Dec 2
2000

Greetings from Me and My House,

Probably one of the top 10 misunderstandings of the “Better Late than Early” philosophy is that if you aren’t “doing school” (ie. traditional academics) with your young children then you aren’t teaching them anything. We all know that nothing is further from the truth.

One aspect that we highly focus on during these years (anywhere from toddler to preteen) is character development. One excellent tool we can use as part of our “character curriculum” that also covers “doing school” is the reading aloud of biographies of those of great Christian character. We have and use several resources for this.

One of our favorites for the younger crowd is the 3 book series of _Hero Tales_. In these books are short stories from the lives of several “famous” Christians – 3 stories per person. These are by Dave and Neta Jackson, the authors of the Trailblazers series – which are also excellent stories of missionaries’ lives, though told through a fictional story. For the little bit older children (and adults :-) , the new _Then and Now_ series of Christian biographies by Janet and Geoff Benge is excellent. Although these are all “Christian” series, probably our favorite of the full length biographies for children is the Mott Media’s _Sower series_ ; as they have the most info about the Christian character of the person.

The stories in _Hero Tales_ are short enough that you can finish them in one setting with little ones. After reading and narrating a story, we discuss what godly character was in the life of the person and how we can be like them. This is just one tool we can to help our children develop godly charater in their lives.

If you are interested in any of the above books, you can order them through Me and My House ministries.

At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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Nov 5
2000

Greetings from Me and My House,

In “natural methods” circles, you hear a lot about Copywork. But there still appears to be many skeptics. What good could just copying something be?

Let me tell you, TREMENDOUS GOOD!!!! So much is learned from the VERY SIMPLE act of copying EXCELLENT writing. This is the method used for millenia past – with excellent results. Benjamin Franklin, the great Founding Father and Statesman of our country got his education primarily by doing copywork.

What exactly is Copywork? Finding an excellent passage of writing and copying it – EXACTLY. Spelling, punctuation, grammar – mechanics of good writing are learned as well as STYLE! There is so much more you can do – advancing in Copywork, but this one SIMPLE tool can make a world of difference in our children’s (and our) education.

How do you start? Find some good literature – the Bible is the BEST, great classics, timeless truths – stuff that is WELL WRITTEN. Pick a passage of content you want to emphasize – appropriate length for the student. Children 9-12** year olds could do a sentence – a paragraph. Youth could do at least a paragraph – a page. Have them READ the passage – INTENTLY. Have them COPY the passage – CAREFULLY, in their best handwriting. Have them COMPARE theirs to the original, correcting any mistakes.

If you aren’t using Copywork, or aren’t utilizing it regularly. I urge you to begin today and make it a routine part of your education. You’ll be glad you did.

**Younger Children begin Copywork with Letters/ Phonograms, then progress to Words, and work up to short sentences only, at a time.

At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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Oct 3
2000

Greetings from Me and My House,

Our L.E.D. elist began in Oct. 2000, after we discontinued our general Me and My House (snail mail) newsletter. This was our first post, answering 2 questions that were asked.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q – Where do I begin?

A – In renewing *your* mind! In order to educate our children in the
Spirit, we must first be transformed from our old humanistic thoughts of
education that we grew up with and have become part of our thought
processes. We must seek God and His Word to know where our thinking is not just the wrong thoughts, but know that the wrong thought comes from wrong thinking processes. God says there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death. There is a big difference between the Biblical (Hebrew) way of thinking of education and Greek (humanistic/pagan) way of thinking. Obviously, the world’s educational system is built upon the Greek thinking pattern.

If we try to make changes in what we do with our kids, before/without
renewing our thought processes, we will always feel like what we’re doing is inadequate – because the goals, methods, focus, everything is different. It will be dead legalism – we’re doing it because we know inside that it’s the right thing, but we never think it’s adequate and never have peace with it, because it doesn’t line up with our Greek/humanistic
presuppositions/worldview/way of thinking. It is not of the Spirit so it
only brings a different kind of bondage and not freedom.

For more info see “Renewing Your Mind”

http://me-and-my-house.org/cv-renew1.htm

We will have more to say about Hebrew vs. Greek thinking in future posts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Q – What do you use for your character definitions?

A – Most of our definitions come from the Character books put out by IBLP (Bill Gothard). _Character Clues_ is a game based on the character definitions; so they can all be found there. Some also we have adapted, written our own, or taken from _Developing Character_ by Beverly Caruso (who also recommends the IBLP books, so some definitions are the same.) Check http://iblp.org for their books/game. You will find the _Character Clues_ game, as well as a couple of our favorite resources _Character Sketches_ and _Character Booklets_.

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Jan 1
2000

from Me and My House! This blog is the everyday application of our foundational teaching on Biblical home education that is found on our website, in our seminars and Me and My House exclusive resources. See also our other everyday applications for Christian growth and family, home, and health. Enjoy the journey of Discipleship for Life!™



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