Living In the Wilderness

  Well first off what an amazing bunch of scholars. Today we started almost on time. whoo hoo! By the time we master the time this semester will be over. Our morning flag honor was done by Nadya. She shared a great quote and it was a wonderful tribute. Remember if you are late to class and enter during the flag ceremony just freeze at the door and salute. Ammon offered our prayer and we were off to learn about history and ourselves.

We had our timeline cards test. Is your scholar studying their timeline? ask them? Lamoni finished first but dropped his cards and had the order wrong so Kensington was able to finish and steal the win. There is only a tiny bit of competition. ;) but Kensington set the time to beat for next week. 

 Meridian was our first scholar to give her U.S President report and to sum it up WOW! I learned so much and it was so creative. She taught us about William Henry Harrison.

Did you know he was the first President to die in office? He only served for 1 month as President prior to his death. Since President Harrison joined us today in a dead state Meridian passed out cookies in the shape of a ghost. nothing like a little sugar high to get through your day. :P

After the Presentation was completed there was a quiz..it pays to listen and Ammon took home the grand prize. There were some very jealous scholars in the room.

We had a discussion on "The Wilderness". What kind of people go into the wilderness? Can the wilderness have both positive and negative meanings? What can we learn about the wilderness? It took a certain kind of person to live on the frontier. We discussed What type of person would be willing to go into the wilderness. How does it change a person to live in the "wilderness". We discussed the Israelites in the Old Testament, Book of Mormon stories and Stories of Jesus who all spent time in the wilderness. We discussed what they learned from their experience. We looked up the definition of wilderness in a physical sense and defined it in a spiritual sense.

We discussed how many settlers displaced the native American people. The US divided and sold much of the land that the native Americans had lived on for many years. We have an obligation to share our talents and our genius, but how do we balance that with a respect for the rights and beliefs of others? How do we slow down our lives enough to hear the revelation that is needed in our life?

We took some time to go outside and be alone, meditate and take some notes. We told them to think about their lives and set their priorities. We encouraged them to find some quiet time regularly to think deeply about where they are going and what they will need to do to get there. Jesus, our exemplar, often “withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed” (Luke 5:16). We need to do the same thing occasionally to rejuvenate ourselves spiritually as the Savior did. We encouraged them to write down the tasks they would like to accomplish each day. Keep foremost in mind the sacred covenants they have made with the Lord as they write down their priorities.

We then discussed the Louis L'Amour's short story:

Ask your scholars what they learned about the wilderness and themselves.

HOMEWORK:

Study those Timeline cards!

 Start reading our book for this month.

 

 U.S. PRESIDENT REPORTs:

10/18 James Monroe - GABE

Patriotic Quote: 

10/18 Ammon Pond

We love having these scholars in our class. We welcomed back Nicolas Johnson...He shared some amazing insight in the class and related it to his experiences in Ecuador. WOW! what an amazing group of youth...we are honored to work with you all..

 

Till we meet again!

Sister de Guzman

Sister Tollestrup