All Things Hold Together

about the curriculum reviews.

You may have noticed that I include a link to purchase the products I review. I am not being paid for these reviews - not that there’s anything wrong with that. This is something I have been meaning to do for a long time. (I first mentioned the idea on my old HS blog.)

I am, however, signed up as a CBD affiliate. That means, for any purchase that is made at CBD through a link on this blog, I will earn a percentage, which I will use toward our homeschool purchases.

I intend to post links to any homeschooling products I review, as well as any of the music I post about.

If you decide to purchase through one of my links, thank you. If not, that’s okay, too. I promise that from now on, I will try to keep the links understated and not obnoxious.

Oh, one more thing, you can also shop CBD through the link or search box in my sidebar and also benefit Tensel Academy. (That’s us.)

In case I don’t get another chance to post, have a great weekend!

Our first year of homeschooling, we used grammar, phonics, and spelling workbooks for Language Arts. The kids hated it. They found the daily drills boring.

Even worse, not a day went by when I didn’t hear, “Why do we need to learn this?”

With a year of homeschooling under my belt, and a growing comfort with moving away from the way the public schools do education, I decided to find a more practical approach.

That’s when I found Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL). LLATL teaches all of the language arts skills through the context of literature passages.

Each week’s lesson contains a literature passage. The work for each day focuses on a different language arts skill that refers back to that passage.

In grades 4 and higher, there are also book studies throughout the year. The lessons following the book studies focus on literature passages from that book.

Never again did I hear the words, “Why do we need to learn this?” It was obvious why they needed to know these skills because they learned them in a practical context - reading and understanding literature.

The skills covered by LLATL include grammar, reading, spelling, vocabulary, writing mechanics, creative writing, thinking skills and more. You can view the full scope and sequence here.

We plan to order LLATL again this year. I found the LLATL program to be all we needed for language arts, however, I have read that some parents felt it was weak in spelling.

We do not focus on spelling drills and quizzes because the kids read so many books. I just figure they will pick up on spelling that way.

If you are a parent who would like to use LLATL, but would like more focus on spelling, I recommend using a free online program, such as Spelling Time.

If you would like to read other reviews on LLATL, Homeschool Reviews.com has some here.

If you decide to buy LLATL, please consider checking out Christian Book Distributors. I buy almost all of my homeschool books there because they have great prices. And if you follow this link to their LLATL page, and decide to purchase, you will also be supporting our homeschool.

Updated: I added a feature in the side bar that shows current eBay auctions for LLATL.

Dana from Principled Discovery had a very insightful post up the other day called Finding Purpose.

She concludes,

I think the feminist movement has denied a good deal of what it is to be a woman by denying the innate desire to be home, raising children. But I also think the church has done the same by denying her desire to work. In reality, the desire to labor productively and to rear children are two halves to the same person. I think this plays out differently for each person, but I truly believe the key for battling some of the depression and anxiety that frequently accompanies the decision to stay home with children is found in recognizing God’s plan.

This got me thinking about my own experience with being a stay-at-home mom. For me, it has been an ongoing search to find that perfect balance between raising my children and being productive.

Sometimes, I swing too far in the direction of taking care of my kids. I forget that I need to feed that part of my being that is teeming with creative energy and yearning to make a contribution - aside from raising three (hopefully) decent and productive members of society, as important as that is.

Other times, I go off in the opposite direction and forget that the reason I am here, and not sitting at a desk in some office building somewhere, is that I have three kids to raise, care for and educate.

I think that is what happened when I was focusing too much on She’s Right, and why I needed to set that aside.

One thing I now realize, though, is that there never will be that perfect balance between caring for the children and other purposeful work because that line changes like the passing of the seasons.

Right now, for example, there are some things that need tending to with the boys. They need almost constant attention, while we help them process through some difficulties.

But this too shall pass and there will be a time, hopefully soon, God willing, that I am able to focus more on my other pursuits.

Even so, I do tend to fill my days with useful labor, such as making food from scratch, making soap, and working in our vegetable garden, rather than mindless entertainment that can lead to the lack of purpose and depression that Dana was alluding to in her post, and I think that has made a difference in the way I feel about just being a stay-at-home mom.

This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Homeschool Hacks.

The Carnival of Principled Government is up at Principled Discovery.

We saw the most amazing thing this morning out on our back porch. A Blue Jay landed on a planter that hangs on the porch railing with a piece of hornets’ nest in his mouth, set it down and began eating its contents.

Then it flew back over to the roof and came back with another piece of hornets’ nest.

Eventually, it had to leave because a very angry hornet came along.

I was talking about how cool nature is, after. Then Bob remarked that nature is really brutal and pointed out that I only thought it was cool because I like birds and I hate hornets.

I guess I wouldn’t have thought it was cool if a giant hornet flew over with a piece of bird nest and started eating the baby birds.

Hmm. I suppose whether something is good or bad really depends on your perspective.

I’ve had the song, “Walk by Faith,” by Jeremy Camp, in my head for the past few days. I’ve known that song for years, we even have the CD, but I have never really thought about it much.

Then a few days ago, the lyrics really hit home:

I will walk by faith even when I cannot see
Because this broken road
Prepares your will for me

We have been going through a really difficult time lately in our family. I am not really at the point that I want to get into the specifics of it, but it has really turned our lives upside down.

I think the worst part about it was that our thinking about the situation was really negative, too. In different ways, we were both, Bob and I, just wishing that we didn’t have to go through this and kind of feeling like we shouldn’t have to.

Then I was listening to this song the other day and it really hit me that this struggle we are facing is doing a lot to prepare us for doing God’s work.

I have been asking God to use us to build His kingdom and I am really beginning to see the ways in which He is preparing us for that mission.

It’s so arrogant to think that we shouldn’t have to go through this. After everything that Jesus did for us, is there any sacrifice too great for us to make on behalf of His kingdom?

I was reading about when Jeremy Camp wrote that song. It was during his honeymoon to his first wife, who died just months later of ovarian cancer.

She reportedly said to him that if she ended up dying from her disease, as long as her death led one person to Christ, it would all be worth it.

Through Jeremy’s music and testimony of faith, I can only imagine how many people her death has led to Christ, not to mention the countless people who have had their faith in Christ strengthened.

It is heart-wrenching to imagine how painful it must have been for him to become a widower at the age of 23, but his testimony reminds me that our lives here on earth are not about us, they are really about building God’s kingdom.

It’s easy to lose sight of that in the midst of all the struggles and pain that we have been enduring.

No matter what challenges I face, if I can lead just one person to Christ through my life, it will all be worth it.

Here is the video of “Walk by Faith” from YouTube.

I added a few more blogs to the blog roll.

First up, Venomous Kate’s softer side, I Think Therefore I Blog, is under Homeschool Blogroll, although I am not sure whether it belongs there because I haven’t been reading it long.

Homeschool Hacks is also new under HS Blogroll. PHAT Mommy says that the next Carnival of Homeschooling will be there.

Speaking of PHAT Mommy, she is also in the blog roll now under “Other Blogs I Read Regularly.” I decided to put it there instead of under HS blogs, but don’t ask me why. I don’t really have a reason. Probably because Homeschool Hacks is her HS blog.

Last, but not least, I added O’Donnell Web. I do not know why I didn’t add that sooner, since it is one of my favorite blogs. Chris reminds me of my husband, with all the Linux geekiness posts.

That blog is also under “Other” instead of HS blogs because, as the header says, “This is not a homeschooling blog” - even though my bookmark clearly says, “O’DonnellWeb: Homeschooling/Baseball/Techno…”

Happy reading!

After days of re-designing template after template with my own graphics and special touches, only to decide that it wasn’t quite right, I have my new template.

I like it, but I am not the one reading, so if you actually visit the blog, let me know how you like it.

I decided to turn off the “no follow” feature in my comments, so that - if I did it right - when you leave a comment, your link will get picked up by the powers that be on the internets.

This is some sort of movement, I guess. You can read about it here.

I don’t really do much in the way of traffic generation for this site, but I know some people live and die by those numbers, so I figured I would do my part to show them love.