Our Psalms

The students: Marian, Andrew, Ellie
The subject:  History, namely the life and reign of King David in ancient Israel
The assignment:  Write your own psalm.

...you know, like David's psalms in the Bible.  Don't let the Bible-ish talk fool you; my kids are oh, so normal!  (As am I!)  I gave them this assignment at the beginning of the week (a few weeks ago), and told them to think about it as they faced whatever moods and feelings as the week progressed.  Together, we read a psalm from the Bible every day, and by the end of the week, they all had one of their own written-- Ellie had two!  It was a wonderful glimpse into the thoughts and feelings that don't always get expressed verbally.

I hope anyone that reads these is as blessed as I was!  I would recommend giving it a try with your own kids, regardless of their writing ability.

I will forever save their handwritten psalms, but share here what they wrote...

Marian's Psalm
O God, You are greater than my problem.
O God, You are greater than my feelings.
O God, help me in times of anger.
And help me be thankful.
Help me learn through the process.
I am giving all of me, all to You.
O God, take control of me.
I will praise You.

Andrew's Psalm
O God, help me to follow You!
Help me to follow You in hard times or in good times.
Help me to be nicer to my family.
Thank you for my salvation.



Ellie's First Psalm
O God, if I can learn on You, I will be fine.
And You shall be glorified.

Ellie's Second Psalm
God, I'm an ant to You,
But You are a giant to me.
Thank you for caring for us.

(I thought Ellie meant to write 'lean' in that first psalm, but she corrected me, so I write it here just as she meant it to be.)

And, in response, a psalm of my own...

O God, help me to live out a sincere faith with a true heart.

May I never be the cause of their stumbling.

Thank you for entrusting such precious hearts to my care.

Resurrection Gardens

The kids planted Resurrection Gardens this week.  I got the idea from another homeschooler's blog:  just a little replica of that garden far away in Jerusalem, a reminder of that tomb- site of unspeakable miracle.

We bought seedlings from a local garden center, then went for a long nature walk to find rocks to be the tombs in their gardens.  (In the course of the day, they dug for worms, captured a toad, and brought home some tadpoles.  Not a bad science day!)

We intend to paint the rocks to look a bit more like tombs.  Hopefully we'll get that done this weekend and I'll post another picture.  I have a feeling this is a project that will be back by popular demand. :)

Butterflies!!

They hatched... or emerged or whatever I'm supposed to call it!  Anyway, we have butterflies!

Big sister "Me-me" gets to tell Reagan all about it.

Reagan is fascinated with the "fy-fies"... has been long before now.

Everyone enjoys watching them climbing the sides of the butterfly habitat,

hoping to see them drink the sugar-water from the paper towel in the bowl.

We are proud of our 100% success rate!  All five caterpillars became butterflies. 

Here is the best picture I could get of our Painted Lady Butterflies.