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raisingcovenantchildren

You have recorded all my ways, All pathways that I

You have recorded all my ways,
All pathways that I took;
Within Your bottle placed my tears,
Are they not in Your book?
When I cry out then my foes flee;
I know God is for me.

In God whose word I give my praise,
The LORD's word I revere,
In God I now have put my trust,
So I will have no fear
In God is where my trust will be;
What can man do to me?

Your vows are binding on me,
God, I'll render thanks to You.
For You have saved my soul from death,
My feet from stumbling, too.
So I will walk before God's sight
With life and in its light.

"You Have Recorded All My Ways"
Psalm 56:8-13 from 'The Book of Psalms For Worship'
Sung to the tune of CORONATION 86.86.86 (aka All Hail The Pow'r of Jesus' Name)

Happy New Year, friends!

We got the kids one mushroom kit each after seeing

We got the kids one mushroom kit each after seeing the same one in our homeschool provider's community group. We grew, cooked and ate a pink flamingo oyster mushroom in a week's time! It tasted meatier and has a more umami flavor than the usual white one, after sauteing it in butter and garlic. The last pic is the dish. See how it shriveled down from the first pic? It is a first for me, too.

After a few days of seeing his sister's pink mushroom sprout, the young boy said, "I'm proud of you, Achi (sister)!"

A week had past and his yellow mushroom has yet to start growing. It's only a matter of hours now. But he was feeling a bit downcast after we harvested the pink one already. It was a good reminder that it is not all man's work. It is much the same in other areas, whether in ministry or family, the Lord ultimately causes things to grow in His own time.

#haightsfarm
#ourlivinglearning

My interview about classical education with @shaki

Without swiping at first, can you guess the book c

Without swiping at first, can you guess the book characters featured in the first panel?

If you guessed 'The Little Prince,' then you are right. It is the story that I have come to love and hope to share with my own children. So when @southernvoicesprintingpress announced that they were releasing a fresh Filipino translation of #AngMuntingPrinsipe, I awaited its release and received our copy today! We do have the older translation from another local publisher, but the rendering is not as smooth as Lilia F. Antonio's version, in my opinion.

This new volume also comes with high praise from professors from the big universities in the Philippines, such as Ateneo, La Salle and UP. What I particularly noticed is the detail in the cover design which features the silver title complementing the glossy pages and colored illustrations that accompany the beloved story.

The price may come off a bit steep at first, but the amount of work that went into this project make it all well worth your money. I am a big believer in local publishing, and I am more than glad to support this stellar work! Just as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once wrote, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." May our children likewise hear and learn that "esensyal ay di nakikita sa mata" in their own native tongue, a lesson that we all need to embrace in this modern world.

Be sure to catch this and other titles at the coming #MIBF2020 online! Or message Southern Voices Printing Press to order today.

My Instagram is fast becoming a homeschool #bookstagram of some sort. And I guess I'm happy if it grows into that.

We wrapped up the second quarter of homeschooling

We wrapped up the second quarter of homeschooling in the previous week with another assessment. My student tried her best to narrate one of these books for her Filipino test!
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I am always on the look out for local materials that will enrich our curriculum, and I am glad to have found these three bilingual titles by @tahananbooks. The stories are short enough for Kindergarteners, but is imaginative enough for early elementary audiences. I only wish that Tahanan had more instead of just three. And in case you're wondering, we got our copies from @inkbooknook.
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On a side note, it can get tricky when you seek to employ the liberal arts tradition in a subjects-based curriculum presented by the DepEd, so I wrote down some of the principles that surround and guide our practices. For English and Literature, we try to immerse ourselves in the great books that have shaped great men and women in the Western civilization, always in search of truth, goodness and beauty. And as for the Filipino subject, we seek to be at home in the Filipino language (and culture) in order to inculcate the love and respect of country and countrymen. Having these books on Greek myths translated to Filipino is one of the ways of bringing these two "subjects" together while reflecting the telos of classical education, to cultivate wisdom and virtue in the heart of the student.
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In other news, my posts here have been sparse lately and I'm thinking about taking a hiatus, maybe a permanent one. Not sure how long I can keep this social media account. But who knows?

One of the scariest things to read in Scripture is

One of the scariest things to read in Scripture is the Sinai account as the Israelites were called to clean themselves for God shall speak to them. We've reached this part again in our reading, and it is not an easy scene to behold—thunder claps, lightning flashes, bellowing smoke and trumpet sounds. Moses even had to put hedges around bottom of the mountain to protect the Israelites from the awesome power of God. In the midst of the terrifying sights and sounds, God gave them the Ten Commandments.

Catherine Vos writes, "Why did God give them a law they could not keep? God gave them this law to show them how sinful they really were... He wanted them to discover how desperately they need the Saviour whom God had promised to send."

How awful must this mountain experience be that the people themselves cried, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

Yet Marianne Radius assures us, "It is so dreadfully important to know how great God is, and how very, very small you and I, His children, are. And even more, to know how righteous and holy and pure God is, and how stained with sin the hearts within our breasts... It is not until you have really seen for ourself the desperate, the absolutely hopeless condition you are in, that you will turn to God for help. Then—when you know at last that you yourself are helpless—you will throw yourself entirely on the mercy and the forgiveness of our God."

The people were fearful to draw near to God; but God sent His Son to come and He camped among us. Jesus obeyed all of God's commandments faithfully, and yet He died in order to save us from sin and bring us to God.

He has hushed the law's loud thunder
He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame

As God's children, Christians no longer approach Mount Sinai, but ascend Mount Zion, the eternal city of our God. And God invites us to come. We need not fear because Christ's flesh was torn in order for us to go before Him.

When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God

Both of these story Bibles are theologically rich and I could not recommend them enough.

My Pre-K student doesn't do much but play these da

My Pre-K student doesn't do much but play these days. I have done away with busy work and simply let him be little. Earlier posts show you how much stuff we've tried to do. Busy work looks nice and put together, but they offer little value. But sure, it does keep kids busy. My views have changed over time and it continues to grow. What we do a lot of, however, is reading aloud. And that's totally fine in the early years. Some new mothers don't really believe that is enough. I didn't think so too. But it is. It really is. Talk to them, read to them and play with them. Do "life" together. It is absolutely exhausting, but it is a worthy goal and worthwhile effort for the sake of our children.

It does seem like we're not doing anything, but the words we speak and the stories we share are foundational because the overall thought and life culture of our home is what makes our children. The Greeks call it the 'paideia' and Charlotte Mason calls it the atmosphere. Thus, the way we fill those days matter because our habits and loves influence us. We fashion and form our loves. But in the end, our loves shape us. This is why Augustine deems virtue as ordo amoris, the order of loves.

This morning, my son drew two bulls. It was reminiscent of the characters we read from 'The Boy of the Pyramids' and they were in fact, Nubia and Red Boy from the story. I read the book primarily to my elementary student, but the younger one was actually listening all along! So I heartily agree with Vigen Guroian when he wrote that, "Mere instruction in morality is not sufficient to nurture the virtues... a compelling vision of the goodness of goodness itself needs to be presented in a way that is attractive and stirs the imagination. A good moral education addresses both the cognitive and affective dimensions of human nature. Stories are an irreplaceable medium for this kind of moral education—that is, the education of character." If I were to design a curriculum for the early years, it would be filled with Scripture, songs, sayings, and a whole lot of stories. Education is not merely intellectual, you see, it is formational. Stories shape us. But only the Gospel story can transform us.

"If I am going to be a teacher of virtue, I need t

"If I am going to be a teacher of virtue, I need to be a virtuous teacher. If I hope to invite students into a formative educational project, then I, too, need to relinquish any myth of independence, autonomy, and self-sufficiency and recognize that my own formation is never final. Virtue is not a one-time accomplishment; it requires a maintenance program."

―James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

A santan bracelet made by my daughter after gather

A santan bracelet made by my daughter after gathering a few flowers from our afternoon nature walk. I used to enjoy taking and tasting the nectar out of these flowers when I was a little girl. Did you?

I've read an article about a Christian artist that

I've read an article about a Christian artist that I grew up listening to as a teenager is now under investigation for an abuse allegation. News like these are always painful to read. It's never easy, especially when children are involved.

Sexual intimacy is good and beautiful and is a gift given by God to be enjoyed by a man and a woman joined together in marriage. The Bible celebrates love, marriage and sex. But sinners, like us, distort these wonderful blessings. And our children are not exempted from these perversions. Part of the reason why I have consciously left out my children's faces and names from the public is to protect them from online predators. Child pornography is a seriously atrocious business and I know people who work tirelessly to bring these evil people to justice. The data shows that people involved in these malevolent acts aren't total strangers and are often family. You can learn more at @ijmph.

It's not an easy topic to open up with children, especially younger ones. Our relationship with them plays a vital role here. Protection, safety, privacy and comfort are all-important things our children need to know and must be confident to come to us parents for. I've always found that books are good tools to help us nurture this relationship.

'God Made All of Me' helps ease these difficult conversations. My daughter from early on knows not to keep any secrets because of this book. 'Good Pictures and Bad Pictures Jr.' provides a practical three-step plan that help preschool children remember what to do when they are confronted with pornography. The original version for elementary children tackles the same thing, but in more detail. And lastly, 'Not If But When' provides a number of opportunities to share stories and talk about things that matter, not just one time but over the course of a few chapters. There are dedicated boy and girl sections in the book as well.

I pray these things won't ever happen to us or to any of your children. But when they do, may they have the courage to fight against sin and seek to glorify God, both body and soul. May our homes, schools and churches always be safe places for children.

2020 © Raising Covenant Children