their earliest days!

So everyone does their best at writing our their verse for the day....especially if its going to be photographed!

After discussion and having everyone write the verse in their notebook, we go around in a circle and take turns reciting this. Even this helps, because the faster memorizers recite first, and so I can hear the verse over and over before its my turn to try it. Ooops.

As I said, the key is repetition and review. We have stacked up quite a few passages since we started this method and need to review them, so we will usually recite a past passage together before working on the new verse a day passage.

We have found that even parents with dwindling brain cells can make amazing progresss. We don't do any intentional review at other times of the day, but just work on this in the morning.

Also, it is such a blessing, a major blessing, to start the day together with the LORD, singing and getting into the Word and praying together.

When we first started, we were somewhat hit and miss with our consistency. But now it is very much a part of each day. The children know what we are doing first thing! We wish we had started this tradition from the very beginning, but thank the Lord for these 6 or so years of taking a verse a day!

We hope this will encourage you to consider this wonderful, simple way of starting your day with the Lord!

For more information, please read How to teach your child a Verse A Day.

Block party

2011-02-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

We are full swing into winter now, but before the weather truly went north, we engaged on a pre-winter adventure! (Well, this was after the pre-winter roofing adventure, but before the main winter adventure which we will touch on another time.)

Our station wagon needed a new fuel pump. The shop graciously offered to fix it for a 4 digit figure. We briefly thought about it (done!), and then it was decided that we would do it ourselves. "We" meaning our boys.

Without much thought and needing a level place to work, we parked the wagon on the street. This was because the garage contained our pickup truck, which was in need of a new battery and wasn't really needed, and because our driveway is pretty steep.

So, the boys were about to start the fuel pump job on the street, when a friend cautioned us that it was not safe to work on the street. So we began to think of ways to move the pickup out of the garage and move the wagon to the garage. We knew it would be an uphill battle.

Working both for and against us was gravity. It was working for us in getting the non-working pickup OUT of the garage, but working against us in getting the wagon up the driveway and into the garage.

Finally, Dave decided that it was past time to begin working on the wagon and saw that freezing rain was in the forecast, so we had a brief family meeting to consider our goals, objectives and resources, and we concocted a plan.

First, we cleared the pickup out of the driveway and parked it on the street. That was pretty simple, except we knew it had to be away from the driveway enough to not be in the path of other vehicles...

Then, we decided to take what some would consider a deficit and turn it into an asset.....

By process of elimination (it was the only running vehicle), it was decided to use the bus to shove the station wagon up the driveway and into the garage. Our usual practice of taking the driveway at an angle to park the bus (in order to not bottom out in the driveway) was to be modified. We had to kind of take the driveway head-on to keep the wagon headed for the garage and not the neighbor's yard.

The preparations began: a spare tire was strategically tied to the front end of the bus, allowing us to cushion the humongous dent being created in the white molded fiberglass bumper of the wagon. We also used some padded window insulation, to keep the tire from scratching the paint.

Hold on, hold on! Besides the impending dent, we did not figure that both the front end of the bus and the back end of the wagon were converging in the dip in front of the driveway at the same time, creating what would later be known as the "debris in the dustpan" effect. As Mommy didn't want to watch the wagon pop a wheelie, we began to scramble for Plan B.

The spectators inside our house accumulated at the front windows. We are uncertain at how many other houses they accumulated.

As you can see, this was an interesting situation.

Enter Grandpa P.

Across the street, Grandpa P. was growing accustomed to checking on what the Kleins are up to now. He saw this as an opportunity for him to help, and he graciously offered the use of the front of his truck to get the job done.

By this time, another neighbor came by to join in the fun and offer valuable insight and moral support. And he also brought his vehicle...

Slow and steady, we made some upward progress with the wagon, until...

the Jolly Trolley came through.

So before the Jolly Trolley could pass, we had to back the bus up, and both neighbors had to move their vehicles!

Here am I in the bus, on the wrong side of the road. The boys put the parking brake on the wagon, Grandpa P and Neighbor B backed out and parked on the wrong side of the road in front of me, and we waited out the commuters.

Not long after, the school bus came through!

The bus was followed by the police, but he was just patrolling and did not come to investigate was we were trying to do.

Progress using Grandpa Ps truck again came to a halt due to the dustpan effect. But, Plan C came to us in a flash: pull the wagon up with the truck!

The only hangup here was that it was necessary to drive over the bus' normal parking spot, which happened to have an oil slick. Tires began to spin, wagon began to fishtail. Solomon scrambled to find appropriate absorbent material to provide the necessary traction. Ashes from the fireplace? Rolled oats? I forget.

Okay, so here is the wagon in the garage. We were very thankful to the Lord for helping us get this accomplished! Whew!

Where is Grandpa P's truck? Well, the truck actually pulled into the garage. We put the brake on the wagon. The truck backed out of the driveway. The boys pushed the wagon the rest of the way in.

Well, a certain feeling of relief came over the Kleins to be sure: we were all alive and the wagon was safely in the garage. And we trust a feeling of satisfaction of helping neighbors came over the gentlemen who came to help in our time of need. We all had a good laugh, we thanked the men profusely, and they went their separate ways.

Then we noticed: our pickup truck was still on the street...

But that is a story for another time... or not at all.

Greetings from Miss-consin!

2011-01-20T08:32:00.000-08:00

We were blitzed last night and it's not done yet!

The birds were hopping around, dusting snow from the branches.

It's gotta be a foot so far!

Taking out the trash is going to be quite the expedition!

You gotta do what you gotta do!

"Where do we make fire?"

2011-01-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

Joshie is 2 years old, and we include him in our chores as much as possible. A good, helpful, easy, physical job that he enjoys is switching laundry loads. This is really great for Mommy because it reduces the bending over! Oh the loads I did myself until I discovered that the little guys LOVE to do it!

Anyway, on this occasion, he was playing with the button that caused the light inside the dryer to go out when the door was closed. To distract him, I pointed out the decal near the button. The decal cautions users to not put anything soaked in flammable liquids in the dryer. Or you know what will happen.

This prompted Joshie, who associated the decal's warning with the light switch button, to give an impromptu sermon on the evils of pushing the button. He knows this would be bad, because the dryer is not where we are supposed to "make fire!"

Abi added subtitles, but I don't think they are necessary. His very last line is so sweet! Enjoy!

Geneologies!!!!!!

2010-12-29T12:24:00.000-08:00

One thing that surprised us about copying the Bible was the value of the geneologies. Contrary to what we once thought, they are actually very meaningful. And we have noticed that as our children have become familiar with geneologies, especially through Bible copy, they are able to process them and make sense of them and use them.

We have found geneologies to be one of the biggest helps in working towards Bible "fluency" as we have started to call it. (This is different from "sprituality" of course, but we are told to sow generously!!)

Of course, as ancient documents go, genealogies are one of the things that give legitimacy to a work, because they anchor the document in history. So we have to un-brainwash our minds from thinking they are boring; geneologies actually help substantiate the reliability of the Bible! Duh!

We got an interesting article excerpt along those lines from our Berean Call email list.

The people of Niger have a long history and deep family roots. One way you can get their attention is to tell a story. Another way is to show a genealogy.

This was one way it became apparent that genealogies would be a way to share the Gospel. Tom Dudenhofer with Audio Scripture Ministries says, "I've got to admit, I've never even thought about the book of Genesis as being an evangelistic tool."

Here's what happened: an ASM missionary shared that he met with an individual whose father was a qur'anic scholar -- someone gave him an Arabic Bible. Because he could read, he began to investigate Scriptures, starting with the book of Genesis.

When he finished, he began to tell people around him that "this book [the Bible] is True" because of the better record of genealogies and the accuracy of recounting historic events.
Then, he took the next four years and read through the entire Bible. He came out of that process and said "This Bible is Truth" and began to follow Christ.

Dudenhofer had a "light bulb" moment. "They understand the importance of the genealogies. To them, it's very significant. The thing that seemed to catch their attention was the accuracy with which God's Word recorded those genealogies. In other words, they were there with purpose."

http://mnnonline.org/article/15034

(Missionary Network News, 12/2/10).

Dinner at Klein O Velli's!

2010-12-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

Last night was the long-awaited "restaurant night". The last time we had done this was back in Minnesota, many years and many babies ago! We had the idea of heating up all the leftovers, none of which were sufficient for a meal for everyone, and making up a menu, and playing "restaurant".

So, all week long, we planned on doing restaurant, and the little boys were especially excited about the idea. In addition to leftovers we made some dishes from random ingredients we had in the fridge, too. While we were busy in the kitchen, Mommy and Sammy worked on the menu, and Sarah worked on creating the proper ambiance...

The key to having people want to eat in your restaurant, in addition to having them be members of your family and unable to drive elsewhere, is an appealing menu. Click to read ours!

We had to strike a proper balance between servers and customers. For some reason, all the younger ones wanted to serve, and the older ones wanted to consume.

Garlicking up the free Panera bread our neighbors bless us with every few weeks.

At Klein O Velli's, the customer is always cozy!

Everything looked so delicious, Joshie had a hard time ordering.

Sammy anxiously waited for the orders to roll in.

Crispy Crunchy Clean Celery Broomsticks were a hit --- with Mommy, at least.

Our chefs prepared Orange Wagon Wheels for the first time. Joshie ate enough of these for a whole pioneer train!

The older siblings knew money was no object as they perused the appealing offerings.

Susanna cheerfully and professionally took orders, then ran squealing to the kitchen to alert the crew.

The big kids enjoyed good conversation during the wait for their meals.

"Do I serve from the right or from the left? Oh well."

"More wagon wheels!" Joshie called! Each wagon wheel began intact, and eventually Joshie ate a hole through the center, exposing his hard working teeth and tongue. Q-T!!!

Of course, the kids knew for it to be a real restaurant, we needed Customer Feedback cards. So, we made some up for our customers, and provided pens. Our restaurant was graded on the important qualities of: service, cleanliness, hospitality, food quality, speed, order accuracy, flavorliness, peacefulness, orderliness, and whiteness of teeth.

After all, it wasn't a real restaurant.

More good stuff!

2010-12-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

As we have often observed, moving around all over the place has allowed us to meet many precious people from all over. Then, as we continue in our pilgrimage, we meet others who we wish we could introduce to the previous folks, and sometimes that works out.

So, after we left Wisconsin for the first time, we went to the Texas border. Moving to Texas really changed us a LOT in many ways. And it was there we met dear friends who worked in Mexico. These folks were acquainted with a dear brother, now with the Lord, from Wisconsin! How we wished we would have known of him while we still lived in Wisconsin, but it was only by moving to Texas that we heard of him!

However, during our 4 years in Texas, the Lord orchestrated things so that we still had work connections in Wisconsin, and finally, wound up re-re-locating up there. While that was a HARD HARD thing, to leave the doorstep of Mexico, it allowed us to become better acquainted with the family of this man. We were blessed to be able to go up to northern Wisconsin a few times a year for really good fellowship....and to meet others ... and I suppose it will continue.

Here is our dear sister, Sharon, with her late husband, Glenn Conjurske, who went to be with the Lord in 2001, which was the year we moved to Wisconsin the very first time (but didn't know of these folks). She is a sweet and hospitable lady, and we greatly miss taking over her humble abode!

Anywho, this departed brother left a legacy of wonderful exhortation and encouragment, and we just found much of it is on the web. In particular, we would direct you to a wonderful message called "Casting Nets Into the Sea". I can't give you a direct link to that message, but you can find it listed here. We find this message a great complement to the booklet we offer called "How Your Children Can Have Success" Glenn's messages are available for listening on your computer or downloading.

Hope you can enjoy these soon!

We learn a lot from things going wrong

2010-11-29T03:23:00.000-08:00

One comparison that can be made between homeschooling and institutional schooling is that in an institution, presentation is everything. Since you don't have "real life," the theory is that you present the information in logical steps so that the student can properly learn. Even though this is totally opposite of how a child learns from their first day of life, somehow this is considered the best method in school. Great debates are waged, for example, over the order in which letter sounds should be taught. At least one author cautioned that emotional damage could occur to a child who didn't receive reading instruction according to his recommended sequence.

How does a child learn language? Do they start off hearing nothing of English until they reach a certain known level of cognition, and then they are sat down and introduced to how to conjugate "to be"? No, of course not. They absorb language from before they are born, and each day they acquire more and more context along with words, so language is effortlessly learned. Yes, corrections to our children's speech are necessary, but even without that, the tendency is to learn better and better speech.

How does a child learn self-control and discipline? Do they start off with no correction at all until they reach a certain known level of cognition (like many people recommend), and then one day they are sat down and introduced to the concept of "no"? Various pictures of objects, or video clips of actions, are displayed before them, preferable in a large group of age-mates, and they all learn to recite "no" in unison? No, of course not. They learn "no" (or should learn "no"!!) each day along with proper context, and consequences. In fact, we learned that our younger children learned a lot, before we knew they were capable, simply by watching the OLDER children receive discipline! (God sure designed efficiency into the family!)

But back to the institution. Years ago, a teacher friend cautioned, when she heard we intended to keep our children home from school and teach them, "That's fine as long as they have a quiet place to study."

Now, even as inexperienced parents, we saw some holes in that principle. We do look for organization and coordination in our day, and we LOVE quiet! However, there are benefits to learning in a real-life environment with the occasional (or frequent) interruption, discipline issue, plumbing emergency or smoke alarm malfunction which causes you to open all your windows on a day when its 20 degrees out, and have to load all the children into a running vehicle with heat because you cannot figure out how to shut off the beep which is emanating throughout the entire house.

When I was in grade school, there was a month in which the school received a series of bomb threats, and we were all evacuated into the back field of the school while the fire department searched the school top to bottom. It was several times a week. During the hours we spent in the yard, all "learning" stopped. The teachers were just trying to keep law and order. Books were left in the classrooms. There was no apparent thing to study. Nobody even took the time to explain the problem of the false threats, the procedure of searching the school, or the names of the weeds we were sitting on. Real life was an interruption.

What do we learn from things going wrong?

Well, most obviously, we learn how to go on when things go wrong, when we are inconvenienced, when things break and we have to make do, when illness or accidents happen. That is the real world. In fact, if we are trying to follow the Bible and place its priories ahead of man's priorities, we have MUCH to learn:

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

James 1:2-8

Interesting that though wisdom is mentioned, it is patience that we read which makes us "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." In our family, we certainly need both.

We want to finish up the rest of our scheduling post (partly because of the benefit for us in reviewing how we got to where we are), but we LOST THE PHOTO we were going to use! Real life! But a memory that came to me was how when we started the schedule, it was hard to break the frustrated thought pattern when interruptions to the schedule come up.

That is real life. I loved how Teri Maxwell compared interruptions to the storms that come up, often bringing unexpected variations to normal peaceful seasons, and how we can learn to recognize these interruptions as from the Lord and learn in the midst of them (here is a link to a similar article she wrote on this topic). It does not mean the schedule goes out the window...not if we have prayerfully put that schedule together. The schedule still represents a normal day's priorities. But as we read in James above, the interruptions, trials, etc which God allows are STILL part of his will for our day.

If we are anchored in God's Word, not our emotions, we can learn to roll with the interruptions, walking in His Spirit which guides us moment by moment. We learn the character qualities of patience and humility too...which are the best foundation for all other learning!

We can learn a lot from things going wrong.

That is our prayer.

Really!

2010-11-25T13:54:00.000-08:00

We interrupt tortilla frying for the following important news:

Now, back to those tortillas!

In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

Joshie goes shopping!

2010-11-24T18:23:00.000-08:00

A delegation of Kleins went shopping at Walmart today. It has been pouring rain much of the day, and inside there was much bustle among the shoppers. The children all know we are not shopping on "Black Friday." That is why we thought we'd go today and avoid the crowds -- wrongo!

We took five shopping carts (two were for people-transport and outerwear). We actually didn't need that many for cargo, as it turned out. We took our time, since we hoped to stock up for the weekend.

Abi jotted down some cute comments on various Walmart products by our littlest shopper, Joshie, 2 years and 3 mos.

Pink Bath Pouf...
"That's a fishy. That's a pink fishy.
When I take a bath, I wear that."

Hand soap bottles...
"Those are tiny soaps for me!"

Oral-B circular floss container...
"That's a tiny wheel."

Toothpaste...
"That's for brushing your toofies."

Garnier shampoo and conditioner...
"That's paint."

Sewing Machine...
"That's for Mogan!"

Picture of a Killer Whale...
"That's a penguin...?"

Dishwasher detergent squares...
"That's nummy!"
(Abi corrected that one.)

AXE deodorant pack...
"That's for boys, who use the vacuum."

Dove soap gift collection...
"That's for girls. It's a person." (meaning purse)

Nectarine-scented Dove body bars...
"Is that orange juice?"

Corn husks (for making tamales) ...
"That's spaghetti."

Baubles on a Christmas tree...
"Those are apples."

===

We are enjoying a week with Dave off work and hope to cook some enchiladas tomorrow. We are staying home, as a few of us have colds, so it will just be the 15 of us. We have so much for which to be THANKFUL!

The best cheesecake we've had in a long time! Pt 2

2010-11-20T05:06:00.001-08:00

And the photos continue, thanks to the overwhelming demands of our blog audience....

We took a day of rest on Sunday, and enjoyed a visit with our family at Madison Grace Fellowship. Our brother, Dan, joined us...everyone enjoyed meeting him. We had a yummy meal after the meeting, and we stayed pretty late.

Joshie enjoyed getting loved up by sister Icy!

We had very cooperative weather, praise the Lord, and made rapid advances with precious friends who brought a meal, fellowship, and more helpers!

Dave had the week off, a total gift from the Lord, so he rolled up his sleeves, cut some plywood, and made a few trips to Home Depot....

We enjoyed spending some time with our much missed neighbors, Rachel and Azzy! Boy, has that boy grown!

We thank the Lord for few close calls with our team on the roof. Daddy and Mommy declined working on the roof, so we just experienced nausea from below.

We felt the need to clean!

Reciting lines from Pilgrim's Progress makes the work go faster, as does a nail gun!

Zak's previous experiences helped tremendously in the challenges of this roof.

Hannah and Sarah were a big help, once they got their "shingle-legs."

Joshie enjoyed tearing around with the shingle-mover, our tough little solid wheeled transporter. Stay off the sidewalk!

One of the hardest jobs -- hauling shingles up the ladder!

Nearing the end of the job, the kids' thoughts turned to finding the proper victory pose...

Fifty bundles of Heatherbrook gray, 25 year, architectural shingles. They resist winds to 80 mph. Raked the ground clean (except for the occasional nail) and filled the dumpster.

Loaded up the rest of our stuff from the garage, left for St Louis by 4 PM.

Opting for one more gravity-defying, parent-nauseating feat, they settled on this pose -- though some of those who helped the most were absent for the photo we thank you so very much for your help and encouragement and tools!

And now, to explain the title.

Many moons ago, our brother Dan told us the story of when he was once served cheesecake. His hostess asked him how he liked it. Not wanting to disclose that he found cheesecake disgusting, he answered, "It's the best cheesecake I've had in a long time."

His perceptive hostess then asked, "Yes, but do you LIKE it."

At that point, says he, he explained (graciously we are sure) that he didn't really care for cheesecake at all.

So after hearing that story, our family has adopted his politely evasive reply into the pool of Klein inside jokes, to be used and over-used into the immediate future...and beyond!

"So, how do you like the cheesecake, Dan?"

(Ha ha ha ha ha ..... ha ha ha ha!!!)