In this post: India crafts & also an India country study with our group. Musical fun with Voltaire and Handel. Also a longhouse for the Iroquois. Come join us for week 3 of the 1600’s!
Hello dear ones! I hope you are well and safe. We’ve had stormy weather lately and tornado warnings. Praise God for keeping us safe. Well, it’s time to go back to the beginning of April and our last study on the 1600’s. This is how we did it:
We read about India in Story of the World Book 3. We read about the Indian kings who opened the door for English trade but also for eventual ruin & takeover. We read how a Muslim Indian King persecuted the Hindus and almost stamped Hinduism out. We read about the Indian king who built the Taj Mahal as a tomb and a memorial for his late wife. We put together this Taj Mahal painting inspired by thatartistwoman.org. I’ll put my links at the end. We made an Indian Elephant mask. The week before, our homeschool group did an India country study. It seems appropriate to include it today. My buddy Hannah brought Indian clothes and trinkets to show the kids. She read us a book about an Indian little boy named Kali. Everyone brought Indian food. Then I led the kids in a Henna hands craft.
We read about the London fire, the battle between Charles I and Oliver Cromwell etc…, and the plague. We watched Horrible Histories’ video on the Great Fire.
We learned about Cristofori the inventor of the piano. We listened to “Cristofori’s Dream” a piece of music in honor or Cristofori. Michael made a piano pencil holder. We intended on making a thumb piano but never got to it. The link for it is on my Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots Pinterest folder if you’d like to make one.
We read about King Louis XIV, the Sun King of France. We also learned about Voltaire, a French philosopher. Michael wrote out one of Voltaire’s quotes.
We read about Prince Frederick of Prussia and how he gave the Germans a sense of nationality. We listened to Handel, a German born Baroque composer. Michael filled out a composer’s page on Handel while listening to “Messiah“. The composer’s page is neat because it has a biography on the composer and then you fill out a job application as if you are the composer.
Michael drew Squanto from his Draw and Write Through History book.
We read about Prince Philip’s War (actually Metacom, the Native American) with the English at Plymouth. We read about the Iroquois attacking the French in Canada and the Wampanaog tribe. Later we found out that the English had asked the Iroquois to drive the French out. At this time the battle for the New World has just begun. The European countries all want a piece of the land. We made an Iroquois longhouse and we read a book about the peaceful Iroquois of modern times.
It was refreshing to learn about William Penn and how he successfully established a peaceful colony that got along with the natives. Penn established Philadelphia (the city of brotherly love) in the state now named after him, Pennsylvania. Penn was a quaker and so Michael and I talked about the Quaker beliefs….also the Quaker oatmeal guy :).
We got a head start on the 1700’s. Michael read Ben and Me and then we watched the movie. I love this little story. It’s about a mouse who helps Benjamin Franklin with all of his ideas.
God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
Dear ones, here are some wonderful vids by Beth Moore on God’s purpose. Also I’m sharing a bit of my story when it comes to purpose and dealing with abuse.
Email sub: If you can’t see the vids then please come to my site to see them.
I don’t want to take long because I truly hope you have the time to watch these insightful and Spirit filled messages by Beth Moore. I’ve been in too much pain today to get out of the house. So Michael and I let Beth Moore preach to us today. The Lord knows that I struggle with this issue of purpose, especially with the things that He has allowed to come through my life. I went through a type of sexual abuse as a young child by a much older kid. It was confusing at the time. I just knew that I felt dirty and that when the door was closed nobody could know. It wasn’t until my early twenties that I began to remember all I had suppressed. A hurtful situation triggered everything. Then I began to have issues and I wondered why God had allowed me to suffer in that way. Any of you that have suffered abuse as a child can probably relate. As Beth Moore says, the effects of abuse stay with you your whole life. It colors your choices. Sometimes I think that is worse than the abuse itself.
I know that God didn’t cause my abuse but in His sovereignty He allowed it. I am just now starting to move past my pain and look at the purpose of my suffering. How can my past help others? Well, I hope it is helping you today. Sometimes we just want to know that we are not alone…that we are not the only damaged ones. People wear convincing masks. They’ve got the nice hair and make up. They’ve got smiling pictures on Facebook. But down deep we are all damaged human beings. We are damaged by the curse on this world and how it has reeked havoc in our lives. We see the bloodiness of that curse when we look at poverty and the condition of orphans. It is often too much for us to bear. We want to cover it up and pretend it doesn’t exist because it hurts! But idolizing perfection and worshiping those who “have it together”, hurts too! Because we know we can never measure up. Praise God! We have a PERFECT God who gets knee deep in the BLOODINESS of our wounds and HOLDS us tight. He loves us now as we’re wounded and He loved us while we were being wounded.
His LOVE never fails. I have that comfort. God never left me alone. When the door was closed, God was still there. He saw a wounded naive little girl and He thought about the purposes He has for my life. He saw the people I would minister to and He set up those that would minister to me. He saw the beautiful little boy that I would bear and how I would do everything to protect that child’s innocence. He knew that the naive damaged little girl would grow up to be a warrior princess, commissioned by her King of Kings to protect the innocence of others and to offer hope to the wounded. He saw that. He purposed that.
Jesus Christ, God’s son, God Himself in the flesh, came down to earth so He could be abused by others. So He could take on the sins of others and die with that sin, then be raised to life so we could overcome sin. Why did God have to come down to earth Himself and get in the dirt of things, to save us? I believe this with all my heart: How can we understand the wounded when we’ve never been wounded ourselves? Jesus became one of us so we can serve a God that understands us. He knows our weaknesses and He knows our pain. That matters.
When I see people like Beth Moore ministering with humility and understanding, it blesses my heart. I have hope that damaged people can be healed. God can still use me. I needed to hear that today. God bless you & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
PS: After the vids I share technical info on how promises made to the Israelities can indirectly apply to us. Also, I talk about how it’s important to be God driven not purpose driven.
Part 1~ Beth Moore: God’s purpose for you
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4~ this one really spoke to me…the line between carnality and hyperspirituality
Part 5
Part 6- deals with abuse and God’s purpose
PPS: A note on Jeremiah 29:11. Some have asked how this verse can apply to modern believers when it was written to the Israelites. I truly believe it is important to take verses in context. I do not believe that every promise in the Bible is mean’t for us. Some of them I don’t want because they are curses! A majority of the Bible, including the New Testament was written to people in the past. It is not directly written to us but we can apply most of it indirectly. And all of it we can learn from somehow. I can apply Jeremiah 29:11 to my life indirectly because it lines up with the context of the whole Bible and what God’s plan is for humanity. I can read Acts 17:26-27 which speaks to all humanity and see the same truth that is found in Jeremiah 29:11.
I can see the outward blessings and convenant promises for the Israelites as it flips to the new covenant and manifest inwardly. I do not believe in the Prosperity gospel because it mainly focuses on the outward. We can see that people of great faith are suffering despite their faith. Faithful Christians are being mutilated and persecuted. They don’t have big houses and fancy cars. Some have just enough to get by. Yet, they have great faith. I do believe that while we do not inherit a physical promised land as gentiles, that all believers do inherit inward prosperity which is spiritual. We all have access to peace, joy, love, self control, and so on. The royal law of love is written on our hearts. So what we see as physical in the Old Testament manifests itself inwardly in our time. Christ performed many miracles and I believe miracles still happen. But the greatest miracle ever is that God Himself, through the Holy Spirit can dwell with us forever and that we can be born again (changed completely to be God’s child! A spiritual rebirth).
Lastly, I want to say that there is a difference between God’s purposes, man’s purposes, and Satan’s purposes. We’ve already heard that Satan’s purposes are to steal, kill, and destroy. We know that God’s purposes are for our Good and to bring Him glory. But man also has purposes.
Proverbs 16:9 NKJV “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
I believe it is very important that we are God-driven, not purpose-driven. This goes against popular beliefs but I believe it is Biblical. I say this because we can never fully know all that God has purposed for us. We may think that God has called us to minister in one area and pursue that but then what do we do if God tells us to do something different, something that doesn’t seem to fit our “calling”? If we are purpose driven then we will lay everything aside to follow what we already believe God has called us to and we may miss the mark. If we are God-driven then every day we will rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us into God’s purposes. God may have us in one job that seems to fit our talents and then later call us to do something that we have no idea how to do. We can never know God’s full purpose for our life, until we’re in Heaven.
At first it seems the same, being purpose driven and God driven. Shouldn’t we do all we can to pursue our callings? Friends, the enemy is subtle. The difference seems small but it’s effects are huge. No, I say. We should do all we can to pursue God and then we will walk in the paths he means for us. Callings change day to day. I love music and it would seem that with my musical ability that I am called to minister through music. That makes sense in man’s thinking. I did minister through music at a time. But there came a time with my health that I had to minister in another way. Did I lose my calling? No, my ultimate calling is to follow Jesus. Even so, I must abide with Christ and develop our relationship so I will even know how to follow Christ. If I focus on all the things I can do to be Christ like but I don’t actually know Christ or spend time with him, then I am being purpose driven, not God driven. Make sense? It really is simple but as humans we like to complicate things. Focus on Jesus. Abide with Jesus. Simple.
Hello dear ones! How are you? Last month we began our Pilgrims, Patriots, and Pirates study with Draw and Write Through History. We also started Book 3 of Story of the World. Here’s how we did week 2 of the 1600’s a.k.a 17th century.
We read about New Amsterdam which later became New York. It was a Dutch colony in the New World. Peter Stuyvesant was the Dutch governor until the English took it over. Michael colored two Dutch children and we made a tp roll windmill.
We read poetry by Alexander Pope. We also learned about Thomas Savery, the inventor of the steam engine. Trains use steam engines so we made a thumbprint train and a candy train.
We listened to Bach. I found musical games online. I’ll include links at the bottom of this post.
We read about slavery in Africa and the African Queen Nzinga. She held back the slave traders in her area for awhile. She was a fierce warrior. Michael made an African mask and necklaces. We read about the colonies and the Mayflower. Michael drew a pilgrim (not pictured). We read about Abbas I, Shah of Persia.
We made a salt dough map of the Americas and painted the territories. Michael read “Who Was Magellan?”
We learned about the 30 years war between the Catholic King Ferdinand II and the Protestant German princes. It later became a fight with Denmark, Sweden, and then France. King Ferdinand riled everyone up when he started persecuting the protestants. Everything worked out in the end but only after years of bloodshed. Michael tried the German art of paper cutting and made beautiful Easter rabbits.
Meanwhile, Japan closed it’s doors to Christianity and the rest of the world. Christians were persecuted and Buddhidsm became prominent. The Manchu took over in China causing the Han Chinese much frustration. I had planned on doing a Bonsai tree craft but we never got to it.
Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
Dear ones, enjoy this vid of Beth Moore called The Moment of the Resurrection. Remember email sub. to come to my blog to see the vid. I hope everyone has a lovely holiday and that you all know how much Jesus loves you. He conquered death to set you free! God bless & remember THE HIGH KING LIVES!
I wrote this post last year. Salvation is simple. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). God invites and you choose whether to accept. Salvation by God’s grace is what sets apart true Christianity from every religion. Our good works cannot save us. May we embrace the simple yet life changing message of the gospel. Happy Easter! God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
In this Post
: What Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. Learn the meanings of some big but power packed words like justification and propitiation.
Hello dear ones, I wanted to share with you what I’ve been studying the past couple of weeks. We should always keep in our hearts and share the power of Jesus’ death & resurrection. Still, it is a special time of the year where Christians are a bit more focused on what the Lord has done. Just as we focus on his birth more so in December or some in Fall (both for us). I’m excited :). This is our second year of celebrating Easter for a month. Before we focused on mainly Passover and Christ’ resurrection was a quick celebration on Easter Sunday. Lent (a 40 day countdown to Easter) has really helped us center in on the Resurrection AND the cross.
In this post:Our Easter decor, another blogger’s post on the importance of Easter, and an article on the origin of Easter.
Hello dear ones! Please stick around after the picture for a great article and post. I just wanted to share pictures of our Easter decor. I wrote a post last year about why we used to not celebrate “Easter” per say with eggs and rabbits and such. I called Easter, Resurrection Sunday but we spent more time on Passover and the crucifixion than on the Resurrection. Here’s the link that explains: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/inspirational-wednesday-part-one-why-im-okay-with-easter-eggs-etc/
Now we celebrate Lent too. We’re not Catholic and we’ve never fasted during that time but we like to countdown to Easter. We have a Resurrection Egg tree with symbols of the gospel story. We have a poster for actual Holy Week where we count down. If you look closely you can see last year’s Easter crafts: The Last Supper diorama, tp Resurrection set, and the carton chapel. We’ve got a couple of new decorations though. We set up an Easter village for the first time. I found the bunny village at Goodwill. My first Easter tree fit well with it. I found a bunny basket I had as a kid. I also bought Easter magnets. I made an Easter wreathe for our door. I hung “D” for “Dover” from it.
It’s fun taking a whole month to focus on the Resurrection. Sure, bunnies and chicks have to do with Spring but they also remind us of new life. Spring itself reminds me that I am a new creation in Christ. Winter can feel like death and then all of a sudden, life pops up everywhere. The Resurrection is just as important as Christ’ birth. We should remember both all year long. Still, holidays have a way of cementing truths in our minds. We remember Queen Esther’s story because we celebrate Purim every year. Well, we get the gospel cemented in our hearts every spring as we experience it in a hands on way. The fun helps too. It brings out the joy of childhood and at the same time points to Christ. Now that’s hitting two birds with one stone! 🙂
Check out the article & posts below the pic.
Is the name “Easter” pagan? Where does Easter come from? Great article:
I really love Janna’s passion for Easter. She inspired me to start my own Lent/Easter journey. The last three years (including this Lent) have been great as we’ve truly dove into Easter. I think it’s more intense than Christmas at times. This year was wonderful because I got to share my Easter/Passover play with our homeschool group. I won’t be sharing that today but in the near future ;). We also took off this whole week leading up to Easter. It was nice :).
Hello dear ones! My son Michael was born on the same day as his best gal pal Olivia. So each year they alternate birthday weekends. The weekend before, Michael had a small Lego party with his buddies. The weekend after, Olivia had a Frozen birthday party. More after the pic…
In the past, I’ve done separate posts but since Michael had a small party this year, I decided to combine. I’ll put links at the end for past birthdays: Pirates & Mermaids, Star Wars & a tea party. Michael had his party at Burger King this year. I baked a green Lego cake. I couldn’t find anything for the Lego movie so I had to improvise on party favors. I put binoculars and a bug catching kit together. Then I tied it with ribbon and taped a Lego on it. Michael hung out with his two best buddies, Hannah’s kids Olivia and Liam. It was raining but the kids acted royally with their BK crowns and they played with Legos at the table. Chris’ parents and my Mom and Step Dad joined the celebration. Chris’ parents stayed with my Mom and Michael slept over. So he got to enjoy both of his grandparents. We all went to church together and then we had his party. After everyone left, Chris, Michael, and I went to see the Lego Movie again. We will be singing “Everything is Awesome” for the rest of our lives! We ended the evening with Chris helping Michael build his new Legos.
Hannah usually guest posts but I think the pics are self explainatory for this one. The Frozen party was beautiful. Olivia was darling in her Elsa tutu skirt. The kids had fun building marshmallow snowmen and hitting a castle pinata. Hannah also had a hard time finding Frozen supplies. I think they were sold out. Our problem was nothing was made for the Lego movie yet. I guess because it’s not Disney. Anywho, there was one more boy at the party this year, so Michael and the guys did their own thing. I think the girls spied on them. There may have been a war at some point but I only heard it :D. My Buddy Erin and I broke out a dance number to a Frozen tune but only the kids saw. I think all of us are ready to “let go” of the song “Let It Go”, another catchy tune. I included a pic of Chris helping James, Hannah’s hubby, blow up balloons. He’s holding Miriam, Hannah’s brand new baby girl.
I leave you with pics with grandparents, also Michael riding without training wheels. Links are at the end.
God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
Hello dear ones! Today I want to share an important event with you. My husband Chris Dover had his hair cut after three years of growing it out! My hubby is a disabled army veteran and he’s been growing his hair since he retired. Friday April 11th was our son Michael’s birthday. We took the day off of official homeschool and we did whatever he wanted, with reason. Chris’ hair represents a season we’ve been in: college and the civilian world. We have just a year left of Chris’ college and he’s looking into internships. Michael’s birthday was the perfect day to get it (the haircut) done.
So I took lots of pictures (of course) of the whole event. Chris is donating his hair to Locks of Love, an org. that makes wigs for cancer patients. Chris donated in honor of his cousin, a two year old girl. My hubby had 16 inches. It was funny seeing him go to a 90’s hairstyle, to the three stooges, and finally Tony Stark (Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr.). I gotta say, I love this new look. Chris picks on me by telling “Jarvis” to do things every now and then. Jarvis is Iron Man’s computer. I become all giggles :P.
We spent the first part of the day playing Putt Putt. Then Chris had his haircut. We stopped by Sweet Frog for yogurt and low and behold we ran into another Birthday child taking a break from school. My best bud Hannah’s little girl Olivia was born the same day as Michael. We ended our outing with a trip to the museum. Michael did learn a bit on his day off. We looked for anything having to do with the 1700’s since we will be studying that time soon. We found some great paintings & puppets of George and Martha Washington. We went home to watch movies and plant our garden. I’ll show garden pics another time.
Our church had an Easter Egg hunt and a BBQ fundraiser for Belize the next day. We were late so Michael got the left over eggs. It was a lovely weekend & the Palm Sunday service was awesome. How about you? Any life changing events lately? I’d love to hear about them in the comment section.
God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
Hello dear ones! How are you? This poem I wrote today is based on an actual dream I had many years ago. It was more of a nightmare and last night during prayer the dream came to my mind and I now understand what I was dealing with. Hence, the inspiration for this poem. Please don’t copy but you can share this link. Thanks! God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
In this post:We take a look at the late 1500’s & early 1600’s. From the Dutch Revolt to King James all the way to the beginning of Sumo wrestling in Japan. Come join us :).
Hello dear ones! How are you? Several weeks ago we began Book 3 of Story of the World. This is how we learned:
We read about the Spanish conquistadors looking for gold in South America and the poor slaves. We also read about the Dutch revolt between William the Silent and the protestants verses King Philip II. So Michael drew a Dutch windmill out of his draw through History book.
We read about Mary Queen of Scots, the Catholic Queen who lost her throne but her son King James, a protestant is the one who organized the bringing together of the King James Version of the Bible. He did not write it as some have accused. I have a link with details below but many different Christians came together in unity to bring about the KJV, 54 scholars, Puritans and Anglicans. People that usually disagreed came together in prayer and wisdom to make a translation that the common people could understand and interpret on their own, with no foot notes to sway them. To celebrate this beautiful thing, we had fig newton Bibles with icing on them. We also watched a brilliant documentary on the KJV. The actor who plays Gimle from Lord of the Rings actually narrated.
We read about Henry Hudson and Samuel Champlain. Hudson discovered the Hudson Bay in Canada & Champlain discovered Quebec, for the Europeans. The Native Americans were already there of course. Since we’ve been learning about the Dutch and different explorers, I told Michael the legend of theFlying Dutchman. The story goes that a Dutch captain was trying to get around the Cape of Good Hope when he swore to God that he’d be eternally damned if he didn’t sail around it. So the story goes that the Captain and his crew perished because he tested God and now they appear as a ghost ship. Since this story came about many sailors have claimed to see a ghost ship. Modern science has shown that the appearance of a ghost ship is in fact an optical illusion called looming or a mirage. Look it up. It’s pretty nifty. We watched The Pirates of the Caribean movie that has Davy Jones as the captain of the Flying Dutchman. I don’t recommend it for all kids. Some parts are scary for littles. But it’s an interesting take on the legend. We did a great chalk and silhouette art project that I found on a blog I follow. It’ll be in the links below. Our Flying Dutchman silhouette looks more dream-like than menacing. It makes me think of Neverland.
As we get into the 17th and 18th centuries, we are learning about important musicians, poets, and inventors. This week we learned about Blaise Pascal who invented the mechanical calculator, the pascaline. He also had some real neat sayings and poetry. And we listened to the music of Pachelbel. So Michael made a foam calculator and he listened to Canon in D.
Nana came over and we took a trip to the park. She also let me dress her up to do “Sumo wrestling”. My Mom really is a trooper. I was not up to Sumo and she really helped out. We read about the Shogun Ieyasu of Japan and how he got the Samurais to lay down their swords and practice Sumo instead. They began to study the arts and learn the ways of peace. This way Ieyasu (who established Tokyo a.k.a Edo as the capitol) could make sure the Samurai never raised swords against him. So Chris helped Michael with a Sumo paper craft. Nana had a Sumo pillow wrestling match with Michael. They stuffed pillows in their shirts and tried to push each other out of the tape boundaries. Oh my, they had fun and it was even more fun to watch! I got it on video but I’m not going to put it on here. Sorry.
Welcome! My name is Amber Dover. I am a homeschooling mom, happy wife, and a devout follower of Jesus Christ. I am also a writer. I am currently working on "The Truth Seeker's Chronicles" (an inspirational fantasy/allegory). You will find everything from craft ideas to writing tips on my blog. So please pull up a chair and hang out :)
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