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raisingcovenantchildren

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.

The grandparents sent us a few live crabs last nig

The grandparents sent us a few live crabs last night, and my four year old was enamored. The children are not able to go anywhere at all because the longest lockdown in the world is still in place, except for short walks around our village. So I picked up the second volume of the Christian Liberty Nature Reader, a revised version of Julia McNair Wright's Sea-Side and Way-side, and started reading about Mr. and Mrs. Crab. After reading, my son went to see the crustaceans to test out what he just heard about the eyes popping in and out. Then he comes back to me, saying, "Science is real!" The previous night during Family Worship as my husband was reading through the book of James, both kids realized that the verses read out loud seemed to be talking about their situation. That's when I see them with wide-eyed wonder, exclaiming, "God is speaking to me!"
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Part of the reason why we decided to homeschool was to keep the wonder alive and become forefront witnesses to it's blossoming. And it's the two books of God's revelation, first in His world and then in His Word, that has allowed us to see how wonder has grown to worship in these early years. I am reminded of what Stephen Turley wrote at the end of his book, Awakening Wonder, "Our task as educators is nothing less than to awaken students to the self-replenishing fountain of indescribable delights of a new creation in Christ, to give them the gift of the freedom to be human again, and in so doing to watch their lives blossom into rational, poetic, worshipers of God, and through their lives to get a taste of what life will be like when Christ returns, when God will be all in all. This is our calling, and it is beautiful."

Salvete, omnes! . We've tried a couple of Latin

Salvete, omnes!
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We've tried a couple of Latin curricula for children in our homeschool, but #ISpeakLatin by Andrew Campbell has been, by far, the most effective for us. One of my objectives is to get my children to start speaking Latin while they acquire vocabulary and syntax through the process, and this very resource does that job. I've come to appreciate the natural approach in learning the language as I go through Lingua Latina myself.
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I Speak Latin comes in Restored Classical and Ecclesiastical pronunciations. It requires no worksheets, no singing or chants, and no reading necessary on the part of the student. It is all done in conversation and it is super engaging as students learn the verbs through physical movements! It also comes with FREE audio files. Just visit quidnampress.com and have a listen! One of the most encouraging things I've read from Dr. Campbell, who wrote 'Latin-Centered Curriculum' himself, was in the intro when he said, "The accents of almost all contemporary Latin speakers reflect their respective mother tongues, for the simple reason that all modern speakers have learned Latin as a foreign language, usually as teens or adults. We are all 'barbarians.' As with any language, the bottom line is that we are able to understand each other well enough to communicate. So please do not worry about the 'correct' accent. Speak Latin like a barbarian, and speak it proudly!"
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Another new Latin resource that we set time for during the week is #LatinStorytime by Emily Weis. Latin Storytime encourages learning Latin by natural cultivation through stories, like the Little Red Hen, Ugly Duckling, The Frog Prince, etc. The children and I have gone through several stories and we look forward to listening and learning from Mrs. Weis every time she comes up with a new lesson. Parents can subscribe to the newsletter and receive a guide with vocabulary and grammar notes..

You can find more links to these Latin resources at my blog. Vale!

October is Reformation month and we decided to foc

October is Reformation month and we decided to focus on one person aside from Martin Luther because the children are pretty familiar with him now. William Tyndale is our chosen figure for this year. The English Reformer became an outlaw and his "crime" was translating the Bible into English for the common man.
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On this day, 6th of October in 1536, William Tyndale was strangled, tied and burned at the stake. As he was dying, Tyndale cried out, saying, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes." True enough, his work 'The Obedience of the Christian Man' was instrumental in emboldening King Henry VIII to defy Rome.
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We watched the Torchlighters film (also readily available online!) last Lord's Day and at the end, my children were quite sad. It was an opportunity to make them realize that someone died to make the English Bible, similar to what we now hold in our hands, available. It was also an eye-opener for missions, knowing that some people groups have yet to have the Bible translated into their own native tongue.
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My children may or may not do marvelous works for God like Tyndale, but they are beginning to understand that the Christian life is not all rainbows and sunshine. My prayer, too, is for them to realize, in the words of Tyndale: "There is no work better than to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a cobbler, or an apostle, all are one; to wash dishes and to preach are all one, as touching the deed, to please God.”

(Swipe to see some church history resources we'll be using)

#ReformedReadsForKids
#ReformedHomeschoolersPH

I almost gave up on Shakespeare when we tried to d

Mid-Autumn Festival is coming next week (October 1

Mid-Autumn Festival is coming next week (October 1st), so we made some homemade salt dough mooncakes for fun! They also smell delicious because we ran out of food coloring so we used ube, strawberry and butter flavoring instead. This has now become a little annual tradition for our family.

中秋節快樂!
Zhōngqiū jié kuàilè!

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