I have been convicted, of late, that I should approach the Word with more humility. Okay, convicted is too strong a word. "Gently nudged" would be a better description. It occurred to me that I may have allowed an attitude to creep in that sort of "takes it for granted."
Not good.
If I really believe that His Word is living and active, my heart should have an attitude that approaches it with a humble expectation of encountering Him through the words on those pages. Every time I pick it up, I should expect to meet Him there, in those words, and for that encounter to change me.
The kids and I discussed this today. In our homeschool, we read several chapters each day in our Bibles, and the very repetition can be conducive to the forming of an attitude of familiarity and complacency. So the posture of our hearts needs to be intentionally addressed to avoid a habit forming that allows us to read the Bible like it is no different than the words written by man.
Even though they may not fully comprehend what to expect, they should learn to have an expectation when they engage the Word. We encourage them to write in their Bibles, to mark them up, to take notes, so that the lessons being taught them by the Holy Spirit can be built upon as the years pass.
This is the first year, for the ones still in our homeschool, that they are reading through the entire Bible in a year, in addition to our other Bible work. The hope is that it will become a lifelong habit that will take hold of their hearts. Not to check it off a list, but to help them continually devote time to the Word. Even if some of them don't understand much of what they are reading at this point, the Living Word is sowing seeds in their young hearts.
This book is one of our very favorite parts of homeschooling. The kids love it! It's unique format takes a specific character quality and focuses on four different aspects of it in four separate chapters. Each chapter uses an example from the Bible and from the world of nature to explain that specific aspect of the quality being studied.
The best way for me to explain is to give an example.
In Chapters One through Four, the character quality being studied is Loyalty. In Chapter Two, the aspect of Loyalty focused on is "Standing With Those I Am Serving In Their Time Of Need." The illustration from the world of nature is the Canada Goose, so the chapter begins with a story about how the goose shows loyalty even to the point of death when its family is in danger. The illustrations alone are worth the purchase price. Each chapter has a large full colored illustration of the animal. Our kids love to try to draw their own version of each animal as we read the chapters. Following the story, there are several pages filled with fascinating facts and more illustrations about the animal for that chapter.
Each chapter then moves on to a character study from the Bible, in this case, Mordecai. The Bible character is introduced in a suspense-building page long story where the reader/listeners are challenged to try to guess the identity of the character before the end of the story. The next pages of the chapters contain a detailed study of that person's story and how they displayed or failed to display the character quality for that chapter. Mordecai was an example of Loyalty as he "stood by" the king when he learned of a plot to assassinate him.
There are three volumes in this series and all are jam packed with wonderful information. The books are designed to be read by fathers to their children and encourage great discussions in the search for Truth. By giving such great examples, children can firmly grasp concepts that would otherwise be too abstract for many of them. The books are large, beautifully bound and are almost 400 pages long. We plan to buy each of our children their own set as they begin their families.
This is #38 out of 52. I've gotten behind in my reviews, so now I'm playing "catch-up."
Kregg and the boys were gone last night, looking for hunting leases. A very manly pursuit, don't you think? Time for lots of testosterone and bonding.
That meant it was girls' night here. We spent the evening simply enjoying each other. And laughing. We did a lot of laughing.
Late in the evening, I received an invitation from our youngest, Rebekah, to join her outside. She wanted to show me something. I finished up a conversation with Mackenzy and made my way to the backyard. Rebekah was on the trampoline using an app on my phone to look at the stars. She kept using the word, "awesome." The delight in her voice was contagious.
I've always loved the stars, but never spent much time doing anything but simply gazing at them in wonder.
Rebekah was overcome by it all, as if she had just stepped into a grand, new space previously unknown to her. As she showed me each of the different constellations she had found and where they were in our night sky, the joy increased. We lay there on the trampoline giggling and gazing up at this incredible testimony to the Creator.
It is so very dry here that the static electricity was alive! It felt like hairs standing straight up on the deck of the trampoline. Every time we moved, there was a small shower of sparks. When we brushed against each other as we looked at another constellation on the phone, another spark and a shock. And again, we'd giggle.
And in that quiet communing, we could hear the sound of everything around us, our senses acutely aware. I found myself gazing at her face and the wonder found there, as much as I did at the stars, both revealing the Glory of His Hand. Perfection.
As we watched the crescent moon sink lower and lower on the horizon, our spirits feasted, along with our eyes. What a blessing it is to witness His Glory! And so we worship.
Curriculum choices, while important, are not as big a deal as some people make them. (My opinion)
What matters most in the success you will have in homeschooling is the philosophy of education that underlies each of your choices concerning the education of your children.
As a "seasoned" homeschooler, this is where I encourage those considering home education for the first time to start. I have written about this before, but as the end of the traditional school year arrives and many people are now choosing the materials they will use in the fall, I wanted to climb up on this old soapbox again.
If you already understand your educational philosophy, you can stop here. If, however, you haven't really thought about it, you might want to continue reading.
Many approach home education by simply going directly to the curriculum catalogs. They may eventually get around to processing enough information about different approaches that they kind of end up stumbling into a philosophy of education. But it is much better to start from the beginning knowing what you believe about how a true education occurs so that it can guide you through all the choices necessary to effectively accomplish your goal. Be intentional.
During my education classes in college, there were basically two kinds of classes. The vast majority were about "crowd management" or education from a "herd mentality." But a couple of them were actually about the learning process. Those were the ones I loved. But I still didn't connect the dots. When we started homeschooling Hannah, I set up our little school room to look like a public school classroom. The curriculum I chose looked a lot like the curriculum I had used in the public schools. We had an okay year, but not a great one because I didn't "get it." I think the reason the year went as well as it did was because we did focus on reading wonderful books to her. But other than that, there were no memorable successes.
In the years that followed, the Lord provided me examples of true education through a dear mentor/friend who was down the road several miles ahead of me in the process. I saw the difference between what I was doing/using and how she was teaching her children. There was no comparison. I was sold. The fruit I saw in their lives was so compelling that it quickly showed me I had settled for a mere shadow of reality. And there was no way, after seeing it, that I was going to continue down the path I had begun.
At that point, I wrestled through the philosophy aspect of homeschooling. And it has made all the difference. I read different authors from Marilyn Howshall, to Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, to Charlotte Mason, to Dorothy Sayers. I'm still reading about the philosophy of education: C. S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man and R. C. Sproul, Jr.'s When You Rise Up.
When we began homeschooling it was from a defensive posture, wanting to protect them from all the negatives that can be present in the public education system. But once I captured the vision for what true education is, it was no longer about defense. I was now homeschooling because I could offer them much more by customizing their learning experiences to fit their giftings and their needs.
So how does all of that affect the choices in curriculum?
Recognizing that the curriculum is not the answer, but merely a tool to aid in the process affords great freedom in the choice. No longer do I have to find that one perfect curriculum that will solve all our educational woes. There isn't one. Instead, I look for tools that facilitate what we have learned about how learning takes place in the most efficient and fruitful ways.
Sometimes that means a textbook for a certain season for a certain subject. Often it means using a great book to learn about a historical period. Or maybe a great resource that we can use as a jumping off place to delve more deeply into an area that fascinates us. We pull in LOTS of resources from field guides to internet searches to old, out of print historical fiction, to a simple framework that takes us through the Bible in stick figures, to the Character Sketch books, to an old series of books called the Book of Knowledge.
It's about the process. It's about the tools of learning.
What is your philosophy of education? What did the journey that culminated in your educational philosophy look like? What are your favorite resources? The ones you go to time and time again?
