Shakespeare Helps - Links, Book

A few links from an e-loop for Shakespeare studies

http://www.pbs.org/shakespeare/educators/lessonplans.html
_http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/educational.htm_
_http://members.aol.com/DonnAnCiv/3Literature.html#Shakespeare_

My favorite source for Shakespeare is Peter Leithart's book called Brightest Heaven of Invention. It is fantastic!!!

Kerry

I Can't Do It All, Can I ? ? ?

The following is a response to an e-mail about trying to do it all.

You can't do everything every day! Go with the flow and BE FLEXIBLE!

Sounds easier than it really is!

Personally, I have to decide what to do with each of the kids on different days. Some things may be MWF and some on TT. This allows my kids time for that self-directed study that we read about in Thomas Jefferson Education. Kids need time to digest what we are discussing with them. For our own family, we start everyday together discussing the history era that we are studying and then reading a classic aloud. After that everyone goes off to their own studies. I move from child to child (or you could move from group to group if your family is large) and work with them on their level. This may be directed teaching (phonics, grammar, math, etc) or it may be a discussion of some sort. I do not discuss our readings every day of the week. My older kids know that we discuss their readings (or their audio tape and Gileskirk video lecture) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This gives me MWF to work with my younger one on whatever he needs (grammar, classic analysis, math, dictation). If I miss discussing something with one of them...oh well! Life goes on and there are so many opportunities to discuss I'm sure it will come up again.

Another bonus is the dinner table. We tend to discuss all sorts of things around the dinner table. This is usually not planned (by me). It just happens. Sometimes I ask what a particular child is reading and that starts the conversation.

Oh, and BTW, we do start our morning (after family devotions around the breakfast table) with Poetry Memorization. My oldest is balking about it because the first few poems are so silly. I encouraged her to share them with the 8-year old she is tutoring. She was not very impressed. Then, I shared some of the ideas of linguistic patterns that Andrew shares at the beginning of the Poetry bookl. I can't wait to share some of those ideas on my blog. Anyway, we are working on the 30 day, once a day part of Poetry Memorization.

I could go on, but I repeat myself: You don’t need to do everything every day. This is one of those ideas I learned from the Bluedorns in Teaching the Trivium.

Blessings,
Kerry Beck

Math Games Online

Looking for a fun way to review mathematical concepts? I found this website that might help:

http://www.funbrain.com/kidscenter.html

I need my game expert, 12yo son, to give me a review. I will post it once he tries some of these games.

Kerry

Authority in Marriage

Marriage is set up by God to be a blessing to men & women. In order to receive God’s blessings, we must stay under the authority that God has placed in marriage. Before we look at authority in marriage, we must look at God the Father & Jesus Christ. Christ’s authority is the Father. While Christ is on eart, it is the Father’s will that He strives to accomplish. Jesus willingly submits to the Father’s will and the Father’s authority. He sets the example for being a husband or wife.

For husbands, Jesus Christ is the authority they must submit to. God has placed Jesus above husbands as their authority and their example. Jesus loves His bride, the church, as husbands should love their bride. Husbands are to cherish and encourage their wives, leading them in their marriage. When husbands cherish their wives, it is exciting to see how wives glow. As their husbands support, encourage and lead their wives, they will see a beautiful woman before them. Wives are beautiful As husbands lead their wives, they should willingly submit to their authority, Jesus Christ. Reforming Marriage offers more about husbands being an authority and leader in marriage.

Wives are not left out when it comes to having an authority in their lives. Husbands are the authority God gives wives in marriage. In our society we do not like to think that a woman has any authority over her. Everyone is equal in America so we don’t need to be under anyone elses’ authority, or so we think. Although we are equal in God’s eyes as individuals, God still puts authorities in our lives. We usually do not have a problem with civil authorities, such as police, governors, Congress or President. But many of us do not like having an authority that lives in our home, an authority that can see how we live and an authority that at times tells us how we should live. That is too close for comfort.

From my own experience, I know that having Steve as an authority in my life has made my life so much richer than before we were married. Please don’t think that submitting to his authority is always fun and easy. Just the other day I had to submit to his simple request….even though I did not want to do it AT ALL! Why did I submit? At that time, I did it purely out of obedience to God, knowing that He wanted me to submit to my husband. As time goes by, I pray that being a submissive wife will be a reflection of loving my husband. Fruit of Her Hands offers more encouragement in being a submissive wife and a wife that honors her God-provided authority.

The coolest part of submission is the blessing God bestows. I have more peace in my life when I follow God’s plan & the authority He has placed in my life – my husband. I'm sure you will, also.

Kerry

A Bit About Me

I replied to an e-mail about my homeschool. Here's what I wrote. It should give you a glimpse into our homeschool.

I have been using ideas from Thomas Jefferson Education for the last year and really like the approach. I still have some classical and Charlotte Mason ideas in our homeschool.

One thing I am working on is getting the kids to "own" their education by showing leadership. I am seeing that they must have a strong core character foundation and a love of learning to begin. This is included in the Core & Love of Learning lecture notes and Core & Love of Learning CD.

From here, they can enter more self-directed studies in the scholar phase. Last spring we only required the girls to continue their humanities course and their online writing course. After that, they decided what to study. My middle daughter continued in math and my oldest did not. My middle one dropped biology, but is picking it up this year. My oldest has chosen to take a college class at New Saint Andrews this year called lordship. They will both take Great Books 3 class and George Grant's humanities course. I planned to let my son make some decisions for this year, but have not gotten that far.

Kerry