Third Grade Planning

I always get excited in the Spring about planning our next homeschool year. I think it is because I am so burned out on what we have been doing for the past 7-8 months.
Here are my plans with some questions and holes to adjust after we give things a try.

Third Grade Course of Study

Blogging and Life

Kim, over at Starry Sky Ranch, has hit the nail on the head and explains why I have not blogged lately. Every morning I think of something neat to blog about, but it never makes it to the computer. I read this last night and knew it would be posted this morning.
Read her thoughts On Blogging.

Hello

Yes, I have been absent for over 6 months. I decided that I could not justify the amount of time I was spending on the computer. I tried just keeping up with the Google Reader which would show items I liked or felt informative from my favorite sites, but that too seemed to take up alot of time. There are an unlimited number of wonderful sites, and one post usually links to another, and that to another, . . .
It was very hard to break the habit of reading all the wonderful posts from all the wonderful sites out there. I thought I would miss something really important or some idea that was genius. Well there are some wonderful resources and ideas for homeschooling and practicing our Catholic Faith and I am sure I have missed out on many great ideas. Yet being more accountable for my time has been a blessing.
So now I reenter the world of blogging very slowly and with much discernment. It is Lent and I have three books going at once, along with the Lenten liturgical activities that accompany homeschooling and Catholic life! My next post will be on spiritual reading.

Reminder: Ember Days

This Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are traditional (according to the 1962 calendar) Ember Days. Although the practice is not required by the US bishops, it is with generosity we can offer these small sacrifices (fasting and partial abstinence) in reparation for the many outrages going on in the world today.

link to post by Family in Feast and Ferial

Some notes on the Ember Days:

The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy.

There are four sets of Ember Days each calendar year; three days each – Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Ember Days fall at the start of a new season and they were ordered as days of fast and abstinence. The significance of the days of the week are that Wednesday was the day Christ was betrayed, Friday was the day He was crucified, and Saturday was the day He was entombed.

Ember Days were marked by fasting and partial abstinence from meat. Fasting allows one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening. The normal rule of thumb is that the two smaller meals should not equal one full meal. Eating between meals is not allowed, but liquids are allowed. Partial abstinence allows meat to be eaten at the principal meal.

More info here

The Video Already Being Shown

This was posted on The Rush Report. It was shown to a group of elementary aged children in their school on Aug. 28.
Check out the full story HERE.

MY RANT: Grab your kids and hide. After reading today about the H1N1 plans to force vaccination and possibly force confinement in who knows where, and after reading about the continued push to indoctrinate the youth of this nation, now, I have to see this. Where did the funding for this come from?????? Was it previewed by the administration? Approved by any parents or PTA's? Do the parents even know that their child(ren) saw this?
I feel like Glenn Beck . . . rant, rant, rant. When will we wake up???

UPDATED: Obama and School Kids

Update: Enough people were upset to stir a reaction from the White House. Albeit, not much. The document still has quite a slant to it and the speech is still on. Maybe I will post my own study lessons = smile
See latest news update here

One more article that expresses my concerns, but not as emphatically as I would like.

OK, Obama may be just going to talk to all the public school kids in this nation on the value of a good education and hard work, but I do distrust him. History has taught the world that charismatic leaders can have a profound effect on the youth - to the point of following blindly. His focus on recruiting the youth for forced "public service", his dream of a civilian national security force, and the web site to report those who did not support his health care agenda are enough for me to question his motives for this speech. Could you imagine if George Bush would have done this right before or after the invasion of Iraq? Maybe just before the vote on some important legislation which he had campaign for?

See article at WorldNetDaily, here
and
to see the teacher's study guide for before, during, and after the speech, here

For those of you who have or know public school kids, please pass the word about "Stay at Home Day" on September 8. My guess is there is no opting out of the unit study leading up to and after the speech.

St. Bernard

Today is the feast day of St. Bernard. I hesitate to say "one of my favorites" or "most loved" as I find it hard to become too attached to just one saint. Often times the saint I seem most attached to depends on my happenings in life at that time. But it is safe to say that St. Bernard of Clairvaux always comforts me in all situations. If you have not read much on this saint or you are looking for a GREAT book to read aloud to your children, you must pick up The Family That Overtook Christ (see link below). Also, a great introduction for adults is St. Bernard of Clairvaux from Amazon (below) or Tan.

St. Bernard's writings are awesome. In his treatise On Loving God, he describes four degrees of love. We see clearly here why we learn and teach our children to know, love, and serve God. You must know before you can love and serve!

• First, man loves himself for his own sake due to his earthly nature
• Next, man sees that he is dependent on something and faith leads him to seek God and love Him because of his dependence on Him - a selfish love.
• Through the practice of our faith and worship of God, we learn of God's Goodness, and love Him not only for what He had done for us, but because He is God.
• The perfect love being a totally unselfish love, where man loves himself only for God's sake - a total abandonment to oneself and a total giving of oneself to God.As expressed in the Psalms: "I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God: and will make mention of Thy righteousness only" (Ps. 71:16)