CHEA 2011: Camping, Day 1 (May 23)

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)

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?

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

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

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

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

[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?

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!

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!!

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

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!

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?"

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!