Taking a break from schoolwork but still want some interesting, challenging and educational activities for summer? How about some engineering fun?
Author: Ann
Blessed to homeschool in rural east Texas. Two graduated, one to go!
Motivation Monday
“The young should not be suffered to learn good and evil indiscriminately, with the idea that at some future time the good will predominate and the evil lose its influence. The evil will increase faster than the good. It is possible that after many years the evil they have learned may be eradicated; but who will venture this? Time is short. It is easier and much safer to sow clean, good seed in the hearts of your children, than to pluck up the weeds afterward.”
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, pg 139
Building More Than A Tree House
Motivation Monday
“The best test of the Christianity of a home is the type of character that results from its influence. The very first work of parents is to secure the blessing of God in their own hearts, and then bring this blessing into their homes.
God commanded the Hebrews to teach their children His requirements, and to make them acquainted with all His dealings with their fathers. This was one of the special duties of every parent,—one that was not to be delegated to another. In the place of stranger lips, instruction was to come warm from the loving hearts of father and mother. Thoughts of God were to be associated with all the events of daily life; the mind was to be trained to see God alike in the scenes of nature and the words of revelation.
Such was the training of Moses in the lowly cabin home in Goshen; of Samuel, by the faithful Hannah; of David in the hill dwelling at Bethlehem; of Daniel, before the scenes of the captivity separated him from the home of his fathers. Such, too, was the early life of Christ at Nazareth; such the training by which the child Timothy learned from the lips of his “grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice” the truths of Holy Writ.”
The Bible Echo – October, 1894
Stolen Joy
You sit down at the computer for a few minutes of internet time, searching for homeschool inspiration and resources. In the midst of finding some great printables you run across some amazing blogs and websites featuring equally amazing homeschool moms with a bevy of bright-eyed children living on expansive, working farms(my weakness) with spotless homes. Not only do the children have a list of accomplishments as long as your arm, the fit and trim mother is in the process of writing a book!
You log off the computer feeling a bit discouraged, wondering why you don’t seem to accomplish as much during the day, and why everyone else’s children are excelling at algebra while yours struggles with the 6 times tables.
It is easy to become distracted and discouraged by what we see around us. It is so easy to let comparison steal our life’s joy. 
What we forget is that we are comparing apples to oranges. How can I compare myself to someone whose personal background and life challenges are not the same as mine? Different circumstances = different lives. We also forget that most people tend to put their best foot forward online, and we compare that to the mundane realities of our day-to-day lives. This portion of a verse from 1 Corinthians 7 :17 inspires me to be me: “But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk.” These words remind me to stop trying to walk in another’s footsteps and walk in my own.
When the enemy tempts you to compare and threatens to steal your joy, stop and consider the “walk” God has called you to and the blessings to be found on that walk. Relish the special joy that God had apportioned just for you.
Motivation Monday
“Parents, who are the responsible agencies in the home life, should set their children a godly example, learning daily lessons of duty and obedience to God’s requirements. They should themselves become missionaries. They should consecrate themselves entirely to God, remembering that the greatest work that devolves upon them is to train their children to be Christlike, faithful soldiers. This should be the essential work of their life, and, by training their children, they will be constantly repeating the lessons they have learned in their youth, and thus the wise, God-fearing parents will diffuse an influence from their own home circle to that of others that will act as did the leaven that was hid in three measures of meal. Home missionary work is the highest service that parents can render to God.”
The Signs of the Times – September 17, 1894
Motivation Monday
“If children and youth seek to be kind and courteous at home thoughtfulness will become an abiding habit. Every-day politeness will cause them to be always polite. Home is the very place in which to practice self-denial and thoughtfulness to each member of the family; thus it is with the family in heaven, thus it will be when the scattered families of earth are reunited in the heavenly home.”
The Youth’s Instructor, April 14, 1886.
The Adventist Home Educator 