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Oh, that was funny.  I mentioned the word Beyond, and then said “I like that word, it’s a good prompt”.  Anyways, my tenant started singing “Beyond the sunset”.   Made me smile.  So here’s a link so you can smile too. 

Beyond the Sunset

Beyond the Sunset
I heard those words
Picked through youtube videos
Finding one for others to enjoy.

I got to thinking
What does it mean?
Beyond the sunset?
What could the author be thinking.

I did this of course
Not really knowing the song
Not having looked at the words.
Just wondering.

So what is just beyond the sunset?
A dark, starlit night?
The close of a day?
Perhaps the end of a life?

What is beyond the sunset?
Perhaps, just perhaps
It’s a brand new day.
A whole new start!

Imagine it for a moment.
The end of a life lived
in Service to God.
A glorious start of praising God.

Oh, the glory of that eh?
The wonder of being
able to praise God
Perfectly, as holy beings.

Imagine for a moment
a dark night, followed
by a brand new day.
A chance to start anew.

To leave behind the
brokenness and sorrow
of yesterday.
Possibilities run wild.

Imagine now
the end of a day.
A time of reflection,
A chance to consider well.

The course of a day.
Time to think, to
Plan change based on
Looking well at life lived.

Beyond the sunset.
Glory in heaven?
A brand new start?
Time of reflection and change?

What is beyond your sunset?

I do hope you’ll join in with us on Miss Kate’s Five-Minute-Friday word prompt.  Five minutes of consideration on a word prompt.  Five minutes to simply write for the joy of writing.  It’s a lovely thing to do.  Come on, Join in won’t you?

My son had to do something with my laptop the other day, and complained that “mom, you have too many tabs open!” Since I had almost 50 open I thought it was about time for me to share them with you.  So here’s the summer edition browser tabs.  Close up those tabs and yet have a way to remember them!  🙂 

Schooling Related

Did you know the Knowledge House has a whole list of possible high school courses?   What a fantastic list to look through to see what intrigues our students.   Wouldn’t it give a great way to pursue their interests? 

Tree of Life has this logic course that I have been considering. I just wish the lad had room in his schedule for everything I’d like to see him do. 

Captivating Compass posted about the top 10 high school electives. 

I like looking through lists of free resources for homeschooling.  This one from Table Life had a couple I hadn’t heard of before. 

I keep being intrigued by Hebrew classes.  I have yet to sign up for them, but I am intrigued none-the-less. 

Communications101 from Powerline Productions I wonder about getting for the lad.  He doesn’t have room for it in his schedule this year.  

The Career and Technical courses in Acellus high school courses I am curious about, but wonder about them because they are US-based, and I wonder how they would transmit to Canadian regulations. 

I’m working on a college and careers half-credit course for the lad and consider options such as on this page. I haven’t really explored the seven options listed, but wanted to remember them for later use. 

I’ve been considering this art appreciation course for grade 11 for the lad next year.  Keeping his options open as he’s not sure what his future holds. 

Beyond Personal Finance I am suspecting more and more is a needed course for my lad.  He forgets that $5 earned for 20 minutes work is a good investment of time, particularly if it’s something you were going to do anyways.  It’s not worth my time though…. so I think about making him pay some of his own bills…..  🙂 

Cover Shakespeare with free plays!  Courtesy of Bob Jones University. 

I need to remember these Algebra and Geometry helpers for the lad. 

Fascinating Tidbits

Sometimes as I am browsing the internet I come across interesting things I want to follow up on.  For instance I’ve run across these items. 

• Walnut-sized octopus. 
• Barrel-eyed fish. 
• Sourdough Starter. I keep meaning to do this. 
• I really enjoy curiosity stream, so I wonder about doing great courses. 
• Free Reference binders.  I like this idea.  Need to do something with it yet.  Just haven’t quite figured it. 

Stuff Just for Me

Alison.  I’ve finished my carpentry course, so I’ve decided to move on to an architecture course.   It’s rather interesting looking at buildings from of old and learning more about how they were built. 

Though this technically isn’t JUST for me, I’ve been having fun with some the experiements/labs on the ChemCollective. I’m wondering if they might stimulate my lad’s interest. 

Ever want to visit the Sistine Chapel?  How about this virtual one? 

Need some books to read?  Check out the Open Library.  You’ll need an account but it’s free, so worth looking through. I’ve borrowed the book thief and a couple of others over time. 

I’ve been browsing through My Teaching Library.  There’s a review coming, so far we’ve done some poetry, and I’m looking into the French cooking book!  Expand my repertoire a bit!

Others in this series.

• Browser tabs open. 
• Tabs open in my browser. 
• Sharing open tabs. 

What to do when things go wrong …  because things WILL go wrong.   You will buy the wrong curriculum, your children will make errors in judgement, a subject will prove too difficult to master (at least in the format used), and/or you will make your own mistakes.  Sometimes life intervenes with sickness in the household, or COVID will threaten the doors, or….  

You get the picture… sometimes the unforeseen threatens all our plans, and the question before us is this: What will you do when things go wrong?

Something has gone wrong

We don’t always see it at first, but eventually it will become evident that something is not right.  This wrongness may be in your student’s world or in your own.  Infrequently events outside the home will set events into motion that grind education to a halt. 

We’ve seen this recently with COVID affecting the world.  Even though, as homeschoolers, our lives haven’t necessarily been affected much, the affects on others trickles down into the home.  The lack of activities and outside interests stifled plays a role in our outlook on life.  This can and will play a disruption in the educational lives of our children. 

Our students might make errors in judgement with how they manage their time and need to face the consequences.

We might order the wrong materials, or thing that something “will do” because we want it to, but it doesn’t work well for this particular student.

Or you could find yourself out of a job and that disrupts the balance in your household upsetting how everything runs. 

LIFE HAPPENS.  It does’  We cannot plan for everything or have everything worked out perfectly. 

What to do?

What do we do when things go wrong?   

1. Talk.  Seriously, just sit down and talk. Offer grace to your student if they’ve made an error in judgement and then move forward.  If you have made an error… admit it, move forward. 
2. Figure out what to do. Don’t wallow in the error, use it as a change to learn something new and then move forward with a plan that you have worked out together. 
3. Stop school if you have to.  Sometimes it’s necessary even if it’s only for a week, or even if it’s for longer.  As homeschoolers we have the option to school as we need to, not as we HAVE to, so use our freedom wisely. 
4. Remember education happens, even if we aren’t using books. Life skills, learning to cope with stress, the importance of helping family, hands-on learning, and more. Just change how learning happens. 
5. Change your perspective.  Often that’s all we need to do.  See the problem as an opportunity for conversation and change. 

Blogger List

Summer is almost here and let’s just celebrate now with the homeschool year wrapping up.

I’ve gotten together with 7 other bloggers to bring you this wonderful giveaway so that you can enjoy planning for your next homeschool year.

We are giving away 3 $100 giftcards from the place of your choice. You can choose from:

• Amazon
• Rainbow Resource
• Hobby Lobby
• Christian Books

The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize or else another winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Read the terms and conditions for more details.