Project Update #2: What is the LOVE project?

I know what you are asking.... What the heck is the LOVE project? I thought you were homeschooling.

Yes, I am. But I've never been one to do things the "normal" way. Let's see... I was married too young. I had kids too close together. I have no problems leaving my kids with their dad for weeks as I travel around the world. I like dessert before dinner. I make my kids be independent and I let them watch way too much T.V. I guess you could say that things in my life have never been... expected.

So why should homeschooling be any different for me? I have to do this my way in order to make it work. So, this is my way. In addition to the normal reading, writing and arithmetic, I am adding my own personality and passion to our curriculum.

For the past seven years, I have taught high school electives. There is a reason for that. As much as I know there is an importance to core classes, (I've lost count at how many times I've corrected high schoolers on the importance of "John and I", not "John and me") it's in the electives that I got to teach from my heart because the classes were things that I was passionate about.

I'm just doing the same thing, but at home. I am teaching what I am passionate about. I have the next nine months to pour into my kids a little bit of the legacy that I hope to leave with them for the rest of their lives. That's really how the LOVE project was birthed. So in additions to the wonders of the aBeka Curriculum, this is what I'm going to attempt to do...

The LOVE Project is based on three foundations: LOVE God. LOVE family. LOVE people. After we finish our core work each day, we will be venturing into some assignment or project that will fall into one of those three foundations.

LOVE God is going to start with simply teaching my kids the importance of church and church family and why we "do church" the way that we do. Each Sunday, my kids take communion, they sing songs, they listen to a lesson or a message, but do they understand why they are doing it? They have been raised in church their whole lives, so things that we do out of church traditions or biblical teachings have become more routine to them. Do they really understand what baptism is and what it means? or do they just assume its something that everyone does? I am going to cover all of those things and open it up to Qs and As. Is there something confuses them or things that they've heard that didn't make sense?

We have been blessed to have been able to enroll all three of them in private, christian schooling since they were all in kindergarten and they all could preach on some aspects of our faith, but it wasn't the school's job to make sure they know these things, it's my job.

LOVE family is going to dive into who we are and where we come from. Family is very important to me. Maybe it's because mine is so large; Maybe it's because mine has been through so much, but family should always come just after God and I want my kids to grasp that importance in how they relate to each other. Family - one of the few things in life that we have no choice over, so we need to learn to love them.

My kids are so lucky. They have five living great-grandparents. They have access to some amazing history and family stories and moments. Over the next nine-months of school, we will be studying one branch of their great-grandparents each month. They'll interview family, cook family recipes, and participate in family traditions. I want them to realize what a blessed life they live simply because of the people who came before them. It's history they won't learn in books, but it's history that they should know.

LOVE people is my response to 1 Corinthians 13. I know lots of people think of this chapter has one that is read at many weddings, but I don't know that I agree with the thought that this is only a chapter for "couples". Paul was writing a letter to the church in Corinth and was talking about the church, the body of Christ, when he wrote this chapter. I think that this chapter is all about how we treat people, ALL people.

We are going to step out of "our world" and look around us. We are going to work in our local community and subdivision. We are going to help in our state and in our country. We are going to look at the nations and see what is happen all around us. They need to realize that there is more than just us. They know that mom loves to go "teach people about Jesus", but it's my goal to plant that seed in them this year. I am praying that their eyes are opened to the people living around them.

All three of these will come to a wrap with our end-of-the-year project, a missions trip. It is my prayer and my hope that in June of 2014, we will travel as a family, with our church family, to Honduras. I spent time there this past summer and I want my kids to see what mom does when she travels and I want them to see first hand how important it is to LOVE God, LOVE family and LOVE people.

So that's the WHAT.

Here goes trying to make it all happen.

School starts next Tuesday.

Pray for us.