After nine solid weeks of homeschool, it was time for a break. What did we do? We packed up the kids and headed to the beach!
We’ve taken plenty of vacations at touristy Myrtle Beach, but this year we drove to the Florida panhandle. We rented a quiet cabin at Grayton Beach State Park.
When I saw the package from David C Cook in my mailbox, I knew exactly what it was. Our next review item, Forensic Faith for Kids, had arrived. I was excited when I learned about this new apologetics book for kids. I recognized the name of one of the authors, J. Warner Wallace. He was an expert witness for Christ in an apologetics book my Sunday School class had studied. Could this forensic detective help my twin twelve-year-olds learn to defend their faith?
We headed back to homeschool the first week in August. Has it really been two months? This week we are wrapping up our first quarter.
Has your child ever started the year with the “perfect homeschool curriculum” only to discover it was completely wrong for them? That is exactly what happened with my older daughter’s literature and geography. But we are loving some of the other courses we started. The end of the first quarter is a great time to tweak a few things as I plan for the next nine weeks.
We had arrived in Israel on a Sunday. It was now Thursday morning. Our day had started with a visit to The Western Wall and a tour of the tunnel beneath it. Next, we walked down a narrow street to the Pool of Bethesda.
After an early-morning visit to the Western Wall, our group toured the tunnels beneath it. Archaeologists are still excavating these underground passages. They are always discovering new things about Israel’s rich history.
Bleary-eyed, I rolled over and turned off my phone alarm. The day’s schedule required us to rise before six. Although the clock was an hour away from midnight back home in Georgia, I was rising to greet a new day in Israel.
I pulled on some cool, comfortable clothes and slathered on sunscreen. For most of the day, we would be out in the sun, and I did not want a sunburn.
After a hearty buffet breakfast, we climbed on board the bus and headed to the Western Wall.
It was your idea! Twenty years ago, you suggested that I homeschool our baby girl. Could I do it? A couple of years later, she read her first words, and I was hooked. Our family has grown a bit since then. It means so much to me that after all these years of homeschooling, I still have your vote of confidence. I especially appreciate all the little ways you support and help me in this monumental task.
It has been over two months since our return from Israel, but some of the experiences are still vivid in my mind. Pictures and conversations with my husband call to mind forgotten details as I continue writing about our amazing journey.
Our trip was nearly halfway over when we arrived in Jerusalem. After visiting the church that now stands at Gethsemane, we climbed on the bus for a short drive to the Garden Tomb. It is one of several possible locations for Jesus’ burial and resurrection.
After passing through the tunnel into Jerusalem, we exited the main road. The streets along the top of Mount Scopus seemed to be designed with small cars in mind. Are tour buses supposed to go down these narrow streets? To our amazement, our driver navigated expertly through the twists and turns.
As we boarded the bus to continue our week-long tour of Israel, praise songs still rang in my head. I had enjoyed our musical interlude in the amphitheatre at Beth She’an. But my thoughts soon turned toward Jerusalem, our home base for the rest of our trip. What would it be like?
