my kids are home-teached

Here's a word that chills my blood: curriculum.

Any homeschooling mom worth her IHIPs knows what I'm talkin' 'bout. These are forms that homeschooler's need to file with their local school district which outline proposed curriculum for the upcoming academic year. They are pinned efficiently on our kitchen corkboard, where they have flapped in summer breezes since I received them on Academy Night in June. Untouched by human hand.

They were due last month.

Doesn't anyone appreciate inspiration anymore? Seriously, folks. I was waiting for it. So it shouldn't have surpised me when, pen in hand, poised over my journal ready to take life-altering notes on Sunday's sermon, it finally struck me: THE MIDDLE EAST. I looked around to see if anyone was distracted by the light bulb glowing over my head. Nope. Their eyes were glued pulpitward, as they should've been. I, on the other hand, was furiously scribbling. Inspiration is not something to be frittered away.

What I don't know about the Middle East could fill the local Home Depot. and Howe's Caverns. And we all have to admit, that's a bad thing. When I take in the latest news about Israel and Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iraq, religious sects etc., I shake my head. How do I pray, Lord? Do I pray for an immediate cease-fire, like the rest of the world? Or do I side with Condi and the President? And what are they thinking, anyway? Just who are these Hezbollah guys, and why don't the good Lebanese people order them out? This uninformed reasoning compares to my logic when watching a football game: Don't hurt each other, for goodness sake! Just forgiddaboudit. Let's hand over that clumsy ball and all go out for pizza."

We learn a lot together, the kids and I. (Dad, too.) It is high time to dig in and do some learning about a place Jesus instructed us to love and pray for.
With the help of Barnes & Noble, CBD, and required reading lists on Ivy League college websites, I am formulating a plan:
1. one or two serious tomes on Middle Eastern history (from Bible times to present)
2. a dose of historical fiction, biographies, and contemporary novels.
3. a smattering of classic Eastern literature (think A Thousand and One Nights)
4. the history of the formation of the modern Israel.
5. recipes, music, dance, drama, and other examples of ME culture.
6. Walk through the Bible DVDs with Bruce Feiler.
7. mapwork
8. a book on how a Christian can befriend an Arab. (way cool.)
9. interviews with friends that have lived in the Middle East, a few dinners with international students, visits with missionaries from Turkey, YOU GET THE IDEA.

On a completely different note, we heard from a lady that once lived in our 1830 farmhouse. She insists that it was on the Underground Railroad route. (We are only 15 miles from the Canadian border.) The mysterious door in the attic that leads to "nowhere" is part of her evidence. This whole concept, based on family legend, intrigues us greatly. So I found a website that will help us start the research. HOW COOL IS THAT? Even if the Hull Homeschool Academy decides (after much research) that these claims were unfounded, think of all will learn about This Old House.

THIS IS REAL CURRICULUM, FOLKS.

When we get it all together, I will sleep better. And when I am all excited about something, I hit the caps-bar. Sorry for all the yelling.

Homeschooling is the best.