This is one of our favorite spots in the house. We just LOVE this table!
A few weeks back I decided to follow my friend Roisin's advise and bought a big map at Costco to put on our beloved, big table. It was a loved teaching tool in her home, along with all the great books from Sonlight. We want our children to learn about this grand world around them and since we are traveling through the eastern hemisphere with our home school curriculum, we thought it was a great idea.
Little, did my sweet friend know, that this is exactly what we needed to be grounded each day! It's great for learning about the world and great travels during meal time, but for us it has become so much more.
Among the great books that came with our curriculum, was also "100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 window"
We love it! The book explains in a very easy, understandable way, what the 10/40 window is, their challenges, why we should pray and talks about the battle for the Gateway Cities. The book features 100 cities and and for each one it gives a quick overview, including the religious breakdown and explains the city's significance and history. Then, at the bottom, it lists about fife prayer points.
They both love finding the cities on the map, and love how many of them are part of the historical fiction books Lenah reads. Most of them we make the family read a loud, and even Luke loves them.
They get very engaged as they look for the cities, and great conversation happens between the two.
After the first hesitant prayers (leading prayer, out loud is a new experience), our girl leads in prayer for the city of the day!
And seeing that, this morning, reminded me what it's all about! Not about feeling behind on chores or all the mission trip stuff, not the overwhelmed feeling of fund raising miracles, nor my feeling of inadequacy in our first home school year!
It's all about God! We come to together, when we pray just like when we meet at our door in the mornings. It helps us to focus on Jesus, asking for our fathers company and to choose to be intentional each day. We are learning, growing and loving, a little more each day, loving a little deeper each day, just a tiny bit more like our loving, heavenly father!
Maybe, this week the nouns of direct address and the writing of the perfect paragraph got neglected. So what, that the little guy didn't get to do all his little letter games and crafts, because we had to work on self control and obedience most of the time!
We are so incredibly blessed by everything we have and the privilege to home school and worship freely.
I look over to the table this morning, and I see them pray. My heart melts! It is so beautiful to see them come together like this, they are learning to care for the world around them, not just our town.
Prayer is becoming a important part of their day to them, they ask for it! Our little girl is blooming by leading in this way! Together we are learning the importance of praying for all of Gods precious children and because of this book and the map, these places and their people, now have a face to Lenah and prayer has become so very personal.
They are growing in matters close to His heart, and that, my friends is so much more important than any lesson plan!
A few weeks back I decided to follow my friend Roisin's advise and bought a big map at Costco to put on our beloved, big table. It was a loved teaching tool in her home, along with all the great books from Sonlight. We want our children to learn about this grand world around them and since we are traveling through the eastern hemisphere with our home school curriculum, we thought it was a great idea.
Little, did my sweet friend know, that this is exactly what we needed to be grounded each day! It's great for learning about the world and great travels during meal time, but for us it has become so much more.
Among the great books that came with our curriculum, was also "100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 window"
We love it! The book explains in a very easy, understandable way, what the 10/40 window is, their challenges, why we should pray and talks about the battle for the Gateway Cities. The book features 100 cities and and for each one it gives a quick overview, including the religious breakdown and explains the city's significance and history. Then, at the bottom, it lists about fife prayer points.
 |
| We marked the 10/40 window with sharpie on the map and each day, we circle the city we prayed for. All the green dots in China, we already covered. |
They both love finding the cities on the map, and love how many of them are part of the historical fiction books Lenah reads. Most of them we make the family read a loud, and even Luke loves them.
They get very engaged as they look for the cities, and great conversation happens between the two.
After the first hesitant prayers (leading prayer, out loud is a new experience), our girl leads in prayer for the city of the day!
And seeing that, this morning, reminded me what it's all about! Not about feeling behind on chores or all the mission trip stuff, not the overwhelmed feeling of fund raising miracles, nor my feeling of inadequacy in our first home school year!
It's all about God! We come to together, when we pray just like when we meet at our door in the mornings. It helps us to focus on Jesus, asking for our fathers company and to choose to be intentional each day. We are learning, growing and loving, a little more each day, loving a little deeper each day, just a tiny bit more like our loving, heavenly father!
Maybe, this week the nouns of direct address and the writing of the perfect paragraph got neglected. So what, that the little guy didn't get to do all his little letter games and crafts, because we had to work on self control and obedience most of the time!
We are so incredibly blessed by everything we have and the privilege to home school and worship freely.
I look over to the table this morning, and I see them pray. My heart melts! It is so beautiful to see them come together like this, they are learning to care for the world around them, not just our town.
Prayer is becoming a important part of their day to them, they ask for it! Our little girl is blooming by leading in this way! Together we are learning the importance of praying for all of Gods precious children and because of this book and the map, these places and their people, now have a face to Lenah and prayer has become so very personal.
They are growing in matters close to His heart, and that, my friends is so much more important than any lesson plan!
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