Walking With Jesus Notebook Pages!

Look at what's now available! 

The complete set of notebook pages for Walking With Jesus is here! 

Walking With Jesus notebook pages are beneficial for those who:

• Want to save time by not having to create notebook pages themselves,

• Want to save time by not having their students attempt to create notebook pages by hand,

• Want a cohesive look throughout the notebook. 

If you have visited my About page, you will already know about my passion to share Biblical truths! The Walking With Jesus notebook pages help your students to become more Biblically literate by learning:

• The name of the One True God of Isaac, Jacob, and Abraham in Hebrew. His name is Yahweh (Isaiah 42:8 HCSB), 

• The name of Jesus in Hebrew. His name is Yeshua (which means salvation),

• The word "church" is G1577 and more correctly rendered as "assembly" or "congregation".  

• The Apostle Paul's name is Shaul in Hebrew.

These words are used interchangeably in the notebook pages to help your students build their Scriptural vocabulary. 

You can go to this link here and purchase it individually or as a set with the Walking With Jesus curriculum!

A big shout out to my family as they helped with scheduling so that I could accomplish this goal! 

Click on this link to buy your 247 page copy of notebook pages for Walking with Jesus! 



Blessings!

 

Our Principle Approach®-based Homeschool Co-op

Well this school year is shaping up to be one of the most exciting ones for us yet. In previous years, I was able to share how to use the 4-R Method in Art when I wrote and taught Art lessons. This year, I find that I'm serving others in English, History, and Botany.

“Creative Commons Classroom” by William Creswell is Licensed under "Attribution 2.0 Generic."
Text and overlay are added by Principled Academy.

This is allowing me to put the curriculum I'm writing to the test with grades Kindergarten through 12th grade. We are, for the most part, in a one-room class. We meet with K-12th in one room for English, History, and Spanish. For Science we divide into two groups: Chemistry is taught by a very dear and sweet friend to grades K-7th and I'm teaching Botany to 8th-12th grades.

In English class, we're covering The Foundations of Language and spelling rules along with phonograms in support of the Spell to Write and Read program. We'll be using games for spelling and for English grammar to help reinforce what is being taught at home.

In History, we're covering some of Ancient History to the Protestant Reformation- as directed by The Noah Plan's sixth grade overviews. So far, it's working out well, I think, when teaching the Bible Principles and explaining things in a story-type manner. 


Then we take a 15 minute break-- stretch, get the wiggles out, go potty.


Once break is over, the kids divide into the two groups for Science. In Botany, we're studying the systems and functions of plants. Labs are included, 4-R Method studies are applied, and we are also learning about one of America's first botanists, William Bartram. The students will be writing a paper based on what they learn. In addition to High School credit for science, they are able to get High School credit for a literary study based on Bartram's writings.

Afterward, we all meet in a one-room class again for Beginning Spanish. Vocabulary is sent home so that we may practice conversations in class.

I'm sending the kids home with some notebook pages to do during the week (for subjects other than Spanish)... increasing the challenge of research, thought, and study as the grade levels increase.


It's so lovely how the Bible Principles of each subject are not "grade-based," allowing for children in all grades... all ages... all learning abilities to understand what Scripture teaches regarding the various subjects.

At this point, things are going really well. I'm very impressed with how self-governed and respectful all of the kids are. Teaching them is an honor and I feel very blessed to be able to share with them and their parents the richness of the 4-R Method. My prayer is that they will draw closer to our Lord and Savior as they dig into the Scriptures to learn truth.

So, there are two gifts coming up for you. Yes you! Please be sure to check back soon! :-)

Planning My Principle Approach® School Year- Part 3

Not too long ago, the Foundation for American Christian Education held a "Renewing the Mind" summer training course. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to attend on-line. 

(Did you catch Part 1 and Part 2?)

How I'm Encouraged and Inspired:

A Few Things I Learned:

As you probably know, I have several children and several books from F.A.C.E. and not so much in the way of several hours to pour over every detail of each book. So, some areas of understanding have not been as strong for me as others.

• I now have a better understanding about teaching reading and how to use different reading strategies.

• I better understand how to apply the reading strategies with the Bible as a Reader. 

• Why we use Word Study vs. RIGGS

Beneficial Tips for Me:

• Use tabs on the Curriculum Guides for quick reference of where to find content.

• How to better incorporate oral reading and inflection in our lessons.

• How to effectively group kids together for reading (which helps with co-ops, maybe literature clubs, and I think for families with multiple kids). 

Midst daily life responsibilities, the joy of family and friends, and celebrating Yahweh's/God's Fall Feasts, I'm plugging away at the curriculum for this school year. I'm nearly ready to debut the first quartet lessons. I find that I can offer bits and pieces at a time vs. the whole curriculum at once as I was hoping. That's okay. I'm doing what I can as I'm able to. :-)

I do have an upcoming surprise for those who plan on using these lessons! I'm looking forward to introducing you to a special person and how he is sharing his gifts and talents to bless you!

Blessings upon you and yours as you pursue our Heavenly Father's will for your family and grow in Him and ever closer to our Messiah Yahshua.

  

Planning My Principle Approach® School Year- Part 2

In Planing My Principle Approach® School Year- Part 1, I shared an evaluation of our last school year. This post reflects how things are coming along for our 2015-2016 school year, Yahweh willing.

Sorry about the typo! It should say 5th-8th!!!

I've decided to base the school year studies off of The Noah Plan® Curriculum's sixth grade overviews. Why? The following reasons are what I based my decision from:

1. Sixth grade is when the curriculum changes up a bit,
2. I see it as a "middle ground,"
3. Several readers have e-mailed asking for help with lessons and they have kids ranging from Kindergarten to 8th Grade. 

I'd like to have polished lessons from each of the overviews to share with you all, however, that isn't within my abilities at this time. What I can do though is offer what we are using this year as a streamlined approach. 

How does this work? If we remember that the Hebraic mindset is to teach the whole person, that it's a mentoring and discipleship approach to life and learning, and that learning to ask questions and reason Biblically is how believers are to approach life, it works just fine in layers. Kind of like cake layers, I guess one might say. Since there are layers of learning, it works to teach younger children basic concepts and then increasingly build upon that according to each child's age/ability of understanding.

Some need milk. Some are ready for solids. Yes? If you have multiple children you are teaching, serve up the milk (the basic concepts) to everyone at the table. The milk nourishes everyone! While they work on their notebook page, add solids to the portion of milk which your other children are able to digest.

Pictured below, there is a schedule beginning each week. Notice that the days are categorized as Days 1-5 vs. Monday, Tuesday, etc. This way you can easily adjust it to your preferred days. Since we personally use the Spell to Write and Read curriculum, the Orthography days reference to its use. However, you have liberty to use whichever spelling curriculum you find suits your family best. :-) The math curriculum and physical education is the same- left open to your personal preference.

Sorry about the typo! It should say 5th-8th in the legend!!!

How 'bout a sneak peek at the curriculum I'm writing for my family? It helps me to organize by color, which you'll see in the images below:

Sorry about the typo! It should say 5th-8th in the legend!!!

For parents who prefer to teach their children all at once, the color coded sentences of notes for them to copy from the board will be helpful. In the legend, you see "building blocks" of various colors. K-1st grade kids copy the green sentences. The 2nd-4th grade kids copy the green and the blue. The 5th-7th grade kids copy the green, blue, and purple sentences. Lastly, high school copies green, blue, purple, and orange sentences. All of the sentence colors can be found in dry erase markers!

Of course, parents who prefer to teach their children individually are able to do so. In this instance, there isn't a need to copy notes in multiple colors above K-1st grade. They  just need to write the notes on the board in one color for the child they are teaching.

Reason and Relate questions are offered for further discussion. If the parent's preference is for the older kids to journal from the Reason and Relate questions aside from or in addition to the notes, that's totally doable.

Suggested assignments aside from note taking are offered for the various grades. 

More than likely, you've noticed that I use the names Yahweh and Yahshua. I prefer to use the Sacred names. In Isaiah 42:8 He says, "I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols." And in 43:11 He says, "I, I am Yahweh, and there is no other Savior but Me." (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is personal. I have a personal relationship with Him through His Son Yahshua HaMashiach (in English He is known as Jesus Christ the Messiah) and He tells me His name in the above passages of Scripture. :-)

The curriculum is still a work in progress. I'm plugging away at it this summer with every chance I get. In the style of Charlotte Mason, the lessons are short and concise. There's no need for parents to prep any lesson content. However, some suggested resources are mentioned for further study if the parent desires more and would like to be told where to specifically go for more information.

I'll be sharing about our journey with the Open My Eyes curriculum this school year. I hope that you'll follow it and find it a blessing.

What do you think of it so far? Are you interested in it? Drop me a comment or e-mail me via the Contact Us tab and let me know. :-)

Blessings!

Planning My Principle Approach® School Year- Part 1

As I begin planning for my family's upcoming school year, I'm evaluating how last year went for us. This year, I'm using the evaluation format posed by Homeschool Tracker.

1. Evaluate Last Year

 

My plan last year:

 

Teach Dreamer from The Noah Plan® first grade curriculum. Teach Explorer from The Noah Plan® third grade curriculum. Write curriculum for Song Bird from the 5th grade overviews, write curriculum for Artsy Girl from the 8th grade overviews, and write curriculum for Scientist from the 9th grade overviews. (Quite ambitious, eh?)

 

How my plan changed as the year progressed: 

It didn't go exactly as I had planned. I started out writing lesson plans based off of the overviews for our older three kids, but at a certain point it became too much for me on top of teaching from The Noah Plan® Curriculum for the third and first grades. Add to all that managing a co-op ministry, managing a drama ministry, and the birth of a little baby, the loss of a loved one which resulted in traveling miles over several states, and I fizzled out! 

So, I ended up using the third grade curriculum as a spine for several of our older three kids' lessons- assigning them grade appropriate assignments and readings. Which is fine, because I'm a single individual. Uno. I'm not a whole Principle Approach® school with multiple teachers ya'll. And you know what? I have test results to prove that they are doing well with their education despite that we aren't following The Noah Plan® as purists (as much as I really would like to). :-)

How I feel I can improve the organizing and scheduling for this school year:

 

I've contemplated this deeply. I started out with making a grade specific planner to accompany The Noah Plan® second grade curriculum for Dreamer. That was actually a fun project for me so I decided to make one for her upcoming third grade year. Then, thinking about Sweetie Pie starting Kindergarten, I decided that I may as well make a The Noah Plan® Kindergarten specific planner. Can I say that I find this somewhat therapeutic? (If you're interested, I'll post on these planners soon.)

As I considered the school year more, I almost decided to toss the whole curriculum. I know, right? What was I thinking?! I sought counsel from friends and acquaintances (about other options), I talked with Cool Daddy, and we prayed. The outcome? We still feel led by the Ruach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit) to use The Noah Plan® as a spine for our curriculum.

So, this means one thing. I need to write lesson plans and I need to streamline them for my family (and for myself). So, I'm writing curriculum based off of The Noah Plan® overviews for sixth grade for all grade ranges. I'll explain about how I settled to base it off of the 6th grade overviews later. 

Did my kids accomplish all that I had planned?

 

No and yes. No in the sense that I had hoped to stick with each grade because I didn't want to feel like they'd be missing out on something. Yes in that they continue to love learning, to grow in their understanding of Scripture, in their personal relationships with our Savior Yahshua, and as a family. Really, it comes down to being flexible and relaxing (I really need to relax a bit... okay... a lot more than I have been lately)

Did I over-schedule or under-schedule?

I think things went well overall in this sense. I was really hoping for some areas in the pilot year of our homeschool co-op's new format to have worked out better: music lessons were dropped, debate was dropped, and a few other things that were especially important to our family. We'll just have to "shop" elsewhere to meet these needs... and maybe, just maybe consider not participating in a homeschool co-op...

Did I build in enough breaks, vacations, and fun family activities?

Yes! We love to celebrate Yahweh's Feasts! They are not only meaningful, they're 7-8 days long! Plus, we took time off to welcome our darling newborn daughter into our family. :-)

What can be done better this year?

 

Streamlining our curriculum and keeping it blended with the Charlotte Mason approach. And, I need to relax and enjoy it more this year! 

2. The S-M-A-R-T Approach...

 

I'm keeping the lessons Specific (read as simple and concise); measurable with note taking, journaling/narrating, discussions; attainable with how it best suits my family; relevant to what matters to us; and time-bound with the wise approach of Charlotte Mason's educational observations. 

3. Plan my yearly calendar

 

This is pretty easy because I'm breaking it down weekly and already have the dates for Yahweh's Feasts down. :-)

4. Lesson Planning

 

Yep. Moving right along with this. We have a lot of books sitting in the basket waiting for people in this house to open them up, read, and dialog about them. 



So, tell me how your lesson plans are coming along. Or are they? What are you finding helpful? What are you struggling with? I may be able to help ya out in a blog post. :-)

Blessings,

The Noah Plan®- Third Grade Essentials

Have you a third grade student this coming school year? What about using The Noah Plan® Curriculum for third grade as a spine for your mixed ages/grades? In any case, you may find this list of The Noah Plan® Curriculum's third grade Essentials list helpful as you get your curriculum ordered in time for the school year. :-)

The Noah Plan®- Third Grade Essentials List per FACE (The Foundation for American Christian Education):

This is the Essentials list by F.A.C.E. and the purpose of sharing this is to help you prepare and budget as you need to before your school year gets started (page 427 from The Noah Plan®
Curriculum for Third Grade). The books in bold lettering are the ones that we own:

• Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language (You can get by without this and use the free on-line version of Webster's 1828 Dictionary. However, the on-line version does not have all of Webster's entries. For instance, you will not find the entry for fulfill.).

• Benjamin Franklin, Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

• Christian History of the American Revolution: Consider and Ponder, Verna M. Hall
  (You can get by without this... eventually I recommend them to read a bit at a time to educate yourself and decided what and how much to share with your children).

• Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Vol. 1: Christian Self-Government, Verna M. Hall (You can get by without this... eventually I recommend them to read a bit at a time to educate yourself and decided what and how much to share with your children).

• The Family and the Nation: Biblical Childhood, Rosalie June Slater

• Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, Mary Mapes Dodge

• How to Teach Spelling (we use Spell to Write and Read instead...)

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

• NIrV Kids' Study Bible, Zondervan

• The Noah Plan Curriculum Guides for:
  English, History and Geography, Literature, and Reading (You can get by without these... eventually I recommend them to read a bit at a time to educate yourself and decided what and how much to share with your children).

• The Noah Plan®: A Complete Educational Program in the Principle Approach for grades K-8 or 9-12, FACE (I don't own these...)

• The Noah Plan® Self-Directed Study in the Principle Approach, FACE

• RightStart Mathematics (while I love this curriculum, we now use CTC Math and love it!)

• Spalding Education International-
  Writing Road to Reading (we use Spell to Write and Read instead as it's simplified!)
   
• The Comprehension Connection User's Gudie for McCall-Crabbs, for Book B-E

• McCall-Crabbs, Standard Test Lessons in Reading (Book B- 3rd Grade)
  We do own the McCall-Crabbs books for reading comprehension and I do like to use them. The kids and I appreciate knowing what reading level they are at.

• StoneBridge Art Guide, Wendy Giancoli, FACE

• Tales from Shakespeare, Charles and Mary Lamb

• Teacher Guide: Christopher Columbus: Christbearer to the New World, FACE

• Teacher Guide: Holland or the Netherlands and the History of Liberty, for Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, Rosalie June Slater

• Teaching and Learning America's Christian History: The Principle Approach®, Rosalie June Slater (You can get by without this... eventually I recommend them to read a bit at a time to educate yourself and decided what and how much to share with your children).

Other books on their list that we own and have blessed our homeschool experience:

• Children's Illustrated Bible, Selina Hastings, Dorling Kindersley

•  Leif the Lucky, Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire 

• The Light and the Glory for Children, Peter Marshall and David Manuel

• The Magna Charta, James Dougherty

• Physical Geography, Arnold Guyot (Heads up, there are some ideas in his book that I don't subscribe to. I don't teach some things he believed because I disagree with them.)

• Poetry of Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Henry Wadsworht Longfellow

• Sebastian Bach: The Boy from Thurngia, Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher

• Squanto: A Friend of the Pilgrims, Clyde Robert Bulla

Other Resources We Have Added and Enjoyed:

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe audio drama series by Focus on the Family

• Squanto audio drama by Focus on the Family

I'm excited for you! The Noah Plan® curriculum is such a blessing to our family and I can't imagine it any different for your family. I pray you enjoy your journey of growing closer to our Heavenly Father as you learn Bible Principles in every subject.

Blessings!

The Noah Plan®- Second Grade Essentials

For this next post in my series of The Noah Plan® Essentials, I'm skipping First Grade and jumping into the Second Grade. Why? In my opinion, the Kindergarten and Second Grade curricula are more in depth than the First Grade curriculum (though I will get to the First Grade Essentials list before too long). You can read The Noah Plan® Kindergarten Essentials List by F.A.C.E. here.

**This post does contain an affiliate link.***  

If you own some of the Essentials that F.A.C.E. recommends from previous grades, you'll happily spend less money on this school year or you'll have more money to apply toward other books. :-)

This is the Essentials list by F.A.C.E. and the purpose of sharing this is to help you prepare and budget as you need to before your school year gets started (page 382 from The Noah Plan® Curriculum for Second Grade). The books in bold lettering are the ones that we own:

• Webster's 1828 Dictionary. (While you may use an on-line copy, I have found that not all words are in the on-line version. An example word would be "fulfill". So, a hard copy is best if you can swing it).

• Benjamin Franklin, Beautiful Feet Books.

• Benjamin West, Bradford Press.

• Christian History of the American Revolution: Consider and Ponder, F.A.C.E.
  (You can get by without this. It's a wonderful book to have, but if it overwhelms you in the beginning, wait until you practice the Principle Approach method using the curriculum.)

• Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Vol. 1: Christian Self-Government, F.A.C.E.(You can get by without this. It's a wonderful book to have, but if it overwhelms you in the beginning, wait until you practice the Principle Approach method using the curriculum.)

• How to Teach Spelling, Educators' Publishing Company
  (We use Spell to Write and Read instead.) 

• Mes Premiers Pas de Francais, F.A.C.E.

• NIrV Kids' Study Bible
  We have it but rarely use it because I just am not a big fan of NIV...

The Curriculum Guides:

• Noah  Plan® English Guide
• Noah Plan® History and Geography Guide
• Noah Plan® Literature Guide
• Noah Plan® Mathematics Guide
• Noah Plan® Reading Guide
• Noah Plan® Self-Directed Study Seminar and Principle Approach Methodology
  (You can get by without these, but as you grow in your understanding and ability of applying the Principle Approach® method, you'll find them a huge blessing.)

• Pocahontas (d'Aulaire), Doubleday

• Right Start Mathematics, Grade 2 Lessons, Activities for Learning
  I LOVE Right Start, however, I needed to "farm out" lessons and we are now using CTC Math (affiliate link) and we absolutely love it! The lessons are short and concise, the kids can re-take lessons and tests as needed individually, it is not in line with common core, it keeps track of individual student's records which are printable, and it grades lessons and tests automatically. This has been a huge blessing for me and our kids!
  
  

• Starter Kit, Spalding Education International:
  I have it and struggled so much with the way it is formatted!!! Thankfully someone introduced me to Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri! It's based off of Spalding's book but so simplified. I absolutely love it.

• Tales From Shakespeare, (Lamb's)

• Teacher Guide: "Switzerland and Liberty," F.A.C.E.
  I don't own this...

• Teacher Guide: "William Penn and the History of Religious Toleration," F.A.C.E.
  I don't own this but I'm thinking that I should.

• Teaching and Learning America's Christian History, F.A.C.E.

Heather's List of Essentials

 

In addition to what F.A.C.E. recommends, the following blessed our experience with the second grade curriculum (you may be able to find several of them at your local public library or at used book stores):

• Children's Illustrated Bible, Penguin Group

• Heidi, Random House Value Publishing
  (I had never read the book before and I LOVE it!)

• Historic Sailing Ships Coloring Book, Dover Publications, Inc.
  (You might be able to find free coloring pages on-line though.)

• John Cabot & Son, Goodnough, Troll Association, 1979

• John Smith, Man of Adventure, Bostong: Houghton Mifflin

• McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader, Christian School Edition
  (We found the collection inexpensively at a used book store.)

• Men of Science, Men of God: Great Scientists of the Past Who Believed the Bible, Henry Morris.

• Physical Geography, Arnold Guyot, American Christian History Institute

• Planets, Evan-Moor Corp.

• Pocketful of Goobers: A Story of George Washington Carver, Lerner Publishing Group

• Strong's New Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (but usually I use Blue Letter Bible)

• Sun, Moon, Stars, Evan-Moor Corp.

Would I like to add more to our personal collection for second grade? Yes! However, I'll likely continue to teach with what we have considering that we have a budget for purchasing items for our High School kids. :-)

I sure hope this post gives you the ability to plan ahead and get you ready for the upcoming school year.

Blessings!

 

 

The Noah Plan- Kindergarten Essentials

When considering what to purchase for our Kindergarten school year using The Noah Plan Curriculum, I wished that I had known in advance what essential books I needed. It wasn't, however, until our curriculum arrived and I glanced through the lessons that I realized more books were needed than what I ordered from The Foundation for American Christian Education!

**This post does contain an affiliate link.***

In the back of The Noah Plan Curriculum (p. 295), a list of books and publishers is given. I am sharing the books in bold that I found were enough for me in my first year. I'll write comments about the others on this list by F.A.C.E.

And so, without further ado, here is the list to help you budget and plan for the upcoming school year with your Kindergartner (you may even be able to find of them at your local public library):

Essential Books for The Noah Plan Kindergarten Lessons: 

• Abraham Lincoln (d'Aulaire), Doubleday

• Aesop's Fables, Henry Holt & Co.

• *American Dictionary of the English Language, Facsimile 1828 Edition, Foundation for American Christian Education (while there is an on-line edition, I have discovered that it is missing some words. So, I believe it's essential to have a hard copy in your home.)

• Bambi, by Felix Salten (this is not the Disney version)

• Child's Garden of Verses

• Christian History of the American Revolution: Consider and Ponder-
  I was overwhelmed with this my first year as I learned to navigate the curriculum. This is mostly for the parent's re-education vs. the lessons for your Kindergartner.

• Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America, Vol 1: Christian Self-Government- I was overwhelmed with this my first year as I learned to navigate the curriculum. This is mostly for the parent's re-education vs. the lessons for your Kindergartner.

• Early Reader's Bible, Gold 'n' Honey Books-
  Some people prefer to have their children read right out of the Bible... it's up to you.

• Fairy Tale Books (I struggled with this idea in the beginning... perhaps I'll share my conclusion with you in a future post...)

• French Primer, Mes Premiers Pas de Français by F.A.C.E.-
  This is fun to do. It comes with an audio CD for pronunciation. The CD is frustrating in that each vocabulary word is not on its own track. So you have to listen to everything all over to re-hear the word you want (unless this has been changed since we purchased it several years ago).

• Little House in the Big Woods

• Lullaby books-
  If you can't swing these or find them at your library, you can always look some songs up on youtube.

• Mother Goose and other nursery rhyme books-If you can't swing these or find them at your library, you can always look some songs up on youtube.

I find the following guides useful for upper-level grades:

• Noah Plan English Language Curriculum Guide
• Noah Plan History and Geography Guide
• Noah Plan Lessons for Kindergarten
• Noah Plan Literature Curriculum Guide
• Noah Plan Mathematics Guide
• Noah Plan Reading Curriculum Guide
• Noah Plan Self-Directed Seminar and Principle Approach Methodology

• Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum-
  I didn't bother with this one (probably because of our budget at the time). And the curriculum we use works well for us so I haven't felt the need to buy it...

• Right Start Mathematics-

We started out with this and love it. However, I needed help time-wise teaching a subject with so many various levels among our 6 school-aged children and we are now using CTC Math (affiliate link) and love it! The lessons are short and concise, the kids can re-take lessons and tests as needed individually, it is not in line with common core, it keeps track of individual student's records which are printable, and it grades lessons and tests automatically. This has been a huge blessing for me and our kids!

• Starter Kit, Spalding Education International-
  I have it and struggled so much with the way it is formatted!!! Thankfully someone introduced me to Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri! It's based off of Spalding's book but so simplified. I absolutely love it.

• Stone Bridge Art Guide

• Tale of Peter Rabbit

• Tales from Shakespeare (Lamb's)

• Teaching and Learning America's Providential History: The Principle Approach-
  This can wait until later if you need to, but do get it when you are able to.

• Teacher Guide: "Pilgrim-Pioneer Character Moving Westward" by F.A.C.E.-
  We do not own this.

• Uncle Remus Stories, Random House-We couldn't find this so we enjoyed Disney's film called, Song of the South.

• Winnie-the-Pooh, Penguin Putnam, Inc.-
  An absolute must. 

In my next post, I'll share books that I thought were helpful even though they were not on F.A.C.E.'s Essential Book List.

Blessings!

 

Fulfill: Word Study Wednesday

Oh I am so excited to share with you about this Word Study! As Passover approaches, there is much that we learn. I thought it fitting to look into what it is that He came to accomplish on the cross. Passover is about Yeshua's crucifixion. It's about celebrating our salvation through Yeshua the Messiah! Are we sure we understand what this means? Let's see, shall we?

One of the things that I set out to understand is what did Yeshua come to do? Well we know that He came to set us free from sin. He is the final atonement for us through His shed blood. But, it is often said that He *freed* us from law. Let's examine this to see if law equates sin.

{Original image courtesy Creative Commons.}

   

Let's Research:

Webster's 1828 Dictionary: Fulfill "1. To accomplish; to perform; to complete; to answer in execution or event what has been foretold or promised; as, to, fulfill a prophecy or prediction; to fulfill a promise.  2. To accomplish what was intended; to answer a design by execution. 3. To accomplish or perform what was desired; to answer any desire by compliance or gratification. 4. To perform what was required 5. To complete in time. 

The Bible: 
Yeshua tells us in Matthew 5:17: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." 

Let's Reason:

What law is Yeshua referring to? I submit that He was referring to Yahweh's Law (we'll take a look at the word law next week). 

So, if Yeshua did not come to destroy Yahweh's Law, or the prophets (what they prophesied because it was truth), what does He mean that He came to fulfill?

Fulfill what?

We can reason from our research, that Yeshua came to fulfill what had been foretold by the prophets. He came to accomplish what Yahweh promised. He accomplished what was intended by Yahweh's design. He performed what Yahweh desired. He performed what Yahweh required for the final atonement for our sins; the prophecies did not foretell that He would do away with Yahweh's Law. He completed it in the Father's time... according to the Father's calendar. 


We can also reason that what we call the Old Testament Scriptures are Yahweh's spoken and written words. Furthermore, Yeshua is the Word made flesh. He was the real deal. The real living and breathing Word. Think about how He lived out Yahweh's words. He was the example of how to do it without man's traditions/laws mixed in with Yahweh's instructions.

Let us reason, if Yahweh's Laws are a burden or sin... how is is that Yeshua lived perfectly? How is it that He was the perfect Passover Lamb of Yahweh? 

It gives us somethings to pause and ponder. Doesn't it?

Relate:

 

My understanding from this is that Yahweh's Laws are good. So, the question must then be asked, "Why do we think Yahweh's Law is a burden or sin or not applicable to believers today?" If this was the case, why would Yeshua say that He did not come to destroy it? Hmmmm.


Yeshuah clearly is telling us that He did not come to destroy Yahweh's Law. So, this requires us to give attention to His words. They're there for a reason. I'd rather be searching to learn the truth and correct anything I may have misunderstood or been taught incorrectly. Wouldn't you, too?  

I know. Believe me, I know this is contrary to what most of us have been taught all these years. Or maybe what you have been learning as a new believer in Yeshua the Messiah. But I hope you are encouraged to examine this. I think it's important to comprehend.

Further Ponderings... 

I think sometimes it's easier for us to sit and listen to a sermon and just accept what is said for many reasons. But many of our pastors have been taught doctrine/theology which has been come out of Rome. And so they pass the information on to believers because that is what they have learned under a western mindset vs. a Hebrew mindset. And as we study the history (His Story) timeline, we can learn how and when and why this is. 

As believers in Yeshuah the Messiah {Jesus Christ}, shall we endeavor to learn together? Shall we seek to grow in the knowledge of Yahweh... to try to comprehend what the Scriptures say?

I hope you continue to read this series. I hope it challenges you, too. It's exciting to test things against Scripture and to learn! 

Blessings!

Word Study Wednesday is hosted by:
A Cherished Keeper.