Welcome to the blog of Lighthouse Christian Homeschool!

This blog serves three purposes:

1. To have a place to 'jot down' the day to day happenings in our homeschool for our support teacher to see, in hopes that some of the things we do will fit nicely into the provincial learning outcomes.

2. To keep my family up to date on what we're 'up to'.

3. To glorify God.



So on that note, come on in!

Friday, March 11, 2011

I Learned it From a 7 Year Old

Children sometimes surprise you with their perceptions. We've all read the Bible story of Namaan, who is told to go wash in the Jordan river seven times so that he can be cured from his leprosy. I've always thought of this story as a reminder for us to trust God even when what we're asked to do is not what we expected or even what we think is the 'right thing to do.' Apparently all these years I haven't dug deep enough and this was brought to my attention by my 7 year old son. We were reading together a children's version of this story in his Grade 2 reader today. When we were just about done the story, he interrupted and said "Mommy, I think God gave the leprosy to Namaan, so that he would be able to trust in God when God healed him." Wow! I somehow had never got that from that story, but it's so true. God puts hard things in our lives to grow us closer to Him. We may see these things as anything from small annoyances to downright devastating; and God's purpose for them? To draw us to Him. Now that's exciting, and I learned it from a 7 year old.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Napoleon, Tchaikovsky and 1812, aka History Comes Alive!

I don't know if your History experience in school was like mine, but all I remember of History growing up was BOooorrrRING! I remembered very little and was forced to 'memorize' ridiculous facts that I would never have any reason to recall again once the test was taken.
So, in our homeschool, we are taking a different approach, and history is coming alive! Now, don't get me wrong, some of it is still a little boring, but on the whole, we are learning so much and having fun doing it. Much of the things we are learning about, I've never known before, so here I am just as much the student as my kids are, and it's exciting!
This week we are learning about Napoleon's attack on Russia. It's so interesting. Did you know that the Czar Alexander I of Russia lured Napoleon's army in, allowed them to burn and destroy towns and villages along the way and then arrive at Moscow, and he did it on purpose? He had a brilliant plan! He made Napoleon wait to hear his decision of whether he was going to surrender, and while Napoleon waited, winter came and his army was only dressed in summer uniforms. Napoleon was forced to retreat and on the journey back his men began to freeze and starve to death. The reason they had no food was because they themselves had burnt and destroyed the countryside on their way in. By the time Napoleon arrived back in France 600,000 soldiers had died and there were only 40,000 left! We learned lots more, but I thought that part was so interesting.
Today, we learned that Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture was written about this very event. So we read a little about it and then listened to the whole 1812 Overture played by an orchestra on a Youtube video. It starts out with the solemn Russian imperial anthem, then there's a battle sequence where the Russian and French anthems battle for dominance, then Napoleon's retreat and Russia's victory are symbolized by the sounds of military bands, bells and cannons. It was very powerful to listen to the music with the knowledge of what it was about freshly in our heads. All of us sat and listened intently to the whole 15 minutes. Christine remarked at one point in the music, "it just felt like a wave came crashing down on me!" and near the end her comment was "I feel like I'm right there in the battle." Now that's history coming alive!