His Treasure Seekers

Our Newest Audio Favorite: The Brinkman Adventures (Crew Review)

Posted on April 25, 2014 by Deanna

If you’re familiar with my blog, you’ve probably read about how much we enjoy various forms of audio entertainment. My boys seem unable to get dressed without some form of “stories” playing on their iPod dock. I had never heard of The Brinkman Adventures until an opportunity arose to review their latest season of audio dramas, but I jumped at the chance to review The Brinkman Adventures Season 2: Episodes 13-24. They have quickly become a favorite around our house.These 12 episodes follow the adventures of a family with eight children as they work to support missionary efforts around the world. Even if you haven’t listened to the first season, you can easily jump in and enjoy this set. (Our whole family was so engaged, however, we decided to buy the first season just so we could get more time with the Brinkmans!)

What’s it all about?

Without going into every episode, here are a few of the highlights from this season:

The first seven episodes are centered around a trip to Belize, where the Brinkman family is planning to visit a missionary couple involved in multiple ministries, including a school. In the first episode two of the kids find an old class ring and try to sell it to raise money to buy curriculum for the school, while also trying to track down the original owner. When they find him, he turns out to be a retired missionary. As the family drives to Belize they end up meeting with him and his wife, who encourage them with stories of their work trying to help the underground church in China and planting churches in Hong Kong. Eventually the family makes it to Belize and gets to see the work being done by the missionaries there. They even learn a little about the pirate history of Belize (which fascinated Ian)!

The last three episodes focus on the story of a family working in the Middle East. In one we meet a young man from a Muslim family who has a dream that starts him on a journey toward Christ, even though choosing to follow Jesus will come at great cost. His decision also triggers events that force the missionary family to flee the country to avoid imprisonment. The Brinkmans later meet this family at a retreat and get to know the son, who is struggling to come to grips with some of the hard things that have happened to his family recently, but eventually learns to bring his troubles to the Lord.

The stories are fascinating, and provided good opportunities for our family to talk about how blessed we are to have the freedom to worship openly, how God provides for people doing the work of His kingdom, and how people’s faith can grow stronger during persecution.

True Family Entertainment

Because the stories feature characters from toddler to teenager, they really are for people of all ages to enjoy. My oldest is six, and he was the biggest fan in our house, though these will certainly appeal to older children and teens as well. Our younger kids listened in the car, but I’m not sure how much they were following along. Occasionally certain lines would catch their attention, and then they would burst out laughing and repeat those lines to keep the giggles going. Arianna (2) thought it was hilarious to shout, “I need a Bible!” over and over.

My husband and I especially appreciated having something we could all listen to together that was family friendly, faith-building, and entertaining. The “Brinkmans” are based on a real family, and all the children play themselves (with names changed). We loved listening to them interact with each other, help one another, and learn valuable life lessons as they faced different circumstances. The stories were also a wonderful tool for teaching our children about missionary life, both the positive side as they heard about how God miraculously provided for the missionaries in the stories, as well as some of the harder aspects of serving in different places around the world.

The first time I put on The Brinkman Adventures, Ian wasn’t that into them, but I think it was because he already has things he enjoys listening to and he wasn’t really looking for something new. However, it wasn’t long before he was drawn into the stories, and pretty soon he was requesting them in the car, at bedtime, or just putting them while he was working on art projects or playing in his room. He has listened to the entire series more times than I can count, and I know they’ve really impacted him because he’ll often ask me questions out of the blue that end up being about something he had heard in the Brinkman Adventures and had been thinking about for a while.

Beyond the Episodes

If you’re interested in The Brinkman Adventures you’ll definitely want to check out their website (and Facebook page). Because the stories are based on a real family, many of the adventures are based on real life. On the website you can find out about the true stories behind each episode and watch behind-the-scenes video. If you want to hear an episode before purchasing anything you can even listen to one on the website for free (and if you explore the site you can find more than one!) They operate on a donation basis, with the suggested price for the entire season being $25 for a 4-CD set (with free shipping!) or $17 for an mp3 album, which you can download immediately. Happy listening!

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

A Daily Dose of Proverbs

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Deanna

Look at those faces! I cannot help but wonder where their journeys will lead them in the years to come. So many hopes and dreams are wrapped up in this one picture.

Someday I hope I will be able to look back and say, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4).

What can I do to help work toward that goal? I hear stories of friends who “gave their lives to Jesus” when they were little, but I just don’t know what that looks like. My children can tell you a lot of Bible stories (at least the older two can). They could probably explain the basics of salvation. Yet I don’t know to what extent they claim this faith for themselves. So the big question for me these days is this:

How can I help guide them to a place of wanting their own relationship with Christ?

Right now that best answer I can give is to show them the difference between a life lived God’s way and a life guided by man’s own attempts at wisdom. I want them to recognize wisdom and folly and to know which one they want to rule their lives. I want them to hunger for a knowledge of God. I want them to realize that trusting in the Lord is far superior to leaning on their own understanding. I want them to look to Him to supply their deepest needs, especially their need for salvation.

But those seem like lofty goals when the oldest of my children is only 6. Right now, I think the best thing I can do is to just fill them with the Word, pouring treasure into their hearts, hoping and praying that someday they will realize its value.

And so we read the Bible. A lot. For a long time I struggled with “Bible first,” a maxim I’ve heard repeated over and over in homeschool circles. We have a family Bible time in the evenings, and I wasn’t sure how do Bible in the morning without it affecting what we do with Daddy. As I considered our long-term goals for our children I realized that what I really wanted to do was soak them in the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament. Our evening devotions with Long Story Short by Marty Machowski have been wonderful for teaching our children about the stories of the Bible and how they tell God’s overall story of salvation, but we didn’t really get to spend much time in Psalms and Proverbs.

So for the last few months, our routine has been to start our school day on the couch, reading a chapter (or more, since Ian usually begs to keep going) out of one of the Miller family books and then 5-10 verses from Proverbs. Sometimes it’s just Ian. Sometimes the little ones join us. But we’re starting our day in the Word, and I’m trusting the Lord that His Word will not return void.

I look forward to this sweet time every morning, and I think Ian does too. The other day as we were putting away our Bibles, he turned to me and said, “Could we bring our Bibles to the park and do this with our friends? I think they’d like to know all this too.” I pray God will water the seeds I am planting and that Ian will share with all his friends and bear much fruit for the Kingdom of God.

Posted in Bible lessons, Kindergarten, Our Vision

CTC Math (Crew Review)

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Deanna

The name CTC Math has been familiar to me for quite some time, but I didn’t know much about it until I was given a 12-month family plan subscription to review the program. I wish we had found this sooner! I’ve shared a lot about how an online reading program saved Ian’s and my relationship while doing a great job teaching him how read. Now we have something that can handle math as well! CTC Math provides online math lessons for Kindergarten through Calculus, and homeschoolers can get a great deal on a 12-month family plan so you can access every level your family needs with the same subscription.

How CTC Math Works

The program is broken down systematically, starting with the grade level/course. As you can see in this screenshot, the course is then broken down into four streams. (These four streams are the same for each grade, K-6.) In Kindergarten the first stream (Number, Patterns and Algebra) is then broken down into eight topics.

When you click on “Number I,” a new menu opens up to show all the lessons for that topic. Each lesson consists of a short video (about 2-5 minutes) which teaches the concept, followed by 8-10 questions. After completing the questions, the student is shown the complete set of questions including their answers and the percentage they got correct.

When the student has completed all the lessons in a particular subject, they can earn a certificate based on their average scores: Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze. At first glance, I almost dismissed the message about working toward a particular color certificate, but Ian noticed it right away, and it was highly motivating.

I was stunned. One of the main frustrations I have had with Ian, particularly in math, is that he just doesn’t seem to care how well he does. For a recovering perfectionist who never would have been able to settle for a 90% if I knew I could retake the test to get 100% (and wipe out all evidence of that 90% by repeating a perfect test 3 times), I just don’t get Ian’s acceptance, especially when he gets things wrong just because of sloppy counting or other silly mistakes. However, the certificate system with CTC Math actually motivated him to want to do better. He didn’t insist on getting 100% (probably a much healthier attitude than my own), but he did want to improve himself and achieve at least a silver, sometimes even choosing to do lessons over in order to move up to gold. It drove him to really do his best, and for the first time he started caring when his carelessness cost him an answer he really could have gotten right. This sort of incentive was one of my favorite things about the program (and Ian’s too).

There are diagnostic and comprehensive tests for each topic (the only difference being the number of questions on each test), but after doing a few of those I decided to skip them with Ian. If I were considering letting him pass out of a topic I might use them, but for now I just want him to work through each topic systematically. I appreciate that the program doesn’t require the tests in order to move on, but I also like the fact that they are there if we choose to use them.

Our Experience With CTC Math

For the most part Ian was able to work very independently, which was great. The video lessons were very thorough and easy to understand. Most days I had him work on the laptop we have attached to our television so I could be working in the kitchen or folding laundry while still keeping an eye on what he was doing. Occasionally he would come across something requiring my help, but usually it was because he was stumbling over a word.

For example, in the section on mass, the student is supposed to compare two items and choose from the words “heavier” and “lighter” to complete the sentence. Ian reads really well for a Kindergartener, but even he had a hard time with reading some of the words. Sometimes there were pictures of the items, but not always. For example, one of the sentences was ,”An envelope is [blank] than a tennis ball.” It would have been easy to have a picture of each item, but instead he had to call me over to read “envelope” for him. Another sentence was comparing a loaf of bread with a cricket bat, which I doubt most American 5-year olds are familiar with. CTC Math is based in Australia, but we were able to specify which country we are in so the currency lessons would be familiar.

Unfortunately, the money lesson was the one real problem we had. The bills were hard to make out, and even I had a hard time discerning the denominations in some of the questions. I thought viewing the lessons on the television screen might help, but it actually made it harder, as the poor quality of the scans became even more obvious. We were glad to be done with that lesson, and I hope it’s something they will be able to improve in the future.

All in all I was very pleased with the program. Although it can be used as extra tutoring for students in traditional school, there are also many features that make it ideal for homeschoolers. I like that I can set the level for what is considered a “passing” grade. I also really appreciate the weekly reports I receive in my email as well as the reports I could pull up to see how he had done on various units (and print out to keep in his work portfolio). There was a lot of flexibility that allowed us to use the program in a way that best fit our family’s needs.

The program is very thorough as far was what it covers, but I don’t think it is enough to consider as a stand-alone curriculum. I might use it as a framework, but it would definitely require some filling out in order to use it over the course of an entire year. Ian completed all the Kindergarten-level work in about 4 weeks and then moved on to the First Grade lessons. Also, I personally prefer a spiral approach where the topics get revisited more often than once a year, and it seemed like I would have to do some serious planning in order to make that happen with CTC Math.

I was impressed with the simplicity and thoroughness of the program, but since it would be an additional expense after paying for another curriculum, I don’t think it would fit in our family’s budget right now. However, as my kids get older and are all doing schoolwork, I may reconsider that, since the $118.80 12-month family plan for homeschoolers could include everyone. (Homeschoolers can take advantage of a 60% off sale, whether purchasing a monthly, 6-month or 12-month plan!) They offers you five student log-ins at first, but if you need more you can simply request them for no additional charge, so it’s great for large families!

If you’re looking for a way to help your student become more independent in math, I highly recommend CTC Math. Visit their website or Facebook page to find out more. You can even try out the program for free!

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Home Nurture: It All Starts in MY Heart

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Deanna

Educating the WholeHearted Child: Chapter 3 (Part 2)

As they closed this chapter the Clarksons reminded us that “it all starts in your heart” (page 54) and “it all ends in your child’s heart” (page 56). Pardon the pun, but I think that really is the heart of the matter. It is easy for me to think about how I want to shape and guide my children, but I think I get into trouble when I focus on the end product rather than the starting place.

Reflecting on this idea was deeply convicting for me. I felt the weight of many of Jesus’ words as I realized some of the mistakes of which I am continually guilty.

Clean cups and whitewashed tombs.

Jesus condemned the Pharisees for focusing on the outward appearance while neglecting to tend to the inward reality.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:25-28).

To be perfectly honest, I think sometimes my mentality is that I’ll clean the outside of the cup first, or present a respectable whitewashed tomb, and then everyone can see something pretty while I work on cleaning the inside. But even if I manage to fool the outside world, I certainly can’t fool God, and really I can’t even fool my children, who spend pretty much every waking hour in my presence. They know the real me. They see my weaknesses and my flaws. They know that what the world might see isn’t the whole picture.

I don’t want my children to think of me as a hypocrite. I try to be vulnerable with them, to ask them for forgiveness, to share with them when I struggling.

The other day I was leading them in a time of communion, and I was trying to model for them the thought process I go through as I approach the elements.

“What sin have I committed?” I mused out loud, hoping to help them focus their thoughts inward and consider the state of their own hearts.

“You yell,” Ian said frankly. (I’ve been asking for forgiveness for yelling a lot lately.)

“Um… yes. So that’s what I’m thinking about right now. But you’re supposed to be thinking about your own sin.”

Which leads me to the second teaching of Jesus that the end of this chapter made me consider.

The log in my own eye.

Ian may have been overlooking his own sin to point out mine, but he learned that from a master.

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5).

As I try to help guide my children and correct them, I often am pointing out specks that pale in comparison to the log in my own eye. Now, obviously this passage isn’t addressing parents, and if we waited until we had dealt with all our own imperfections before correcting our children we would turn out some pretty scary offspring. However, I have ~~sometimes~~ often caught myself speaking to one of them in a tone that I just corrected when I heard them use it toward a sibling, or saying things in a less than encouraging way when I am frequently reminding them to “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

So as I consider the importance of nurturing my children’s hearts and shepherding their spirits to long for God, I want to keep in mind that it all starts in my heart. I need to be spending time daily in the Word of God. It gets said over and over, but in the craziness of life with four young children I let it slip far too often. I have taken to leaving my Bible open so I can catch a snippet in any spare moment. I often only get to read a few verses a day, but I try to make sure I at least take in a little of the Word daily. I post verses above my kitchen window and reflect on the same one for weeks at a time. I am trying to tend my own heart so that what overflows to my children is the kind of spirit-filled life I desire for them. Only then will I be able to truly nurture the hearts and nourish their spirits in such a way that they will hunger for the true source of life.

Each Mentoring Monday I share my reflections on what I’ve been learning from my “paper mentors.” I am currently joining in a book discussion of Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay Clarkson (with Sally Clarkson). If you want to join in, visit our Facebook discussion group page.

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Our Vision, Parenting Resources

The Resurrection: Letting Go of Expectations

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Deanna

It seems like the main lesson I learned through this Lenten season was that things are not always going to happen the way I expect. Our Lenten Tree limped to life in spurts. Because it wasn’t connected to either our evening family Bible Time devotions nor our morning Bible reading with school, we just didn’t add to it as regularly as I hoped. Instead we kept adding leaves in clusters.

There were two ways we brought our tree to “life.” The leaves were made using the printable “ornaments” from Gina at Seamless Days. She has drawn up simple pictures to represent the stories mentioned in No Ordinary Home: The Uncommon Art of Christ-Centered Homemaking by Carol Brazo. They tell the story of God’s redemption from Creation to the Resurrection. We also added flowers to represent some of the ideas I got from Bring Lent to Life: Activities & Reflections For Your Family by Kathleen M. Basi (e.g. people we’re praying for, things we’re thankful for). I still like the idea of the tree, but the next time we try it I think we’ll make sure to connect it with the devotions during our family Bible Time.

Even though we didn’t add to the tree daily or as often as I would have liked, at least it did happen (sort of) and provided the visual lesson I intended. I had other plans for Lent that never happened at all, so I went to church this morning with anticipation in my heart, hoping for a great glorious celebration tapping into two thousand years of tradition of celebrating the miraculous morning of the Resurrection, something that would wipe away the dissatisfaction of my frustration expectations.

Then my children had one of the most difficult times in church I can remember since we started keeping them in the main service with us a few years ago. (Actually, it was probably just one child in particular having trouble, but multiple issues on that front made me hyper-sensitive and then every little thing out of the others seemed a lot worse than it was.) I ended the service in tears. The morning had not been the glorious experience of my dreams.

I imagine the disciples felt the same way at the beginning of that Sunday morning so long ago. Here they were, at the culmination of three years of ministry following Jesus, expecting him to triumph over their oppressors and establish his kingdom, only to find themselves left with a body in a tomb. They adjusted to his death and tried to figure out where to go from there. Then the women came back from the tomb proclaiming Christ’s resurrection. In spite of the fact that Jesus had told them he would be raised on the third day, they still had a hard time believing it until they saw him for themselves. It wasn’t until they let go of their expectations that they were able to fully experience the awesome power of Christ’s victory over death. What started as a gloomy morning turned into a joyous celebration.

My own morning did get better. Our merciful God brought several good friends around me who offered comfort and encouragement, and by the time we left the church building my spirit was renewed and refreshed. Even though the rest of our day has just been an ordinary Sunday at home, there is something different inside me. I have spent the day reading through the story of Easter morning in all four gospels and reflecting on the beauty of the Resurrection. While my day wasn’t quite so dramatic as that first Resurrection Sunday, it still ended up being a time of joy and marveling at the glory of God. As I let go of my expectations I was able to embrace His mercy, His grace, and His infinite love. And that is a wonderful way to celebrate the day God triumphed over death and gave us the incredible gift of new Life.

Posted in Bible lessons, Holidays, Kindergarten, Preschool

A Home Full of Life

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Deanna

Educating the WholeHearted Child: Chapter 3

As I started to read through Chapter 3 (“Home Nurture: Shepherding Your Child’s Spirit to Long for God”), one word stood out to me: life. Here are a few of the quotes I highlighted on the first page:

“A home can be filled with praiseworthy Christian things and activities and yet still seem lifeless. It just doesn’t seem as though the Spirit of Christ is alive there.”

“…your first responsibility as a parent is to lead your children to the life-giving presence and reality of Christ in your heart and home.”

“You are to be the primary life-giving presence of Christ to your children, through his Spirit living and working in your life as a Christian parent and through his Word, just as Christ imparted life to those who came in contact with him…”

“Children who grow up in a home that is alive with the Spirit of God and whose spirits are nurtures and fed will be coming life-living and life-giving adults.”

When I finished page 45 I realized that every passage I had highlighted contained the word “life.” I’ve shared over the past few weeks that I find “home nurture” more challenging than “home discipleship” and “home education” (the Clarksons three “biblical priorities” that define a Christian home) (page 20). However, as I read through these first few pages of Chapter 3 I felt a sense of relief. (As in, I’m not screwing up my kids quite so much as I thought!)

I do think our home is full of life. There are a lot of Christian “things and activities,” but there is definitely more than that. The Clarksons look at Ephesians 6 and talk about Paul’s instructions to bring children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (To “bring them up” could also be translated as “to nourish” or “to nurture” them). As I read through their descriptions of what that nurturing looks like, I realized that there is a lot of that going on in our home.

We try to address things on a heart level. We practice grace. We talk to our kids and speak life-giving words into them. We pray with them. We ask for forgiveness when we’re wrong. We regularly have other families over for times of fellowship, prayer, worship, encouraging one another, etc. We are trying to walk out a life of faith in front of them.

I’m not saying we’re perfect or we’ve got it all together, but I’m not beating myself up quite so much either. I think reading through this book is helping me to take more notice of what I do and how I do it. It’s showing me not only my weaknesses but also my strengths, and I can see more clearly things I want to work on and areas in which I need to pray that God will help me to grow. For instance, I loved the Clarksons encouragement about the Word of God: “When you read the Bible, let them know it is God speaking to you as a family” (page 47). It would be easy to bring this into conversation, but sometimes I forget and Bible time just becomes part of our routine. I want to make sure my children know that I believe God’s Word is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12).

I love that we never stop learning and growing. I am so thankful for God’s grace in my life. I look back at the growth He has brought about in me over the years that I have followed Him, and I know that He is going to continue to help me become the parent He wants me to be. And when I mess up, at least I know my children have a Savior they can turn to. After all, if they had a perfect mother who could make all things right in their life, why would they need Him? All I can do is turn to Him to fill me with His life, and then let that life pour out of me into my children. And someday they will learn to go right to the source of true life because they have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Our Vision, Parenting Resources

coming soon… the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle!

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Deanna

I love how e-books have made it so easy to tap into other people’s wisdom without taking up any of the precious space on my already overflowing bookshelves. Over the past few years I have been so encouraged by reading what other moms have learned and taken the time to write about so others can benefit from their experiences. Sometimes I turn to women who are further on in their journey, cheering me on, letting me know I can make it through these years when all my children are so young. Other times I look for comfort in the camaraderie found with other moms of littles who are still in the trenches. I’ve also found many helpful e-books that teach me more about creating the kind of home I want to provide for my family.

That’s why I’m so thrilled about this year’s Ultimate Homemaking Bundle, which will be released soon! I’ll be sharing more about some of the fabulous books and other resources in the days to come. I am so excited about diving in to this wealth of wisdom (especially since I can even get them in Kindle format!)

Posted in Book reviews, Homeschool Resources, Parenting Resources

My Reputation With God

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Deanna

Educating the WholeHearted Child: Chapter 2 (part 2)

“Here’s the truth: You will never be able to live up to either the real or imagined expectations you place on yourself and your children. Don’t even try! Make it your goal to please God in your homeschool, not other people. If you are truly seeking to please God in all that you do at home, that is the reputation that matters to him and the one that should matter most to you” (page 42).

When I was eleven, my sixth grade teacher sat me down for a conversation that has stuck in my mind ever since. I was upset over a grade I had received (probably an A-, but for a perfectionist that was just painful), and she felt the need to offer some wisdom. She told me that someday my perfectionism was going to catch up on me and cause me a lot of heartache if I didn’t learn relax and have a little grace for myself and others. As I said, her words have stuck with me, and I’m so thankful she took the time to share them, because they have indeed saved me a lot of heartache over the years. The older I got, the more I learned that I was never going to be perfect, and being able to accept that has been important. Even more important was learning that God’s expectations for me are sometimes very different than those I set for myself.

Still, I need reminding of this truth every once in a while, especially when it comes to home education. Not only do I set standards high for myself, but I tend to impose them upon my children as well. Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with setting the bar high. It’s just that my tendency is to overlook the things that are truly important as I strive to reach that bar. I get frustrated by Ian’s lack of perfectionism (for instance, wondering why it doesn’t bother him when carelessness costs him a perfect score in an online lesson). Then my own perfectionism starts to kick in and our relationship suffers.

I am thankful for the Clarksons’ reminder that there will always be a temptation to judge myself by standards other than God’s. It is easy to worry about our reputation in other people’s eyes. How do our kids measure up against the neighbor in public school? Why can’t we get our act together the way that other homeschooling family does? We can beat ourselves up over which curriculum we should be using or which subjects we should be covering. There is no end to the standards we can impose upon ourselves, forgetting that the only one we really need to consider belongs to our Lord.

What do I want to be known for? Not for my children’s test scores or their breadth of knowledge on the vast array of subjects I hope we’ll be able to cover over the course of our homeschool journey. I want to known in this way: “Let your reputation be that you are faithful to God, known for ‘good deeds.’ (1 Timothy 5:10), ‘full of the Spirit and of wisdom’ (Acts 6:3), and that you ‘seek first his kingdom and his righteousness’ (Matthew 6:33)” (page 42).

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Our Vision, Parenting Resources

The Confident Homeschooler

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Deanna

Each Mentoring Monday I share my reflections on what I’ve been learning from my “paper mentors.” I am currently joining in a book discussion of Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay Clarkson (with Sally Clarkson). If you want to join in, visit our Facebook discussion group page.

Educating the WholeHearted Child: Chapter 2

Since our group will still be discussing Chapter 2, “The Christian Homeschool,” into next week, I may take two Mondays to write about some of what I’ve been thinking about as I read through it. This chapter is essentially an encouragement to parents who have chosen to educate their children at home, helping them to confidently address the common questions critics often raise about homeschooling.

At first I considered just skimming this chapter, because I face very little criticism or opposition regarding homeschooling. In my everyday life I am surrounded by other families who homeschool. At church, we probably know more people who educate their kids at home than send them to school. We spend time each week just hanging out with families from our homeschool support group. Even when we go to activities like library story time or gymnastics, there are lots of families in our area who homeschool. So I’ve never felt the pressure of making an “odd” choice.

One of the issues raised in this chapter was a concern about whether parents are “qualified” to teach their children. I have a teaching credential and a Master of Education degree. I get a lot of comments about, “Well, of course you’re more than capable of teaching your kids.” And although I know my paper qualifications are not really that relevant, I don’t really want to get into that with people who think such things are important. My background shields me from criticism so I usually just nod and smile.

However, as I considered this I realized that my confidence only goes so far. It usually starts to wobble when people ask, “How long do you plan to homeschool?” People tend to look rather shocked when I express an intention to educate my children all the way through high school. My insecurity starts to creep up as I wonder what they’re thinking. Are they surprised because, after all, my teaching credential is only for elementary school? Do they think I’m some sort of over-protective nut trying to keep my children in a bubble until they’re old enough to get married?

I realized that when it comes to homeschooling beyond the elementary years, I’m left just as exposed as every other homeschool parent. And so as I read through the Clarksons’ thoughtful responses to the questions that tend to come up, I realized that I am equally in need of a firm grasp on why homeschooling is the best choice for our family. I want to be just as confident about being qualified to educate my children through high school as I have been about preschool and the next few years.

“There is no biblical argument for putting your children under the shaping influence of other authorities during the most formative and impressionable years of their lives. American cultural norms notwithstanding, doing so runs counter to the biblical concept of the family… If family is God’s design for raising children, then a spiritually sensitive parent should not be surprised to feel conflict when faced with the choice to allow others to raise them for half or more of their childhood waking hours” (page 30).

God chose Eric and me to be the primary guiding influences in our children’s lives. We have been blessed with the responsibility of nurturing, discipling, and educating these precious souls with whom He has entrusted us. He will give us what we need to faithfully complete the task He has set before us.

“As a loving, committed parent, you are already certified by God to teach your children. You do not need the state to tell you whether or not you are qualified to train and instruct your children. You are” (page 38).

I’m looking forward to finishing this chapter, mulling over some of the ideas in it, and hearing what the others in our group have to say about it all.

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Our Vision, Parenting Resources

Spelling You See (Crew Review)

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Deanna

Spelling is a subject we’ve avoided addressing formally up until now because I wanted Ian to pick up spelling patterns instinctively through the context of reading and copywork rather than through memorizing lists and rules. That’s why I was so excited when I heard about the new Spelling You See program produced by Demme Learning, the makers of Math-U-See. I was even more excited get a chance to review Spelling You See: Jack and Jill (Level B). This program approaches spelling exactly as I hoped to, only in a more strategic, purposeful way than I ever could have come up with on my own without a lot of time and effort.

Spelling You See is geared toward elementary age students (or older ones who could benefit from going back and building a stronger foundation). It consists of five levels, labeled A-E rather than by grade level so you can place your child exactly where they need to be based on what spelling skills they have already learned. The website has lots of helpful information to guide you toward the proper placement, as well as sample lessons so you’ll know exactly what is expected of a child at each level.

I looked carefully through this material before selecting which level to use with Ian. He could easily read the passages from Wild Tales (Level C), but since we haven’t worked on spelling at all up to this point, and because Spelling You See emphasizes that each skill must be learned progressively and that it important not to skip stages, we decided to go with Jack and Jill (Level B) to make sure he developed a solid foundation.

It was definitely the right decision, and I was so thankful for the guidance Spelling You See provided so we could find the right fit. The first few weeks of the program were a bit too easy, so I just had Ian do a page from each week until I found a place that challenged him just enough to make it interesting while still being easy enough that he could take pride in his success and become confident about his ability to spell words correctly. Once we settled in, he just took off. He loves knowing what is expected of him, being challenged, and experiencing the joy of work done well.

What are the different components of Spelling You See?

There are two things to purchase:

Instructor’s Handbook ($16)
Student Pack, which for this level contains two consumable workbooks, a handwriting guide, and a pack of erasable colored pencils ($30)

These prices are for Spelling You See: Jack and Jill (Level B) and are current at the time of posting. Other levels may have different prices.

Please note: some of the pictures I’ve included here show us using a printout from a pdf file that was provided for the purpose of this review. The program is only available for purchase in book forms and the workbooks are consumable.

So what’s the program like?

Jack and Jill (Level B) contains 36 five-part lessons, designed to be used every day through the entire school year. Each day the child completes 2 pages in the Student Workbook. The first page focuses on a reading passage. (Jack and Jill uses a different nursery rhyme each week.) The daily work follows a consistent routine:

First you read through the passage with your student, clapping along with the words. (Because these are nursery rhymes and can be said with a distinct rhythm I wasn’t sure at first whether we were supposed to clap the beat or each individual syllable. The practice book pages say “clap in rhythm,” and the Instructor’s Handbook also referred to “clapping in rhythm,” which to my musical mind meant clapping beats, but then a little further in it said, “When you clap the words together, each syllable should be represented by one clap,” which made more sense to me so I was glad to get that cleared up.)
Then the student reads the passage with you, pointing to each word.
The next step always has the student examine the words in the passage looking for something specific. One day it may be capital letters. The next day they’re looking for a particular suffix, vowel patterns, words that rhyme, words that are opposites, etc. Sometimes they can just circle what they’re looking for; other days they’ll want to use colored pencils (included in the Student Pack) or highlighters.
Finally, the student copies a portion of the passage, helping them pay even closer attention to the text.

The second page for each day focuses on dictation, with the student writing down words or passages as you read them aloud. This is the part of the program where I really saw the progression of skill development. (The list of words can be found in the “Resources” section at the back of the Instructor’s Handbook, though I wish it were also included in the instructions for each lesson.)

For the first 6 weeks the top half of the page is just letter copying practice, followed by 6 words for dictation.

In the first 2 weeks, they give the student 3 words to trace, and then they write the same 3 words on their own.
In Weeks 3-5 there are 6 words, all following a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant pattern with the same vowel used all week.
In Week 6 all the vowels are used each day, requiring the student to listen carefully to the words as you say them. The student says each sound as they write the letters and reads back the words after they have completed each one (an important step for learning how to both encode and decode words).

Starting in Week 7, the entire second page is used for dictation (12 words).

At first they are still C-V-C words
In Week 8 beginning blends are introduced (e.g. frog, slip, this). In the first few lessons, the position of the vowel is given, helping the student to visualize where to put letters for the other sounds.
Weeks 14-16 focus on ending blends (e.g. dust, hand, rush).
Finally, Weeks 17 and 18 move to 5-letter words with blends at both the beginning and the end (e.g. twist, cloth, clang).

In the Student Workbook Part 2 the dictation section consists of phrases from the week’s passage rather than word lists.

My Thoughts on Spelling You See

I REALLY like this program. There are a only a few minor things that I’m not wild about. The first is the style of handwriting. Most letters were formed the same I have taught Ian, but others were slightly different. I just had him write those the way he already knew how if he got confused. He had no trouble with this style of “y”, but the curls at the bottom of letters like “t” and “l” seemed to throw him off so he went back to using straight lines.

I also didn’t care for the way the lines were given for the students to write on for their copywork. I prefer using a 3-line guide that helps the student know where both capital and lowercase letters should be started, and Spelling You See only uses 2 lines, so Ian was never quite sure how tall to make his letters. I was consistently having to ask him to make his “d’s” taller because they looked like “a’s”. (This was especially noticeable on the dictation pages, where there were no lines at all, only boxes. The longer we used the program, the shorter his lines started getting, to the point that even he had a hard time reading back the words because he couldn’t tell if it was a “d” or an “a.”)

My only other issue was not knowing what to say when Ian ran into pesky spelling problems, particularly words with the /k/ sound. By week 7 the only words he had missed were “doc” and “yak” (chose the wrong ending both times). Later when we came across “skid” and “skip,” I saw him starting to write a “c” on the first word so I just told him to make it a “k” and then think about how that looked when he wrote the second. Then when we got to “scum,” he missed it 2 days in a row and finally took to asking me whenever we encountered the /k/ sound because he never knew what it should be. I would have liked a little more guidance about how to help him through situations like these.

Overall, however, the program as is excellent. As I said before, it’s the way I always wanted to teach spelling, but with the hard part done for me. There is no preparation required, and everything is completed quickly. Ian enjoys the work, almost like it’s a game to figure out how to spell the words I give him, and I love that he finds the lessons so satisfying. I’ve already got Wild Tales (Level C) ready for when Ian finishes this level, and I’m looking forward to starting Elijah as soon as I feel like he’s ready for more formal schoolwork.

To find out what others are saying about Spelling You See, click the banner below for more reviews or check out Spelling You See on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/SpellingYouSee
https://twitter.com/spellingyousee

Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews