Devotional: Taking Leadership to Heart

Of course, we started with a Studio C:

This gathers everyone together.  Then we sang a patriotic song chosen by the "child of the day" (Chugger-dude) and said the Pledge of Allegiance.  Relative quiet ensues (baby was hurriedly changed while singing and is now nursing). Time to begin!

"This is the month of love," I began, holding up a bag of discount heart lollipops I had picked up for 45 cents yesterday.  We talked briefly about Valentines Day and then I transitioned.

"Could anyone explain to us the concept of 'Generals and True Love'," I then asked.  Avot raised her hand and then explained the concept (check out the link) that we want generals who know and care about their troops, not ones that see them as a mere number of tools.

"We want people who love, leaders who love.  God wants this same thing for us.  In fact, it is one of the great commandments."

After watching this video, I opened it up to the kids to make remarks about what they noticed about the video and the message.

"So we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, but that leads to an interesting question...what do we think of ourselves?" I paused, letting it sink in.  Then we watched the following:

There was silence as the power of this message sunk in. Again, I asked them for their thoughts, asking probing questions to make them think a little deeper about it, apply it to themselves.

Do we love ourselves? Do we see the value in what we do?

I then shared how the video I posted last night onto youtube covering "our day" already had 147 views...overnight. I shared with them my frustration and disappointment after making my first video, how I didn't like how I looked or sounded.  I shared, "What if that one person who needed my message of yesterday didn't get it because I didn't like my first video?"

I shared the portions of the video where it showed me in my "full glory" of exercise head, no make-up...awesomeness.   I then challenged them to face those things that are holding them back from sharing their own messaged and confront and conquer them, recognizing their glory:

We are the temples of God.

Chugger-dude chose: "As I Have Loved You" to sing and then I prayed.

Turned on the "Reflection Time" music and the kids sat around the table with their reflection books, most of them writing, some just sitting. (Randomly selected: "Take Time To Be Holy" was played.  So many times just the right song emerges during the Reflection Time music!  Love it.)
And then we ate the heart suckers. Perfect.

Embracing the season: a toned-down approach to this week

I am tired...so tired.  I am approaching my six-month of pregnancy, am almost 40...well, we can all come up with reasons or excuses, but as I reached the end of last week I realized that it is time to embrace the season of this pregnancy.  Time to slow down!

We have had a great couple of months of more involved classes...time to let the kids take the lead and try and keep up with their academic interests :).  I will still focus on "Charity" during devotionals and in making connections in their learning for our final virtue of a "service-oriented leader" for this month, but will not organize as many classes around it.

For instance, today we will do a group "word study" as part of the devotional this morning, rather than have each child do their own.  I feel word studies are so valuable in gaining depth of understanding of the words we use and an excellent start to a week of learning about charity in leaders, in the world around us, in science and in art.  Other than that, I have asked the kids to put up on our white board things that they want my help with:
Kel: Math and piano lesson
Drew: Duty to God
Lily: Piano and math lesson and sew a scripture bag together
Hyrum: Piano lesson and sew on his scout badges (that I haven't gotten to for months!)

I will muster all my energy to make and clean up lunch (with Hyrum's help, since that is his area of work this week), read with the girls and take a nap, exercise at the park or school across the street, and then play games with them this afternoon.  There are learning opportunities in all of these things, opportunities to share insights from "Gifted Hands" by Ben Carson that I finished reading last night, comparisons to make with "Othello" that I am reading, and love to show through listening and being there.

Learning is a lifestyle around here.  Lily, Piper, Hava and Maia (12, 8, 6, and 4) are busily using the Clue board here on the counter-top to make believe scenarios, getting along and using creativity together.  Dramatics, expressions, consensus...all these are part of this learning process.  The other children and youth are busily finishing up zones and basics by 9, when I will start devotional.

Speaking of devotional, I am doing a smaller, shorter devotional with the little ones to embrace more of what I feel they need to understand charity on their level this week.  I like the flexibility of daily inspiration in how to approach the virtue we are focusing on this week and think this will help them become more excited about devotionals again and give us a little more one-on...well, -two time :).

Devotional on Service

Today is Wednesday, our Eureka day.  Eureka is a concept that we seek to discover truth using both inductive and deductive reasoning...scientific and mathematical.  I like to seek for evidences of truth of the principle we are studying on this day, so today this is what I used:

First we discussed the two great commandments and how all other commandments are "hinged" on them:
-to love God
-to love our neighbors as ourselves
We used reasoning to show how the 10 commandments are simply ways to honor those two.

Then I brought into the discussion the section in Matthew 25 where the King is separating the righteous and the unrighteous...simply based upon the acts of service they rendered to their fellow man.  I had the younger group act out each act of service as I read it and you could see the emotion on their faces change as they acted out serving verses withholding their services. (This is a great video about this that we had watched before but I did end up bringing it into the "older" group...The Old Shoemaker by Tolstoy.)

I then showed the following two clips:

"Love thy Neighbor"

The first was a witness of the truthfulness of the joy that comes from giving selfless service dn the second an example of it.

It is truly service that will distinguish our righteousness, our willingness to love and obey God.  As leaders, like in "The Old Shoemaker," we must keep our eyes lifted for opportunities to serve, opportunities to visit with our Savior, even as we work.  The opportunities will not always come knocking at our door.

Feb 2015 ideas and application for the first two weeks

Monthly Theme: Teaching Service-Oriented Leadership

Continent Focus: Africa

 -I got a book on African food to try out from the library
-Tova is teaching African dances for our family dance class on Tuesdays
-I will pick some history that is happening contemporary with Revolutionary America in Africa next week
-We will watch a prezi on it
-Every Tuesday I encourage them to master a Geo-Safari card that has something to do with Africa

Math focus: Patterns and shapes (connected to theme as we look at the patterns and shapes in good leadership)
--I picked up a bunch of "shape" books at the library
--we made shapes out of pretzels one day and they ate them while I read about shapes in nature to them and how different shapes are perfect for different things: hexagons-maximize content while strong shape (beehives), triangles-strongest shape and connection to when two people are drawing closer to God in a triangular relationship, they are drawing closer to each other
-Games like Set, Q-bitz, and I hope to get some tangrams for them to play with

Leadership Skills:
Authors in the Attic (or crawlspace :)...) on Thursdays
Mini-class on writing with a prompt for Authors in the Attic on Monday (or Tuesday if we don't get to it!)--five-ten minute review of something like: capitalization, run-on sentences, etc.

Reading:
-Continue to read aloud "The Lottery Rose"
-Weekly "Aspire" or conference talks that we cover in devotionals or on their own
-Encourage them to read "Gifted Hands" or "The Once and Future King" as books that focuses on "sacrifice" that month

Weeks at a glance so far:
Week 1: Principle: The Virtue of Sacrifice--A good leader sacrifices

Devotionals on "sacrifice" all week long
Monday: Word study on "sacrifice"
-I asked the kids to come to a mini-discussion examples of leaders who sacrifice
-We ended "sacrificing" our school time to get the house ready to show to someone and went to the DI
-writing prompt: short lesson/review on capitalization and encouragement to correctly apply it as they write a "first-person" glimpse from someone, some hero, that exemplifies sacrifice.

Tuesday: Time machine: The sacrifice of settlement: Forts!
-Read Chapter 15 of Vol 3 of Story of the World while they made "forts" out of home-made graham crackers and frosting or hot glue and popsicle sticks
Wednesday: Eureka!
-Trip to the park with short science lesson during a picnic lunch...mini-experiments from the chapters from Wilde's "In the Beginning" and discussion about different forms of visible and invisible light and how sacrifice sometimes may seem invisible but it always has an effect.
Thursday: The goal was to do an art project, have a discussion and do Authors in the Attic but with another house showing, I don't even remember what we got in. I think we headed to the library and picked up a slew of books on different topics from that week and the week to come, had some pizza, I did some piano lessons and then we had Sports Day. I am sure I took a nap that day as well :).
Friday: I got sick and so we just survived :)...
After a "cumulative" discussion at the table of examples of sacrifice we had come across during the week, the kids watched "Joe vs. The Volcano"...kind of a stretch for sacrifice :), but they enjoyed it.



Week 2: Principle: The Virtue of Service--A good leader serves
Devotionals on "service" 
Monday: Leadership academy:
Word study on "leader" or "service"
-They could do their penmanship on one portion of the word study or on our new poem by Emily Dickenson:

IF I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin	5
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

-I make peanut butter sandwiches while they do their copy work and then we watch a "Cyber Chase" episode that teaches how to use deductive reasoning and can be loosely tied into sacrifice (the creature gives up his last wishes to help others)
-10 Minute Math with the kids, reading to the little ones, nap, and then awake to hurriedly finish writing my "Authors in the Attic" for last week that we never did on our crazy Thursday.  We have that in the crawl space (amazing stories!) and then we emerge in time for me to do a quick piano lesson with Drew before going to play basketball at the church.
-Games together: 1 to 7 to 1 and others
-Basketball!  We split up into boys vs. girls and they skunk us but I also see my boys working together, cheering each other on, and teaching each other.  Priceless and completely worth losing :).

Tuesday: Early morning so we all get going quickly and most of us have done our basics and zones and math before devotional comes around at 9.  I tell all the kids to prepare to share something about one of our Revolutionary War heroes for the time machine today.
-Devotional: Mother Teresa, article on service from this month's issue of "The Friend" magazine, and story of "The Wooden Doll" that they act out from "A Story to Tell"
-break before time machine for final prep for time machine
-Time Machine!
Hava (6) shared a picture she drew from a picture book about Benjiman Franklin I read to her earlier today
Piper (8) listened to a story online about George Washington (carefully screened to be truthful and positive) and drew "picture notes" to share with us.  She came up with a game to do and made some "lumpy porridge" like the soldiers would have to have eaten.  The game was marching in formation and taking turns "ordering the troops."
Hyrum (10) sat on Piper's rocking horse with a hat on his head and read "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" to them while they ate "Caramel Pops," part of Hava's presentation because they were puffy like the lightning clouds from Franklin's famous kite experiment and were also invented...yes, a happy stretch :).
Lily (almost 12) found a picture of Molly Pitcher online (one of her personal heroes) and shared some facts about Pitcher.
The Goob (13) took everyone outside for "Steal the Bacon."  His application?  Paul Revere had to work with the numbers 1 and 2 ("one if by land and two if by sea) and they are numbered in Steal the Bacon.  They also have to move fast like Revere did :). Tova pointed out that one side could have represented the Yankees and the others the Red Coats...so fun!

I went inside to write in my journal until Kel came through the door: "Ready for a piano lesson, mom?"  We were off!
-Piano lesson for him,
-quick making of layered bean dip for lunch,
-10 Minute Math with him during lunch, 
-Family reading of "Lottery Rose" immediately after lunch
-brief quiet time while Lek got a cello lesson from his dad when I cleaned up lunch while trying to listen to Henry V
-piano lessons for the Goob and Lily
-an awesome African dance session led by Tova...quite the work-out!
-a mini-break for everyone while they planned which songs they wanted to learn for sign-language... hilarious to listen to :)
-sign-language by Tova and now a blessed hour of peace and play outside while I go and make dinner and finish up this post!

Kel is at dance during this time and of course the whole time is intermingled with little Spooner (2) trailing around making messes, eating whatever he can get his hands on, Hava complaining to be hungry every 10 minutes (and also laying down and coloring on the bed next to Spooner to put him to sleep...so sweet!), and Papaya (4) doing things her own way.  We get snuggles, smiles, hugs and kisses as the little ones join or hang out in the periphery, depending upon their moods :).

W a brief science lesson, swimming, and a visit to the library on the way to or from the pool.  Tova and Kel have a madrigal-type group practice tomorrow afternoon that keeps them busy while we get to do our own things.  After our Mondays and Tuesdays, we are ready for that!