Confessions of an ESFP

Ok, most of my family and close friends know I hate (HATE) personality tests. The first time I took the Myers-Briggs (I refuse to link that...you can google it on your own:) test in 92ish, I was on staff with Youth With A Mission and we took it so we could learn how to work together. I thought it was so dumb. I have no idea why, but I remember our Director saying, your personality type hates to take these tests. That sent me over the edge!

My husband is now working toward getting ordained as a Deacon with Anglican Missions in America (AMiA) and we had to do a marriage assessment for that. Of course that entailed 5 personality tests, no joke. One was even a Spiritual Gifts test, all it really tested was my cynicism, which I am sure my Myers-Briggs fully explains:) Anyways, I have to say...I think I learned something...I don't know who Myers or Briggs are, or how they even came up with all those questions, but it helped me. Well, it helped part of me:)

My personality type was/is E (extrovert) S (sensory) F (feeling) P (perceiving). Henry is almost the same except for the end which his is J (judging). Mine is supposably *the performer*, which maybe explained me at 15, but not really now. What it did help with is...homeschooling.

What it explained to me is that I like things open ended, not structured (though my head likes to think I want to be structured), want to consider ALL possibilities, nothing set in stone because of unknown variables, flexible, likes adventure, takes risks, etc. This explains me to a T! Its actually what drives my poor hubby crazy. I even yell at him for writing in his calendar in ink, cause something might change! I NEVER write on ANY calendar in ink...its forbidden!

Link to homeschooling with four children, which really needs to be scheduled, organized (times 4), time slotted, written in ink, goal oriented, big picture minded===STRESS. And not just any ol' stress, MY stress! Something that our counselor that was in charge of giving and interpreting all of this said, was, you need to mesh your personality type with homeschooling four children. You need to lower your stress.

No duh! was what I was thinking! Thats the only thing I KNEW walking in there! It actually had been my heart's cry!

So, now I at least feel like I have a mission. I need to have a schedule that serves my children to the fullest, but doesn't stress me out and HELPS me to serve them. I am going to work on that over Advent as we take a break from the rigorous schedule that we usually are working on. I need to also trust God in this. I need to see it as a tool and not *who* I am specifically (my type wouldn't allow that anyway:).

Simplicity of the Gospel

This is the last week of Term One of this year! We are finishing off books, ending units, preparing for Thanksgiving and Advent…exciting and exhausting all at once. Yet, this was the hardest term for me. Which seems strange, since this is our seventh year of home schooling, so it should be getting easier, not harder right?

God is taking me to the END of me…all those *great* Christian clichés we often quote: ‘more of Him, less of us’, ‘Him increase while we decrease’, ‘in our weakness He is strong’ (ok, that one is really scripture)…you get my point. Well, if you have ever truly fleshed that out…you don’t really pray those when you are IN it…you mostly start saying, “OH GOD! HELP!” Which I suppose is His point! Nevertheless, the process is so very valuable, and yet excruciating all at the same time. And even more important: eternal.

Then tonight, I came across this quote in my BSF study notes on John 6: “In order to recognize and appreciate a supernatural work of God, it is first necessary to recognize its impossibility on a human level.” Which, quite honestly, makes me cuss every time…not kidding.

Home schooling, obviously has been easy for me to handle until this point. I have made it work, had fun, learned the Charlotte Mason method, learned about my children, enjoyed my children. Then this year (the most organized I have ever started), cannot make it work, yell more than I want to, cuss out Charlotte Mason and not enjoying my children like I want and I don’t even want to know what they thought of me the past couple weeks.

And, yet, its not even really all about ME…I can so make every hard time and/or Bible lesson about me, about how I am changing, about how I am becoming a moldable vessel to him, about my fruit, about how THIS scripture spoke to ME, etc, etc.

The real question remains:

What about my homeschooling reveals the Glory of God?

Am I focusing on the food that is perishable, instead of the food that is imperishable?

“Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to
eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father
has set his seal.” John 6:27

What does Jesus say that this imperishable food is?? Jesus answers some of the 5000 that just ate the miraculous ‘3 loaves, 2 fish’ meal (they just experienced a miracle, a sign of who He is, and MISSED the whole point) : verse 29: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

That’s it??? No steps? Just believe? Are you sure? It’s not harder? more complicated?

Lord forgive me of my UNbelief.

I am t.r.y.i.n.g. to make sure school is enjoyable, not scarring, creates a love of learning and knowledge, builds good habits, is structured, provides lessons of character building. On and on and on and on I could go. Efforts toward food that perishes;

He says…BELIEVE in the one who was sent.

Chris Tomlin is Stalking Us

Ok, not really, but on Thursday mornings, we have worship as a family to a CD. Chris Tomlin's new CD is the new family favorite! (Which really needed to happen because my kids were starting to dread Jeremy Riddle...) I printed out words to Sing, Sing, Sing and Exalted and we had worship to those. Well, we started praying afterwards with the CD still playing, and the last song on the CD is our HYMN we are studying Fanny Crosby's All the Way my Savior Leads Me started playing. I stopped praying and we all looked at each other in amazment, we had no idea that it was on this CD! Is God trying to say something to us? hehe If I was a true Charismatic I would think it was a confirmation to something;) Nik bursts out, "Chris Tomlin is stalking us!" Yeah, I am sure that is it!

We went ahead and finished praying and then sang his version. The kids were pretty proud they knew most of the words. God's moving in our worship time;);)

Composer, Artist, Hymn, Shakespeare Monday

We discussed the Last Supper today. The kids were pretty fascinated by it. One of the resources we used said that the pictures that we hold in our hand is probably in better condition than what is left on the Refectory wall now in Milan. I also found this link for detailed discussion. We will spend more time on that next I am hoping. Breaks down the painting piece by piece to understand it. Nice that they built a door way right through the bottom of the painting!

We re-started As You Like It by Shakespeare. We are using the Lamb version of the tales until the kids get older. Nik could actually probably handle reading the actual plays right now, but the point right now is MY sanity, so we are sticking with Lamb for a bit more. I was reminded last night on one of my lists to not keep stopping and rephrasing everything for the kids understanding. For one, this makes the readings LONG and tedious! But, yet, I was still doing it. Here is what Charlotte Mason says about that:

Volume 1, pg 232
The points to be borne in mind are, that he should have no book which is not
a child's classic; and that, given the right book, it must not be diluted with
talk or broken up with questions, but given to the boy in fit proportions as
wholesome meat for his mind, in the full trust that a child's mind is able to
deal with its proper food.

Before the reading for the day begins, the teacher should talk a little(and
get the children to talk) about the last lesson, with a few words about what is
to be read, in order that the children may be animated by expectation; but she
should beware of explanation and, especially, of forestalling the narrative.
Then, she may read two or three pages, enough to include an episode; after that,
let her call upon the children to narrate,--in turns, if there be several of
them. They not only narrate with spirit and accuracy, but succeed in catching the
style of their author. It is not wise to tease them with corrections; they may
begin with an endless chain of 'ands,' but they soon leave this off, and their
narrations become good enough in style and composition to be put in a 'print
book'!
This sort of narration lesson should not occupy more than a quarter of
an hour. The book should always be deeply interesting, and when the
narration is over, there should be a little talk in which moral points are
brought out, pictures shown to illustrate the lesson, or diagrams drawn on
the blackboard.

Isn't she so smart? So, I put it to the test, (I have been timid to try it with dealing with 3 different ages, but I do KNOW better!). I read 10 minutes of As You Like It, and asked for a narration from anyone who could give it to me. Seth went first and gave really good details (of the wrestling match of course;) of the story line. Nik filled in most of the gaps. Lesson accomplished in a mere 15-20 minutes! If only I would always just follow the method... The first time I read it, I got 2 pages and stopped and explained every strange word and innuendo, its just unnecessary! And they would really hate Shakespeare when I was done with them;)

Bach we watched 2 more episodes on YouTube of The Great Composer~Bach series. They are interested. I just need to somehow get us listening to classical music during the day. I think that would help them.

I still have half a day to do with them, but its close to 2pm, guess we will get in the major stuff!;) It is getting smoother for sure!

Composer, Artist and Hymn Study

On Mondays, I try to combine as many things as I can and teach them as a *class*. This works really well with the Composer, Artist and Hymn of the term (I also combine Handbook of Nature Studies, Shakespeare & Folksongs, but so far I am not as creative with those three, ha!, but we still do those on Mondays also). This school year, with all the crunches most of us are going through, I basically do not have a school budget. So for these three I use itunes and YouTube alot. I just wanted to share some of the links that I have been using.

Johann Sabastian Bach
For Bach, the first four weeks we are focusing on the Magnificat. I am finding it so fun to have to teach the kids something that, on a regular basis, I would not take the time to study or listen to on my own. (this is all about my education, right?) Anyway, I found lots of great links and info!
The Magnificat was written for an Orchestra and (I believe) 5 vocalists. So the first week we talked a lot about what an Orchestra is and what instruments make it up. I got to show the kids the different instruments and listen to them. I think they appreciated the music after they got to hear all the different types that go into it. I found this on YouTube:



Then I found this breakdown of the Latin of the Magnificat for them. Of course you could just look it up in the book of Luke;) Then a short bio with LOTS of MIDI files are here. A longer bio is of course on Wikepedia;) Also, since this wasn't enough (ha!) I searched Bach's full name in YouTube and found a Great Composer Series from BBC! We spent a slight bit of time around the computer screen on Monday morning.


Leonardo Da Vinci
Ok, then for Mr. Da Vinci...we have been studying him for LITERALLY a year! UGH! He was the Artist for the first term of September 2007! I was so good and got the prints off to Office Max and got copies for all the kids, laminated, etc. But, well, then our house got literally turned upside downside;) (Ok, just the back of the house got ripped off, but still.) So, since I had the prints and the books, I kept on with him. So beside the prints, we are using a couple books that guide us through some of the portraits. One is Leonardo Da Vinci by Ernest Raboff and the other is Leonardo Da Vinci (haha) by Bruno Santi. I did find some websites also. One is from the Louvre that takes a close up view the Mona Lisa. And then Nik is reading this Landmark book by Emily Hahne.

All the Way my Savior Leads Me, by Fanny Crosby

This is our hymn to study for the next twelve weeks. It is a beautiful hymn, but learning more about Fanny Crosby has really impacted my kids. She went blind at 6 weeks from a mere eye infection, and a *doctor* gave her a wrong remedy and ruined her eye sight. She wrote this poem when she was 8:

Oh what a happy soul I am,
Although I cannot see;
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy,
That other people don't;
To weep and sigh because I'm blind,
I cannot, and I won't."

And she is quoted as saying:

It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me.

And then good ol' youtube helped me out again;) A pastor used her as a sermon illustration. The kids had heard most of it, but I think it was like they were getting to watch TV during school, so I let them see it. The only thing that was questionable, was how he presented her getting saved...but beside that it was good information, and it brought up good conversation starters. (Not that my kids really need any of those;))

She definitely led an extraordinary life, writing over 8000 hymns and poems! Her concepts and dependence on her Lord is quite inspiring.

Its that time...

The school bell is almost ringing around here! Oh, wait, that was the coffee pot;)

If you have read this blog for any amount of time at all (all five of you;) you know that I am ready for a *normal* year! Well, I have MUCH to communicate, but first, step into this ADD mind of mine and see how our schedule came together.

First, it started with fear and trepidation at homeschooling a middle schooler, a 3rd grader and a 1st grader who thinks she is a middle schooler...

Then, I needed to figure out HOW in the world I was going to do it. I use the BEST curriculum guide in the world, with the BEST philosophy (IMHO of course;). But there is that applying thing that gets the best of us stuck at times! Plus, three kids, with three different book lists, one three year old, four days a week equals crying out to God (and of course a glass of wine...).

Here is what I did:

wrote everyone's initial and subject needed to be covered in the next 12 weeks on a piece of paper and threw it on the floor:

this is just a portion

I am not good at processing AND making a chart on the computer at the same time, and I needed to see the whole week at once.

Then I put the lessons times along one side of the room and started to fill in the gaps.

On Monday mornings, I decided to do everything we can together, which isn't too much, but every little minute I can squeeze out of the week helps. Together we are going to do our quartly Composer Study, Artist Study, Shakespeare, Hymn Study, Folksongs, scripture reading, and handwriting.

I worked on one day at a time, and I think I have it all figured out. At least it looks really good on paper!

Here is what my paper squares week looks like after rearranging a couple times. We only school 4 days a week and each column under each day is one of the kids schedules. Nik was a little overwhelmed at the amount of his squares.

The final schedules are here...they even each got their own font;) So, it fits on paper (even with some of the books they didn't finish up last year), we will see if it works in real life!! I will keep you posted!