Keeping Company - Our Century Charts

Hi friends,

I am linking up with Celeste today to share a peek at our Century Charts.

When we first started implementing the CM philosophy in our home education, we tried Book of Centuries. It was something I was really looking forward to, and I thought my children would enjoy it, too. I was wrong. We stuck with it for almost 2 years, but they simply didn't enjoy it; it almost seemed burdensome to them. I was so disappointed because I loved the idea of recording all those important dates in timeline form.

Then I remembered reading about something similar to Century Charts, only a wall-version type of thing, in Volume 1, page 292 of the CM Series. It sounded like a wonderful idea, so I decided to give it a try. And my children immediately loved it!

Here is how we do it...


I took 2 pieces of poster board and divided each one into 6 columns.
At the top of each column I wrote the centuries that that column would cover, beginning at Creation, of course. :)

The why: to help my children visual the important events in history, and where those events fit into a timeline.

The when: at the beginning of each school week, I set aside a piece of paper to list all the important events that we read about that week. We list each one as we read about it. Then, on Friday, we add the events in the appropriate column on our century charts.

Sometimes we just record the date and event.

But sometimes we also we like to spice it up a little by adding a picture relating to the event.

While my children are filling in the century charts, I often hear them say things like, "Wow! The Great Awakening began only 31 years before The Revolutionary War began!" Or "Did you know that David Livingstone arrived in Africa exactly 20 years before the Civil War began?" They are making connections with these charts. History is unfolding right in front of them. And they are locking it in their memory.

Mission accomplished.  :)

Also sharing at the CMBC.

What I Have Learned

It has been a little over a year since the Lord called my Dad Home to be with Him. Right after he passed, I blogged about the 7 stages of grief.

I also journaled my stages of grief and realized they didn't "line up" with what I read in that internet article. It took awhile for me to become aware of the fact that there is no cookie-cutter way to grieve; we all grieve in different ways and to different degrees.

The past year has been one long learning experience for me, and the same is probably true for many others in my family.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I learned who my true friends were during that difficult time. That was a painful thing to learn.

But on the bright side..

I  have learned to slow down and savor every moment with my loved ones. Because even though the doctors were telling us that my Dad wouldn't recover, I still believed he would. And I still believed that we would have many more years with him.

I have learned to wait. The grieving process can be a very long and slow one. And I believed people when they told me that it gets easier after the first year. It sounds crazy, but I was hoping the one-year anniversary would hurry p and get here so things would get easier! Wrong. It's a different kind of grieving, but we are all still grieving..and in some ways, it's not any easier. Especially when weeks and months go by and reality sets in: Dad is not here. I am still waiting for it to get easier.

I have learned that crying is ok. For example, people asked me why I was crying for Dad when I knew he was with the Lord. (Yes, you read that right!)  Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us that there is a season and a time for everything. Verse 4 says that there is a time to weep and a time to mourn. I wish I could have come out of my grief-fog long enough to quote those verses to those people. I wanted to say, "Just let me cry!" However, the grief was still very raw, and I was having a hard time just thinking straight.  But I have learned to never admonish someone who is crying for a lost loved one.

I have learned to listen. Sometimes one of my kids just wants to talk about my Dad and the funny things he used to say or do.  they will say, "Remember when Granddaddy used to.." So I drop everything and I listen to them as they recall those memories, knowing they are locking them away in their minds by re-telling them. And one day, they will tell their children and they, too, will know all about my Dad.

I have learned to watch....to watch my children as they grieve and be ready to help them through it. We are grieving together, but they might be grieving in a different way than I am. I am always on alert to see how they are progressing through the grieving process.

I love this graphic that I found online.

 Grief doesn't end, it just changes. And it is definitely the price of love.

Having said all that, I am so thankful that my family and I do not "sorrow as those who have no hope" (1Thessalonians 4:13). We will see Dad again, no doubt. We look forward to that day.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."  ~ John 11:25

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From My Commonplace: Pilgrim's Progress

Naomi, who has just finished AO yr2, absolutely loved reading The Pilgrim's Progress this year. 

I confess that I was a bit apprehensive about the book; the vocabulary is very rich, and I wasn't sure that she would be able to get enough out of the readings to narrate. No worries - she did wonderfully. 

I love the book, too and I could have filled my commonplace with quotes from it. But one of my favorites is on page 118, when Christian asks Hopeful to explain how believing on the Lord Jesus affected his spirit.

Hopeful answered,

"It made me love a holy life, and long to do something for the honor and glory of the Name of the Lord Jesus. Yea, I thought that had I now a thousand gallons of blood in my body, I could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus."  (Emphasis mine.)

Hopeful's reply makes me think of the persecuted church all over the world, and how they are willing to spill their blood for the sake of the Lord.  They are shunned by their families, lose their jobs, run out of their houses, and even worse -  threatened, beaten, and killed for claiming the Name of the Lord. 

I wonder how Christians in the US would react to persecution. Would we be willing to do the same as these persecuted believers who, when persecuted, endure (1 Corinthians 4:12)?

Or would we cower and deny that we even know Him? 

Maybe the point is to be willing to "spill it all" for Him, persecuted or not. 

June Flexi of the Month

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