Teaching Typing to your younger children?

 

We previewed two typing programs and this is our review.

Talking Typing Teacher

It had cute hands with colored dots for showing you what letter to type with what finger, 

...we found it slow moving and too easy for even a 9 year old. 

This is a typing curriculum that I chose to help my student to type properly. It was not a good choice as we found it to be extremely boring. It talks to you, but that was not enough. The Graphics were, to put it mild, lame! You can probably tell by looking at the screen that it really has no excitement or appeal to encourage a child, teen or adult to try it than the cover of the disc box. 


I friend's little girl was over and mentioned a typing program she has used by Mavis Beacon. Being the computer savvy Teacher Mom I 'Goggled it' and found the following site!

 http://download.digitaltrends.com/tux-typing.php

Free Download Now!
Music to my ears!

This program loaded easily; although I had to decline or dismiss several ads before it installed itself in my computer it placed its adorable penguin on my desktop screen and all I had to do was click! 

Tux Typing is the beginning typing program made for kids, but as an adult I found it fun to type as fast as I can and find out how many errors and what my wpm is while having the fun of blasting asteroids and saving the cities from destruction!

Tux has as I mentioned a menu with lessons, games, quiz type things to teach you how to hold your hands, what to type with what, as well as caps and lower case words. You can type words or phrases and there is even an option to type your own words! We thought it would be fun to enter weekly spelling words and learn to type with them as you practice spelling them. I would definitely recommend this program over the "Talking Typing Teacher" by Cosmi.  Not only for the graphics which were much better or "awesome" as my little friend said; but it loaded so quickly and the TTT took two days to get loaded and installed. 

Also, you can load this to what ever computer you have, even if you have Win.7 or Mac! Fantastic ! 

Oh! I did not tell you the coolest thing yet; there are many more levels of free downloads on the site! You can actually download one for Mom or Dad, teens, high school and college students to improve their speed and accuracy. I will be diving into this program on a regular basis! 

If I find anything else that is fun I will post it here on my Home School section of TeresaWilson.com. 

In His Word 3-26-12 Bitter Roots

In His Word 3-26-12

Who do you trust with your life? 

I am reading through 2nd Samuel this week in my Daily Word Bible and am finding that David really trusted God. He knew that even when he totally messed up morally or physically he could still repent, ask God forgiveness and know that God would still be His God. 

David went through many trials, but one that was dear to his heart was the one that included his son Absalom. He, Absalom, murdered his family member, then came back and repented yet kept in his heart resentment towards his father David for the anger he had toward him for killing his other son. In Absalom’s heart he believed it was a just murder and I know David knew this too, but Absalom still was upset and allowed a root of bitterness to form in his heart. He began devising a plan to take over the kingdom from his father. In the end he was the one who ended up worse for the wear because he had allowed the bitterness to grow. 

So what can we do about bitterness so that we will not become an Absalom? 

Bitterness can cause you to do what you would not normally do. We are not to harbor it, or keep it in our hearts but instead we are to forgive one another. We are to speak the truth in love and then forgive the other person who has harmed us or caused us to become bitter and distressed. We are not to hold on to the pain and relish it that is for certain! I know of people who enjoy their injuries of the heart way too much. They cry out to God to help them but hold on to the problem which turns into a root of bitterness. 

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:30-32

Follow peace with all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord: looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 

Hebrews 12:14-16

Bitterness is having a harsh or disagreeably acrid taste, like that of aspirin I your mouth. In your heart it is distressful, sorrowful and grievous. It is something hard to bear with. It can cause a person physical pain, or emotional pain. It comes out in antagonism and hostility. In other-words, bitterness is bad news. 

We generally pick up the seed that ends up rooted when we take offence over something someone may have or may not have done to us. We perceive this as an injury and allow the injury to fester instead of asking God to heal it and asking the person to forgive us or deciding to forgive them. Forgiving someone is a directive from God, we are told to forgive others in the Word many times; “forgive us our trespasses that we may forgive those who trespass against us.” Instead we talk about it with everyone; we work our selves up to an infection of bitterness. Someone may even try to remove the bitterness from us but we enjoy it too much by that point. Only God can remove a root of bitterness and only when we decide to give it to Him will He take it and get rid of it. Then our Lord can and will heal us, but he will wait patiently for us to realize how foolish we are behaving before he heals us. “Why?” because our God desires our repentant heart not selfishness. Our God desires us to seek Him first before anyone else to help us get rid of the bitterness we are harboring. He desires to heal us of all our hurts and sorrows; but we must have an open heart, ears to hear, and eyes to see what He is telling us about it. Then we have to decide to obey Him. 

When we eat something bitter we spit it out! 

If you take a moment to think on this, when we eat something bitter we have a tendency to spit it out of our mouths right away; so why not do this with an offence that we have allowed to grow and form bitterness in our hearts? 

I think it is because we are in need of three things; 

1-We need to recognize that we have the bitter taste, root or feeling in our heart and mind. 

2-We need to repent of the harbor we have created in our hearts and minds. Admitting that we have it is the best thing to do. 

3-We need to rid ourselves of it; ask God to take it away for good. 

Only when we have given it to Jesus will the burden of bitterness be gone. Then we need to remind ourselves occasionally not to pick it back up. 

The whole idea of it being called a root of bitterness makes me think of a dandelion root. They go down deep into the soil and do not like to die. We can break it off on the surface but deep beneath the ground level the root flourishes and sends out sprouts all around. Once these sprouts grow there is no stopping it!

If we do not ask God to be our root killer as soon as we realize there is a problem then we will have a returning bitterness. When the root sprouts up it is no longer just one form, it will come out in many areas, many blossoms of bitterness; anger, frustration, contempt, gossip and just plain spitefulness can come from ‘bitter blossoms’. 

Let’s make a plan to root out the bitterness in our hearts before they can devour our lives. 

Let’s make it a plan to give up to God all offences, injuries and sorrows as we receive them so that He can heal us and make us new. Then we can plant seeds of joy, kindness, faithfulness and forgiveness and grow love for one another! 

Dear heavenly Father, forgive us for our harbors of bitterness, help us to root out the problems and stomp on them so that they may die. Help us to get rid of any seeds of bitterness before they get the chance to sprout! Thank you for Your guidance each day, every step and every way we go, in Jesus name, amen. 

Suggested reading: Proverbs 6:1-35, Proverbs22:1-28, Hosea10:1-15 and Luke 8:1-56

What is Worship? In His Word

Worship the Lord

What is worship anyway?

You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.  But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:22-24

This weekend I had the opportunity to enjoy true worship with other believers at a women’s breakfast. The songs that were chosen were a little older than my church usually uses, but I still knew them all. The leader really entered into the worship and even though a couple of times some of us were off track with the singer/leader it did not hinder the presence of the Lord in the room.

She named him Seth, for she said, “God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.”  When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the LORD by name. Genesis 4:25-26

God is so awesome we should always want to stay in the Throne Room!

I the tabernacle there was a place called the Holy of Holies where the actual spirit of the Lord would be. We are blessed today because His spirit follows us via the Holy Spirit once we accept Christ as our Lord and believe in His promise of Salvation.

 Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”  And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. Acts 16:30-32

Then I thought of the Lord’s words when he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”

When the others heard this, they stopped objecting and began praising God. They said, “We can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins and receiving eternal life.” Acts 11:16-18

What an advantage to be able to accept the Lord! Do not worship the LORD your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods.  Rather, you must seek the LORD your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes—the place where his name will be honored. Deuteronomy 12: 4-5

2 Kings 17:38-40

But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

We need to really be worshiping Jesus in truth. This means we need to show Him that we adore Him as well as that we respect His authority; which is  to give Him reverence. To do this we need to do as He says in His Word. Get in His face and spend time not just doing lip service but truly entering in, in prayer, in song and in standing silently before the throne waiting for the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart and mind.

 Look for the directions in His Word, and then follow them.

When we do not worship Him in spirit and in truth we are like a person who asks for directions and then goes their own way. Or when you go out and get a GPS and forget to turn it on. We can end up out in the middle of no where with no one to help us find the way home.

God has given us direction in His Word and so we need to follow the Map He has provided.  Life will be much better over all, but more than that peace flows in our lives when we have been in His presence worshiping Him.

Take time this week and worship, really worship Him at home, or on a walk. All alone, just you. Then see how much clearer you can see the path He has laid out before you.  It’s much easier to find your way when you look at the map or listen to the GPS. God’s Precious Spirit!

He will provide us with the answers, the direction we are seeking for when we just take the time to worship Him.

Honor Him with your presence, your heart and mind included! We can honor the Lord with our mouth and forget to honor Him with our heart and mind. We need to give Him all of us, all our attention. The more we look to Him, the less we will notice that there are wrong turns out there to tempt us. The more we look to Him the more our walk will be straight.

Dear Heavenly Father, help us to focus on You each day of this week. Let the things of this earth grow dim in the light of Your presence. In Jesus Name, amen.

Suggested Reading: Hebrews 13:1- 25,1 John 4:1-24 and John 4:1-54,

In His Word— Forgiveness

Stephen offered up the most precious forgiveness prayer as he was being stoned to death for sharing the love and story of the Truth; Jesus Christ. He had more right than anyone alive today to get mad at them but instead he chose to not merely turn the other cheek, but to also forgive them himself and ask for the Father God to forgive them as well.

Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!”  Acts 7 57-60

Too many Christians today hold grudges. We are taught not to take offence in the first place but it really is adding insult to injury when you take the offence then decide to keep it.
 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Matthew 18:15-18

Do not allow selfish pride to rob you of a blessing; if you choose to be offended at someone, take it to them and get over it. If you find you cannot forgive them in yourself then ask God to help you. After all He chose to forgive you your sins even though you were not worthy of the forgiveness anymore than I am. Yet still we are forgiven of whatever this offence was ourselves just the same; one sin is the same as another in God’s eyes.  

Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Mark 6:3

Jesus could have been offended at this but he wasn’t. He knew who He was. We need to realize that people will offend us and learn to let it roll of our backs and land on the ground behind us.

It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.” Matthew 15:11

When we choose to take offence instead of forgiving one another we defile ourselves if we let the words come out of our mouth to support our prideful remorse. I say that it is prideful because we make it all about us. When we lash out at the person who offended us instead of speaking to them and asking God to help us forgive the offense then we are causing ourselves to have rotten “leaven” inside of our heart. When we choose not to forgive and allow God to help us get over it or ‘forget’ the offense then we are choosing to enjoy that leaven and let it grow.

Many a bitter person was born of offense. Think about it for a moment, someone you know is holding a grudge of offence. What can you do to help them?

First- pray that they will forgive the person.

Second- suggest they go to the person and discus with them the problem.

Thirdly- have them pray together for forgiveness because usually if one person is offended the other person is too. 

Sometimes people choose to wallow in their offence. They enjoy it because they feel they have a right to be offended because after all--- whatever happened we do not have a right to hold a grudge.

 Jesus tells us;

Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. Luke 17:2-4 KJV

We need to be forgivers not haters, not gossipers, not people who hold a grudge; Jesus said to forgive our brothers and sisters 70 times 7; in other words keep on forgiving.

After all we are to become more and more like Jesus every day, how can we do that if we weigh ourselves down with such sinful behavior as holding a grudge. Grudges lead to hate, which leads us generally to gossip; remember gossip is not just a lie, it is talking about someone else when they are not there to defend themselves; it is talking about anyone who is not with you talking about themselves too.

Dear Heavenly Father, help us not to hold grudges but instead to forgive and let it go. Help us not to allow an offense rob us of the joy we have in You. Bless us today with peace and understanding, in Jesus name, amen.

Suggested Reading: Luke 17:1-37, Zechariah 7:1-14,Luke 11:1-54, and 2 Corinthians 2:1-17.

***If for any reason you choose ever not to receive this devotion again please remember that all it takes is replying with a "Please remove me from this list." I do ask that if there is a problem with anything I write for you to feel free to write me back and let me know what the problem was, that we might go over it together and seek the truth in love.

In His love,

Teresa M. Wilson