How To Have A H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids by Rachael Carmen

I just recently finished reading the book, How To Have A H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids by Rachael Carmen. I think God must have placed this book in my lap because it was exactly what I needed to hear and at exactly the right time.

The author is a homeschooling mama so she does shares stories about her experiences teaching her children at home. However, the book is not about homeschooling. It's about loving your children and appreciating them for who they are and Whose they are. I think every parent could benefit from reading this book. I know once I started it, I was soaking up every word and didn't want to put it down.

Every parent worries if they are doing a good job with their children. As a mom, I worry about this daily but also as teacher I have the additional responsibility of providing their education as well. What a stress that can be! But the author has laid my worries to rest as she pointed out somethings that are truly necessary to be a good parent. Yes, I need to address issues with silly phonics rules and frustrations with spelling. But being a good mom, whether a homeschool mom or not, is also about praying to God to help my husband and me to be better role models for our children. It's about making our marriage stronger for our family's sake. It's about loving our kids for who God made them to be. It's about trusting God's plan for our family and our children. And it's about teaching our children to follow His path. When these core life skills are addressed, the other worries over whether to choose textbook A or textbook B will more easily fall into place.

H.E.A.R.T. is an acronym for these tenets that I mentioned above. There is a chapter to cover each one.

H - Have A Heart For The Things of God
I find that I often get tangled up in silly worries that can totally mess up my outlook and attitude. I seem to forget that God already has His hands in our lives. I just need to pray to Him for direction in my life and especially in our school work. How crazy is this - I would easily pray for God to help Nicholas to do well on his karate belt test yet I haven't been praying for God to direct our family's homeschool journey. Sometimes the most simple concepts are the most often overlooked.

"When I asked for wisdom and direction, He gave them freely. He even started to show me things I hadn’t asked for, things I hadn’t realized I needed."

I have since started praying each night before I work on our lessons plans for the next day. It has given me comfort and confidence to get through the planning and makes me excited to go forward and teach my children the following day.

E - Enrich Your Marriage

It is so easy to let the daily tasks overwhelm me. At the end of the day I'm tired and just need break. My sweet husband comes in from his stressful job and wants a break too. But how easy it is to forget his needs and just complain that the dishwasher still needs to be emptied or bug him about the socks on the floor. Rachael says,

"We need to stop criticizing others and begin looking inward and clean up ourselves. We have some corners to dust, some floors to sweep, some sticky spots to attend to."

Seriously! How can I complain about dishes and socks when the entire kitchen island is deemed unusable because it is covered with stacks of papers and plans for wonderful projects that I plan to do "something with someday", yet he never complains about it. We all have our quirks and vices but in a marriage we need to work together as a team to show our children that love is about working together, forgiving each other, and yes, sometimes even sacrificing the use of the kitchen island.

A - Accept Your Kids

This was the chapter that God wanted to smack me over the head with. So often I let my frustration about the things that my children are doing or not doing get the best of me. Why is he so loud and bouncy? Why is she so curious and into everything? Arrrgghh! Why can't they just do what they are supposed to do?

Rachael helped me to remember that they ARE doing what they are supposed to do because they are made in the most wonderful way by the Creator of the Universe.

Who am I to question or want to change that?

"Is it possible that you or I have given birth to an answer to a prayer……It’s possible that the answers to some of these prayesr are already here in the form of a child, a teenager, or a young adult. Are the answers to these prayers growing up under your roof?"

I need to quit wishing for my children to be like other children. I need to quit thinking that they are here just to drive me crazy. Instead, I need to pray for God's plan for these little people to be fulfilled in the most perfect way because they have a beautiful life prepared for them. They just may bring a blessing or miracle to someone else or even the world as long as I don't try to steer them off their intended path just to make my own life easier.

"We must seek God first when it comes to molding our children, or we will make the mistake of molding them into our image instead of His. We will try to make them into what we want them to be for our pleasure and pride and not for the glory and praise of their heavenly Father."

I think this chapter was written just for me. It was what I needed to hear most in this season of my life.

R - Release Them To God

Our children need us to "train them in the way they should go". They are not ours forever. They are sent by God and we must encourage them to follow His path even after they have left the comfort of our nest for He has great plans for them.

When you teach them about God’s faithfulness, sovereignty, and grace; when you don’t rain on their parades with words like “too much”, “too far away”, “too big”, or “too hard”; then they begin to believe that anything is possible. Your kids were meant to change the world. Think of it: young men and women dreaming great dreams for His glory. Isn’t that what this is all about?

T - Teach Them The Truth

We need to be sure to teach our children about Jesus

Regular family worship sets the stage for their day. It puts first things first and sets a tone of praise, submission, service, and sacrifice. Old Testament law taught the value of “firstfruits” (Exodus 23:19), and in the New Testament Jesus admonished His followers to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). When we set aside the first part of our morning for worship of Him, He blesses us. He knows what our day will hold even before we rise, and it is His desire to prepare us for it, individually and as a family.

Why haven't we been doing this? We say our blessings over breakfast each morning and we memorize Bible verses each week but we have not had a regular plan for prayer in the morning before starting our school work. What better way to start our day than with giving thanks and asking for direction from the Shepherd and Teacher who wants to guide and light our paths, if we will only let Him.

This book has been such a blessing to me. In just the short time since I've read it, I can already feel a change in my outlook for each day. Our days are so much more joyful and everything seems to run more smoothly.

How To Have A H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids by Rachael Carmen is available from Apologia Educational Ministries for $13.00. Click HERE to order you copy. You won't regret it!



Apologia offers has some fantastic homeschool curriculum. We currently have one of their science books but I'm planning on using one of their geography books next year.

I was blessed to receive my copy of How To Have A H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids from Apologia in order for me to review the book. I was not compensated for my time and my opinions are all my own. Please check out what others on the TOS Homeschool Crew have to say about this awesome book!

Konos: Japanese Tea Ceremony

Unit: Honor
Theme: Japan

The Japanese tea ceremony, also called the Way of Tea, is important in Japanese culture. There is a full ceremony of preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. Some tea gatherings may resemble English tea in that there are sometimes light snacks and sweets served along with the tea.

We had our own little Japanese Tea Ceremony. Although we decided to not make tatami mats that traditionally cover the floor of Japanese homes, we did find a tablecloth and pillows to sit on and made a low table by reusing a cardboard box covered with a tablecloth. The kids were excited to pull our their fans (only one of them has broken since we bought them!) We used our Japanese folding screens for decoration and the kids dressed in their finest "Japanese-like" costumes. Nicholas dressed as a Ninja and Rachel wore this beautiful oriental outfit that was in some clothes passed down to her from a dear friend.



For our light snacks we enjoyed our imported Japanese foods that we found at World Market. The kids have been bugging me every day to eat their Japanese food!



The pink "Hello Panda" cookies were really tasty. They are sweet little biscuits with a soft strawberry filling inside. The chips were very similar to Cheetos puffs so you know those were a big hit. We found a little red tin that looked like an Oriental food take-out box that had Hello Kitty on it. It was from Japan but the candy inside was just regular candy. The Yan Yan treat were sweet breadsticks with a cup of chocolate to dunk the sticks in. Fun and yummy!

We talked about growing tea, harvesting tea, different types of tea leaves and how they are steeped to make tea. I let Rachel smell the dried white tea leaves but she wasn't impressed and quickly handed them back to me.



In addition to the white tea, I also made an orange flavored herbal tea.



I personally love tea from The Republic of Tea. There are so many wonderful flavors and I love the selection of full loose tea. Loose tea is just as the name implies. It's loose in the tin, not in a tea bag. Loose tea is usually made of full whole leaves whereas tea bags are broken tea leaves or even the powdery, broken leaves left behind by full loose tea leaves. You can steep loose tea in a pot of hot water and then strain the leaves out as you pour your tea. However, if there is tea still in the pot then those leaves will continue to steep. Since some teas should only steep for 2-5 minutes, by leaving the leaves in the pot, your tea may end up being a bit bitter.

Instead I love to use these little teapots that have a filter cup that sits on the top. The loose tea goes in the filter cup then I pour the hot water over the leaves until the pot is full. Once it is finished steeping then I remove the filter cup and the tea can sit in the pot and it won't turn bitter.



Ok, enough of Tea Making 101.

We talked about the difference in color between the two teas and Rachel enjoyed stirring them.



I poured a small cup of each tea for the children to try. Nicholas drank both of his. The orange herbal tea was his favorite and he even asked for seconds as he continued to munch on his Japanese snacks.



Rachel tried one tea but ate all of the Hello Kitty candies and much of the Yan Yan chocolate sticks.



Then she decided that it would be more fun to just crawl around behind our Japanese folding screens.



Of course, Nicholas couldn't resist a little play time too and they chased each other around the screens.



Amazingly, we are still finding time to get our other subjects done like grammar, spelling, math, etc. But there is never as much excitement about doing that work as there is when we are working on Konos.

Konos: Making Japanese Screens

Konos Unit: Honor
Theme: Japan

We worked on making Japanese folding screens for our Japanese house. These screens are used in Japan to separate spaces in the home. We made small ones just for decoration.

We started with poster board and watercolor paint.



Nicholas went right to work creating a traditional Japanese scene.



Rachel, of course, did her own thing.



I love that she is able to participate in parts of our school day with Konos. It is very hands-on with projects that can be adapted to all ages.



Look at them! Quietly learning and creating...together...and having fun!



I think Konos is going to work well for us. It involved more prep work for me the night before but it is so much fun to learn by immersing ourselves in a subject for a few weeks, especially when there is such fun projects like this.



Once the screens dry, we will fold them in thirds so that they will stand up on their own. Rachel decided to pour her cup of brush washing water all over her poster board, just to see what would happen, so unfortunately she won't get to see hers stand as a screen. I had made a screen too and used up the last piece of poster board. But she had so much fun smearing the water all over her picture that I really don't think she feels like she's missing out on anything!

Konos: Japanese Scrolls and Clogs

Konos Unit: Honor
Theme: Japan

This morning I was looking over my lesson plans for the day when Nicholas woke up and came downstairs. I told him that we were going to make Japanese scrolls this morning and told him a little about what we would do. Rachel woke up shortly after this and I went to her room to get her dressed for the day. When I came back down, Nicholas had already gotten his scroll making supplies and was almost done with the project.

He said he was too excited to wait for me!

Isn't that how learning should be?



We're also going to make a lapbook about Japan. A lapbook is a hands-on way to reinforce learning by making mini-books and activity cards about the subject being studied. Then the mini-books are put together in a larger folder. It is fun for children to just sit with the folder over their lap (hence the name "lapbook") and read through it as a review of all that they have learned.

We are including mini-books about Japan as well as a few books that we have read. Here Nicholas is making a picture for the lapbook about the story we read this morning called, "A Pair of Red Clogs".



This book was one of the many wonderful Konos book recommendations this study on Honor and Japan. Mako, a little Japanese girl, was so excited to get a new pair of clogs painted with red lacquer that shone beautifully. This is the story of what happened after she cracked the new clogs playing the weather-telling game and so longed for a bright, shiny new pair to replace them that she almost did a dishonest thing.



We are really enjoying reading such wonderful stories that so perfectly reinforce what we are learning about Japan and Honor. Konos is such a fun way to learn!

Fun at NRH2O

We wrapped up summer with a trip to NRH2O Family Waterpark in North Richland Hills.



We got to the park shortly after they opened so there wasn't many people there yet. It was great because there were no lines for the big water slides! Nicholas and Daddy rode on them over and over and over again.



I spent a lot of time in the little kid area for Rachel. But even Nicholas can have fun there. He had fun pretending to leap frog over this frog!



Rachel loved this water slide. I was proud of her for doing it on her own!



This little boy had fun playing with Rachel. He followed her around for a while doing which ever slide she chose. So cute!



My favorite monkey!



There is a really fun water play area with five levels of wet fun for all ages, including 6 water slides, interactive water activities and a giant tipping beaker. It was a bit crazy and Rachel was a little nervous about going on any of these slides. I was trying to get her to go on a short tunnel water slide but she clinged to me and looked so sad.



I cheered her up a little and eventually got her to agree to give it a try.



Yay! She did it! And she wanted to do it again!



What a fun day at the waterpark!