Awesome Hymn Resource

Those of you who follow the Ambleside Online Curriculum (and I do albeit somewhat loosely) are familiar with teaching your children a hymn each semester.  If your not proficient enough on the piano to accompany each hymn it can be tricky to find a good resource to help your children learn.  Today I saw a link to this semester's hymn that I love so much I sat here and listened and sang along with several.

This semester's hymn, I Am Resolved, is here.  The link to embed wasn't working.

And here is one of my favorite Hymns, Nothing But The Blood of Jesus.  I first heard this hymn working at a local mission to the homeless.  It was requested by one of the men who had come for dinner.  Singing this hymn to the piano in this video is very similar to the experience at the mission as it was also sung to piano like this.




Of course, some of you may not like this style of music, but my family loves old fashioned gospel and hymns.  And I love the "sing a long" feel of the piano. And if you go to the youtube "channel" for Oldsongswithlyrics who posted this video you will find dozens more.

You should try it really.  Just sitting and singing through some of these hymns is very uplifting and even more fun with more people.

Inside the Vaults - The Declaration of Independence

Win an Excalibur Dehydrator!

Keeper of the Home is having an excellent giveaway of a 9 tray Excalibur Dehydrator.  But you only have until June 25th to enter.  Or not...and then I have a greater chance of winning!!

Happy Father's Day

The person on the left is having the time of her life, the one on the right loves the one on the left...

Un Bel Di


by Gerald Locklin



Because my daughter's eighth-grade teachers

Are having what is called an "in-service day,"

Which means, in fact, an out-of-service day,


She is spending this Friday home with me,

So I get up in time to take us,

On this summery day in March,

For a light lunch at a legendary café


Near the Yacht Marina.


Then we feed some ducks before catching

The cheap early-bird showing of

My Cousin Vinny, at which we share a

Dessert of a box of Milk Duds large

Enough to last us the entire show.


Afterwards we drive to a shoe-store to

Get her the Birkenstocks she's been coveting,


But they're out of her size in green; we leave

An order and stop for dinner at Norm Calvin's

Texas-style hole-in-the-wall barbeque rib factory.


When we get home I am smart enough

To downplay to my wife what a good day

We have had on our own. Later, saying

Goodnight to my little girl,


Already much taller than her mother,

I say, "days like today are the favorite

Days of my life," and she knows


It is true.

Remembrance

Today in the United States we honor the soldiers who fought to protect our country and the right to peace, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of others.  This holiday began after the Civil War but did not become a national holiday until 1971 although almost every state celebrated it. I remember my Great Grandmother calling it "Decoration Day" as did many in her day.  You can read more about the holiday here.  In our family we recognize the day by talking with our children about what it means to give your life for another, the ultimate unselfish act.  I encourage you to do the same.  As we live our lives in peace and the freedom to do as we chose on this day, we live out their gift to us and show that it was not in vain.

Art and Music Appreciation

I recently ran across this site that has a set of paintings in a slideshow with the music of a particular artist.  For instance, this set contains the works of Van Gogh with the music of Bach.  They are well done and particularly nice to watch if your are studying either of these artists. The only problem is they are hosted by some mice that I find particularly annoying.  Fortunately you can skip their intro, but they reappear at the end with links to short biography of the artists.  Sadly there wasn't one with Monet or Ravel who we are currently studying.  But you'll want to check them all out!

Thoughts on Holy Week

Hans Memling's Scenes From The Passion of Christ

find a list of the scenes here

We began our Holy Week watching The Ten Commandments and talking about Passover.  Passover started on Monday and as Jesus was a Jew he celebrated Passover.  During Christ's Passover meal he proclaimed that the meal symbolized himself and he died at the hour that the Passover Lamb was sacrificed in Jerusalem as you can see in Matthew 27:46, 50, Mark 15:34-37, and Luke 23:44-46.  The New testament calls Christ our sacrificial lamb and John the Baptist called him, "the Lamb of God."  So for me the Passover is linked with the celebration of the Resurrection this Sunday.

There are some really nice Old Time Radio Shows being offered by the Erskines of homeschoolradioshows.com.  Check their page this week for some nice Easter themed freebies and while you are there check out the cds they offer of Old Time Radio specifically for educational purposes.  If you sign up for their newsletter you will receive frequent free program links from them as well.

Another tradition we have this week has to do with food of course.  Good Friday we make Hot Cross Buns which are an old tradition going back centuries in England.  My dear British friend, Rachel, of The Jacobite Rose makes the BEST but I'm too much of an American to do flour paste crosses and I do a nice big fat cross of icing across each bun.  I've written more about them here.

This week we will also read the accounts of Jesus' life this week in the Gospel begining in Matthew 21: 1 and continuing through to the end of Matthew.  I've been thinking of doing the Stations of the Cross with my children this year as well.  There are some excellent resources for that here  and here .

Also this week we will be cleaning up our Easter Garden.  Another idea I received from my ever resourceful friend Rachel.  You can read more about that here.

No matter what I do it's not the activities that are important.  It's knowing that Christ freely gave his life as a substitution for my own so that our relationship with God could be reconnected.  All that Christ asked is that I remember and believe.  The activities are just to help me focus on that fact and teach it to my children.  I pray that you will also meditate on this during this week.

Patrick's Day

If you have read my blog for awhile you know that I'm very fond of St. Patrick's Day celebrations.  Patrick was indeed a great man and an excellent role model for us all.  For one, he is a great example of forgiveness.  Young Patrick was stolen from his home on the coast of Britain by Irish raiders.  He was taken to Ireland and lived there as a slave.  Homesick, sad and lonely he cried out to God and was eventually lead by God to escape and return to his home.  But once home God asked him to go back and tell the people who had captured him about God's plan for their salvation through Jesus Christ.  And Patrick did it.

On this day my family not only remembers Patrick, but also the Irish people.  I've posted many other things on this blog that you may be interested in checking out again or for the first time about St. Patrick's Day.  Here are some new things.

St. Patrick's Old Time Radio I especially enjoy the show "Beat the Band."

Notebooking Pages and More notebooking pages for your kids.

Saint Patrick Curriculum

Toymaker St. Patrick's Day fun and the new Celtic Circle box

One of my favorite movies about the Irish is the Secret of Roan Inish. This movie is a fairy tale on film. It has beautiful imagery, a great story, wonderful actors and a soundtrack you'll want to hear again and again. Here are the trailer and a video with some clips of the film.  Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! May the Blessings of St. Patrick's Day be upon you.

Lullabies of the World

 Lullabies of the world  by Metronome Films is a collection of animated films based on lullabies of different nations. I'm really not sure if this is even for sale anywhere as I can't seem to find it for sale, but I'm in LOVE with the clips I'm seeing on Youtube.  My children only very, very rarely request lullabies at this point in their lives, but I would love this just for me.  It reminds me of when my daughter was a toddler (she is now 11) and we got the the Baby Bach DVD.  We watched it all the way through and at the end my husband turned to me and said, "that was so relaxing I'd watch it everyday."  Hee...hee!!  I feel the same way about these videos.  Beautiful, intriguing animations and lovely songs combine to create very enjoyable viewing that both children and parents will like.

There are several on Youtube; French, Yiddish, Greek, Indian are a few I saw.  The link I provided above takes you to several more too.  The videos I've embedded here were posted by the creators of the film.  The Turkish Lullaby is my favorite, but I love the portrayal of weary parents in the beginning of the Chukchi Lullaby.