Monthly Archives: October 2007

Cut and Paste Just for Fun

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Yesterday was a cut and paste day. I planned it as an activity to keep the younger ones occupied and engaged, but all the older ones decided to do their pages this way too, after their copywork and word studies.

We did a T-chart of G.O.D. – God’s Original Diet™ foods, and S.A.D. – Standard American Diet foods. I drew a little smiley in the middle of the ‘O’ and turned the cross-bar of the ‘A’ into a frown and put eyes in it, to help our little non-reader boys remember which side to put the pictures on.

It took me forever to get clip art pictures (since we have no magazines or newspapers on hand with food pics.) But once I printed them out, they had a blast.

We had just reasoned the G.O.D. foods from Genesis 1:29, so all they had to do was put anything not included in that on the other side. They were all very pleased with their Journal page, and the little ones showed them to the couple of visitors we had last night.

Stepping into Freedom & Simplicity

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Freedom & Simplicity™ is truly that. It isn’t hard. But it is intentional! Below are “7 simple steps” – OK I wouldn’t call them that, because L.E.D. is not a check off list, but for those of you who need a list, there it is. Again, it isn’t hard. It is freeing. But you do have to do it. These points below correspond to our 7 Pillars of Excellence in education.

1. Renew your own mind. This is the first and most important aspect in Biblical education (discipleship) in the home. A student will never be more than their teacher. If you want lifelong learners who love to learn, you must become a lifelong learner who loves to learn. If you want a biblical foundation, you must lay one in your own life. If you want biblical thinkers, you must become a biblical thinker. As R.C. Sproul, Jr. says (paraphrased, because I’m out of town right now), “If you can’t teach physics, you can’t teach physics. But if you can’t teach the Bible, learn the Bible!”

2. Bring children along side you in living a life pleasing to God – in worship, praise in song, prayer, planning and preparing nutritious meals, providing modest clothing, changing the car oil, building a shed, studying to show yourself approved unto God, everything! “You follow me, as I follow Christ.” We are not just academically teaching our children. We are training them to live a life glorifying to God. And building relationships with them.

3. Read great books to them. The Bible, stories from long ago and yesterday. Read books with heroes of character! Read true stories, biographies, could-be-true stories, documents, great expressions – to read, listen to and look at – poetry, music, art. Fill your child’s heart with stories that touch their heart, in ways that will inspire them to greatness.  Yes, continue to read to them long after they can read to themselves. Hearing a great story doesn’t end when you can read it yourself. You are sharing more than the story. You are sharing yourself. Our Resources and Recommendations pages are full of great books – it starts here.

4. Copy greatness – literally, both physcially do what they did, and the words out of books. Young children naturally act out the stories they hear. That is great! Encourage it – the little boy who pretends to be Daniel slaying Goliath, or Daniel Boone living in the wilderness, trusting in God; the little girl pretending to be Ruth, gleaning in the fields, or Abigail Adams raising her family on the Word and journaling; the whole family acting out the story of the Sower and the Seed (as mine did last year, and had a blast!) Children will act out, not only in their play, but also in real life, after the heroes they have. See #3 again.

But go beyond just the physical acting out, and actually Copy the words of those great books and documents. Never underesteminate the power of Copywork. It is true learning and has much more value than many give it credit for. It should be a lifelong daily habit.

5. Retell greatness. Become a story teller. Tell the stories you’ve learned in your own way – orally, in pictures, act it out, write it out. Again, you may think this is a simple exercise, of little value. Do not underestimate the power of Narration. The Story (Mashal) touches the heart whether read in a book or told from the heart.

6. Put it in a book – make your own books of your Copywork and Stories and notes and whatever else you produce. Notebooking again is not a difficult thing – and need not be made difficult by worrying about if you are “doing it right” or “putting the right things in it”. Notebooking (Journaling) is a natural thing that all learners do. Journaling,  includes not just your Copywork, or Retellings, or Research findings. It also goes beyond these to include your own thoughts, reasoned from what you’ve learned.

7. Live and tell your own story. Your Journals become your Books, as you share them with others. Your studies and life lessons bring out your own Life Story, who God designed you to be. You Life Story may not be written as a written biography, but the message God has designed you to bring to the world may be written and published in a book – or it may just be lived out in front of your neighbors, whether next door, in a vocation, or around the world. Share the message God has given you to share.

Did you really thing education (discipleship) was harder than that? L.E.D. brings Freedom & Simplicity™ in Spirit LED home education!

If you’d like a simple introduction to breaking out of the school-at-home box, download our “dirt cheap” intro guide,
Finding Freedom & Simplicity™.

Wall Chart of History

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If you’ve been to any of my seminars or read Freedom & Simplicity™ in HisStory you know I LOVE my Hull’s Wall Chart of World History.

If you have looked for one (they are out of print) you have probably been disappointed to find out that the revised version, that is usually all you can find, has evolutionary material on it.

I recently found out there has been a reprinting of Adam’s Chart of History that looks very similar. I’ve been trying to find out if it is the same thing.

I’ve gotten enough info now that I’m going to announce it sight unseen. I will get it as soon as CBD has it in stock and report more then, when I compare the two, but from the reviews I’ve been reading and the questions I’ve asked, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

It appears I may have something I can recommend in place of the virtually unable-to-find Hull’s Wall Chart of History.

515051: Adams's Chart of History: A Chronology of Ancient, Modern, and Biblical History Accordian Style Fold Out Adams’s Chart of History: A Chronology of Ancient, Modern, and Biblical History Accordian Style Fold Out
By Sebastian Adams / Master BooksBased on Ussher’s The Annals of the World and featuring colorful artwork representing people and events from creation to the late 19th century, this vintage biblical and historical timeline was originally published in 1871! Post it on your walls and let it inform your kids’ imaginations as they learn. Features 21 foldout 13″ x 28″ panels.

Answers in Genesis notes 3 interpretive comments they disagree with on the chart. We would agree with AiG. 1) some credence is given to the possibility of the “gap theory”. 2) it speaks of 5 “races of men” 3) it speaks of Ham as the “father of the black race”.

 

De Emoh to Home Ed

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Today we are continuing the De Emoh post.

Perhaps you’ve never considered the thought that the curriculum you buy is based on somebody’s view of what education is and is to be – and that somebody isn’t you. Do you know what that somebody’s view is? Do you know what your view is? If you know your view and you know their view, and they match, you have a good match in curriculum and you are able to jump out of that whirlwind of constantly trying the “latest, greatest” and changing course every year, and able to get on with building a solid educational foundation.

That is where we begin to turn the trend from De Emoh to Home Ed. First we need to know just what education is. There are basically 2 views. Although there are so many variations in each, they can be deduced down to basic underlying beliefs in 2 categories.

These 2 views are many times called the Greek view and the Hebrew view. These views were around long before either the Greeks or the Hebrews though. They began in the Garden.  One is man-centered, the other God-centered. One seeks the knowledge of man, the other the wisdom of God.

If you are going to be a home educator, the first thing you need to do is be a learner yourself. “A student is not above his teacher.” You must be a student, to lead your students. Begin by studying out the Hebrew and the Greek ideas about education, and see if you can come up with the differences.

To be continued…

 

7 Pillars

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Q: What’s the deal with 7 Pillars/ Principles here and there? Are these all spelled out in the Bible somewhere? (OK, the question wasn’t really worded exactly that way. This is a summary of questions I’ve been asked, and that have been asked on our e-group for home ed through Biblical Principles.)

A: About 15 years or so ago, I studied out  “Wisdom.” We know that Jesus Himself IS Wisdom – all true wisdom is embodied in Him. Prov. 9:1 says “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.” Whether the 7 is just symbolic, saying that in Jesus is all perfection and completeness of wisdom, I don’t know.

But I do know in my searches for wisdom in many various areas, many times I find 7’s. Whether I’m not digging far enough and I would find more if I pushed on through, I don’t know. I just know that I find 7 Pillars in many places. Just as I also find Tri-Unities (3’s) in many places. There were so many natural ones that I saw, that I began looking for them, as I do 7 Pillars.

IOW, I have not found in Scripture clearly laid out any definitive “THE Seven Pillars” are. I have found that when I really dig in a subject/ topic/ many things in Life, I do come up with 7 Pillars – Biblical truths which support the topic.

 

De Emoh

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Many home educators, perhaps even most, begin this journey backwards. They decide to home educate and then the first thing they do is pick a curriculum. They may ask friends what they use and buy that. They may pour over catalogs looking for the latest “best”. They may do an internet search to find free.

Now, when we began home educating it was no different, except it was hugely different. We had very little to pour over. There was no internet. We may not have known another home educator. (We didn’t.) And if we did, they were using one of the very few curriculums available.

Today you have it much tougher. I can’t imagine how difficult it is for a new home educator to begin to wade through all that is out there. But I think that is an even greater reason for beginning this journey at the right end of things – and that isn’t by choosing curriculum.

I don’t know why our minds tend to work backwards in this area. Perhaps it is human nature. No doubt it has something to do with the way we were educated. We tend to look at the externals, the effects, rather than, or at least before, the internal, the causes. We look at the what before the why or the how. The problem with that is the why and the how dictate the what. So even if we aren’t discerning the why and the how first, someone else has and the what you choose is based on someone else’s why and how.

This backwards approach even works itself out in how we teach our children.

To be continued… Lord willing, tomorrow.

 

L.E.D. Food?

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I don’t believe good nutrition is based on “food products”. So why am about to recommend a food “product”? … See my from me blog to see why.

What does this have to do with L.E.D.? This is our “off-week” (in between topical studies) and I am refreshing the children – and expanding their understanding – on nutrition.

 

Change it up

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I’m blogging everywhere and there but here this week. So I figured I’d share a bit of what we do on our “off weeks”. This week is the last in our term. We run a 6 week “on”, 1 week “off” schedule, though not dogmatically. If we need to continue to finish things up we do, if we finish before the 6 weeks, we moved on.

Anyhow, our “Sabbath” rest weeks aren’t really rest, nor are they really “sabbath”, as in devoted wholly to seeking God in the Scriptures – but we do continue our family worship times. Our “Sabbath” weeks are our one week “change in routine” we take between each term. I got the idea LONG ago from Teri Spray of Christian Cottage Curriculum, at a CHEC conference.

On our break week we focus on learning Life Skills rather than “book learning”. It may be on cleaning and organization – whether that means learning to clean something, or digging in and tackling a project. It may be cooking or baking skills or menu planning. It may be sewing or craft skills.

When we had a garden and bought cases of fruit to put up, there was always a week of canning and freezing and dehydrating. When we did Mega-Menus we put up 6 weeks worth of meals in the freezer during this time. For the boys it might be helping dad with a remodeling project. For next week it will be finishing tanning their deer hide – and probably raking all the acorn caps out of the yard! I also plan to take some more specific, prolonged times to help dd so-close-to-16 to work on her driving skills.

Sometimes this off-week is also devoted to special help in Learning Skills – such as, if someone is stuck on a math concept and they just need extra help over the hump. Or if we’ve slacked in working on spelling or editing-of-our-writing skills, we’ll do some catching up.

It’s also a week we try to throw in some extra fun things. Play some games, perhaps go to the Children’s Museum or other “special place”. I thought we were going to be going to Omaha – but 2 wrenches got thrown into that idea. We’ll have to come up with something else. (And Omaha will end up taking a day out after we get back to our “normal” routine. — Is there really such a thing?)

What do you do to “change things up” – to keep from getting in a rut, or take a break from the “normal” – at your house?

 

Bible Lessons from Beginnings

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This week we are finishing our first term. In Bible that means we are finishing our studies in Beginnings. This year’s focus has been on the principle of God’s Design.

We have looked at God’s Transcendence, how He is different than anything else, His incommunicable attributes. All else is created by Him and apart from Him.

Then we looked at Man in the Image of God, how God has “communicated” (shared) some of His attributes to some degree with man, making him different than any other thing in Creation.

Next we looked at God’s Design in the Heavens and Earth – in Time, Space, and Matter, and in living things to reproduce “after their kind”, and the purpose for Creation.

The next week was one of the hardest for me to bring together. But we saw that there is even Design in temptation, satan’s perverted methods really don’t change much, nor does the result of sin.

Last week we looked at God’s Design in the life of Noah. I’ve already blogged about that, how amazing His Sovereignty is even in the “smallest” of details.

This week we are looking at the beginnings of nations, God’s Design in Noah’s sons. We’ve mapped where the various families settled and began building nations. We’ve looked at the prophesy given by Noah and saw God’s Design for fulfilling His dominion mandate through the lives of men. Once more we are amazed at what we can learn from the “jots and tittles” written thousands of years ago.

Though we are moving on after this week, we’ve by no means exhausted these areas. But they will be revisited from a different angle again, as we build our learning, here a little, there a little.

After 20-some years of serious Bible study, (after 20-some years of mostly Bible stories before that,) I still stand amazed at the freshness and depth of God’s Word, teaching us something new everytime we gaze into it.