A Fall Hike and a Whole Lot More..

I decided last Wednesday afternoon to take my kids outside for a hike to do some nature learning. Their task was to find anything to show that autumn had begun. This indeed would be a challenging scavenger hunt. Living in southern California we miss out on having four complete seasons.

We headed up for a local hiking trail about five miles away from our home. It was a pleasant day to escape the books and just get some cool fresh air with the kids. What I hadn't realized or expected we were in for much deeper learning than I had thought would happen. You see, what I didn't realize is that we would be hiking on the same trail that a young man in that neighborhood went missing. Sadly, it had a tragic ending the young man had committed suicide just over a month ago. Had I known this prior to the hike I would have hiked a different trail location altogether but the Lord used this moment for something else.

It says in the word that we as parents are to instruct our children when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up. We are to use every opportunity at any given time as a learning tool. Pressing His truths into their hearts. This trail opened up a flood gate of discussion about suicide. My oldest Sport wanted to know what would make a high school senior want to do this sort of thing. I explained that they believe that their life is so miserable that it is simply not worth living anymore. Sport replied is it then better to take your own life to spend an eternity in hell? I replied that they fail to see the big picture they are caught up in the here and now. More questions followed from all three of my children. I proceeded to answer each one of their questions and fears.

As we continued to hike and find different things on the trail, Sport suddenly bursts out "Mom, thank you for giving birth to me." I had tears in my eyes. "You are welcome..and I would do all over again in a heartbeat!"



Take advantage of those hidden opportunities. You never know how the Lord is going to use those Divine appointments with your kids. I know I will.

A Game to Remember

Last Thursday we took the two boys to a Dodger playoff game. It was memorable event for all of us. Three out of four of us had never been to a playoff game before. It was quite an experience. It is like a regular game on an adrenaline rush. The atmosphere and energy from the crowd is amazing to witness.

What made it more excited is that we witnessed a potential losing game get turned around in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. In a playoff game some fans believe that they are the reason for getting the scores to change in their teams favor. They will yell louder and from what I witnessed turn their baseball caps completely inside out. Some even turned their glasses upside down and their t-shirts inside out.

A funny story to share about this is I discovered near the end of the game that our youngest son, Racer's shoes were on the wrong feet. I corrected them and went back to watching the game. Shortly after the Dodgers tied the game up, a man seated two rows behind us told me that I was responsible for getting the Dodgers to win because I switched my sons shoes. Now to have that kind of power or influence over a game I do not claim to have.

It was an awesome game to be at. Truly a priceless moment to witness. Here is a short video that I took during the event. Sadly, I missed the winning run in. I had my camera in hand to capture my family's expressions. Just to catch the expressions on my boy's faces was so worth it.

LA Fair photos

Artist Tea featuring Giotto

This week our featured artist was Giotto. Giotto was a student of Cimabue. Giotto was a shepherd boy painting on rocks in the fields. Story has it that Cimabue was traveling through an saw Giotto drawing. He was quite impressed with Giotto's work for his young age and decided to ask him to be his apprentice. Giotto was later to take art during this time in a new direction. Not only painting were filled with people and icons but with backgrounds and with rich emotion and dimension. To better understand this look at the angels in this picture there is strong emotions displayed here.

Next week I hope to share some more of Giotto's art work and about our tea.

Baptism

Rejoicing today...our youngest son was baptised today. He just turned six last month. He had been asking about getting baptised for quite some time. We waited wanting to make sure he understand what he was doing and that it was his decision and not ours.

Well today he surprised us. Our church held a big event outdoors today at a local high school football stadium. There was a call for those that wanted to receive Jesus and those that had already done so but have not been baptised yet to profess their faith. During the pastors speech our youngest one stood up and announced boldly that he was going to be baptised today. We asked if he was sure and quickly asked him all the questions. He said he was going to get baptised....and then marched down the stadium steps. Tears filled his Dad's and my eyes as we quickly followed him. Luckily a friend in the audience loaned me her camera. Once I get the pictures I will post them. There were over two dozen others young and old demonstrating their act of obedience to the Lord in baptism.

What a special day is was today. Totally unexpected but isn't that how the Lord works at times!

Latin Update...

On my last post about Latin I vented about my frustrations with Latin. If I had trouble understanding it, how was I going to be able to teach it. This time I share with you an update on how we are doing.

Well....I haven't thrown the towel in yet. We're just about to finish four weeks of school. Hard to believe this... We have been averaging just two days a week of Latin. We are keeping the lessons short just 20 to 30 minutes. Small chunks of information at one time. They are understanding it and I AM TOO! Yeah!!

So far my kids have learned about why learning Latin is useful, different types of nouns, masculine and feminine nouns and over 10 vocabulary words and words that derive from them. In addition to all of this the kids have been learning the history of Rome too.

My biggest prayer is that we can maintain this momentum and enthusiasm about Latin. That we can recall things we have learned and to put it to use.

I will keep you posted again soon.

Our first Field Trip this School Year

This past Labor Day holiday weekend our family went on our first field trip, to the Getty Villa in Malibu, Ca. If you have never been there it is an absolute must. The museum is modeled after an Ancient Greek/Roman villa. The grounds, art and architecture transport you back in to an ancient Greco Roman world. The location of the museum's ocean views give the perfect ambiance of the Mediterranean sea in the distance.

With the holiday weekend they had plenty of family friendly activities for the kids to participate in. These were just perfect for our Ancient Rome unit that we are currently finishing up.

Here are some of the fun things my kids got to do there...

In a hands on kids room the kids had fun drawing on plastic jars that were modeled after Greek ceramic jars.

Other sections of the room had Greek tracing shapes for the kids to use and a "behind the silk" screen for acting out Greek Olympic Warrior scenes.

My kids had fun participating in a trading game. They were merchants in the Mediterranean area buying an exchanging supplies. Here the kids traded a piece of cloth for some olive oil that they were able to make.
I didn't know that cheesecloth is used to separate the olive pulp from the oil.

Crushing olives is hard work especially since they have pits.

Here is the finished olive oil. The oil at the top is what is referred to as virgin, it is without pulp. The oil at the bottom would be used for fuel for oil lamps at the time.

Next the kids got to grind spices. The spices were then added to the olive oil to be made into perfume.

The last trading station was designing a Roman coin. They had fun using a stylus to trace their creations onto a foil type coin.

Please keep in mind the kid exhibits change periodically but I am sure whatever it happens to be it will be an added bonus to any Ancient Mediterranean unit.