What is God asking you to trust Him with?

So I just off the phone with four loved ones tonight, each in their own journey of trust. 

One is waiting in the hospital to have a baby- on bed rest, praying things will go well and she will be healthy after the birth of her child. Praying her baby will wait and God will put His mighty hand of protection over her unborn child.

The other is waiting on God. Allowing Him to turn her life upside down, take her to Africa and asking her to put all her trust in Him. Not her own ability to provide, but His. She is boarding a plane this Friday with so many questions unanswered, so many things left unopened and the road so foggy.

Then I think of my friend who just got a diagnoses for her daughter, one that she hoped wouldn't be. She is struggling with what it means, what they need to do. How will this effect their schooling, their lives, the future of their daughter? Will she love school if she has this "tag?" Will she be able to learn as she had envisioned? What will the future hold?

Then there is my family member who waits on the results back from her biopsy. She waits thinking and knowing the results of this test can make a world of difference for her teenage daughters, her husband, and family. She answers not to the fear, but to the faith that God has her here. Her voice is clear, her road is set and she is bravely walking on it.

Then I think of us, and how my husband makes calls to me each night from a ship far away, how my life is looking so different. My years of the knowns are coming to an end. He will no longer be here for dinner each night, he will soon start the journey of a new command that will take him away. We will learn a new normal, a new way without him. My children are asking the questions I cannot answer, they are beginning to wonder the worries I think about when no one hears me speak. I spend countless hours asking God, wondering about the next couple of years? The details, the answers that I so desperately seek.

We are all on such different journeys, all asking such similar questions. 

"What now, God? What now?"

Whether in a peaceful place or a home of unrest, I believe the question is always in our hearts. We are, as taught, to always ask this question. We are all wanting to know our eternal influence, our purposeful impact. This question comes to our hearts regardless of our wealth, health, happiness, relationships, and jobs. It comes as spring birds wake each spring. It comes to us all when we are quiet enough to listen.

I realize God is not asking us to just trust Him, but to trust Him with what we value the most right now. 

I once had an amazing pastor named Pastor Keven. He would stand up each Sunday and challenge us not to trust God with our common keys, but with our hidden ones. He would challenge us to trust God with the treasures we trusted the most. The things we hid in the recesses of our hearts. The rooms no one had access to, the thoughts no one ever heard. He asked us regularly, "Would you give those to God?"

As a teen I listened, I wondered, I thought, and I surrendered. It was hard then, but I did. Now as an adult, my instinct is to want to do, want to solve, want to make a way for myself, for my kids. 

When did I get so independent from God? When did I think it was "I" that made the difference in my day? 

So tonight, even though I do not know the answers- even though I do not have the details of how and where- I do know the One that does.

What if in our unanswered thoughts- we answer with the trust that God once called us to? 

What if in our unknowns we acknowledged the One who knows? 

What if in our inadequacies as mothers and teachers, 

we answered with the Father who is more than Faithful.

Oh, how I know this is the one place I pray to be, but fight when I am here. Yes, trusting in God brings me closer to Him, but why, do I fight it when I come near?

Is it because I have learned to trust Him with only the little things? Maybe so. Maybe I have taken back my hidden treasures and told Him, "I can't trust you with those. "

So tonight- I'm thankful to see my errors- I'm thankful from the many examples of friends and family today that have taught me that trusting in Him is where I need to be. 

For this is the authentic me.

Mounds and Balloon Science

So I wanted to share the tastiest science treat we have made in a while. It was my mound cake. Not pound cake, no I'm talking mounds, like burial mounds. I had it in my plans for 18. Simply put it was a chocolate cake baked in two round pans stacked on top and I made some green cream cheese icing. 

I made one pan with less batter than the other (see picture below), so the base was wide but not as thick. Then for my third layer, I just took the sides (I trimmed) and stacked them on top. I'd get yelled at on Cake Boss for a mess like this- but who cares the overall project turned out great. :)

 It was eaten in no time. 

Even if you are past 18, you might think of reviewing the mound cultures during the break.

If you wanted to be a little more authentic you could stuff little plastic men in there as you are assembling the layers, but that day I was just glad I accomplished the cake before dinner. 

Books I actually found at my library for History lesson 19 were:

The Pueblo Indians by Pamela Ross ISBN: 9-780-736-800-792

I really like the simple non fiction book. They break it down into sections that are only one page long and if reading to a 5-6 year old can be easily read aloud. The sections are history, people, homes, foods, clothing, etc. Then in the end how to make your own adobe bricks if you're so inclined. I think I will plan to do this in the summer as a review week and will post pictures if it's accomplished. Key word..."if."

The Anasazi by Petersen (A New True Book) ISBN:0516-01121-9

It's old, but it's likely to be at your library if it's at mine. It's short enough to be a good read aloud but long enough for a 2-3rd grade reader to be interested. It has some classic pictures for the younger ones. Even though my kids are past this lesson, I'm still reading books from then as lesson 20 seems to be scarce in my library. 

Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale by Gerald Mc Dermott ISBN: 9-780-670-133-697

He is the same author that wrote Anasazi and Zomo the Trickster, so if you read this, you are in effect covering one of the common core standards for all ages and doing an "author study." Thankfully, his books are covering our curriculum which is hard to find fiction authors who do that- so if you have the others available, be a "book hog" and check them all out. 

And last but not least, my happiest project of the day was a very simple balloon for Lesson 20.

This is my sample, I will post pictures of my kids making it on Thursday as I will test drive the lesson then, but it was so easy I had to put a sneak peak and some special resources to go with it.

My atmosphere layer balloon! 

(Can anyone tell my printer isn't working? I'm really having to be creative each week. )

So I drew the earth on the bottom and made the layers accordingly. My layer names are written in dry erase markers and my clues or hints are written in permanent. I did this so I could wet and erase them and ask the kids, "What goes where?" The pictures are "Troposphere" (which is misspelled when I took it- good thing it's not permanent ) with clouds and a parachute man. Then the "Stratosphere" is where we have the ozone rays (hence yellow rays), "Mesosphere" has comets, "Thermosphere" has the Aurora Borealis  and "Exosphere" has satellites (which can be in both Thermosphere and Exosphere).

I found three fabulous videos that you can share with your kids when teaching this lesson.

First, this is a great overview of the first two levels and it explains many things about them. It's long and not necessary to have them see the whole thing, I think the first 15min is great, the rest goes into volcanoes, thunder, lightening, etc. 

Earth the Power of the Planet

The second is actually from a friend of ours, his name is Manny Alsina. He and my husband went to school together and even though he's a doctor, he's as good as the photographers from National Geographic. He accurately explains what happens with the Aurora Borealis and has amazing pictures put to classical music. They were taken just a few weeks ago, on Feb 6th in Scandinavia. 

Here is the link to "Winter's Heavenly Night." I hope you enjoy! It's just over 2 minutes.

Here's a pic of Tony watching it and asking a ton of questions- even though my days of international travel have significantly paused, I'm so thankful that I'm able to plant some seeds of adventure and awe in him.

 I'd like to go see these one day, but I don't like the cold that much... do you think this would be a problem for a Texas girl like me?

The picture looks fake, but it's not. 

So amazing! Truly speechless when I watch this video.

The "Thermosphere" is my new favorite layer of the atmosphere. Yep I said it... I know,  "My name is Crecia and I'm a closet nerd."

And last but not least, have you seen this video of the International Space Station? It may not be exactly what we are studying this year, but I mean, heh, whenever you can bring in a cool space video- do so! If you haven't seen it it's an American astronaut that gives us a tour of the ISS. It's about 25 minutes, and well worth the time.

Here's a great link to all the atmosphere levels and summaries on each one.

I love this graphic I found on the website. You can download it to PPT and make a sheet for your memory board.

I love how this picture brings in two of our previous weeks, can you see where? 

Here's a break down of each layer...

Did anyone else know these before teaching this week? If so, in my book, you'd be called, 

"Muy Intelligente!"

Again, was I asleep in school or what?

I have a few more fun activities for Lesson 20, but will have to wait till another night to post them. 

It involves a jello and pudding mold and some great Mexican Revolution activities.

Much love to you all!

-Crecia

"We will, we will, ROCK these!"

So if you are interested, (you might not be) here is a list of Common Core Literacy standards that I found for free! What are "Common Core Standards," you ask? They are a measuring stick for what children should know at the grade level indicated throughout the entire US, only a few states haven't gotten on board with these. Before these, each state had their own set of standards and it was always such a mess when moving from one state to another to teach the very same thing or grade- each was slightly different than the other. 

So, if you like my "objectives" from the lesson plans- you would want to download these now while they are still available. I looked them over and it was nice to see what I can work on in terms of future goals, and I thought of how I can work more of these questioning techniques into my plans for our other subjects. They are truly simple and easy to incorporate. If you have any questions just post a comment or email me- I'd be happy to help. :)

This is a sample from the Kinder level... 

see didn't I tell you you'd like these?

Now everyone give yourselves a pat on the back, you can all take the day off... JUST KIDDING!

But seriously we should pat ourselves on the back if our kids are exceeding any of these- that means we "rock!"

You feel better already knowing your child can do this blindfolded, don't you? Well, ok maybe not blindfolded, but you know what I mean! 

And who would have thought, our prepositions would not only be used, but also memorized by Kinders? 

I <3 Classical education!

Here are the rest of them and remember... no stressing! I'll cover all of these over time! 

"We will, we will, ROCK these!" (Thump, thump, thump!)

Ok, maybe I'm the only one singing in my blue robe...

Most good curriculums cover these- so this really shouldn't be very different from what we already own. I heard that many colleges actually specifically recruit homeschool kids. Why? Because they are so well loved and cared for? Well, yes, but their reasoning is because they have many great skills ready to be successful for college and they are usually heads and shoulders above their peers. So this is really a little something to help you see what they should now and make you feel better knowing they do know it. 

If you are like my family, you might have your child in a curriculum that matches his ability and not his "school age/ grade"- if that is the case- go with their school age grade for standard match up. So for example if your 1st grader is reading at a 3rd grade level, match up the standards for him at 1st grade, not the other way around.

 If you want the rest of them for free, you have to go to the site that publishes them, but they are by no means as pretty as the other ones. Here is the actual site for all ages even up through high school! :) 

Can I get a "Who Hoo" from the crowd?

Another fun thing you can get from the Secret Stories site is these little illustrations for vowel combinations.

Of course I had ones similar to these years ago, but lost them in one of my moves... 

I made up stories of why the letters didn't "behave"- even today I talked to Tony about how the "mean E" pinches the other letters and makes them say their name. Of course he loved it and we ended up spending quite a few minutes going over vowel consonant vowel (VCV) words. So if you have a child that loves stories and illustrations, they will probably love these cards. 

Aren't these fun?

Here is the link for more...

Ok, I'm headed to snoozers before 1:00 AM!! Who Hooo!

Many blessings to you all!

-Crecia

Come on Down!!!

Drumroll please....

And the WINNERS are......

(For the fabulous DK Ancient World Book...)

Amanda N. from New Orleans, LA you are contestant # 9, Come on down!!! 

Did anyone ever watch him on tv when you were sick from school? 

Congratulations Amanda! Please contact me via email to get this fabulous book and CD. Send me the address you want me to send the book to and I will do that immediately. :)

Next prize goes to...

(Three lucky families that will get my next set of lesson plans for free)

Robyn G. from Owasso, OK; 

Jennifer H. from Canton, GA, and 

Katie D. from my Pinterest account!

If you are one of the winners, please email me to confirm you know you won and would like 

Lessons 21 and 22. 

If you are all set for those weeks, just let me know and I will pick a runner up.  

You guys have three days to let me know you want your prize. 

Also, Melody from And Here We Go, you are so kind and sweet to me. Thank you for your very honest and lovely review you gave the plans. You truly blessed me that day and I thank you. Maybe my new slogan should be ... "CC plans... Like a good neighbor, we're always there. "

Much love to you, friend!

Blessings to you all,

-Crecia

ccingit@gmail.com

Obedience is Beneath the Ground

So around this time of the year, school gets more difficult for mostly everyone... I think that is why teachers and homeschoolers always seem a bit fried when you see them in March and April. We're just plum tired. 

Can I just offer a word of encouragement? 

What you do daily is changing the world. 

You have chosen the harder route, the less traveled road, and sacrificed so much time and energy to teach. You have given up the much needed pedicures, the multiple lunch dates with friends, the trip to the grocery store (alone,) the gym class workouts, the cleanest house on the block award, the hours of "me time," catching up with your friends and family daily, watching TV shows during the day, accolades from a job that pays you, and so much more.

All of you need to hear this, no matter what they didn't learn, repeat, do, or complete- we have given it our all. And beneath the ground, just like the picture, in our child's heart- there is so much more than meets the eye.

If we look a little closer, you might see how your children love you, have bonded with you, how they love to play together now, how they are not bullied, teased, or harrassed- you can see a more confident, more loving child not because of what the world has taught them, but what you have taught them.

So I pray when those rough patches hit commonly known as "spring fever" that you would see this year was not as a waste- but rather most of all-

your obedience to His call. 

I pray you would feel freedom to obey whatever you are being asked for next year and not tell yourself that the results should be the largest factor for you to continue. 

His peace and direction should be your guide.

After all, this is the time, when sending them off to school seems so much easier than planning yet another week of middle school curriculum for your 5, 7 , 9 year olds. :)

Since my son started this program at 4, he has a certain pollyanna view of school. I haven't tried to change his view as I'm not sure when we will put him in "school"- and I want him to be excited whenever that day comes. 

But recently my heart sinks when I hear him talk about "school" as if he has disliked being home schooled. Whether I'm just tired or not, I do question, I do wonder, which he would have loved more. 

Then I remind myself, it was a choice to be obedient to God this year- and that doesn't always have it's blue ribbon. 

So I pray you would feel encouraged today and know your work is not unnoticed by the One who made the oceans and the seas. Your love and willingness to learn more in order to offer up your best is looked upon as good from the One who claims YOU as His beloved.

I once had a counselor tell me that I only needed to focus on pleasing God, and then I would be seen as I should be to others.

So true. So true.

Did any of you need to hear that? Or was it just me? Either way, I pray that you would hear Him whisper your name this day and know His path He has set out for you.

So in that same vein I want to let you know, I did what I challenged so many of you to do. I asked my CC community director if I could try to raise awareness for the water in Africa. And she said yes. 

YEAH!!! She was so sweet especially since we had a fundraiser the following week.

She suggested that I ask the kids to work that week for a special allowance that will go towards Compassion. Our community is small and in it's first year- and guess how much we raised in one week? $287.42! Can you believe that? Just allowance money.

I couldn't have imagined it! 

I stood on top of the stage and told them, "We have changed the world for three and a half families!" Was it a hundred? No. 

Was it important as to how many? No. 

All that mattered to me was that they saw how easy sacrifice can be for us and how much we can do with just loose change. 

The next two weekends I'm showing my church of 1,500 people the two videos I posted in the lesson plans. Will you please join me in prayer that "we change the world" again?

If you feel like you could help raise awareness then please email me and I would love to call you and chat with you on the phone about it. I'd love to hear what you think God is asking you to do and I would love to help you quietly obey His call once again. But most of all I'd love to pray with you and thank God for you.

For we can collectively teach our children so much more about compassion by the way we love the poor. 

Please, please pray I don't mess up and offend some dear saint in the church, or I don't say some fact wrong, please pray that their hearts are softened and their ears may hear God calling them to give of their abundance- please pray that all this happens in the three minutes I have to speak. 

Now- that alone will be a miracle because you can tell by my blog- I'm a little long winded. :)

Please pray that our children will learn not just from our words but from our examples. 

For that is how I was won for Christ at such a young age. 

Blessings to you all,

Crecia

A little of Week 17 and 18...

Hellowwww everyone! Long time since I've been posting. I know- I've missed writing about our days.

It's been quite the last few weeks. In a nutshell we got a really bad virus of sort, not sure what it was- but the words, "viral meningitis" and "flu like symptoms" passed around our house as we tried to figure out what we had. So every free minute I had was either carrying a child, taking temps, administering meds, prepping meals, or teaching. So the blog had to fall to the way side a bit as I regained control of the laundry, regular chores, and sleep at night time. 

Anyone else out there that has had a similar week? It's not fun. I'm just glad that we only have 2 children for it to pass through and not 6 children as my sister- in- law does. Seriously? I can't imagine months of sickness, it's just not fun- 

for anyone.

Anyhow here is what we did from our lesson plans. 

When studying the Aztecs (lesson 17), we had to make Mexican Hot Chocolate. I bought this at Walmart. Each triangle is the serving of one mug. The real recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate uses hot peppers, but I just knew my kids wouldn't go for that, so I bought this instead.

I grew up in San Antonio, where this stuff was a normal ration in our pantry all year round. 

You just heat your milk up on the stove and let the triangles dissolve in you pot. I added whip cream, because you just need to add a little of that every time you have an excuse. 

Do you know how easy it is to make homemade whip cream? I use heavy whipping cream, agave and vanilla to taste and whip away. And of course they have to lick the whisk.

YUMMMY!

I found this wonderful Cactus looking fruit at our local grocery store. I don't know the name, but thought it would go great with our taste testing for Aztecs. It looked cactus enough and they grew cacti plants in Mexico, so there, that's the connection. The verdict? It was a cross between an apple and a pear. My kids aren't big on seeds, so they opted not to eat more than the obligatory first slice.

They had to eat the fruit before they got this...

Who doesn't love hot chocolate? 

School on that day, definitely had it's pay offs. :)

Lucy had some block cards I made her. I won't attach the file, since it only works if you have the exact same blocks. Basically I arranged the blocks in specific ways...

Then took pictures and printed them on card stock. I then sliced it up and put it in a ring. Easy Weesey!

Then she looked at the cards and matched them up accordingly. I loved the activity. It was hands on and had a large amount of independence and self checking built right in. I'm sure it has some great brain research to back it, since it's "Montessori" but I'm too tired to research that now, so you'll just have to trust me when I say- it's great!

For Week 18, we took this picture...

And I drew out the outline on three regular sheets of white paper (taped together to make a really long piece). If I were to do it again, I would use glue and let the papers dry then paint. Tony then painted the parts and we ended up with a beautiful painting that took about an hour (divided up) to complete.

Lucy did her own style of painting...

I was really proud of him finishing it and he loved showing dad when he got home. :)

My printer conveniently broke that day so I just wrote out the labels on index cards then I cut them up and we duct taped them to the dried painting. So much fun!

Last but not least, something that is not in my lesson plans, but fun nonetheless.

 I did a quick re enactment of the ocean floor in our house...

Lucy is sitting on the continental shelf with all the animals. The chair is the continental slope. Tony is siting on top of the mid ocean ridge and afraid of falling into our lava (aka: bean bag) below. The table leaf is the new land that is forming.

Last but not least, if you are wanting a terrible ocean trench, place the chairs in the room and have your child act like they are trying to get up...

This is our island and underwater sea mount, which of course meant they were stranded... left to look for food and shelter.

We lined this all up in the room and had them go to and from each item. We made up a story of how I had to get across the ocean floor and they reenacted it. They could have done this all day, but separating the table and seeing all the gunk in between the leaves really took more time then I care to admit. So if you do this, make sure you set up the table the night before. 

 I will hopefully post more in a couple of days. I have some great things I'd like to share soon.

As far as upcoming lesson plans. I'm so glad you have been enjoying them. I am currently working on Lessons 21-24. That means I'm going to skip making them for 19 and possibly 20. If I get time I will make 20, we'll just see how things go.

I know that might be a huge disappointment to some, but I had to figure out a way to regain some time before the next one is due. I am naturally a night owl, but with all of us getting sick it really threw me off my productive schedule.  So I will return with the remaining ones as soon as I finish. They will be no earlier than March 1st. 

If that works for you, great. If not I hope you will join us for the lessons next year.

 As far as that goes, I plan on having the entire year done in the summer- so this won't happen again. :) 

In the meantime, I'm sure you will be able to find some fabulous things online that can help you with lessons 19 and 20. I'll post what I do for those weeks, but I won't have web links and book lists. Those are what take me the longest to do and I really need to work ahead so I won't be up again the gun as I was before.

Next post will be the book winner and lesson plan winners for the next set! I can't wait to announce!

Blessings and health to you all!

-Crecia

Lesson 18 is out!

Happy Weekend! 

I hope you had a great Saturday. I just sent out Lesson 18, so if you paid for it and did not receive the lesson please email me at ccingit@gmail.com. 

Let me know by either forwarding me an email that I sent you for Lesson 16 / 17, or let me know the date and name under which it was purchased. 

This is the last time we will email plans, the rest will take you to a site with the plans attached there.

Blessings to you all!

-Crecia

More Free Resources!

So I have to give a shout out to a sweet friend of mine I have made since starting this blog 7 months ago. Her name is Melody and she rocks it on her blog. In fact if it weren't for Melody encouraging me in the beginning, I'm pretty sure you would have never heard of my blog and what I was doing here. She totally got me connected in the CC community online world and I have been forever thankful. Anyhow, she makes this thing called a Cycle Flip chart, see here for Cycle 1 in case you haven't gotten one already.

And now she has finished Cycle 2 on CC3. So if you are member on there, I'd highly recommend getting on and getting it.

Here's what it looks like...

And can I just say for Cycle 1 I printed two of these, one to keep at home and one to give to my BFF. I lost the photo album for her and ended up finding it after I visited her, so I actually kept both and put one in my purse and one near my memory work wall. 

I know I'm not a very good BFF...

 I used this more than I can count, because it was a mini guide and it is so easy to carry around.

 I bought a photo album from Walmart ($1.00) and doubled the cards in a 12 sheet book. It was perfecto and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Also on her site she does a really great thing with emphasizing a missionary of the week, fun stuff with Geography, and much more. Her site is truly one of my favs. 

If you are not a member of CC3, I'd strongly suggest trying it out, there are tons of great things on there.

Here are some helpful things I made for my wall and thought you might them for yours.

These are all Lesson 17 resources...

Scroll down to download.

(You need Power Point to be able to view it)

Scroll down to download

Scroll down to download

There are a ton of great resources on this site for volcano resources.

Here is the website where you can make your own fabulouso maps!

 This website is what I wished I had 7 months ago!

I also am using my Geography Cards...

To download materials CLICK HERE! 

In case you haven't heard- I'm running a contest for a book that contains most of our Ancient History cultures, please know all you have to do to enter it is to comment on your favorite aspect of my plans/ and or our website. This is a small survey I'm doing as to see what is your favorite thing. I've only gotten a few votes, but would love more input from you. 

Just think in terms of categories: Objectives, Detailed Book List, Corresponding Websites, Organized Supply List, Step By Step Plans, Background Information, etc. 

What part would you not want me to change at all, or if it needs some tweaking, how?

Or you can review the plans / website as a whole, either is fine, just trying to touch base with what you love the most so I know how to either keep or improve those things.

If you are unfamiliar with my plans and would like to know more, Brandy at Half a Hundred Acre Wood did a review of them a while back. She was so very kind in her review and I think if I ever met her one day I'd love to take her out to lunch for all the support and encouragement she gave me regarding these plans. She was a true God Send, at the right moment.

If you are here, chances are it's because of her out of this world site! 

Seriously, she is like a celebrity in terms of bloggers, when she first left a comment on my blog  I freaked out and called all my friends... 

ok, back to the contest...

Leave a comment, let me know what your absolute favorite thing is. 

Just go to here and comment away! :) 

Lesson 18 will be out tomorrow! More details to come...

Yippe! Yeah!

I hope you have a great time teaching your kids this week!

Blessings,

Crecia