Of dragon fruit and excavators

Exhilirating walking against the breeze. Feel its pushing, gentle shoving on my face. Ground just a little wet from the morning thunder shower. Grateful but longing. The dam like a beached beast with a hungry shoreline. Elisha showed me the trail the eels and catfish are making as they go from the little pond made by the seeping spring to the larger. Guppies, oblivious that their home is shrinking. They swim just the same among weeds I hadn't even noticed before. The talk is big machines, excavators and bob cats. He shows me what he would do. "Like this, mum." The talk in the house was of peninsulas and dragon fruit.(Yum) They come from Vietnam but where is that? We look in the world atlas and found the identifying word and the land mass it represents. "Here, near to China." We have the very plant in a pot. It's never fruited. We should plant it out. "Write it in your own words." She does it first on the computer and then neatly copies it out. "...It is a very nice fruit, it is red inside and outside. It is so sweet that I could eat ten at once(almost)..." Sigh, sentences again... At least the paragraph isn't one run-on sentence. The improvement is real. I have an appointment in town. As I drive past the neighbours, there are two of my children leading a wayward cow back to somewhere. Wayward? Who? I call out "go home, children." It's been a good day. We sang our Bible passages and did our memory chapters. We did books. We enjoyed. We lived. Time to meditate on God's goodness to us again this day and think about tomorrow.

Too hot

The impact of summer hit us today. It was just too hot. The children did their Bible reading and we had family worship. The time our regular activities should have started we just wanted to sit. I selected a DVD on the History of the English Language. The speaker was very interesting. The class, anaesthetised by heat, fell asleep anyway. In the afternoon, we had phys ed at the local aquatic pool.

Companionship in the homeschool

Today I decided to put more companionship into our homeschool.

I have loved the children doing nature drawing. One of the first things they did was go outside looking for something to draw. I have decided that from now on, we will go together - the children and I.

So we did.

We went for a walk to the gate.

Three quarters of the way to the gate, there was a proliferation of a common vine with glorious lilac flowers. (I am going to buy a Field Guide to Australian Wildflowers.) We picked some of these and brought them back joyfully.

I placed these on the little table and picking up paper and pencil commenced. My daughter did likewise. I sketched the outline of the vine and started working on the shape of the flower, lost in the soothing pleasure of it. Nearby, the rubber was called for.

"Mum, I can't get this right" was heard along with some groans.

I looked at her work, which was better than mine.

"Neither can I but that doesn't matter. I am enjoying this."

I glanced over and saw a new determination in her hands and an expression that told of a will. Sketch finished, I brought the Prismacolours in and started selecting colours. The youngest showed me her work. She had been sketching the cactus on the little table.

We all coloured. We talked about the flowers and the leaves, identfying parts and form, referring to science texts when needed. And took notes on our page. The girls press some of the flowers too for The Flower Press Book we have.

We talked about the spiritual lessons and quoted Isaiah 40:8 "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."
We remembered the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:28 "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

We discussed the lesson of faith that the flowers teach. I assigned them a paragraph to write about we had discussed. Then we can work on some other.

Visitors and homeschooling

Today we had an interesting start to the day. As usual I was awake early. The time was 5:30 am. My 18 year old daughter called quietly, "Mum, have a look" pointing to the front door. Uncertain what to expect, I peered cautiously (we have had snakes on the veranda).

I saw a shape first and then the blue.

The neighborhood peacock was checking us out. The front door is nearly all glass. There it was looking in, on the other side of the glass.

It was the time we usually do our private devotions but today I watched this proud creature of God's creating.

He wandered on our veranda, then jumped up on the rail. We watched as he walked around the exterior of the house. We observed the motion of his neck, shimmering in the early morning sun, as he purposefully strided across the grass, as though on a definite mission. He disappeared from view finally when he turned to inspect the bottom shed.

Should we have breakfast at once? One daughter was urging that we should. Instead, I decided we would commence the day in our usual way. The reading for morning worship was a chapter in Amos. We had just finished discussing it and praying, when one of the children spotted a car entering our driveway. I had just enough time to hurriedly get dressed before inviting our guest to breakfast with us.

There was a cow to take water to next door. She had calved 3 days ago and hadn't been right since. It had been her first calf and it had died during what must have been a difficult unattended birth. Her owners, the neighbours have been away most of a week.

We did get to the books. Maths, Creation studies and literature study in between more visitors in the afternoon. Oh and the girls did some memory work too. We still have the domestic arts(lunch dishes) to catch up on.

"Today I didn't do school."

"Did you write in your journal today?"

The children's journal is a personal record of the day's educational activities.

She looks at me.

"Today I didn't do school."

What does she mean? Mentally I reflect on the day.

We did math. I'm not sure how many lessons it was. We read and we sang. They worked on their craft. The cows in the neighbour's field were inspected (again!). They wrote, made lunch and the list goes on.

What does she mean by "school"? What am I teaching her about education?

How deeply have we imbibed society's definitions? When did we examine all the givens we have accepted and say "they are mine"?

God created the mind. He provided for its development. In the home, in the field, through life's duties and its pleasures and through holy Scripture, God gives us His lessons, impressing our hearts and minds.

What if we didn't sit at a desk in a classroom today? A life centered in God is a life of completeness.

How does a child write "God's class" in the journal?

That face

From Luke 2:49: "And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him."

I was just trying to imagine the face of Jesus, expectantly looking at Mary as she instructed Him, as they ate together and as she taught Him the lessons of life.

I saw it in my child. The face of innocence and childish joy. The children grow, their minds expand and the powers develop.

She washes up now and wipes the benches.

She eats the meal of raw fruits blended together. (We indulged ourselves in bananas. They have been so expensive since Hurricane Larry. These were tiny and a bargain. Threw in a few mangoes and cut into the whizz the flesh of a fresh coconut.)

And that look is in her eyes.

"Mum, can you guess where I am in my Bible reading?"

"Mum, where is Lebanon?" I tell her that will find it together in the atlas.

She composes and corrects her post on her sister's forum.

Today we've been to town for a flute lesson. There was new vocabulary to learn and tears to conquer. That sound just wasn't coming. The mirror at home might help to get her mouth shape and right. We are going back for another lesson tomorrow.

In town the girls noticed a neighbour walk past. They stopped him and we chatted about the cows and their calves.

One of the cows is overdue.

"They just come when they come," he said.

Sounds like the way human births are!

He told them about the foal that he rescued from its sack at its birth only yesterday.

"Can the girls have a look at the foal?"

He nodded and told me where they will find it.

Then we talked about the rain and how much fell.

We need to find our rain gauge.

The last stop was to buy blank card paper to make a card. Another project about to start.

What will we do this afternoon? Oh, maybe math and that flute again before tomorrow.

The sky has a special atmoshere about it, being the hues I would love to paint - if I could! It is the colour of clouds filled with rain but not threatening yet. Through the kitchen window I see banana leaves blowing and hear that soft sound of rustling and sometimes the rattle of roofing as it lifts and falls ever so slightly.The clean washing beckons. Boxes of fruit need rearranging. Some jobs for the girls and I to do together.

The mood is right for some art, some quiet reading.

And some praying that God may put His grace upon them.