After spending an enjoyable 30th birthday together with my husband and two small children I found myself going to bed sick at heart thanks to the election/results. As I lay in bed trying to sleep, I found myself thinking about thinking about history, warnings from our founders, greater warnings from living Prophets, signs, prophecies and prophetic dream about what is to come... Needless to say, between that and a teething baby, I didn't get much sleep. And yet, today I feel peace.

This morning, I remembered a lesson I learned from my father years ago. When I was twenty-one I felt a strong call to serve a mission through my church to teach others about Christ. I began to work thirteen-hour days to pay off my school debt and earn the money I needed to go for an 18 month mission. After almost a year of exhausting work, I was soooo close to my goal, when the upper cam shaft of my engine came apart. Thankfully, I heeded the impression to get off the freeway and pull over just moments before it all happened. If I hadn't, then my engine would have exploded and I wouldn't be here. However, I was still looking at having to rebuild the engine to my car, so I could continue to work. I also had to have my car in condition to sell when I left, so I could pay off the remaining amount due on my car loan. Needless to say, I was devastated. The cost of the parts to rebuild my engine was over $1300 and that wouldn't even cover the labor. This was a major setback. At this rate I would never get out. I was having a self-proclaimed pity party when my wise father came and put his arms around me. "Julia, why do you want to serve a mission?" He asked.

"I felt God tell me to go.  But I worry I will never get out there now," I replied.

"Did God know this was going to happen to your car when He called you to serve last year?" He asked.

I thought about it and realized that if God knows everything then. This setback I was going through wasn't a surprise to Him. I told this to my dad. To which he responded, "So, if God knew this was going to happen to you back before he gave you the call, don't you think He prepared a way for you to accomplish what He asked of you?"

I did eventually earn the money I needed to be able to serve a mission, though I didn't get out to serve as quickly as I had wanted. I had more than one poignant moment where I received confirmation that not only was I doing what the Lord desired for me to be doing  (serving a mission to help my brothers and sisters in North Carolina better come unto Christ...), but that I was there at just the right TIME.

As I remembered this experience, I remembered the promise that nothing can frustrate the full purposes of God. Times are going to get harder, of that I have no doubt. However, I have no doubt that the Lord knew what the outcome of this last election would be long before we did and has provided a way for all who turn to Him. Knowing this helped, but I was still a little worried about what is coming. If even a portion of the prophetic warnings and prophesies come to pass things are going to get really scary.

Then I remembered a line in my patriarchal blessing that has helped me greatly in my life.  I feel it is ok to share this one little part with you, for maybe it will have the power to help bring you some peace in the midst of the storm we face (since I believe it can apply to all who qualify).

"The work is being hastened and quickened and the hearts of men in many nations are waxing cold, brother to brother, and family to family. But I bless the, dear Julia that you will always keep in mind the sweetness and truthfulness of the word of The Lord. Live it, keep it, and teach it. Then you shall have no fear in the events of the earth. You shall walk in the light of spirituality and the light of truth, and feel the presence of the angels of God, even so those guardian angels that may from time to time, of necessity watch over thee and keep thee from harm’s way."

Like I said, last night I went to bed sick at heart. I let my fears prey upon my mind, but no more. Now I have peace for I know what to do.

Let us all walk in the light of spirituality and truth that we may qualify to have the angels of God as our companions. If we do so, we have no need to fear. It is time to turn our hearts even more to God and to prepare ourselves spiritually, as well as, temporally. For as The Lord has said, "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."

I spoke to husband and we agreed there is a lot we can do to help both ourselves and our family to strengthen our faith in God and to prepare so that we can walk in the light.

I created and use a Book of Centuries in our home and my cottage school class "Leap into the Love of Learning." Today, we created our Book of Centuries for the school year. To me, this approach can help bring history to life!  It is hands on! When we have larger groups we even add another step- what I call "Stepping into Character" and "New Reporter."This is where the student comes as a character of history to teach others about them. When the person being reported on is evil, the children can be a reporter telling about the evil person.

I recently changed the pages of the Book of Centuries to be a one page spread instead of a two page spread. I printed the Time/ Place grids on to card stock.  Each card stock page becomes an index page and content referenced on the index page is expanded and placed behind that page. We created our own tabs- Green for Creation- 1 AD; Deep Burgundy Red for the Birth of Christianity, the Apostasy, and Medieval times- 1 AD-1500 AD; Blue for the Age of Exploration and Discovery 1500- 1800 AD; and Yellow for the Fullness of Time- 1800 into the future. 

When we begin the Book of Centuries, we have the children add themselves, their parents, when their parents married, when their brothers and sisters were born. I want children to grasp what history is and they are part of history.

Once the children see themselves as part of history, we study McConkie's book and the children create a page for each day of the creation.  We use McConkie because it is a restored Gospel view, and is not as limited as the view promoted through General Christian curriculum presently available. After that, they can more clearly understand what the scriptures say and do not say about the creation. My students are then prepared to further research and learn more about the 36 Noble Men and Women from church history, nine artists; nine musicians; 36 mathematicians, explorers, inventors, scientists;  36 statesmen; and nine poets found in the Power of an Hour that we study each year, then add them to their Book of Centuries. Each child's Book of Centuries will be a treasure of their own making.

Helpful Resources mentioned above:

Book of Centuries-  http://store.moorhouseacademy.org/p/5/binders

Power of an Hour- http://store.moorhouseacademy.org/p/2/the-power-of-an-hour-old-testamentancient-times

Leap Into the Love of Learning Class http://store.moorhouseacademy.org/p/14/leap-into-the-love-of-learning-class

Due to a high profile Latter-day Saint running for President of the United States, there has been much in the news and on blog about what Latter-day Saints believe.

I have even been told that Latter-day Saints do not believe in the same Jesus as other Christians. I believe we do believe in the same Jesus, but without the continuing light of revelation, many only see part of who He is and what His teachings were about.  With less truth available, with revelation closed to them, they simply come to different conclusions. However, even within the covers of the Bible, alone, one must take all that was revealed on a given doctrine, and not just pick, and choose.  For if one does take points out of context then they only see part of a picture.

I see in the Bible that the Father spoke from Heaven while Jesus was being baptized. I also see Him bidding his followers to be one, even as He is one with the Father. Then there is the first martyr, Stephen, he was stoned for saying he saw Jesus on the right hand of the father. Oh, and Moses spoke with God Face to Face. No, I do not think Jesus was throwing his voice as a ventriloquist. I believe it was the Father's voice. Nor do I think he wanted his followers to climb inside each other, but he did want us to be one in heart-- unified.  I do not for a moment believe that Stephen was seeing double.  He was stoned for what he said he saw.  Oh, and Moses, yes, I think he saw what he said he saw.

I read Elder Holland's presentation that he gave at Harvard in March of this year-  "Mormonism 101." Here is a link to read that talk.  I think I will read it aloud and discuss it with my youth tomorrow. 
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/harvard-elder-holland-mormonism-remarks

Dear Friends,

Moor House Academy (MHA)was founded 16 August 2002! We have been serving the homeschool community for a decade! 

On 16 August 2002, I went to the city offices and made it official that day. That night we had a well attended information and enrollment night. Between that night and the day classes began others contacted me and joined our autumn class. Classes began in American Fork and Salt Lake beginning the day after Labor Day 2002.  Life changes soon came to our American Fork host and we moved classes to the Harral home in Highland the rest of the year. 

MHA was a family school serving my children and families with: Family Scholars (Core Phase/children up to 8), Aspiring Scholars (Love of learning/ children 8-12), Young Scholars (Scholars/youth 12-18) and their parents.  We started off with 65 in our live classes: children, parents, and 20 young scholars. We also had online Young Scholar and adult classes.  

I chuckle when I think of my first day in front of 20 young scholars.  For a moment I mildly panicked and thought, "What on earth have you done? There are 20!"  Then I stepped from fear and into a wonderful year with a group of inspiring youth.  Their insights and comments in class seemed at times beyond their years and I often went home feeling humbled. We all learned so a lot that year.

In 2002, technology for schools was pretty limited. However, we had one awesome dad, Aaron Mildenstein, stepped forward and offer to build a website for us for free.  I was blown away.  He said he wanted to make sure it was there when his children grew up. That same week my computer crashed.  I came up stairs wondering, "Now what will I do?" Just as I hit the top step, someone came to the door. It was my husband's childhood friend, Stan.  I told him what had just happened.  He said, "No problem, I will have my guy build you a state of the art computer and you can pay me later. Now I am several computers later and I must say technology is just beginning to catch up with our vision!  I kind of burn out computers! 

  In the past few years many of my own children and many of my earlier students served missions and the married and began families of their own.It is wonderful to see these youth as adults!

Over the past decade we have created many resources for families and had many interesting classes-- our original classes (2002), Scholar Portfolios (2002), Spring/Summer Love of Learning class (2005), Sons of Valor (2006), Princess Academies (2006), Girls' Spring into College class (2006), Journey to Zion (2008), Hope Chest Journey (2009), Art: The Gateway to  Love of Learning (2010), Power of and Hour (2010), Sewing classes (2010), and more.

This fall, we are kicking off our 10th anniversary year and celebrating with a Leap Into the Love of Learning class in my home three days a week. I am team teaching this class with my oldest daughter. We are excited about this class and what we will be doing this year.  Lots of wonderful things to inspire, expose, experiment and explore. In December, we will change up the pace with a Christ Centered Christmas curriculum and a focus on craftsmanship and service. Natural walks through the seasons, classics, art, spelling, music, grammar, science, history, world geography, US geography, beginning Hebrew, poetry, and much more.

MHA is built on a one room school house or cottage school model, and not a age/grade factory model. We use contextual learning, rather than sequential rote learning. We find this contextual, engaging, hands-on-approach works well for children. 

Many public and private schools are factory like and sequential, even in most areas where sequence does not matter.  They have divided up and created an artificial scope, sequence with accompanying tests. When children learn bits and pieces of information and memorize for a test, they can become academic hoop jumpers. Rather than learners with skills they can apply, they often lose what they learned within a few weeks.  For example, the children that are taught spelling lists, but not the rules. They memorize the words for a test, but cannot remember them three weeks later. So, I wanted to create something that helped children learn and apply.

Being contextual, instead of sequential, there is no behind and no ahead, only breadth and depth! Students can join classes at any point or the process.  Some students may appear to be doing fine where they are right now.  However, in October, or November they may need a change. Please contact us if you are interested and please share if you have a friend who would be interested.

What if you live at a distance and would like to Leap into the Love of Learning with your own children, or perhaps start your own class?  We will have our resources available online  and we will be doing monthly support available. To keep updated, please join us on Facebook and please subscribe to the "Moor House Gazette" under Categories in the side bar.

Again, Happy Anniversary to Moor House Academy!

I love my 13 year old. She has been setting her own goals and working on them. Reading her book of Mormon again and working on her own personal progress. My sweet daughter and I discussed requirement #2 for Faith, in her personal Progress book-- "With a mother, grandmother, or leader discuss the qualities a woman needs in order to teach her children faith and to base their decisions on gospel truths. How can these principles help you in your life today, and help you prepare to be a faithful woman, wife, and mother?"