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March Events

February 25, 2016 by Ben

The month of March is full of memorable events you can include in your homeschooling. Check out these highlights.

March 2, 1836

Texas declared independence from Mexico. Texans had been fighting small garrisons of Mexican soldiers since October of the previous year. The Texans disagreed over the purpose of their fighting. Some wanted Mexico to return to an earlier, less restrictive constitution. Others were interested in independence. When the Mexican central government dispatched an army under the leadership of General Santa Anna in February, the rebels began to unify by establishing the Republic of Texas. The Battle of the Alamo was underway while the Texans were declaring independence. I enjoyed visiting the Alamo in San Antonio with my family when I was homeschooled.

March 10, 1876

Alexander Graham Bell placed the first telephone call in the history of the world. It was to an assistant in the next room. Among the most prolific communication technology inventors, Bell used creativity and determination to serve generations. His exercise of dominion allows us to create communication connections with ease. So let your children pick up the phone and call a family member or friend!

March 15, 44 BC

Julius Caesar was assassinated. (Every year I use the Shakespearean phrase to warn my children: “Beware the ides of March!”) Caesar’s death sparked the final civil war of the Roman Republic. At the conclusion of the war, the Caesar Augustus mentioned in Luke 2:1 established an empire and a general peace within the Roman Empire. God choose this period of military peace to send His Son and to begin building His church.

March 20, 1852

Harriet Beacher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Her depiction of the realities of slavery encouraged the abolitionists in the 1850s, but the supporters of slavery were enraged. Stowe’s work illustrates the power a novelist can wield in society. When we teach our children about this book and its effect, we should point out that the literary skills they’re learning, such as theme, plot, character, and so on, are useful and not a waste of time.

March 24, 1882

Robert Koch announced his discovery of the cause of tuberculosis, a previously mysterious disease. Koch had been developing methods for identifying organisms that cause diseases for Germany’s department of health. By isolating the bacterium that caused tuberculosis, he laid the groundwork for developing a treatment. In 1905, Robert Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery. What a tremendous use of science to show love to one’s neighbor!

March 30, 1870

The Fifteenth Amendment went into effect, guaranteeing that the federal government would defend every citizen’s right to vote. This amendment to the Constitution was the final one in a group of three amendments that eradicated slavery and established protections for the rights of all citizens. In this election year, we can remember that it is the fifteenth amendment that protects our right to vote.

Is there a special event I missed? Let me know in a comment what your family is remembering this month.

EYE

February 24, 2016 by Cosette

Cast out. Homeless. Destitute. With child. Hagar, Abraham’s servant-mistress was utterly alone. Then “the angel” found her, bringing direction, assurance, promise. “Thou God seest me.” God’s eye was enough for her. It is enough for me.

“Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy” (Psalm 33:18). “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry” (Psalm 34:15). “He that formed the eye, shall he not see?” (Psalm 94:9). “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalm 119:18). “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling” (Ephesians 1:18). “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7). “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns” (Revelation 19:12). “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying” (Revelation 21:4).

GOLDEN THOUGHT: God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

[Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (February 24 reading).]

Q & A: Can I use the same textbook for multiple ages?

February 23, 2016 by Justin

“Will a fifth-grade science textbook work for my third and first grader as well? The younger kids might not understand it all, but all of the information is there. Won’t it just challenge them more?”

Every now and then I hear a question like this from someone wondering whether it’s a good idea to use one textbook for multiple children. The answer is generally no, and here’s why: Grade levels are important because spiraling is important.

Have you heard about spiraling?

It’s important that concepts are repeated in each grade. Imagine taking a pen and a sheet of paper and drawing a series of expanding circles without lifting your pen. The first circle is small, but each circle after that gets a little bigger and covers more of the paper. The paper represents a concept from a textbook, and each circle is a new layer of knowledge about that concept. The layers build on each other, and eventually the entire concept is explored.

My father grew up in the 1960’s with very little exposure to technology. Only in the past few years has he started using a computer. Recently he got a smartphone. He asks me for a lot of help, generally when he is trying to learn something that is new to him. I often I have to repeat procedures to him. He’s catching on, but slowly. I never had these growing pains because technology has surrounded me from a very early age. When smartphones came out, I caught on quickly. They were like second nature to me.

Good homeschool textbooks seek to make academic concepts second nature by surrounding your children with them at an early age and repeating and building on them in each grade. This process leads to a fundamental understanding that isn’t easily forgotten. When new ideas come along, students are able to quickly and easily absorb them because the foundation is already there, and they don’t have to learn everything all at once. This educational approach is called spiraling.

How does spiraling actually work?

Elementary science curriculum from BJU Press teaches weather in grades 1, 3, and 5.

In Science 1, weather is explored in a very basic sense. Children are introduced to concepts such as temperature, wind, clouds, rain, and snow, using colorful illustrations of sailboats and flags to present information in a way a six-year-old can easily relate to. They’re not only reading about the idea; they’re seeing it in a way that is meaningful to them with nothing else to clutter the experience.

Science 3 approaches weather in a more complex way. It introduces ways of measuring weather, using thermometers, rain gauges, weather vanes, and more. Again, illustrations are used, but there is much more text that digs deeper into the concept.

Science 5 explores layers of the atmosphere, weather fronts, weather forecasting, and more. Because the basics were introduced in earlier grades, a child is ready to dive into these advanced concepts instead of having to start at the beginning.

By the time children reach Science 5, they have built a foundation of science knowledge and understanding that even more complex ideas can be built on.

Have other questions about homeschool curriculum that you would like us to address in a future post? Let us know in the comments.

Customer Appreciation Event in South Carolina

February 22, 2016 by Justin

Are you registered to attend the upcoming Southeast Homeschool Convention in Greenville, South Carolina? If so, I’d highly recommend setting aside some time to attend our BJU Press Customer Appreciation event on Thursday, March 10, 2016, from noon to 2:00 p.m.

Our customers help shape our products, our services, and our values. We think of you as part of our family in Christ, and we have planned this special opportunity to get to know you and to help you get to know us.

Bring the entire family for an afternoon of food, fun, and door prizes. Say hello to some of your favorite Distance Learning teachers over lunch. Do you have friends who aren’t BJU Press customers but who are attending the convention? Register them for our event, and you’ll receive a voucher at the event that can be used toward the purchase of BJU Press curriculum.
Find out how to register for this event here.

Staying on Course with Homeschool Organization

February 18, 2016 by Guest Writer

tall ship sailing — © iStockphoto.com/FransDekkers

As a homeschooled kid, I thought very little about the amount of time and effort it took for my mom to keep everything organized. The concept only entered my mind when a new “school cabinet” showed up in our basement or living room and quickly filled up with books and DVDs, or when I saw my mom sitting at the kitchen table, notebooks and schedules spread out before her, like a ship’s captain consulting star charts and plotting the right course. With three kids, it took organization and discipline to make it all happen. Add in another child, or two or three, and homeschooling really gets complicated. Here are a few tips for keeping your little sailors and their school gear shipshape.

Color-Coding

Organization begins with stowing the books and supplies. My mom used a large cabinet with double doors and plenty of shelves, but other moms use cubbies, bookcases, drawers, and wall shelving─anything that can conveniently store a lot of books and educational items. To make it easier on you and on the kids, assign each child his or her own shelves, drawers, bins, or cubbies. Try color-coding these storage spaces using labels and the children’s names. The colors allow little ones to identify their supplies, even if they cannot read yet.

Of course, you also have those miscellaneous supplies that everyone needs─markers, pens, pencils, glue, scissors, sticky notes, folders, and paper. A separate cabinet or desk, placed in an accessible spot in your homeschool area, can house these “common use” items.

Using a Planner

Many textbooks and teacher’s manuals come with planning aids, and detailed homeschool planners are available online or in notebook format, depending on the style that is most comfortable for you. Before the beginning of the school year, set aside ample time to go through the kids’ upcoming subjects and create a plan for each child and every school day, right through the first month. It’s time-consuming but much less stressful in the long run. Of course, you can adjust your planner as you go along until you have a schedule that works well for everyone.

Teaching in Shifts

Homeschooling a mix of grade levels offers the potential for teaching independence and self-motivation. Using homeschool DVDs or online videos helps immensely here since you can start the older children with their lessons and check in on them periodically to keep them on track and to answer questions. Meanwhile, you can focus on the little ones who don’t yet have the attention span or the learning skills to take on a lesson by themselves. For instance, phonics and reading with a couple of the younger children happens while middle grade and high school kids are busy watching their video lessons.

If you don’t use video lessons, simply set up the older children in a quiet corner of the house with their reading assignments and then talk through the concepts with them later while the little ones are busy with worksheets. Work together on fun activities such as art, music, math manipulatives, and science experiments.

Knowing When to Flex

Many moms find that allowing their kids a little flexibility within the overall schedule works wonders. For example, Sophia may want to do math first and then science, rather than vice versa. If it doesn’t negatively affect anyone else’s schooling, Mom allows her that freedom to switch the two subjects. That way, Sophia is more engaged and interested in her work, and she gains a sense of responsibility for making that decision. It doesn’t change her assignment─ it just improves her mindset.

Motivating the Sailors─and the Captain

Whining and wailing about the workload happens in every homeschool, but it can really sap a mom’s patience. With a combination of consequences and rewards, you can keep wayward sailors in line and stay the course for a successful homeschool day. If Jackson doesn’t finish his math assignment within the allotted time, it goes on the “evening work” pile and the schedule moves on to the next assignment. Jackson─and his siblings─quickly realize that the more they accomplish during school hours, the less they have to do later.

At the end of the day, not every pencil may find its way back to the pencil holder, and a couple of history pages may still be unread. What matters is the moments when their eyes light up with understanding, when they randomly give you a squeeze around the neck and a kiss on the cheek, or when they bend over a younger sibling and say, “Let me teach you what I learned.”

• • • • •

Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.