Susan's Homeschool Blog

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Prayer Parables with Skits

May 1st, 2014

Jesus used many prayer parables to explain the spiritual reality of prayer:

The Vine and the Branches (John 15:1-7)
Asking, Seeking, and Knocking (Matthew 7:7-8)
A Father Not Giving a Stone or a Snake (Matthew 7:9-11)
The Pharisee and the Sinner (Luke 18:9-14)
Prayer to be Seen by Men vs. Private Prayer (Matthew 6:5-6)
The Widow and the Judge (Luke 18:1-8)
The Man who Didn’t Want to Get up from Bed (Luke 11:5-8)

I spent a whole summer staring at a vine in my backyard while reading Andrew Murray’s Abiding in the Vine. I saw the juices of the vine representing the Holy Spirit, and if we are not connected to God in prayer, we are useless. I wrote a whole article about it here: Abiding in the Vine.

We are also to ask, seek God’s will, and knock for doors to be opened. You can illustrate this to children by having them ask for something, then give it to them. They can search for something and find it. They can knock on a door, and it should open. In the same way, God wants us to go to Him in prayer so that He can grant our requests.

God knows good gifts to give us, and He will not give a stone or a snake. Neither will an earthly father. You can dramatize this with children by handing them a stone or a rubber snake. God’s best gift is His Holy Spirit, which enables us to walk by His Spirit.

We are told to ask persistently without growing weary, as in the story of the widow who asked for justice from a judge. She was so persistent in asking that she received what she wanted.

In the same way, a man was sleeping in the middle of the night, and his friend knocked on the door to borrow some bread for his guests. The man would not get up at first, but after persistent knocking, the man finally relented and opened the door.

There have been some requests (like my husband’s insomnia) that I have prayed for years with seemingly no answer, but God doesn’t want me to give up, especially if it’s a true need. The timing might be perfect in the future, or God might be doing something greater than what we’re asking.

A Pharisee stands on a street corner and wants to be seen by men, while a sinner cries out to God, truly repentant of sin. The sinner is forgiven rather than the arrogant Pharisee. In the same way, don’t pray just to be seen by men. Cultivate a private prayer life where you connect to the Lord in desperation, and you will see God meet you where you are.

My children dramatized the parables, to bring them to life. Teach your own children how to pray, and feel free to use these ideas to teach prayer to children in Sunday Schools at your church:

To keep up with my prayer articles, free prayer audios, and a prayer e-book, like my Prayer Page.

Tags: Bible class, Christian Living, parables, prayer, Sunday School
Posted in Prayer | 2 Comments »

Earth and Space Series

April 28th, 2014

This post contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

We’ve had such a great time this year, doing all the hands-on activities in the book Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press. We’ve formed Earth layers out of clay, dramatized the moon revolving and rotating around the sun, shook sandy earthquakes, dyed plate tectonic eggs, erupted a volcano, grown stalactites, cooked layered sedimentary rocks, performed skits of the water cycle and ocean currents, raced slow glaciers down a ramp, watched how groundwater sinks through layers of sand and pebbles, painted an atmosphere mural, made homemade weather instruments, created a tornado in a bottle, performed a ridiculous weather report, colored the phases of the moon on paper plates and Oreos, made sun prints, and created fun planet cards for the solar system. We did lots of other activities, too, which I mention in the videos contained in each blog post.

Besides all the wonderful hands-on activities in the Earth and Space book, the text was fun and conversational and included plenty of rich vocabulary for each topic. The printable diagrams were great, and all the printables were on a computer disc that came with the book. (The disc is attached to the back inside cover and can be removed after purchasing the book.) This makes the pages easy to copy, since you don’t have to slap a large book on the photocopier. (You are allowed to print copies for your own family.) My kids enjoyed coloring the gorgeous coloring pages, too, so make sure to have some quality colored pencils on hand before beginning the book. We placed all the pages into a notebooking binder, and we decorated the outside of the binder. (I show you how we did this in the first video tutorial below.)

I thought it would be easier for people to find all the posts if I made an index page, so here it is. When you use the book Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press, be sure to come back and watch the experiments to help you see how they can be done.

Earth and Space Series:

Tags: Bright Ideas Press, Earth and Space, earth science, Homeschooling, outer space, science
Posted in Science | 2 Comments »

Sowing Seeds of Prayer for Your Kids

April 25th, 2014

I was given a package of seeds in a beautiful blue paper bag with ribbon. The package said, “Sow seeds of prayer for your kids.” I pondered the implications of this metaphor. What are seeds of prayer?

As I was driving down the road, it hit me: prayer is small like a seed. You put it under the ground and water it over the years. When you children grow, you see those prayers slowly producing fruit in their lives.

I remember praying for self-control for one of my children. Over time, he has grown so much in the area of self-control. When I see how much progress he has made, I get choked up and grateful to God for changing my son to become more mature in his faith.

Another son was lazy years ago. I begged God for wisdom to know how to nip this in the bud before I produced a man who would never properly support his wife and children in the future. God gave me wisdom in how to address my son by telling him about a specific man we know who ruined his family because he refused to work, even though he was healthy. He just didn’t feel like working. Eventually his wife and two small children began to starve and were miserable, forced to leave their home and try to find shelter with her parents. This lazy man brought pain and destruction into the lives of the people he loved most because in reality he loved no one but himself. Lazy people are selfish. They live for themselves and not for God. The result is misery to everyone around them.

Years later this son of mine is the most diligent of all my children.

All I did was pray. I prayed with desperation as only a mother can. Because I could see the consequences of the sin in my children’s lives, that if left unresolved, would end up in bitterness and empty lives.

So I sow seeds of prayer for my children every day, interceding for their character weaknesses and being pro-active in working with God. And I expectantly wait for the fruit of those seeds to grow.

I found a 1-minute song about this very idea, and it’s beautiful! Click on the “Listen” button to hear the song:

Seeds of Prayer

To keep up with my prayer posts and get a free prayer e-book, like my Prayer Page.

Tags: Christian Living, prayer
Posted in Prayer | 18 Comments »

Solar System Unit Study

April 21st, 2014

This post contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

We did a super fun solar system unit study during the past month, and these are the hands-on activities that we did. As we were doing the last four chapters in Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press, we came across the brilliant idea to make our own planet cards. The book recommends using 3 by 5 cards, and there is no reason why you can’t cut these out from black card stock paper so that the planets are pasted against a black sky. You draw the planets on one side of the card, and you write a description of each card on the other side.

Be sure to check out plenty of planet books from the library so that your kids can do research on each planet. We also had a DVD about the planets, which my kids have enjoyed over the years.

You can make model planets with styrofoam balls, painting them in bright colors. We did this years ago, and I used a sewing needle to stab into the ball’s edge in order to hang them up in my sons’ bedroom.

Go to a planetarium if you can, so that you can get a description of what the universe looks like. You will also want to go to an observatory to see the far reaches of space. At the very minimum, you should go stargazing out in the country. Try to pick out the constellations. Here is a description of how to go stargazing:

Stargazing

You can also make tin can constellations. I give you a description of how to do this in the demonstration video at the bottom of this post.

Besides the planets and stars, you will want to study the sun. There is one chapter in the Earth and Space book about the sun, giving a rich description of the center of our solar system. The hands-on project for that chapter was to make sun prints. You will have to watch the following video to see how we make the sun prints. Or you can read about how we made sun prints several years ago:

Sun Prints

Here is a demonstration video for our solar system unit study:

We have enjoyed using Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press this year. Why not pick up a copy of the book for your science curriculum next year? You will love it!

Tags: astronomy, Bright Ideas Press, Earth and Space, outer space, planets, solar system
Posted in Science | 2 Comments »

Susan's Homeschool Blog

Prayer Parables with Skits

Earth and Space Series

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Sowing Seeds of Prayer for Your Kids

Solar System Unit Study

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