Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool

I’ve opened the new September Study, The Suffering Servant. This is a thirty-day study going through the topic of suffering. Let’s trust God is in control and working out good.

What is Jesus Month?

For a few years now, I’ve encouraged our users to take the month of September to spend extra time focused on the Lord. We should always be doing what we should be doing 🙂  but I hope this gives you a little encouragement towards maybe giving some things up for a time and replacing them with extra time in the Bible and prayer. In the past, our family has done a Christian-only TV policy for the month and added this extra study and a time of prayer together beyond our typical family Bible time.

Why September?

Jesus fulfilled the Spring feasts when he died on Passover, rose on First Fruits, and sent the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Weeks. We are waiting for Christ’s return and reign when He will fulfill the fall feasts: the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and the Feast of Booths. These don’t follow our calendar, but happen around September.

Jesus Month for Kids

I reached out to Mr. Phil (aka Bob the Tomato) and asked about a free month’s access to his Mr. Phil TV streaming channel for our younger kids, from older preschool up through elementary age since my study is for older kids. He has two BIBLE-CENTERED shows.

They’ve generously offered us six-week free access to Mr. Phil TV. Your coupon code is ALLINONE and is good through the month of September. There are two series on there to choose from – What’s In The Bible? and The Mr. Phil Show.

What’s in the Bible? is 26 half-hour shows telling the stories of the Bible and connecting the overarching story. This is great for people new to the Bible, and for everyone else as well for learning about the Bible. My family owns this series on DVD and we all enjoy it, though it’s aimed at elementary age kids.

The Mr. Phil Show is 20 (currently) twenty-minute episodes. The shows are repetitive in the beginning. In the second half is a lesson from a historical character about things like what to do about a bully, how to know what God wants you to do, or how to pray when you are distracted. I tear up at every one. That’s followed by a Bible lesson, reading right from the Bible. (A little note: I flipped out at the second episode and turned it off because the question was if the Bible were true or a fairy tale, and the answer was both. I went back to check it out, and it was fine. It says the Bible is true, but that it’s like a fairy tale because it describes a world where there is more than meets the eye, wonder and miracles. I have seen almost all of them to check them out.)

There are 40 additional 9-minute Bible studies available like the ones found at the end of each episode. You can also search things like faith or sanctification and it will bring up videos that define it and talk about it.

What’s in this post?

• September Studies
• Mr. Phil TV, free access for six weeks
• Bible study with Lee

Next week I will open up the new September study, The Suffering Servant. I will also make it available through My EP. Parents, feel free to add a student block for yourself if you want to track your way through. These are month-long Bible studies on a topic. The previous years’ studies can be found on the September Studies page. Since these are geared for an older audience, I reached out to Mr. Phil (aka Bob the Tomato) and asked about a free month’s access to his Mr. Phil TV streaming channel for our younger kids, from older preschool up through elementary age.

They’ve generously offered us six-week free access to Mr. Phil TV. Your coupon code is ALLINONE and is good through the month of September. There are two series on there to choose from – What’s In The Bible? and The Mr. Phil Show.

What’s in the Bible? is 26 half-hour shows telling the stories of the Bible and connecting the overarching story. This is great for people new to the Bible, but for everyone as well for learning about the Bible. My family owns this series on DVD and we all enjoy it, though it’s aimed at elementary age kids.

The Mr. Phil Show is 20 (currently) twenty-minute episodes. The shows are repetitive in the beginning. My 9-year-old thinks it is funny, but my 11-year-old gets called in for the second half of the show. In that second half is a lesson from a historical character about things like what to do about a bully, how to know what God wants you to do, or how to pray when you are distracted. I tear up at every one. That’s followed by a Bible lesson, reading right from the Bible. (A little note: I flipped out at the second episode and turned it off because the question was if the Bible were true or a fairy tale, and the answer was both. I went back to check it out, and it was fine. It says the Bible is true, but that it’s like a fairy tale because it describes a world where there is more than meets the eye, wonder and miracles. I have seen almost all of them to check them out.)

There are 40 additional 9-minute Bible studies available like the ones found at the end of each episode. You can also search things like faith or sanctification and it will bring up videos that define it and talk about it.

Sign up for the free trial and enter your info and coupon code (ALLINONE) for a free month (so you get six weeks). If you haven’t finished the series, please consider signing up for another month or getting a year. I’d like to bless Mr. Phil for his generous offer of a free month for our EP users, so if it’s not a burden to you, please consider supporting his efforts to get Bible teaching out to kids. I love that he reads whole books of the Bible in the studies, instead of just little tidbit lessons.

Bible Study with Lee

I’m offering to meet on Fridays, 11 AM EST, to talk about the Suffering Servant study. Parents, families, and children 12 and up are welcome. You need to be doing the study and be up to date so we’re all talking about the same thing. The first one will be on September 9th. We’ll meet four times on Zoom. The link is in the Suffering Servant course and will be on the September Studies page.

What’s In Next Week’s Post

• Why is September Jesus month?
• Why Jesus month?
• Link to the Suffering Servant study

Homeschooling is not the answer. Now, to be clear, school is definitely not the answer! Easy Peasy’s curriculum is not the answer. Neither is any other. This book, that method, this resource, that game, this strategy, that set-up. None of it is the answer to whatever the situations are that your family is facing.

We all love an easy-to-implement program. Can we all say Easy Peasy? We don’t know how to fix our problems, so we rely on people who seem to have fixed theirs. The bad news is that no other person can figure it out for you and solve your problems. The great news is there is Someone who has all the answers.

Jesus is the answer. He’s the answer to everything. Yes, everything! Why do we turn to blogs and friends and online searches and try this and that and the other for our dilemma of the hour when we have the perfect source for all wisdom and knowledge? It must mean we either don’t have a relationship with Him or we don’t know Him well enough to believe He will hear and answer our prayers.

How can you get a relationship with the source of all wisdom and knowledge?

God is the perfect everything. That’s man’s problem. We got ourselves separated from this perfect source by our sin, our selfishness, this dumb idea humans have that we know what’s best for ourselves and that we should do as we please. It leads to every mess of a situation life brings to us.

To come to God, we have to humble ourselves and admit that we aren’t God. Understatement of the century! We confess that we no longer want to try and control our lives, and we give our lives over to Him. We ask Him to forgive us for all our sin, all those things we do that hurt ourselves and others, and ask Him to come into our lives to be our Father, to teach us, take care of us, and show us the way to live.

He can forgive us because Jesus took the punishment for sin, which is death. Jesus, as God come down to us in the flesh, was the only sinless, perfect person ever; He was the only one who didn’t have to die for His sin in order for justice to be done. That made Him able to take our death sentence for us, since He didn’t need to die Himself. He sacrificed Himself for us. When we are forgiven, we can receive His life in us. He comes to us by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit makes His home in us, and we let Him live His life through us.

With His ever-presence, we have the source of not just wisdom and knowledge, but the source of all true love, joy, peace, faithfulness, and so much more goodness than you can imagine.

If you have made this step or find yourself in the other category of just not knowing God well enough to trust Him to be your help in everything, consider reaching out. I have tons of Bible teaching on the site. The study called This Is Eternal Life might be a good place for you to start.

This year’s September Study will be released at the end of August. It’s called The Suffering Servant. Find purpose and joy in the trials and tribulations! For September, we’re all getting a free month of Mr. Phil TV, from Phil Vischer, creator of Veggie Tales. More on that when I release the September Study.

Good Morning, Lord! These are 2-minute teachings going straight through the Bible that you can read or listen to. There are more than 400 so far. You can find this on My EP. I was adding them to a playlist on Youtube, but I am thinking of not continuing that. If you really like having them as a playlist, you can ask me to keep adding them there.

Reminders from God’s Word – These are video teachings from various Scriptures. Lots on freedom from sin and God’s working salvation in our lives. This is a new page and I’m just adding as I have a new lesson I want to share. At the moment, I’ve been doing about four each week. There are just a couple dozen videos so far. This is NOT on My EP. If these are meaningful to you and you want to help out, consider helping with captioning.

Miracle Stories – Be encouraged to trust God to provide and protect and be your Good Father! I will at some point add more stories. There are new ways God is teaching us to trust Him to take care of us. He’s a good father! If you enjoy these, consider volunteering to help with captioning. That’s the hardest part of doing videos.

Learn about the new Lit and Comp II course going in – here.

If you are using one of the old math courses now, just keep going. If you are starting out, please use the new course! Over 4th of July weekend, I will take away the NEW label and the old math courses will no longer be in the main math course blocks on Settings. You’ll be able to continue using those old courses by adding them from Extras. So, if you are using the old math course and will not be finished by July, please follow these directions. We’ll make sure you can keep using the course on My EP until you are finished.

There are new course pages for Math 4 and Math 5/6, but everyone will just keep using the old course, and then over 4th of July I will swap in the new course page for everyone. There are more additions and improvements than things completely changed, so I think everyone can handle just moving to the new course.

You can learn more about the changes to any specific course by using the links below.

Math 1    Math 2   Math 3   Math 4   Math 5/6

In the store you can now find the new Math 1 – 5 books. They have a big NEW badge on them so you can be confident you are getting the right thing. If you are using the NEW workbook, you need the NEW parent guide. If you are using the NEW online course, you need the NEW Printables.

The new courses for Math 1, 2, and 3 are now on My EP. They are listed there along with the old courses. They are called EP Math 1, EP Math 2, EP Math 3 (instead of just Math 1, etc.) We just want to make sure everyone is confident they are using what they think they are using!

I know I’m late with my life update this year. It’s already February! I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. As for my kids, as of December 31st, they are 9, 11, 13, 16, 20, 21. The oldest is a senior in college. The next in line is building a computer 3D modeling business. In 2021 he worked on contract with companies from Brazil and Korea. He also sells assets and tools that he’s created and has big plans for this year, which I guess you’ll hear about next year!

Here are maybe my two favorite pictures from the year.

Here my husband and I are pictured with one of my former camp kids. We “randomly” ran into him in September. When I was in college, I ran a summer program for kids through CityTeam Ministries in Chester, PA. It was a full day camp for the whole summer. We had the same kids year after year, and I was fully invested, so I got to know, especially some of the kids, very well. I went to visit their homes in the projects and took them on excursions. They all had turns coming to my parents’ house to work on a camp newsletter. Brennan remembers my mom serving him fried eggplant. He had thought it was breaded chicken. Must have traumatized him since he remembers 25 years later. :0 He told me of how he got baptized and how I changed his life. Great memory for me. These kids had families that used the services of the drug-rehab and homeless shelter. They all had tough stories. He was the kind of kid that I sometimes prayed the Lord would just keep him alive. He did and abundantly so. This was a big treat for me last year.

Homeschooling looks different in different places. This picture is from Uganda. My husband has a friend, who is a refugee there himself, though in college. The kids in the refugee camp have had limited access to education, especially since COVID requirements shut down all meetings, including schools. He wanted to do something for them and started talking with my husband about homeschooling and it developed into a plan. He started a non-profit and got together some laptops and teachers. The teachers take the laptops to homes two hours at a time. They get in three homes before the battery dies. There is limited electricity in the camp, but the teachers charge the laptops overnight. The only focus is literacy and computer literacy. Many of these kids have never touched a computer before. The university student, our friend, is taking our EP coding course and has plans to teach the kids coding to try and work towards getting them into jobs. There are way more kids wanting to take part than can at this point, so I am sure this idea of his will keep growing.

My husband finished the Biblical Hebrew course which you see on the site, and is planning to add to it as he is able. He is still working on the Romani Bible translation, a big undertaking, but they have made tons of progress. He meets weekly (online) with Roma families and they read the Bible together in Romani and pray together.  I am working on some more miracle stories for our 153love.net site as well. I will hopefully be getting those up over the next several weeks. I also am working on getting together more of the Good Morning, Lord! lessons edited into books and then getting those edited versions onto our EP site and the videos uploaded to YouTube. I have written over 300 at this point.

The rest of the work we’re officially doing you probably know about from the site. Thanks for partnering with us and being part of our EP family. I know many of you are also my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I’m thankful He’s brought us together for such a time as this.