I feel this is related to some of things being said about the removal of death and removal of sin so I going to just throw it out there. I was reading Dr Jones work on the Mosiac law prophesying the two works of Christ. In his first coming, He died to pay the wages of our sin but He didn't remove sin. Instead sin was covered. In His second coming, he will remove sin. On the day of atonement two goats are brought forth. 1st is killed to cover sin and the 2nd is sent out into the wilderness to remove sin. For the law of leprosy, two doves are brought forth. The 1st killed and the second was smeared with the blood of the first and released. Excerpt: " As for the two goats in the ritual of the Day of Atonement, these deal not with the death question, but rather the sin question. Again, there are two stages by which our sin is eradicated. The first goat covered our sin; the second will remove it. We will show that the first goat (Christ) was killed in order to atone for (cover) our sin by His blood. The second goat was different in that it removed all sin to a land not inhabited. This shows us that the second coming of Christ will accomplish the removal of sin from our bodies."...... "The ceremony did not end there. The law tells us that the second bird was to be dipped in the blood of the first and let loose in the open field without experiencing death. Now we know that only a small amount of blood comes from a bird when it is killed. To dip the bird into the blood of the bird that had been killed does NOT indicate an immersion. There is no way that one could immerse the second bird in the blood of the first. The blood was smeared across the back of the wings of the second bird before the priest set it free in the open field. This tells us that the second work of Christ is based upon the first work and is indeed made possible by His death on the cross. Jesus' appearing as the second dove is depicted in Revelation 19:11-13, 11 And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God." http://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/the-laws-of-the-second-coming/chapter-10-the-two-works-of-christ/ Dr Jones is a prolific writer and he also wrote a commentary on Romans. He takes on those difficult passages in a very interesting way. I would say he is very close to what early church fathers taught (except for Augustine). I of course don't care for the teachings of Augustine. He doesn't get his ideas from the Bible in my opinion but from Greek philosophy and his Machean past. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's an excellent point. Dr Stephen Jones goes on to describe sin as missing the mark. God has a plan to reveal himself to all mankind and save all mankind whether before the first death or the second death. For Him to sin is to miss the mark of His plan. We sin when we miss the mark that our Owner sets for us. He set a mark and when all things have been put under His feet, will we see His plan complete. Here is another chapter that covers his view more extensively and deals with "did God sin?" http://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/creations-jubilee/chapter-13-the-tension-in-creation/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There is an interesting Christian author, Dr. Stephen Jones who demonstrates that the Mosiac Law is a revelation of God's character. He demonstrates that by God's own law he holds himself liable for all creation. Here is an excerpt. He previously demonstrated God's ownership of all creation. "God’s liability laws are based upon ownership, not upon free will. To prove this, let us look at some of God’s laws of liability and ownership. Exodus 21:33-34 says, 33 And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein; 34 the owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his. The liability here is based upon ownership. If a man digs a pit and does not take the necessary steps to cover it and an ox comes along and falls in by his own “free will†or by his own stupidity, who is liable according to God’s law? It is the creator/owner of the pit who is liable, and he must then buy the dead ox for himself. The owner has to pay for it as though it were a live ox, and the dead ox is his. Back in the Garden of Eden, God in effect dug a “pit†by planting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The devil did not plant this tree. God did it, and God owned the tree. This tree provided the occasion by which Adam and Eve could “fall†into sin. It was a “pit†insofar as the law was concerned. Further, God did not cover up this pit. That is, God did not put a fence around the tree to make it impossible for man to eat of it. His warning to them in Gen. 2:17 was like putting up a sign next to a pit saying, “Keep Out.†Yet because Adam and Eve were perhaps too naïve and inexperienced, they disobeyed and “fell†into that great bottomless pit, the abyss. God did not cover the pit to prevent Adam’s fall. Man fell because God did not take the proper precautions that would have been necessary to prevent man from sinning. Because Adam had been given authority (“dominionâ€) in the earth in Gen. 1:26, he was most certainly liable to the extent of his authority. However, this does not absolve God of His liability as well—by His own law, which is a reflection of His righteous character. Could God have prevented man from sinning? Of course He could have. He did not have to plant the tree in the first place, or if He did, He did not have to omit the fence. Even then, He did not have to create a tempter and allow him entrance into the garden. Did the tempter come in without God’s knowledge? Did God turn off the security alarms and somehow the devil entered the garden without God’s knowledge? Did God say “oops!â€? Is God really so ignorant? The fact is that God knew the end from the beginning. He was not taken by surprise. He dug that pit and left it uncovered because He had a plan, and the plan called for man to fall. And so he did. By God’s own liability laws, then, He is responsible. So what did God do about it? He sent His only begotten Son who was lifted up on the cross in order to drag all men to Himself. He paid for the sin of the whole world because all of creation became subject to death through Adam’s fall. He bought the dead ox. The ox is now His. Do you realize what this means? He bought all who fell, and they are now His. Has anyone escaped falling? At the present time it may not look like all mankind is His, but the fact is that God created them and therefore, by His own liability laws, He purchased the world. In doing so, He fulfilled the law perfectly. This is why Paul wrote in Rom. 5:18, 19, 18 So then as through one transgression [Adam’s sin] there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of [Christ’s] righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous." All of Dr Stephen Jones books are free and quite extensive. Here is the link to that chapter where he explores free will vs God's sovereignty. http://gods-kingdom-ministries.net/teachings/books/free-will-versus-ownership/chapter-2-ownership-and-liability/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You guys are a harsh judgemental group of people. You act as if I am doing this to torture her. She wanted to do it at the beginning. She acted left out, and I was trying to include her. I am not some evil step mom. She gets lots of attention and approval from me without having to lift a finger. She goes to the zoo, museums, parks and travel all because I plan it for the joy of all the children. So don't judge me as if you think I am slaving this child about.

Well my feelings were the same that it was really turning into a punishment which is not the point of the system. I didn't really want it to be a punishment, but I thought the daily rewards and weekly rewards would be motivation enough so that something like this wouldn't happen. It was mostly her father who felt like the reward system should be followed through. I have just been having second thoughts about the whole thing. I was incorporating her SRC (a reading points program in her school) as part of the reward system (although she didn't take one SRC test this week), and I could add in points for good grades brought home for school. She is always coming up with graded papers. Maybe I should just move to a more simple system where she just tracks her math lessons. Its more complicated being a step mom, because I really to try hard to be fair to all. Its just not easy when there is a such a large age gap. :( What is right for one might not be right for the other? Sometimes kids don't see that, and as adult we can be blinded by trying to make everything fair. Thats why I am asking for some perspective. I almost wish I hadn't started this whole after school thing. Its just too complicated. I can that maybe special family events shouldn't be rewards as it could create bad feelings. It just didn't occur to me that she wouldn't do the work. She had been so enthusiastic before. I don't think school is very hard for her. She does very well, and she is very social. She could do better if she wasn't so social sometimes, but that is just who she is. She is a very charming child. I love her to pieces, and I don't want this to cause a problem in our relationship. We have a very good one.

I forgot about reading about the harsh judgmental posts found on this forum and how I would be exposing myself to such harsh unfair completely distorted criticism...Gosh, I am such an idiot. Peace out.

Hannah Whitall Smith's book The unselfishness of God and how I discovered it: a spiritual autobiography Just make sure you read the one that doesn't edit out chapters 22 and 23 as current publishers have removed them. While she is a well loved Christian, current Christian editors prefer to remove these chapters as they aren't the most well accepted ideas that she contributed to Christianity. However, those are the best chapters, her third epoch.

I would suggest trying Jump Math. I like it because it breaks down every step in a very fun way. It appeals to children and their sense of wonder. It approaches every concept in several different ways to find a way that makes the child feel encouraged and confident. I think that is what is most important in this curriculum is that the teacher guide is written very specifically to show you how to approach the concept so that the child is encouraged. I don't think you should get discouraged about your abilities to teach math to your child. I would check Jump Math out. They have full curriculum that matches Canadian cores, but I am sure you will find it very suitable. It gives you very specific tips on teaching how to count with fingers for addition, subtraction and multiplication. It also is broken down into smaller steps which is often where we lose kids in my opinion. Its not that he is not capable, but some smaller steps might have been lost in translation. The program originated from a tutoring program and Jump math is a nonprofit organization based off proven results and proven techniques. Check out this inspirational video (you probably need it :) ): Check out the curriculum here: http://jumpmath1.org/publications The only thing you have to pay for is the workbooks. For first grade, I found that so far I don't really need them as the blackline master pages offer sufficient practice and the games appeal more to my children's age group. Hope that helps!

I just watched this inspiring video posted on another forum I frequent. I would suggest checking out Jump Math which is the program this gentleman in the video put together. The math lessons are broken down into key components and easy to follow instructions. He also approaches it in several different ways until the student understands the concept completely. http://jumpmath1.org/node/243 quick edit: I would use the Canadian version as the US version isn't completely uploaded. Its pretty much the same thing just not in the same order. http://jumpmath1.org/publications

Thank you. Those are very nice links. I might try and use these as a supplement to teach myself since my little ones are not textbook ready. I have been building up my vocabulary on memrise, but I really need something to practice with that isn't so scary.

I am unsure if these will be helpful as I am not completely clear on the issues. If there are visions difficulties related to eye tracking, then I would check out this link. This is a nice game for eye tracking as well (click here). They are exercises that help with eye tracking which is related often to reading difficulties. Games that improve working memory are Simon Flash or this online game here. You can also play games like Silly stories (a linking memory game) which help to improve working memory as well and teaches a neat technique for trying to remember a list of items. Here is a good link with printables for the game for free. You can play these games with any age group, and most all children enjoy them. This next link has links to other memory games. You can also buy this CD-ROM that has more memory training and eye tracking improvement games. I have this one, and its a good alternative if you just want to go to one source. Its also nice if you don't want to prep any materials. Hope that was helpful.

http://lifehacker.com/5903288/i-learned-to-speak-four-languages-in-a-few-years-heres-how I found this link to be very practical. It offers very simple steps in learning a language from a person who actually did it. It of course needs to be adapted to the abilities of the child. The methods are tried and true. There are lots of fancy things you can buy and do, but ultimately, learning a language is hard work for an adult. Its easy for a kids when they are immersed it but hard if they are not. The point is you have to commit to it and have a strong motivation for doing it. My motivation to is to give my children a global perspective and a competitive edge in the workforce. Our family is learning Chinese and Spanish. From much of my reading, at least one parent needs to be learning right along with the children. Chinese and Spanish are the two most spoken languages in the world next to English. You can easily find resources for both. You can also in most large cities find someone who speaks one or the other. Often if there is any large Chinese community in your city or nearby city, there is usually a Chinese language school that meets at least once a week that is generally very inexpensive. 1) Familiarize yourself with the sounds language. For Spanish, I use Little Pim and SALSA (which is free and found here). Both are complete immersion programs. For Chinese, I use Little Pim and Smart Tiger. I would include 1 hour of this activity a day. Its important to watch the program with the child. Repeat whats going on in the show in the focus language (that means familiarizing yourself with the show before showing them.) You can also find your child's favorite programming in Spanish or Chinese on youtube most of the time. Your focus here is just pronunciation and sounds. 2) Which ever adult(s) have chosen to learn the language with the children, you should begin obtaining vocabulary rapidly to assist the children in their learning. There is only one way to do this efficiently and that is through flash cards using spaced repetition. I recommend using Memrise for Chinese and Spanish to start off with and then moving to Anki flash cards. I find Memrise has a nice interface that is user friendly and enjoyable to use. 3) Practice writing and reading in the language. There are excellent books in Chinese on youtube videos to make it less scary. " " is an excellent one. Its very familiar and focuses on fruits and colors. are some other excellent video books in Chinese on youtube. They even have the same stories in . Better Chinese also has a great book series that includes pinyin found here. These books aren't very popular in my house so far. I hope that will change soon when I can read them myself with out the CD. The writing will come in time when they are older but Better Chinese also has some practice books for that time. I haven't used them yet. My kids aren't ready for it yet. Oh and label everything in the house in your focus language. It gets the kids excited and starts them down the road to reading in that language. 4)Practice speaking. For kids and toddlers, I will tell you how I started. If we are focusing on foods, I pull out the play food items one at a time. I say its name in the focus language. Then I say a common related phrase like "I'm hungry" or "I like (name of item in spanish). You can pull out the doll house and have a doll walking through each room in the dollhouse labeling them in the target language. It sounds daunting at first, but it will get easier over time. You will even make mistakes, and that is okay. Kids are quite forgiving. I think acting really silly helps keep them focused. After awhile you can start conjugating action words, kids will pick this up naturally. We have been doing all these activities for nine months in Spanish. I have been trying to stay one step ahead of them to keep them growing in their vocabulary. Another way to immerse them in the language is too look for a babysitter who speaks your target language. You can contact a local college or university for recommendations on college students interested in playing games with your child in your target language for an hour or two a week. For yourself, you can find many skyping opportunities with other people across the world to improve and practice your speaking skills. There are plenty of forums where this activity takes place and is done so safely. Because my children's language acquisition skills have become stagnant lately, I have recently refocused my priorities as they keep asking for more and more translations. I am digging deep into my personal studies, and I am pretty excited about getting refocused. I know its a long journey ahead but moving forward is better than not moving at all. right? In 9 months (thats when we started our multilingual journey), my 4 and 3 year old can count to ten in Chinese, 20 in Spanish, speak over a 100 word in Spanish, say basic phrases like "Quiero...," "Tengo..." "para mi, para ti," "Me gusta," "Estoy contenta" plus other feelings in Spanish, colors in Spanish and Chinese, major fruit in Spanish and Chinese, over 20 action words in Spanish, major body parts in Spanish (5 Chinese body parts named so far), farm animals in Chinese and Spanish, wild animals in Spanish, the names of rooms in a home in Spanish....well, I could go on. Its not said to brag to you but to demonstrate to you that is more than possible for you to accomplish these things without any previous bilingual skills. Children are very capable of distinguishing which words belong to what language. Will they mix them? Yep. However they know which words are Spanish and which are Chinese. My children are normal and are not gifted. I have just learned to cater to their crazy active ways and kids are incredible in their capabilities to learn once we team up with their imaginative instincts. To encourage you personally, the adult human mind is incredible plastic and is capable of learning new things especially a new language. After a few months, you will find it gets easier and easier. As far as curriculum, I haven't found a descent one in Spanish. I have found more options in Chinese surprisingly. It seems with the rise of Chinese more and more people are moving towards teaching Chinese to young children. My step daughter's school has 20 minutes of Chinese everyday from a native speaker. There are several dual-language schools in Chinese going up across America. My husband's old elementary school in Chapel Hill, NC is now a dual language Chinese school. I know of a few other Chinese resources if you are interested. Hope that helps and encourages you. Good luck!

If you use a lot of packaged foods, it might be for you. For non-food items its probably still a decent idea on the occasion. Here is the biggest problem is its time consuming, and even if you pay someone to clip the coupons for you, you have to add the cost of the clipping service for every coupon you get into the cost of the item. You have to add the gas spent for all the store trips, and don't forget all your time spent on keeping current with all the deals. You have to decide mostly if your time is worth it. I have very little ones, and my time is taken up with them all day. I need study at night. My time is too little right now and the little time I have is too valuable to save a few dollars.

I think Computer Science Unplugged is the best program I have found that introduces computer science to the primary grade levels, and you can begin the program as soon as they mastered their math facts (in my opinion). Its an entire curriculum that allows you to gain a great introduction to how computers work. Its for the elementary school level, and its very hands on. You do not use a computer in this curriculum, and there is a reason. There is a necessary understanding that needs to be achieved before jumping into computer programming. This curriculum provides that first step. Best part its a free downloadable book: http://csunplugged.org/ I haven't used it yet, but I have had a few computer geeks tell me its an excellent curriculum. I have looked it over and there are lots of fun hands on activities that introduce binary number concepts, algorithms, etc. I can't wait until my kids have mastered their math facts.

To encourage you, I had wondered the same thing as I have very active 4, 3 and 1 year old, and here is what I did. First, I got an audio book of short stories to grab their attention that was silly and filled with animals (Just So Stories by Kipling) that still fit into a classical genre. Then I took a suggestion from another person to play the book when they were a captured audience, and thus began listening to audio books in the car. At first I thought they were not even listening as you could here lots of chatter back there, but I decided to try for at least a month (21 days to make it habit so I read). Within the first week, they would give me a glimpse of hope by requesting to hear specific stories about the elephant or the crocodile. Now it gets very quiet in the car as they listen to their stories ("The Tales of Peter Rabbit," "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" and "Alice in Wonderland" are just a few that we have listen to in the car). After one month of listening to audio books in the car, I was able to begin chapter books or books like "The Blue Fairy" before bedtime. I allow them one toy to play with and as long as they remain quite, I would allow them to stay up to hear the story. What I did notice in the last couple of months is the increase vocabulary. My three old doesn't demonstrate comprehension of the stories when asked except that she tells very imaginative stories now. I think its just very difficult for a 3 year old to come up with a narration of a story they just heard, but I would recommend giving your own narration and walking her through it. I think however while they haven't gained the skills to demonstrate comprehension I strongly believe they do comprehend a lot more than we believe at age 3. I also want to say that while they might be able to remember a few years later about the book, I can guarantee that if they picked up the book it will have a familiarity to it which will allow them to dig deeper into the book. The audio books also have increased my children's desire to sit down and read books more and more, and I want you to know I have those kids that people look at and think "um, where do they get all that energy from?" (I also require my children to run laps with me in the morning as I found it necessary to give them a structured environment to release their energy in order to maintain my sanity for the rest of the day...they love to run by the way.) Also try different ways to read books. The other day I started using this site (www.wegivebooks.org) and it excited my kids to read so much that I swear we read 10 books in a row. (very exhausting for me but they loved it). Since then we have been reading several of their 150 books every day. Its quite exciting to see their enthusiasm grow all from just being able to read a book online. Quality books on their site too. It is possible to change your kids attitudes towards things. I am proof. You just have to be very intentional, and remove any "noise" that might be curbing the enthusiasm or competing with it. Good luck and don't doubt your child's comprehension. Toddlers are very intelligent. :)

I came across these great SMART Charts that I use to incorporate into our visits to the zoo. They are for K-2 but I use them with my 4 and 3 year old. I just do the writing for them. Its a great way to help the kids organize the information they learn. I put the printables into a Crayola Dry Erase Desk so that I can reuse them in future as you can easily expand upon the charts depending on the grade level and depth of learning. They are very cute and nicely put together charts. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thinking-about-Zoo-Animals-Smart-Charts-and-Writing-Frames They also have an ocean animals version which would go great with some aquarium visits. I love her products.

If you have the YMCA, its you best option. I receive financial aid, and it costs around ten bucks a family for a monthly membership, and all other classes/sports around ten dollars a piece. Of course you YMCA may very. Ten bucks is a cheap as it gets for our YMCA. I wouldn't know what I would do without the YMCA. I am so thankful for this organization. As far as music, it easy to teach yourself Piano. There are plenty of free resources. This is my favorite site so far: http://www.colorkeys.com/shop . The first ebook is free. Just scroll down a little and you will see it on the right. You can easily make your own color coded stickers with your printer and sticker paper (25 8 x 11 pgs of sticker paper is around 12 bucks). I use this, and my DSD loves this method. I do not know how to play piano, and woot, woot she is playing "Mary had a little Lamb" with the correct fingering. (FYI: I picked up a basic keyboard on clearance at target last spring for $35 bucks.) If your LO advances past the first book, the other ebooks are just 12 bucks a piece which is very affordable. Check with your local art museum for free art programs. HTH!

Our target secondary languages are Spanish and Chinese. We use SALSA which also has a curriculum to match it on Wyoming's education website. For Chinese I just stumbled on this free curriculum called Happy Chinese. Its seventy-two lessons with each lesson containing cartoon video, situational video, character games, sentence structure games and pronunciation practices. Its pretty impressive and very extensive. http://kid.chinese.cn/en/article/2009-09/25/content_68533.htm This other link might be more friendly to K-2 but is also a free curriculum. http://kid.chinese.cn/en/node_1005.htm This next link is some nice simple Chinese rhymes. http://kid.chinese.cn/rhymes/index.html At first Chinese is difficult to get into, but it does get better over time (this is coming from a sometimes very tone deaf person). Its also easier for the kids the sooner you expose them. Check out my blog for other great links with most links being free. Click HERE. If you live in any city with a concentration of Chinese population, you will generally find a community center that offers Chinese language classes for children at least once a week for a very reasonable price (ours is $100 a semester for 1 day a week for a couple of hours). They strongly believe in passing on their heritage and love sharing it with others. Also if you live near a university or college, you can contact a professor of your target language to see if any students would be interested in playing with your kids for a couple hours a week. Its like paying for a baby sitter but with opportunity for language exposure. Good luck!