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!

The Fallacy of Art: Jesus' (Yeshua's) Resurrection

Art. It's powerful. It has been used to help illiterate people learn the historical accounts found in the Bible. And I have become increasingly aware of the responsibility that we artists have. Because... well, because art has the ability to teach correctly or... incorrectly. It has the power to influence us in such a way that we are quick to embrace its message. Seeing is believing??

I can't recall who, but someone once made an excellent point about the responsibility of art and how it impacts kids. Seeds of doubt can be planted in their minds about a world-wide flood and an ark containing many species of animals when they see a little tubby boat having over-sized giraffes and other critters sticking out of windows. 

Art, however, affects adults as well as children. We tend to gravitate toward what we have seen vs. investigating to see if what we have seen is a true depiction of what the Scriptures teach us.

What do you think of when you see the picture below? What do you recall from Scripture? What do you recall from things you have learnend over the years?

{Shared free image from st-takla.org}

This is a common depiction of Yeshua after His resurrection. Notice that it's bright daylight. A flower garden is suggested. Soft colors are used. He doesn't look Middle-Eastern (grant it skin tones range from light to dark in the middle-east. Mostly I'm referring to features and hair color.)

The main thing I'm referring to is the time of day. How many days was Yeshua in the tomb? Three days. How many hours is that? It's 72 hours.

When we were studying about The Passion Week in our Bible lessons, we got to thinking that some things weren't making sense. Needless to say, we dove in deeper to research and gain understanding.

It is commonly taught that Yeshua was buried on a Friday and resurrected on Sunday morning. If we count the days this way: Friday, Saturday, Sunday. One. Two. Three days. We say He was in the tomb since a Friday and sunrise services are attended. But is this accurate according to Scripture? What can understanding the Hebrew culture teach us of the Scriptures which are written with a Hebrew mindset?

The Bible tells us that He was crucified at 3 pm. When understanding the Hebrew culture, the Jews were getting ready for Passover preparations, so they would have buried Him in the tomb prior to sunset (annual, monthly and weekly Sabbaths begin at sunset and end at sunset the next day). Let's see if what is commonly taught through art about a sunrise resurrection adds up. 

What's the big deal? Is it a salvation issue? No. It is not a salvation issue. But, I think it's important to know what the Bible teaches as best as we are able to. I think it's important to know what the truth is. In addition, it could cause some people to question the validity of the Bible. Therefor, I think it's important for apologetic purposes. All of these are serious enough reasons for me.

However, we need to think with a Hebraic mindset. What does God call a day? Open up your Bible, please, to Genesis 1:5, "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." He calls the evening and the morning the first day. So, for some reason we think of the design of a day in a backwards fashion from what our Creator designed it as. When and where and how that happened, I know not.

Nevertheless, let's try it from the Hebraic teachings:

 

We can reason that, most likely, Yeshua was crucified on a Wednesday at 3 pm (not a Friday). As I understand it at this time, He would have been buried by sunset on Wednesday because the Jews were making preparations for the annual Sabbath of Passover. Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset is one day. Thursday sunset to Friday sunset is two days. And Friday sunset to Saturday (Sabbath Day) sunset is three days. 

So, once the full 72 hours were complete, He rose on Sunday (the First Day) just as Sabbath ended at sunset. 

Who would have thought a story problem would be found in the Bible? I wouldn't have!

Now, if you will please open up your Bible to John 20:11-18 and read. Do you see that Miriam  (Mary is her name in English) is at the tomb, weeping? Who does she mistake Yeshua to be? 

The gardener.

What?! Why?! The gardener?! Seriously?!

Let's evaluate the common depiction of Yeshua after His resurrection again. Recall, if you will, that we often see that it's broad daylight. 

Let us reason that if it was broad daylight, how could she have mistaken Him to be a gardener? I'm learning by and by to pay closer to each word in the Scriptures. It's something I'm putting into practice. Are you, too? If you read John 20:1, you'll see that it is still dark out when Miriam (Mary) arrives at the tomb. 

We must ask, why did she go when it was still dark out? Because she knew that Yeshua was to be in the tomb for a full 72 hours. She went to see if He was still there after 72 hours. Three.full.days. And three.full.nights. Just as He said in Matthew 12:38-40: "⁴⁰ For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." KJV

I reason that it must have been darker... like this... or maybe even darker out...

And do you know what I wonder? I wonder if it wasn't almost immediately after He was resurrected. Because when we read in John 20:17, Yeshua tells her not to touch Him because He had not ascended yet unto the Father. So, He sent Miriam away to go tell His brethren that He was ascending to the Father. If you keep reading in your Bible, you'll read that it was the evening of the first day when Yeshua appeared to the disciples.

We must also ask, why did she mistake Him for the gardener? Well, we have established that it was dark out so it was hard for her to see clearly. But why was He in the garden? He became the first fruits when He was risen (But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 1 Corinthians 15:20).

Are your socks knocked off yet? Mine were! Why is it taught that Yeshua rose at sunrise? Why is it that many believers hold and attend sunrise services? That may be worth some time to investigate on your own, if you are interested in learning about it. 

And why? Why oh why are the Lord's Feasts ignored and replaced with something called Easter? Passover is about His Crucifixion, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is about His burial, and First Fruits is about His resurrection.

I don't want to settle for substitutes. Do you?

Blessings,

The Lord's Spring Feasts Are Nearly Upon Us!

We wrapped up winter with a meaningful time during the minor Jewish Feast of Purim. I think it interesting how this minor Bible Feast about deliverance takes place leading up to the major Bible Feasts pertaining to mankind's deliverance from sin through Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah).
 
And now... now the Lord's Spring Feasts are nearly upon us!

Do you know that Passover during the Exodus was a foreshadow of Yeshua's crucifixion? I didn't learn that while growing up. Did you?

Do you know that Passover is about Yeshua's crucifixion, that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is about His burial, and that First Fruits is about His resurrection? And 40 days after His resurrection is Pentecost when the Holy Spirit (the Ruach HaKodesh in Heberew) was upon believers.

These are the Lord's Spring Feasts, instituted by Him and observed by the Israelites (mainly the Jews as they walk in obedience to Yahweh). They are found in Leviticus 23.

Why haven't we learned this all these years?! Why haven't Christians been celebrating Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and First Fruits?! Why are we so disconnected in many facets from what the Bible teaches us? When serving the same God as the Jews, why are we doing things so opposite from them? I'm not talking about the rabbinical oral traditions/laws, I'm talking about Yahweh's Instructions (translated as laws in most of our Bibles).

We are learning so much from our pastor as he teaches about the Hebrew culture. He is explaining the how, the why, and the timing of things which took place leading up to Yeshua's crucifixion. He's teaching us from Hebrew language word studies and context. It is... I just don't have words to explain how wonderful it is to understand these things.

None of these things are *new revelations* or *mysteries*. They are just the facts but we have missed them for several reasons: 1) we are not aware of the Hebrew culture; 2) we have not been taught how to examine the Scriptures from the original languages; 3) we tend to listen to a sermon and then get on with life vs. giving our attention to the Bible for ourselves; 4) we have not learned and /or understood the Hebrew mindset; 5) sometime we just plain haven't cared; 6) we've been content with where we are at and don't want to be budged.

I don't know about you, but I'm thrilled to be able to grow in the knowledge of Yahweh! Who is He, this Elohim (God) that I love and serve? I'm thankful for the opportunity. I'm thankful that He patiently and lovingly guides us through His word to teach us about Him. I'm thankful that we have individual, personal relationships with Him. I have.got.to.learn.more- I'm hungry and thirsty for more! How about you?

This post is terribly short, but I want to give you a little prelude to what several of my blog posts will be about. It's all very exciting and I hope you will join me on this journey of learning more about our Savior and growing in the knowledge of Yahweh, our Heavenly Father!

Blessings!