Down Syndrome Awareness

Isn't this too cute?



Get yours by clicking on the image!

H/T Barbara Curtis at MommyLife. She also has a cute Down Syndrome Creed on the same page but I'll have to edit the color - wrong green for my blog :-)

Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity

Over the years, we have received many religious publications by mail. I must say Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity is the best religious journal I have encountered. It comes as a graduation gift from hubby's seminary. The content is meaty, insightful and thought-provoking - from an orthodox viewpoint.

From the inside cover:

"Touchstone is a Christian journal, conservative in doctrine and eclectic in content, with editors and readers from each of the three great divisions of Christendom — Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox. The mission of the journal and its publisher, The Fellowship of St. James, is to provide a place where Christians of various backgrounds can speak with one another on the basis of shared belief in the fundamental doctrines of the faith as revealed in Holy Scripture and summarized in the ancient creeds of the Church."

This month Touchstone had two articles written by homeschooling fathers. Education Normal by Mark T. Mitchell on "the oddity of giving children a moral imagination."

The other article, Except the Lord Build by Anthony Esolen, is the commencement address given by Dr. Esolen to the Rhode Island Christian Home Educators in 2007. As I am looking all to soon send my homeschool graduate off to college, Dr. Esolen's words offer comfort to me.

"For through your labor, and perfecting your labor, the Lord has built the home. Maybe sometimes your T-square had a ding in it, or your level had a bump, or you troweled the mortar on too thin. I am sure that your daughters can think of many incidents to prove that their teachers were indeed human. But I am sure also that on this night they are filled with gratitude, and will not recall those times. Yet those times, too, have been redeemed. If your hand was shaking as it settled in place the next stone of wisdom and understanding, still it was the Lord who guided your hand, and his was the work."

Touchstone also has a blog for those who might be interested - Mere Comments

Check it out - this is one gift subscription we will be renewing!

The Absent Blogger

That would be me! Life has been so very busy that I have little time to sit and write which saddens me but sometimes life just gets in the way!

We have finally started back to school. This is the first summer I have taken off in as long as I can remember. I usually school Reagan (14 y.o. with Down syndrome) year-round. Year-round schooling has helped her dramatically with retention of skills/concepts. This past summer I could just not keep up with much of anything let alone summer schooling with hubby's ordination and the flow of family in and out of our home.

I have to say that I was quite pleased to see very little loss of skills/concepts as a result of our long summer break! I have to admit Reagan is not very motivated to return to our school routine. I'm sure adolescent hormones are a huge factor in her lack of motivation. Hopefully, as we get back to a full schedule, it will once again be just what we do every day. I'd forgotten just how hard it can be to go from summer fun and relaxation to a structured school day as a homeschooling parent. I have reverted back to the time when I did take summers off and slowly introduce each subject back into our day until we are up to full speed.

Kiera (17 y.o) finished her high school course work this past May and will do her senior year of high school at our local community college. So far, she is quite happy with her classes and schedule and is thriving in the classroom setting. It seems to me that homeschooling enabled this child to excel in the classroom with confidence in what she knows, how to display it well in the classroom setting -- with her love for learning intact. The only difficulty she has faced is the perceived apathy she sees in her peers - many just going through the motions on their post high school journey.

We are awaiting the results of her ACT exam scores to begin a serious college search. She tested quite well in the pretests so is not very anxious about the results. This fall we will visit a few schools but she is pretty sure about where she wants to go and they seem anxious to have her!

I'm trying hard to remember every minute enjoy these final months with Kiera at home before she goes off to college. I thought I would feel some relief when she was done with her home education and the dramatic reduction in my work load but I only feel the upcoming loss as she looks toward going off to college. Oh, I'm doing and saying all the right things - I know it is almost time for her to spread her wings and fly. I know I'm not really losing her but things are changing. I just didn't know how difficult this would be. I do my best to focus on what exciting things God has planned for her future but those feelings of impending loss filter in. All I can do is try give them over to the Lord. We can do this together!