Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Home Church Update

Yep, we're still doing Home Church each morning before school starts. This is when we have our family time, where we gather for some reading and prayer.

For a while there we were also adding in singing, but it started looking more like a Charismatic Church gathering, you know, with catchy upbeat songs with no depth that went on, and on, and on, and on, and on.

The girls were getting carried away with wanting to sing, and sing, and sing, and sing, and less time was being spent on actual reading and prayer.


So, I chucked a little fit, ok, I don't think that I really chucked a fit, but I did certainly get it stopped.

So now we're just down to the readings and the prayer.

As a general rule Chloe 
will do a reading from here { and occasionally I'll have a boy do the reading from here instead just to keep things moving and have everyone participate a bit more } :



And Phebe will do a reading from here:


Dad is doing his reading on Proverbs from a book put out by Kevin Swanson.

And mum will sometimes read from random places like:  Martyrs Mirror, Pilgrims Progress, and other christian orientated books.

The highlight for us though, is that ever since I read Matthew 
Henry's book on Family Worship we've actually been doing some very regularly ( as in pretty much every day with only a few exceptions ).

Slow and Steady wins the race.  :o)


3 comments:

  1. Awesome! I love hearing about morning times like this. We're going to incorporate one too. I'd like to try Grapevine Bible studies, because we can all draw stick figures, even the 6 year old. :-)

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  2. Awesome! I love hearing about morning times like this. We're going to incorporate one too. I'd like to try Grapevine Bible studies, because we can all draw stick figures, even the 6 year old. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was educated in the sixties and singing was a part of the curriculum we sang every morning it 'opened up the lungs, cleared the mind and oxygenated the body only then were we ready to begin the day; singing was also taught as a proper class as well; do your research it is only in the modern age the singing has been dropped (along with drawing and handcrafts). The brain is easily able to remember things when they are sung so I suggest that you carefully choose the songs to teach the doctrines that are important (with god is love/ Jesus loves me incredibly important for His children to know and understand). We sang about three songs a day for devotions and for years the children requested Jesus loves me they never got sick of it (we also used the choosing of the songs as a time to look carefully at the words -were they doctrinally correct, did they glorify God, were they mostly about Him or did they focus on self, these are great teaching/learning opportunities - for example when in the bible can we find these word or that concept). We also would stop for a break during the day and sing something like father Abraham with all the actions which got them moving (don't under estimate the power of a ten minute break singing moving praising and laughing), we also sang our made up song every evening, our giving thanks song, same tune each time but the children would sing what they were thankful for that day, it was a powerful time. Remember the power of singing and that homeschool is to be a joy, my daughter sang all day long and it never disturbed others it was the overflow of her heart. Don't be tricked into thinking that it's not serious learning because it is; they learn apart from the words that their Father loves them, loves to hear their voice and commands them to make a joyful noise, and with the song of thanks giving it is obedience to Him and he promise to put a new song on our lips; open this door for your daughters and you will be amazed we were created to praise and they will blossom as you encourage them in this, you could also make a family song book of the songs your family treasures. Have fun.

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