My dear sister Alipurr asked about RiverSchooling. I'll tell you what I know so far!
River Schooling is a term that my other dear sister Jessica and I came up with. We want to impart to our children all the fabulous things we've learned over the last many years... I guess it's a sort of radical form of "Christian Education!"
They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. Psalms 36:8It's all about experiencing God, and going into the deep places of His Spirit... It's about worship, it's about hearing from Him, it's about really LIVING in and walking in the fullness of our relationship with Him. I'm still trying to distill a concise definition for RiverSchooling, which isn't easy because it encompasses so much! It's not just for our children, but for ourselves as well.
What I can do is give a few examples of our "cirriculum" for River Schooling. We're in process of putting more stuff together, organizing it, and maybe writing up an article about it.
But for now, here's an item or two! (Ali, email me if you want more!)
In the subject area of Worship:
Create a Worship center in your home, a single area that can serve many purposes. Things to include:
1) A container for storing flags, timbrels, Ribbon sticks, finger rings with flowing streamers, tambourines, and musical instruments. Shofar or trumpets if you have them!
2) A basket for holding easy-to-read Bibles, notebooks, and pens. Have separate notebooks for each member of the family, and if needed, provide extra notebooks for dreams, for creative stories or jotting down spontaneous songs, poems or for writing down encouraging words or visions. This is especially good practice for the children!
3) An “art” cart or table, or even a plastic box with art supplies inside for prophetic painting, drawing and coloring. A roll of paper or a pad of newsprint that more than one person at a time can work on is nice to have. Sketchbooks and watercolor paper/supplies are nice to have also! Colored pencils, pens, markers and crayons are a must, and glitter and glue may be appropriate for some.
4) Floor pillows are a wonderful investment to use while “soaking” and can be useful when you have a lot of company also! Some good quiet worship music is good to have on hand, as well as some more vibrant, joyful worship as well! Having a variety is good, including instrumental. Encourage the children to sing new songs to the Lord, to make up the words as they go. Writing down those spontaneous song lyrics can make a precious treasure for your family!
In the subject area of Living Scriptures:
Illustrate the Scriptures. Have young children draw pictures from stories or images in verses. Have older children learn to write the scriptures (or print them out!) in beautiful scripts or caligraphy, and decorate with meaningful images, like the Irish used to do with their illuminated manuscripts. For the really ambitious, have the children use a series of verses on a single subject (i.e., fruit) to create a picture. Ask the Holy Spirit to "illuminate" the word and write it in your hearts, and allow Him to give you the pictures, images, and illustrations that relate to the verses.
That's just a couple of examples, there's ever so much more, but right now my dear husband needs my help to make pancakes from a mix. He's brilliant, a veritable genius, but it's touching that he's in need of wifely help to mix instant pancakes! :)
This is how I'm supposed to be spending my days, tilted up like this fella. I wish I had his book/computer stand and bed!! Can somebody please find one of these and ship it to me?? :)
