The layout of the E-zine is as follows:

• Greetings from Marianne
• News
• My Lesson from Literature
• Thoughts from a Homeschool Dad
• Literature Curriculum Application
• Organizational Tips
• Coming soon

Greetings from Marianne

I'm glad you've joined and I pray that these issues may benefit you, inspire and encourage you on your homeschooling journey.

Are you keeping on track? How is homeschooling going for you and your family? Are you enjoying the privelege of being with your children day by day and loving the learning experience together? Or are you struggling right now?

During our wonderful five week holiday, we read an excellent read aloud book and in this ezine, I would like to share a 'gem' from that book. A great reminder for us all! Read on...

News - Monthly Giveaway! Journal in June!

It was very relaxing, and memorable and I can't believe it's already over!!

As I find time, I am adding my camping journal at this website, so feel free to read our day to day camping journal.

Now, that I'm back, my routines are slowly kicking into gear and I would like to offer a new monthly giveaway. However, at this very moment, my computer has crashed - and so all my ezine subscribers will know about the new homeschool freebie and Journaling in June and July! but the rest of my site will not be updated with that information until I am back on track with my own computer and data retrieval!! :(

So, you can go ahead and follow the instructions below, but you will not see any up-to-date homeschool freebie page or links for a week or so. (In other words, because you are a ezine subscriber, you are the first to know!)

Get Journaling in June and July! During June and July, I would love to see your children add a Journal in the Homeschool Kids Gallery.

It's very simple to do. In the Homeschool Kids Gallery each child can begin their own mini-site which they can use anytime they like - it's their blogging spot! They can add stories, ideas or small snippets of things they have done. They can upload photos too! Do it at the Homeschool Kids Page!

Writing makes so much more sense if you're writing for an audience and this is a wonderful way for your children to be creative online in their own unique 'place' on the web.

There is no charge for this and there never will be. All content and comments are monitored and reviewed by me so it's perfectly safe too!

Once the mini-site is set up, your child (or you can type for them) can add as many entries as they like, whenever they like. Anyone (friends, family, relatives...) can comment and rate their entries. Have fun!

The Prize will be Book One from the Wilderking Trilogy, by Jonathan Rogers, which I will be writing about shortly. A wonderful book which we loved reading together.

You can add your Homeschool Kids Journal/ Blog or mini-site here.

My Lesson from Literature

Before I went away on holidays I bought The Wilderking Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers and then hid it in a box so no-one could see it, sneak it out, pester me to read it, or worse still, read it on their own!!

Anyhow, I was successful and about half way through the trip, after we had listened to "Ivanhoe" on CD, I decided to begin to read aloud. Well, once I began, I was not allowed to stop and the three books were finished quite quickly.

The Wilderking Trilogy is based on the story of King Saul and David and David's rise to become king. Publishers Weekly says, "Readers familiar with the biblical narrative will know where the plot is headed, but the unusual settings and characters keep the surprises coming, while Rogers's lovely descriptions and distinctive voice keep the pages turning." It is also humorous and the characters become very endearing.

However, the theme that kept shining through was one of Trust and this was the wonderful lesson I learnt from this piece of literature. The young hero, Aidan, knew that one day he would become the Wilderking. However, he was young, and still tending his father's sheep and he wondered exactly how he would become the wilderking - What should he do? How should he be acting? Should he remain where he was or should he be at the castle? and Bayard the Truthsayer, repeated this wonderful phrase, "Live the life that God has laid before you. Love Truth more than you fear Evil."

This phrase was repeated a number of times in different circumstances and I'm glad it was. He also said, "You don't need to know or be prepared for what may happen in ten years time. At that time, you will be given what you need, not now."

At times, I need to hear that! I need to be reminded to take one day at a time, to face the challenges that lay directly before me now and live that part of my life which God has placed before me right now. I don't need to play with the "what if.." questions of ten years time, two years time or even tomorrow!

What has God laid before me? Well, after coming back from holidays, I was feeling somewhat despondent. While on holidays, it became clear that there were a few important things our kids really hadn't learnt yet. My younger ones don't seem to absorb information and comprehend it as well as my older ones had and it became more apparent while we were away. After I had read some interesting information about the place we were going to, I was met with blank stares and the ability to only regurgitate the last few syllables of my final sentence! Unfortunately, with homeschooling, there is no one left to blame but ourselves (and me in particular), so I did feel very deflated.

I have also been feeling rather flat since the skills I have found lacking in my children take so long to address, teach and see improvement in. That means that everything takes so long! With my older children I was used to short, sharp lessons in the morning until morning tea, followed by read aloud time, project time and finally their own individual reading time. But it is so different at the moment and we are plodding through the whole morning and I feel like we are achieving so little! A good homeschooling friend suggested that my frustrations may come from working in a 'highschool' framework and now needing to alter my focus to 'primary' aged children again and developing the routine again. I'm not sure if others have had similar experiences but I'm writing this to let you know there are ups and downs, pleasant routines and long drawn out days/weeks, weeks when you do many interesting projects and read together, weeks when you just get through the basics, highlights and dream days and days you want to forget!

Anyway, back to the lesson I learned from literature. As we opened up our books again when we arrived home, I quoted Bayard's line "Live the life that God has laid before you" to the children as a way to begin our work with purpose and the more I have reflected on it, the more I see it as an encouragement to me to face the challenge that has presented itself right now. I don't have to feel like a huge failure and look for an answer somewhere else, but just need to live the life right now - and that challenge is what God has laid before me right now.

Sometimes in my life, when a problem like this surfaces, I lose all perspective. I consider everything we've done to be worthless, I feel like a total failure, I feel that it is all too difficult, I sweep all the good homeschooling experiences with the bad moment I'm having right then. It's so good to have others in your life (like a husband and close homeschool friends) who remind you at that time of the big picture. "What are the goals you are pursuing? Isn't the foremost aim that our children are exhibiting Christian character and a love for Him?"

But God in His gentleness, does not place all the concerns of the next ten years on our plate right now. He says his grace is sufficient for all our needs and He will equip us and allow us to see what we need to see, when we need to see it. It's always a matter of Trust!

2 Corinthians 12:9 (New International Version) But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Thoughts from a Homeschool Dad

Well, Marianne has certainly opened herself up here sharing her frustrations and disappointments as well as the lessons that she is learning. I think all of us should be able to relate to what she is saying! What helps Marianne when she gets in this type of mood? Well I would like to say it is in having a great husband like me, but that would not be true. What helped was the Word of God. The analogy of Scripture found in the Wilderking was very encouraging – especially Bayard’s words which Marianne has quoted.

Paul writing to the Roman Christians says, “For everything written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” It doesn’t matter if you are a homeschooling mother or someone facing difficult times at work these words are always true. It reminds me that we have to go to the well of God’s Word continually so that we might have hope.

Just to say one more thing. I found Bayard’s words encouraging for me. We can all be frustrated by circumstances that are not to our liking and as a result we can become very unhappy. For some it might be that their income doesn’t equal their ambitions and for another it might be one of continued health concerns. We need to learn to live everyday! “Live the life that God has laid before you. Love Truth more than you fear Evil." Jesus tells us that today has enough worries of its own. Paul tells us to be content no matter what the circumstances.

May all go well with you in your homeschool!

10 Ways to Use Literature

Here are some ways to use literature:

1. Copybook
   This is a great way to copy excellent literature - models of excellent vocabulary, sentence structure, dialogue and so on. This are the two selections we copied from The Wilderking Trilogy

   Selection One: Aiden went on. "I know my brother is a liar and a fraud. But some of the things he said sounded right, made me wonder if I have what it takes to be the Wilderking." Aiden paused, collecting his thoughts. "He said that everything I ever had was given to me, that I haven't deserved any of it. I've been thinking about that. And I don't know. Maybe it's true."

   Bayard threw back his head and laughed. "True? Of course it's true!

   Aiden was hoping for something more reassuring from the Truthspeaker. "What do you have that wasn't given to you?" the old man continued. "That's grace, man - what you're given, not what you deserve. And that's as true for Maynard as it is for you, as it is for me. Grace is the very air we breathe." (Book 2, The Secret of the Swamp King, pg 220)

   Selection Two: For the first time Aidan began seriously to consider the possibility that Bayard was telling the truth. "What if you are correct?" he asked. "What if I am destined to be the Wilderking? How should I live?" "The same way you should live if you weren't the Wilderking. Live the life that unfolds before you. Love goodness more than you fear evil." (Book One, The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers, pg43)

2. Reading Logs
   Keep a reading log of the books you have read aloud and also the books your children have read. It is inspiring to look back at all the books you've read together. My children recently created their own "bookshelves" on a large sheet of paper and made spines or front covers of the books when they had read them. This was their visual Book List. They sometimes added a Book Review.
3. Book Reviews
   Book Reviews can be created individually or written together as a family with mum being scribe. Place all the book reviews into a family Reading Book List folder with plastic sleeves.
4. The Book of Heroes
   From time to time, my children write about a character from a book which they have just read and describe why he/she was a hero. What character qualities did they possess? How did they grow as a character? What made them act the way they did?
5. Creating Maps
   Creating Story Maps is an interesting project where you trace the path of the main characters of the book. It's great for stories about journeys - The Hobbit, The Wilderking, Around the World in 80 Days.
6. Redesign the Front Cover
   After having read a book, you may choose to redesign the front cover including the front, spine, and back cover with a new publisher's blurb.
7. Cartoon Strip
   After having read a book or a chapter, you could paint or draw a series of pictures mounted on a large sheet or paper so that a 'cartoon strip' of episodes is displayed.
8. Create a Play
   Choose a scene from the book and make it into a play. Use your own sound tracks and special effects. Video your play.
9. Puppets
   Create characters with puppets (stick, hand, finger, glove puppets) and put on a puppet performance.
10. Game
    Create a board or card game based on the book.

Organizational Tips

Using a file, add 12 dividers for each month of the year and place one plastic sleeve behind each divider. On the divider glue on a page where you list the birthdays of that month. Place bought or home-made cards into the plastic sleeves.

This way you will always have birthday cards ready for each month and you can be prepared before hand. If you are well organized, you may also choose to send out your birthday cards at the beginning of each month.

Please let us know your organizational tips here.

Coming soon...

Remember, get your children Journaling in June and July! Your children will love to use this blogging experience and write for a world wide audience.

Until next time, ... Keep-On-Track.....

I pray that you have been encouraged through this ezine - Lessons we learn from Literature.