Timmy loves his brother, James

A little update since the last post.... Timmy was warming up to little James when I last posted pictures.  In the past week Timmy has more than warmed up to James.  Almost every time he sees James, Timmy wants to give him a kiss.  He leans into James and makes an "mmmm..." sound and then kisses his head or his face.  Timmy also likes to point at James and "talk" to him.  They are precious together!

Baby James is Born!!!

Please rejoice with us over a precious new life the Lord has given our family!  On Wednesday, November 12 at 12:51 p.m. baby James Stephen Reed was born, weighing 7 lbs. 7.5 oz., and he was 20 inches tall.  James is named after his Grandpa Jim (Tim's dad) who went to be with the Lord 14 years ago.  His middle name is after Stephen in the Bible who gave his life willingly to follow the Lord Jesus (Acts 7).  Hannah and Lauren love the story of Stephen and look forward to seeing him in heaven one day along with their Grandpa Jim.  

James was born by way of c-section due to him being breech in his mama's tummy. This was Allyson's first c-section and in some ways she felt like she was having a first baby all over again.  But, praise the Lord the delivery went great.  Recovery is also going very well.  We went into the hospital at 10:30 on Wednesday morning and were able to leave the hospital at 9:30 on Friday morning - a little under 48 hours.  

Hannah, Lauren, and Timmy are all thrilled about their new little brother.  Hannah and Lauren can't get enough of holding him.  They are great helpers with James and Mama already.  The first time they came to visit us at the hospital, Hannah and Lauren brought a poster they had made that said, "Happy Birthday James!  We love you!  Love, Hannah, Lauren, and Timmy."  Hannah wrote the whole thing by herself in different colors, and Lauren cut out shapes to paste on it and put stickers all over it as well.  Timmy likes to point at James and say some "words".  He's come close to kissing James several times but hasn't quite gotten close enough - probably tomorrow.  :)  Just this afternoon, Timmy got really close to James and was studying him when James all of a sudden spit up a little bit.  Timmy burst out in tears, not sure what had happened.  It was precious!

Tim and I are so blessed to have four precious children who we have the privilege of raising in the fear and admonition of the Lord!  Even more, we are thankful to have a wonderful marriage and to give the gift of loving parents to our children.  God is so good!  Thank you for rejoicing with us!

Happy Family of SIX!!!

Why Do We Home School? (Part 2) - Character

  "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.  And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."  (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)

 The Lord commands parents to teach their children to love Him with all their heart, soul, and might.  This takes place as we intentionally spend time with our children - when we sit, walk, lie down, and rise up.  This encompasses all day every day, and we are responsible for what is going in our children's hearts and minds.  We believe this to be such a blessing of home schooling - being able to pour into our children from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed.   When they wake up in the morning, we are able to greet them with a hug and say, "Good morning!  This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  When they go to bed we are able to pray and sing together as a family.  And as we go throughout our day together we are able to praise the Lord all day long and bring attention to His handiwork in everything they are learning.

   Above the education we can give our children - the facts and the different subjects - math, reading, history, science, etc. - the most important thing we can teach our kids is about the Lord Jesus Christ and about CHARACTER.  In teaching these two things, we really can cover all the different subjects as we go along.  It's beautiful how it works!!!  

   Character is not taught out of a book.  It is taught out of the Bible, yes, but mainly is it taught through parents just living life with their children.  Tim and I are always aware of teaching our children about character.  Recently, I was able to introduce the word "perseverance" to Hannah and Lauren as we persevered in a task together.  Just yesterday, Tim and Hannah made beef jerky together.  We have a dehydrator and especially like to made jerky and dried apples.  We can stack 10 trays high on our dehydrator, which makes for a lot of work to get the meat or the apples on the trays, and our girls love to help us do this.  Tim and Hannah worked together diligently and raced against the clock yesterday to get all the ground beef on 10 trays in less than one hour.  Having this time limit forced them to stay focused on their task and forced Hannah to persevere.  There are many details involved in jerky making - mixing the spices in the meat, loading the jerky gun and cleaning it out often during the process, squeezing the meat out of the gun onto the trays, stacking the trays, etc.  Hannah had her sleeves rolled up and was working hard to help her Papa complete a task that we then could all enjoy the benefits of later. It turned out that the clock beat Tim and Hannah by a few minutes, but they were still encouraged to have persevered through the task and enjoyed much good, meaningful conversation and Papa/daughter time during the process.  Not only did they talk about perseverance, but Tim modeled it before Hannah.  Beautiful!

   Our children can recite well the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  But, what good is it for them to recite these things if they cannot live them out?  And how can they live out these things without first seeing them lived out in their parents (Tim and me)?  And how can Tim and I live these things out without first living in complete dependence upon the Lord Jesus, which is what we really want our children to learn to do?  Quite a process, indeed... but, it is so simple.  There is no formula.  It is all about dependence on our Savior.

   Do we make mistakes as parents?  Oh, yes indeed.  But, what better way for us to teach our children about humility and forgiveness than to humble ourselves before them and admit our flaws and ask for their forgiveness, which they willingly give every time.

   So, how do we teach character?  First - dependence on the Lord to live in and through us as parents.  But, second, we are extremely intentional.  We are always looking for ways to teach about pride, humility, love, forgiveness, patience, perseverance, encouragement, etc.  Every moment is a teachable moment - whether we are sitting at a meal together, riding in the car, taking a walk, or working on a project.  

  Now that is true education that will last right into eternity!  :)

Why Do We Home School? (Part 1) - Yard Work/Garage Sale

  I get asked quite a bit, "Why have you chosen to home school your children?"  Sometimes this question is asked out of genuine curiosity and sometimes it is asked out of defensiveness.  I am always eager to share why we have made this choice as we seek to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6).  As our kids are drawing nearer to school age, I thought I would take some time to write down all of our "whys" and will therefore share some of those reasons on our blog.  I hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts and will be able to see more of our hearts as well as a bit more into our home life.  

  As I start out with Part 1, it seems most fitting to start by describing an actual event that is a common type of day in our home and how we teach our children.  I will not seek to answer the question, "Why do we home school our children?" in this post, but you will see quite a few answers start to develop.

  Recently, Tim and the girls were working in our backyard together, and they were helping him rake leaves.  They love being great helpers, and they love to please their Papa!  When they finished in the yard for the afternoon, Tim told the girls that the next morning while he was at work he wanted them to each fill a red wagon full of sticks from our yard.  When they completed this task they would each receive $3 from him.       

   They worked hard in the yard the next morning, and we even had a little competition going to see who could finish filling a wagon first.  Hannah finished first and won a Hershey Hug as her prize.  Meanwhile, Lauren praised Hannah for her hard work (they know well the verse, "Encourage one another and build each other up").  So, instead of Lauren being disappointed that she had not won the contest, she was excited for her sister.  We have taught them not only to praise others but also to be excited for others when they win, such as in playing a board game.  After Lauren finished picking up her sticks I treated them both to a little cup of vanilla yogurt on the back steps.  But, this was only after I had "ooohed" and "ahhhed" over all the sticks they had picked up!  :)  They couldn't wait to show Tim the job they had accomplished when he got home and also to receive the money that he had promised them.   

   Then, the next morning there were quite a few garage sales in our neighborhood.  We took the girls to 5 different sales, and they had a great time shopping with the $3 they had earned. They bought baby dolls, purses, stuffed animals, a baby doll stroller, and even had money left over.  During the sales they had to interact with the sellers because if they wanted to buy something it was up to them to talk and negotiate and purchase what they wanted.  I was looking at other things and could totally trust them to do their own "business," plus we want them to know how to interact with people of all ages and not just rely on Papa and Mama to communicate for them.   In order to do business, they used their knowledge of money that we have been working on together at home.  They each had a bunch of change as well as a $1 bill that all added up to $3.  They couldn't always make exact change, but the sellers were always happy to help them.

   The last garage sale we stopped at was a sweet time because Hannah bought a rocking horse for Timmy.  We made a big deal about her using her own money to buy something special for her brother.  She worked hard to earn her money and then chose to use it to show love to someone else.  Both girls even had money left over after the garage sales.  Now that's what I call smart shopping.  :)

   Then, we came home and enjoyed looking at all the things they had purchased, and they could appreciate their hard work and the contribution they had made to our family.  They could also enjoy the rewards of their hard work and learned many things in the process.

   To Tim and me, that is what home schooling is all about.  It's not about education in a box or at a desk.  It's about teaching them in every day life situations.  They are learning so many things without even realizing they are learning.

   So, in the whole yard work/garage sale event.... what did our kids learn or have to have a working knowledge of?

1- What a tremendous and valuable asset they are to our family

2- The value of hard work

3- The fun of competition as well as being excited for someone else when they win

4- Praising others and not yourself (another thing we teach: Let other lips praise you, not your own)

5- Money: how much coins and bills are worth and how to read price tags in order to make purchases

6- How to be friendly and sociable with people of all ages and how to negotiate and then be grateful by saying things like, "Thank you for your help" and "Have a nice day."

Most of all they are learning without even realizing they are learning, and that is priceless!

Stay tuned for more thoughts on home schooling...