Free time on the computer has been extremely limited. It’s harvesting and preserving season here in the Kostyu household. I’ve been tending to the garden, harvesting vine ripened produce, canning for the pantry, and putting out my extra on my porch for my neighbors to pick at. We began homeschooling my oldest daughter in Kindergarten last Monday and that has gone nicely so far. She is sooo motivated to learn. The weekend came and she realized each day with surprise and disapointment “oh no! mom! we didn’t do school today!”
Each day we read a chapter from Proverbs. Surprisingly each chapter so far has had something to do with wisdom or obedience, two things she has been most needing to learn about or hear about (I, myself, have needed to learn more about wisdom and what the word means, so I’ve been learning a lot right along side of her!). I do believe through our discussions that she is learning and her heart wants to please God. We bring up what we’ve read in the bible that day often throughout the day, using life lessons as reminders and examples. Her acceptance of discipline has also hightened, as she understands discipline has its purpose and she willingly listens to us as we explain why something she did was unnacceptable and she really makes an effort to not do it again. Lying was a problem we came across, and something I really felt was a phase. My husband would have none of it though, whether it was play or a phase. We will not lie in our household. I followed his lead when it came to this and did not allow lying. When my daughter is responsible for bad behavior, she owns up to it. She understands lying is a sin, and is in fact one of the 7 things the Lord hates (when we came to this section in Proverbs, I drew a stick figure and we labeled the 7 things the Lord hates – haughty eyes, lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, etc.), we’re also commanded not to do it, etc. I am so proud of her for wanting to please the Lord. I enjoy homeschooling tremendously at this point, because I can see the fruit my daughter is beginning to bear as a result of our studying of the bible together and the way we choose to live our lives. I can see how excited she is to learn, and BE THERE when she finally gets something she’s been having trouble with. I like seeing the determination in her face to conquer something she’s stumped on. And I really love to see the way she embellishes her letters with eyes, ears, hair and smiley faces…. I like being able to connect our lessons to real life examples. I like being able to teach her God’s word straight from the bible, and teach her the values *WE* feel are important.
Anyway… I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here or not, but I’ve begun publishing a monthly newsletter on cooking, doing and making from scratch. In fact, the newsletter is titled ‘From Scratch’ and while it focuses on cooking, there are also columns on gardening, preserving, raising meat/eggs, making things from scratch and doing what we can to reduce our dependence on stores and spending money. Cultivating the skills of our grandparents and great grandparents and bringing them back into use. What had once been a lifestyle we had to choose for survival, has now become a lifestyle I’ve grown passionate about. I love to share what I’ve learned, and learn from those who care to contribute their knowledge. I hope you’ll join us! I’ve made a free issue available to download. Just click on the ’subscriptions/newsletters’ category.
In addition to writing my own monthly newsletter, I’m writing a ‘From Scratch’ column for New Harvest Homestead which is a 6x/year publication for Christian women who desire a simpler life. This newsletter is also a great resource, an awesome inspiration, and something I highly recommend.
