{Easy} Memory Verse Book on the Cheap!

One of the things I absolutely LOVE about My Father's World is that it is Gospel-centric.  We're doing MFW Learning God's Story right now with Squirrely Girl (6) and Miss Bear (4).  And I have nothing but good things to say about it!

Something that starts in Week 3 is the memory verses from the book of Proverbs.  I had already written all of the verses out on index cards for the year, and I had initially planned on putting them into a storage box to follow the Charlotte Mason Scripture memory system. 

Instead, I decided to implement something I'd seen others using for other cards and such:  a photo album.


You can find photo albums pretty cheap at dollar stores.  We happened to have a couple empty ones on hand, so this ended up being a free project for us!



I let the kids pick one out, and we just added a monkey name tag to the front. 








I'd already printed our memory verse for the school year out and laminated it, so I added some Velcro onto the back and stuck it on the inside cover.  That way, we can change it out next year.  There are enough pages in this photo album to last us for at least a few  years, if we're only including one verse per school week.  If we need to add more, I still think we can manage 2 years worth of verses in this one book.

For now, I'm writing the dates for the week the verse goes with on the memo lines.  I'll also add ways that it's applicable and such later on. 

This takes up a little less space than a memory box would, and I think its also a little easier for us to do.  We can read our verses that we are reviewing from the album, and I can pull the weeks verse card out to hang on the fridge.  I'm loving this so far. 

How do you store your memory verses?  Does a scripture box work for you?  I'd love to hear how you make your cards more accessible in the comments!

The Pursuit of God

I recently read The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer.  I had actually never read the book before, but I had seen some great quotes from the book and decided that it was time to read it for myself.  And I'm so glad that I did!

I read the book on my Kindle, and if the pages of notes and the amount of highlighting I did say anything, its that the book is just wonderful.  Tozer's insight and writing highlights a way to a deeper relationship with God.  It's a book that I think can be of tremendous help to Christians that aren't satisfied with the status quo of Christianity today.

Having been written by Tozer in the late 1940's, the style may not be what many are used to reading, but I definitely think that it's worth the effort.  I loved how Tozer addressed the issues pertaining to the Christian's walk with God.  Each chapter also ends in a prayer, which I enjoyed. 

The Pursuit of God  isn't just some formulaic outline promising to bring us closer to God.  It is more an explanation of how we go about living this.

“We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can.” 

When Chris and I began dating, we wanted to be near each other all the time.  I wanted to know what his hopes and dreams were, what his favorite food was, and what made him feel happy and loved.  Through all of this, we forged a strong connection and grew closer and closer to one another.

It is the same with God.  When we become a Christian and are regenerated, we should desire to pursue a deeper understanding and relationship with God.  He has drawn us to himself, and now he is waiting for us to pursue Him just as he continues to pursue us. 

Over the coming weeks, I am going to be writing about each chapter in detail.  I'd like to share my thoughts about the writing as well as share how I find it applicable in my everyday life.

 

Please, join me on this journey!  Grab your own copy of the book, a cup of coffee, and let's pursue our God together!

2014-2015 Homeschool Verse

This is our second year homeschooling, and since Squirrely Girl is now a First grader, I am now doing something more structured.  I've already spoken some about our decision to use My Father's World curriculum.  I had seen it on quite a few blogs, and when I was researching curriculums I kept being drawn back to this one.  God has a way of weeding through all of the unnecessary stuff for us!

In addition to doing the MFW 1st Grade: Learning God's Story, my husband and I are really wanting to focus on biblical character training.  This led us to adopt a verse for the year.  Since our kids are still so young, we wanted to start them out with a good foundation on how we should act. 

So I sat down, bible opened before me, and prayed that God would lead me to the perfect verse for our coming school year.  As I began reading, I was drawn to Galatians 5.  I immediately knew that this was a wonderful verse for our family for the upcoming year.  With all of us trying to become more structured with our schooling, we are bound to have hard days where the tears flow and the frustration levels rise.  What better thing to cling to than our Savior's provision to handle all these things?!

 

 

With everything that I am wanting to include in our day--from the math facts and phonics lessons to the science experiments and cooking lessons--I don't want to forget to focus on what's truly important.  One of the most important reasons we decided to homeschool was so that we could "train our children in the way they should go" (Proverbs 22:6). 

If in my zeal to check off my lesson plans and cram as much fun, interesting instruction I can into their little brains I forget the weightier matters such as love and mercy, then it is all for naught.  God gave me these three little blessings to raise into people that love and praise Him with every fiber of their being.  How will they know unless I point them to the One who did it all? 

Above all, if my children learn nothing else this year, I want them to learn to rely on God and know that in Him we can be victorious in all things.  Through Him we are able to truly love, have pure joy, a peace that surpasses understanding, patience in all things, show kindness at all times, goodness in all circumstances, faithfulness in following Him, a gentle spirit, and self-control. 

To help the kids memorize the verse, I got the bible verse printout as well as the fruit basket printouts from Christian Preschool Printables.  I laminated the verse and hung it in our living room so that we would see it often throughout the day.  I also laminated the fruit basket pieces and used some Velcro to make a game for the kids to practice our verse.  We've played many variations with it, and already Squirrely Girl has memorized our verse.  Bear in well on her way to having it memorized as well. 





Does your family have a verse for the homeschool year?  I'd love to hear your story in the comments.