Heat and Light & Cold and Dark, Temple Destruction, Passover vs Communion, and Writing About Self-Drawings

*Sunday, February 7:  Jade did Explode the Code.  I don't have recorded any of our conversations.

*Monday, February 8:  At breakfast, while stirring his hot oatmeal, Jaden said that he wished God didn't make steam.  So, I explained to him that he should actually be thankful for the steam for the same reason he thought he should be unthankful.  I told him that steam was evaporated water caused from heat rising from the surface of his oatmeal, that it was what allowed it to cool.  Over breakfast we talked about heat migration, which then led to my explaining that "cold" was a relative term and did not actually exist.  Only heat exists.  Cold is simply a loss of heat.  The more "cold" something is, the less heat it has.  I went on to say that light and dark carried the same truth.  Light exists.  Dark does not.  "Dark" is a relative term meaning a loss of light.   In the theory of absolute zero, there is no molecular movement.  No kinetic energy.  No heat, no energy.  Complete darkness would be the absence of light.  We also talked about wind, air currents, and thunder. 

He did two pages in Grade 1 Complete Curriculum for writing and wrote four sentences about snow and played outside in the snow.  He was supposed to write a paragraph and indent, but he did not.  I intend to make him redo it, but I have not yet.  Basically everything else was okay, though.

We talked about prophecy and the destruction of the temple after the bible story reading of the day.  I told him about the "Wailing Wall," the western wall of the second temple that still remains...until the prophecy is fulfilled and not one stone is left upon another.  I showed him pictures on Google images of the temple wall still standing.  He gets amazed about things like that, the wall still standing after nearly two millennia.

Also he brought up the true feasts of God and the false ones adopted from the fornicating whore church from heathen religions.  He said, "Those should be thrown in the trash can," referring to the latter ones, "and God's should not be in the trash, and that's how it will be when God's kingdom is on the earth, and right now Satan's kingdom is ruling."  "Yes!  You're right," I said.  I asked what would happen to Satan and his fellow rulers behind the scenes.  He rightly said, "Locked up!"

He also learned how to curl paper with his scissors.

*Tuesday, February 9:  Jade did two pages of Grade 1 C.C. writing.  He and Trusten watched ladybug videos on Youtube; two were about ladybugs being beneficial garden insects by eating aphids, one was how to draw a cartoon ladybug, and the fourth was a cute ladybug song.  I highly recommend the last video for young children.  I played it for them again and watched it myself. Afterward, Jade drew a cartoon ladybug.

After reading the bible story of the day, I explained what one of the side pictures and captions meant by communion or the Lord's Supper.  I explained briefly the Catholic mass and the Protestant traditions vs. the annual observation of the new testament Passover that is commanded for true Christians. 

Jade wanted to make some iced tea, so I instructed him, and he made some.  He was very pleased with himself.

At bedtime, during story time, I talked about hermit crabs, including how I'd had one as a child and was pinched and bled.  I also mentioned the time my sister and I brought some back from the Gulf of Mexico during our family trip to Florida one summer; I told him they died, I guess because they were used to saltwater or didn't have the right food.  Maybe we just forgot to take care of them until too late.  I really do not know why.  Maybe I should look into this. 

*Wednesday, February 10:  Jade did one writing page in G1CC, one reading lesson in Gr. 2 CC, and two math pages in Gr. 2 CC.  After Nathan built a fire, and Jade threw a wadded-up paper towel in the wood stove, I explained to Jaden about physical vs. chemical changes to matter.  I told him if he'd have torn the paper towel into small bits, it would still be the same chemical structure.  It would still be paper towel, just in little bits.  As we stared at the ashy form of the now-destroyed paper towel, I explained that its chemical composition had changed now because of the fire.  I told him some physically-broken things could be put back together, but once something is burned, there is no piecing it back together.

Jade decided to use some of his money to buy some green personalized pencils, so we found some online, and he counted out $12.98 for me.

We read the first chapter of "Skeletons in the Closet" by Gary Parker (a creation-based fossils book for children.

*Thursday, February 11:  While reading the daily proverb, I explained in detail how and why a brother offended is hard to be won over again (Prov. 8:19) while playing it out with wooden people from his wooden toy set.  We also discussed that to have friends you must be friendly and talked about laziness and wastefulness.  In the bible story of the day, we talked about how Jesus prayed for all believers to be "one." 

Jade did two writing pages, 1 reading lesson, and 2 math pages.  We took a nice walk up our hill and walked around a bit.  We read "Dinosaurs, Two of a Kind" (Trust's pick) and "Babar's Children" (Jade's pick) and discussed things with Trusten, because there was a quiz in the back of his book pick.

The boys played in the snow and the dry creek bed.  That night we watched one of our movies again, "One Night with the King," which is about the Jewish queen Esther of Persia.  I ordered some "Great Courses" from the Teaching Company.

*Friday, February 12:  Jade did Explode the Code.  We cleaned the house.  Jade is doing a wonderful job of volunteering to do things.  He helped make macaroni and cheese. 

*Sabbath, February 13:  The boys sabbath school lesson was about the sabbath being holy.  After the sabbath, I played a game of chess with Jaden William, and I had to stop and lecture him about his need of obedience and getting his priorities straight before we could begin playing. After we finished playing, Jade cut out some paper hearts, and I helped Trusten start cutting on some paper.  Trusten also practices snapping the clips on Liv's bouncer.

*Sunday, February 14:  In the morning I played them a books of the bible song on Youtube.  I played three different ones, but the one I have linked was my favorite, so I have a desktop bookmark for it so I can play it for the boys regularly.  It's a little "rockier" than I'd like it to be, but it's not too bad, in my opinion.  Jade really likes the rap one I played.  At some point in the day I remembered it was the day many in our society keep, St. Valentine's Day, one of entirely-too-many Catholic holidays, this one being in honor of a supposed "saint" (says the Roman church) by the name of Valentine.  After cleaning the house, we all went grocery shopping together.  Well, I went in by myself, and the children stayed in the truck with Nathan.  I picked up a pizza from the Ozark Natural Foods deli, and we ate that when we got back.  We then had company come over.  It was one of our friends Paul and his wife.  That was the first time I met Lisa.  We all had a nice visit.  After they left, we watched a documentary on the "Dark Ages."  Jade learned more about the bubonic plague, which is something on which I've briefly touched before, including explaining a song that children sing and dance to called "Ring Around the Rosies."

*Monday, February 15: Jade did a reading lesson, some writing, and some math.  I briefly explained loans and financing, because Nathan got me a new truck:  a 2010 Toyota Tundra Crew Max.  I really like it!  I do NOT like how it drinks gas.  I listed that as an important criterion (it was his idea to get a new vehicle, and he's been pressing me for months), but that went out the window.  However, I will say that it's been my favorite truck for as long as I can remember.  I figured I would not ever have one, especially during child-rearing years.  But, wow, the backseat of that thing is very spacious.

Jade talked about how he thought cold water is heavy and so falls (it was snowing), so we talked a little about how it all works.  He said something rather humorous.  He said the deep freezer, since it was cold, would drop from the sky.  I laughed, and then I explained that it would fall because of the law of gravity.  He said, "Yeah, but hot water goes up."  Well, he thinks of everything.

On this day, it was also through him that I got a satisfactory answer for something I'd been pondering to God.  I never brought up my pondering to Jade.  I never have to.  It's not the first time he has been used to answer my questions.  He came up to me, and in his wisdom, he said, "I know how there is an end of numbers, and there is no end."  My ears were perked, because what I had been meditating on was how God can say he's eternal and yet also the beginning and end.  I'd been seriously thinking about this over the past few days before Jade came to me with this comment.  He has talked about numbers and infinity before.  It seems to come up every few months.  So, anyway, I said, "Tell me."  He said, "It's like a circle.  With a circle, there is a beginning and and end, but it also doesn't end.  It ends where it begins."  Now, that may not be a direct quote, but that's basically what he said.  Aha!  I thanked him greatly, and he was so delighted and tickled.  Well, maybe this sort of thing is obvious to some, but I often overlook the obvious. 

Trust loves to play with water.  This is okay, but it becomes not okay when he wanders off to the bathroom, grabs a cup and pours water into the toilet, and in the process gets water all over the floor.  So, I cleaned up the mess, and I explained to him that whenever he wants to play with water to just tell me and ask nicely, and I'll get him set up with some stuff, as long as he does not make a mess all over the floor.  I got an unused cookie sheet that I keep for the kids' play (b/c it was nonstick Teflon, so I stopped using it years ago), a large yogurt container (those I save back and reuse, too), some of the plastic measuring cups that the boys use for play, and a big plastic spoon.  Oh, yes, I also let him play with one of my steel cake pans (that I do use).  He was pleased with that, and he kept his promise by not making a mess on the floor. 

Snow, House and Body, Good Wife, Natural Disasters, Diamonds, and Ladybugs

It's been over a month since I've updated.  We went on a trip week before last and so were gone for a few days.  Before that Jade worked on his writing lessons, and we went through some animal science lessons.  We read our daily proverbs, bible stories, and prayer book.  He still does Explode the Code on Sundays and Fridays.

Youtube videos watched during that period were:  acrobats w/ trapeze, a Powerpoint presentation on the six days of creation, lions, blue whale, "The Atom" animated, seal eating salmon, seal eating a fish, seals and penguins on coast of Argentina; and Crawford the Cat:  Lets Everyone Play, Practice Makes Perfect, "Try a Bite" Club, Crawford & Harriet Work Together

My friend Angela came over on Jan. 6 with her two girls.  She and I visited while the kids played.  Another day we visited another friend Amy and her two girls at Barnes & Noble.  I bought the boys a new Berenstain Bears book.  Apparently they now have a bible-based series.  We own over fifty BB books, and the boys love them.  The BBs are Jade's favorite, which equates to my being burned out on them.  Thankfully he's reading better by himself all the time (but he still likes stories read and sits while I read to both boys). 

We've also had a lot of snow, which Jade has absolutely loved.  He talked all last summer about wanting a lot of snow and that he prayed God would bring him snow.  WELL!  We've had plenty of it.  We've already seen more snow than we ever have since living here, and we're probably going to get more. 

It sleeted where we were while we were on our trip visiting family and my friend Lindsey.  My dad pulled Jaden on a sled behind his MTV.  Also the boys got to watch the movie Swiss Family Robinson, which is the book we started but have not yet finished.  My mother bought the movie for them.

The day we left I had fixed muffins that morning, which is what I most often fix.  Trusten wanted to watch and help.  He asked, "What is that?" I explained to him all the ingredients that had to go into the batter and explained that it then had to bake.  I said that all the ingredients had to be put together just right and in the right amount and had to be baked before we end up with muffins.

I said, "It's just like how we were made from water and dirt from the earth, but if you went outside and just mixed dirt and water together, you would get mud.  But, if you put together certain minerals and things from the dirt in specific amounts and arranged it correctly with the water, then you could get our bodies or the bodies of dogs or tigers or other animals, depending on which recipe or instructions" you use.   "Ooooh," he said.  "I see."  :-)  Then both the boys listened to me explain different measures, and how it took two half cups to equal the same as a cup.

Now since we got back:

*Wednesday, February 3:  I lectured Jade about how a house and the human body is similar.  He knows a little about building, so I quizzed him about the order a structure is built.  I then asked him to guess the which parts in our bodies to which those things corresponded.  He guessed some correctly; others he did not, but he did a good job guessing.  We talked about the foundation.  Then I explained that our skeleton is our framework, the muscles our reinforcement/strength, our network of nerves the electrical wiring, the plumbing our digestive system and partly our circulatory system, our fat our insulation, our skin and glands (and most specifically the hypothalamus) our climate control (HVAC), and so on. 

Jade asked about our bones, and I explained that they're mostly made of calcium, which is a white mineral.  He asked why bones aren't completely white, and I explained it's because they are not 100% calcium but also have phosphorus and a small amount of other things and are also surrounded by our other blood and tissues.  I told him calcium was a pretty hard mineral and that our teeth are also made of it.  I then told him it was not the hardest mineral, but rather that diamonds are.  I said, "Can you imagine if we had a framework made of diamond?!"

We also read some out of a book called Charlie Brown's Fifth Super Book of Questions and Answers.  We read about machines, especially levers and inclined planes.  This is a topic that we discussed not too long ago, but we didn't read there about it. 

When we read our daily proverb, I explained to the boys some differences between a virtuous woman (or excellent wife, as the note renders it) and a lazy harlot.   I explained that the former was good to her husband and did not lust after other men to commit adultery, she took good care of his children, kept a clean and neat house, and fed her family nutritious food.  I explained that the latter disrespected her husband with her words and actions, lusted after other men and may physically commit adultery with them, didn't safeguard her children or keep a clean house.  I told the boys that I'd read and seen people who had food and dirty dishes throughout their house and trash and dirty clothes on the floors and that such people often abused bad drugs.  I said that some houses would be tearing apart and that some people even left rotting carcasses in the kitchen that would spread bacterial infection and would attract flies.  Jade said that he knew those flies would hatch maggots on the rotting meat.  I then said that I've read of people who leave their babies in dirty diapers for up to days, and they would have clothes soaked with urine and unchanged bedding that had urine on it.  The boys were listening intently, and Trusten said, "Momma."  I looked at him.  He said, "People do that?"  :-(  I said, "Yes, some people do that.  Isn't that sad?"

I also talked about how people and trees can be likened to each other and that just as trees could be struck by lightning, blown down by strong winds, rot, or cut down by someone who was not impressed with its fruitlessness; people who were unfruitful and wicked would also be uprooted or cut down by God. 

We talked a bit about drugs: the good and the bad, the bad usage of the good, and the three categories/reasons of/for drugs (medicinal, religious, and recreational).  This conversation was sparked, because Jaden was playing like he was a cheetah, and he came up to me complaining that his leg was injured and that he needed it put in a cast.  I pretended to put a cast on it, and then I pretended to give him a painkilling medication by mouth.  He took it, and then he gave me a look of uncertainty and said, "Was that good?"  So, I briefly explained the good and the bad and the three reasons why we use drugs, which are made by God, and I also explained briefly about how synthetic manufactured drugs are mostly dangerous, both those made "legal" by the U.S. government and those "illegal" by the U.S. government that individuals manufacture (such as methamphetamine).  I discussed briefly what horrible things happen to a person who uses meth and what kind of horrible things go into making it.  Drugs can be good, and drugs can be bad.  Food can be good, and food can be bad.  God made them both for our proper use.

Jade did a reading lesson in the Grade 2 Complete Curriculum and a writing lesson from the Grade 1 CC. 

Thursday, February 4: Jade requested to do a reading lesson from the Grade 2 CC.  He's doing really well with it.   He also wanted to do math, so he did some math in the Grade 2 CC book.  The bible story of the day dealt with Christ letting those who helped others in need into his kingdom and rejecting those who did not help others (separating the sheep and the goats).  I reminded the boys that we should want to help those in need and that not everyone had the blessings which we enjoy.  One of our favorite organizations is Save the Children.  I reminded him of the earthquake in Haiti and how Save the Children uses the money from those who donate to help the people get clean water, food, and other needs, and how other people use their time to go help.  He then asked more about earthquakes, which then led to volcanoes, which led to diamonds (again). 

Youtube:  how volcanoes form, how earthquakes form, seismic waves inside the earth, how diamonds are formed, carbon and diamonds

Friday, February 5: Jade did his Explode the Code lesson.  He made a ladybug habitat from one of the big yogurt containers that I keep to reuse.  He is going to collect ladybugs from our house.  I suggested he study ladybugs in this way, because we've had ladybugs in our house all winter.  They have apparently hibernated in a wall somewhere and are coming in.  We see them mostly around the window to Liv's room. 

Youtube scheduled for today or tomorrow (Sun. or Mon.):  ladybugs, controlling aphids with beneficial bugs, how to draw a cartoon ladybug, Frank Leto's Ladybug, Ladybug song

Until next time....