Show and Tell

You find all kinds of things as you go back through the work your kids have done for the past three months (that’s how far behind I was in organizing their stuff). Personal notes from your kindergartener, vocabulary cards chewed by the toddler, hard pencil scratches and scribbles by a frustrated fourth grader. But mostly what you find is a whole lot of effort and a whole lot of progress. And you also notice and make note of the gaps that you need to fill in during the last 10 weeks of the year. (Yep, we're starting to count down already!)

I had to share a couple of my favorites from my filing today. These are all from my fourth grader’s pile o work. I’ll share some of B’s work another day this week.

This is a flag he created to represent the country of Narnia. We looked at flags from other countries to see that they are symbolic and symplistic. So, he infused it with symbolism and I am proud of him for doing it so well. The triangles are Aslan's teeth, the birds are the four thrones and the colors all mean something too. But I am also pleased because no where on this flag is there a tiny stick man falling to his death or impaling a second stick man. Even though the battle scene in the book would have made these additions totally appropriate he determined on his own that these typical inclusions wouldn't have worked for this particular project.
Speaking of stick men...this is a memory verse technique they enjoy in which they draw parts of the verse. It says, "Draw the four things this verse says to remember." The four things are...the wonderful things He has done...His miracles...how He judged our enemies... and what He has done for you people of Jacob. I hope you can see some of these stick figure details... the ghostly "God" hand, happy dancing and big WOW eyes! It cracks me up! I love his happy interpretation.



This was a make-your-own-word search he did online and it included a secret message...which is what the first 12 letters actually make. Straight out of his own heart. It is a secret message I will cherish always in mine.



So, I made good progress in my stack today and moved into planning our last two units of study: Parables of Jesus (which entail a lot of thinking about agriculture and then also money) and Footsteps of the Messiah (geography and geology). J has just enough math to take him to the end with some breathing room (fractions are up next). B will plow ahead into his first grade math book when we start back again. And somewhere in there J needs to write a real report too.... how many weeks are there? No winding down here. We have a lot to cover yet!

Hello, Spring Break

It's spring break at our house! Of course, it's not spring break for anyone else, and my kids will be plugging away at schoolish things when the neighborhood kids are banging on the door in a couple weeks wanting to play. But it was a natural break in our curriculum. We always take two weeks off at Easter time it's just that we usually begin with Holy Week. However, this gives me time to figure out just what our family will finally do to celebrate and worship during Holy Week. I've been wanting to do something for years.

So, in your comment this week, tell me what your ideas are for Holy Week. I need something for each day...

Other than that, I think I'll post some musings about homeschooling philosophy in general. A couple ideas come to mind.

Off to tackle piles of school-work-past that needs a home. And I'm going to look for some field trips. I hear the zoo is doing something tomorrow...

Emergent Homeschool #1

I’m reading through The Shaping of Things to Come slowly, bites at a time. It’s packed with good, good stuff. Stuff I’ve been believing and talking about and seeking out for the past six years. Stuff I’ve completely ruined altered my life over in order to take part in. As a Christ follower, it’s full of the stuff that I breathe. But I’m trying to read it through the eyes of a homeschooling mom.

It’s obvious this isn’t the perspective that the authors intended their audience to have. But one of the tenants that sent my husband and I on our present journey is to be a part of a 7-day a week church… to be the church and not go to it. You know?

So, if I’m the church every day of the week, what does that mean for my home schooling? It should have a tremendous effect. In fact, I would venture to say that Christ-centered, missional schooling at home should not at all look like schooling in a classroom. It should look more like touching the lives of others and being flexible in scheduling and curriculum. And yet at the end of the day we need to be able to say we can read and write and do math.

The three principles for the missional church are to be incarnational, messianic and apostolic. Seriously, I can’t draw direct parallels between the church and schooling at home in these terms. But there are ways to apply them.

The one thing I’m chewing on right now – because it’s the easiest – is the idea of being holistic rather than dualistic. There should be no dividing line between school time and regular time, you know? We can learn always. But I am totally guilty of wanted to “get school done” so we can get on with the rest of the day. What does it mean to “get school done” in this context though? Just cover the stuff on the S.A.T. and then we're done or merge purposefully from one idea to the next taking into consideration the needs of those both within and outside the walls of our house?

Similarly, the teaching approach needs to be holistic. And I think, in our home, it is. We do unit studies which means we integrate all the learning subjects into what we’re studying. We begin with Scripture (not saying it’s the first part of the day because it isn’t anymore) and we let where we’re going to be at in the Scripture launch us into a unit of study. For instance: We just did the Miracles of Jesus. Talked about all the different kinds of miracles (over distance, nature, disease, death), read the stories, thought about why he performed them and even memorized some scriptures. Then we moved into studies about matter, water, germs, the immune system, communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases, first aid, meeting needs, and death. We read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to see a miracle in a different context and added some activities to go along with our reading. We studied adjectives in an attempt to better describe miracles and J learned to interview someone about a miracle God did in their life (thanks Tarver!) and he wrote a feature article about it. Math was in there too, but that tends to stay on a steady path toward mastery and relating it to our subject, truthfully, doesn’t happen often.

To me this is a holistic approach to schooling. Teach to the whole child all the areas, show them WHY it’s important to know the Scripture, or know some scientific/geographic/historical/political details to help us better understand the Scripture. Conversely, show them something about the world and then what the Word says about that principle or a time when that principle is utilized in the Word. It’s all about connecting learning to life. And as much as I can involve the whole child in the process, then the more holistic our process becomes.

Anyway, lots to chew on. So, I’ll try to spit it out here from time to time. Feel free to rub off my rough edges for me.

Thus, the Title

So, there is another side to this blog… I just haven’t had the courage to voice it yet. But I did have the courage to articulate a little of it to my man today. So, just to let you know, there’s something percolating in here. It has something to do with this book

which I’m five years behind on reading, but now is the time. It’s helping me organize the stuff that’s been in my head for what seems like forever.

Aside from all that. We are observing a sick day today. And as I went off to an appointment, my husband decided that my sick kids needed to go with him to the skate park. I seem to remember my mother saying many times, “If you’re too sick to go to school, you’re too sick to play outside.” Maybe his mom never said that. Or maybe it’s just one more way in which we consistently break all the rules.