Heart of Wisdom Academy

This is my beautiful, sweet, daughter Peyton (aka "Baby Baller Cakes") at 2 months shy of 8 years old. I tell her all the time how glad I am that God gave her to me. I absolutely love her to pieces. She is caring, attentive, protective, creative, inquisitive, athletic, joyful, and helpful.
 I have shared in the past her learning difficulties:

• expressive/reflexive language disorder
• reading/writing disorder
• extremely low IQ -borderline range
• extremely poor working memory
• extremely poor short-term memory
• extreme difficulty with memory retrieval

 She progresses slowly, but this is the first year where she has had virtually no academic progress. Her and her twin Kaden have similar learning struggles: they both receive the same therapy twice a week, his IQ is equally low (in fact lower), and their initial academic assessments were very similar; however, there is one major difference. He does not have the memory problems that she has. And for that reason alone he is has been able to progress academically where she hasn't.
For the last several years we've acknowledged that there is a learning disability, but it has become very clear this year that the real problem is memory. No matter who teachers her, what curriculum is used, or what building she's in; her brain goes with her everywhere. Her brain literally does a factory reset every couple of months, and start all over again reteaching everything. Unfortunately her therapists haven't worked with a child with these types of memory problems so we're all trying to learn together.

What God whispers to my heart:

• If Jesus is all my little girl will ever know, is that enough for you? 
• You value knowledge more than wisdom
• The Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed-or indeed only one. Luke 10:41
• Do you want Peyton to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death? Is that your goal for your little girl? Phil. 3:10
• How willing are you to stand alone like Noah in obedience to Me in the face of mockery, ridicule, sneers, gossip, judgement, misunderstandings? (see I can get concerned, b/c my daughter stands alone in class as the only child that can't read. I stand alone in my homeschool community as the mom who's kid "still" can't read) 
• Spend your time grieving over what God grieves over. And God isn't in heaven grieving over my kids' academic scores or my daughters memory. He's grieves over sin and the lost.
• When we measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves with ourselves, we are not wise. 2Cor 10:12  That is what an IQ test does after-all. Comparing my child with other children and creating a norm, when the only norm is that we're all unique. 
• "We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8  
• In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 2 Timothy 2:20  Every child is unique, some he created to
• God has challenged my view of success
• Success in homeschool doesn't mean having the smartest kids, the highest test scores, and dual-enrollment to prove it all.

What's the plan for next year:

• Kyle working indepedently and one-on-one
• One-on-one usually includes math, grammar, writing composition, and reading
• Typically we do science, history, art history, composer study, nature studies, and hymn studies together

In the below photo, only the two of us our studying science because while we were talking about sulfur we read scriptures about the firey lake of burning sulfur as well as how God rained sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. We talked about homosexuality and the recent election. Lots of subjects wrapped in one package, I love that kind of learning.

 Since Kyle has taken up writing with fervor this year,  we're using his writing to teach and reinforce grammar. The grammar text we use his Rod and Staff Grade 5. My goal is to teach him how to use the grammar lessons to improve his writing.

A Philosophy for Math

My best friend and I were recently talking about the importance of articulating an educational philosophy within the homeschool. She started sharing her philosophy about math, and I shared with her how my philosophy has evolved over time. Now, especially with my oldest son, I am showing him how God uses math to teach us the principle of obedience and accuracy.

How does Math Teach You Obedience and Accuracy?
What I love about math, even though I'm not a "math-person", is that there is a definite right or wrong.  2+2 will always equal 4; there is no room for debate or discussion. Recently my son has been forgetting to write dollar signs and decimals where they are needed. So instead of writing $2.55 he will write 2.55 or 255...guess what it's wrong!!! And because of these errors of inaccuracy, his math grade has been hovering about 69%  the last few weeks:-(  Now I could do to him what my teachers did do me, which was take off 1/2 a point for forgetting the dollar sign, but I decided not to do that. There is a difference between 2.55 and $2.55, neglecting the dollar sign changes the answer and that answer is wrong! Simple as that. I'm not going to give 1/2 credit for a problem that's 100% wrong. There is no "A" for effort here. When I teach my children to obey, I teach them that partial obedience is total disobedience. I didn't invent this principle, God did.

Remember Uzzah??  He is an example of the seriousness of carelessness and disobedience even in the midst of good intentions. I want to teach my children what God himself teaches us. Despite our self-perceived good intentions and  "good heart", He is a Just God who expects complete obedience to his laws and commands. We live in a land where people "love" God but feel as though they are exempt from obeying his commands as they are outlined in the Bible. Most people look at their personal lack of obedience,brush it off as they quote "we all fall short"; and fully expect that God will give them an "A" for effort because "God knows my heart". I don't want this brand of Christianity, Heresy, in my children or in my church.

This principle applies even in the realm of mathematical equations. I'm not going to water down the standard so you can get a better grade, who cares about grades, I care that my children learn to obey. I care that they learn that partial obedience is not obedience at all because they will need to understand this principle to live a set-apart life. Oh, how Satan loves for us to be "kind of obedient" as if there's such a thing. I don't know about you, but I don't want my kids to be partially obedient teenagers, I don't want my daughter do marry a man whose "kind of faithful", I don't want Kaden to become a doctor who read 1/2 his books, passed 1/2 his exams, and listened to 1/2 his teachers.

For the first time in weeks, Kyle got 100% on his math lesson. I hope you've guessed that is not the real victory! The real victory is that he is training his character to be obedient and accurate. He is paying attention to detail and not just in math. He see's the value in obedience and moral absolutes. I got to teach him that we serve a Just God who says that to love him is to obey him...and we called it MATH!

Week 2 was great!!! Again, I really wish I had time to share everything, but I don't. Today I'm just going to highlight The Heart of Wisdom approach and how I used this methodology in my homeschool this week.

Information about H.O.W approach:

"The primary objective of the Heart of Wisdom teaching approach is to encorage parents and students to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness". (Matthew 6:33)
"Our goal should be to live within God's kingdom effectively by seeking His wisdom, and becoming hearers and doers of His Word".

Robin Samson asks you to imagine four sets of books:
Set A- Bible and Bible study tools
Set B- History books (living books and reference materials, etc.)
Set C- Science books (living books and reference materials, etc.)
Set D- life skill books

The first part of the day you work with Set A books exclusively

Throughout the day you add Set B books and Set A books together

Then you could do Set C books with Set A books

When I first read this book I actually imagined these huge stacks of books which seemed a little intimiating. It's not. We actually use the computer or some other hand-held device to access the Bible and Bible study tools. It is convenient and very effecient.

Week 2: ( some things will carry on into week 3)
Kyle read The Wonderbook of Chemistry and learned about Sulfur.The old term for Sulfur was Brimstone. He watched a video about Sodom and Gomorrah and read the passage in the Bible. I have an article for him to read this week entitled What is Brimstone? by biblicalscholarship.com This article is full of wisdom from God's Word

Because he had just read about the sin of the Sodomites, we featured our weekly current event on Obama's position regarding same-sex marriage. We had a great discussion about the article. This week I will share with him key scriptures on God's design and purpose of marriage and share with him God's words about homosexuality and same-sex marriage. I really should have done this all in the same week, but ran out of time.

While we colored pictures of the sparrow while reading The Burgess Bird book, we read in the Bible how God knows and takes care of the sparrows, and what lesson we are to learn from them. We also talked about what day the Lord created birds.

We read the Magic Fish with the younger children and talked about how God feels about greed and contenment. I should have gone to God's word and shared with them a scripture.

Actually, after writing this it actually makes we want to consider actually pulling out the "real" bible, not the e-bible. So that they can physically see that we go to the Word of God to answer ALL of our questions and to gather All of our information, and to form All of our opinions. After writing this I realize that they don't actually ever see the Bible when I pull it up on the computer. Hmm???? Something to think about.