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Being Grateful for the Hard Times

November 24, 2020 by Jenna

2020 has been quite a year. January 1, 2021, may be the most anticipated New Year’s Day since Y2K. Many of us are just so ready for this long year to end. We want to put the stress and the struggle behind us and start over on January 1. As relatable as this feeling may be, though, it doesn’t support the gratitude we should be giving to God for the opportunities and growth we have had this year. But how can you even begin to feel grateful for a year that seems like nothing but hard times?

Make the Choice to Be Grateful During the Hard Times

Gratitude is a choice. It’s the choice to accept what you have been given as an opportunity from God. Though all year you may have been struggling with financial insecurity, grief, suffering, stress, and fear, God has meant this time for your growth so you might learn to trust in Him no matter the circumstance. “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). You can go through this valley with confidence, knowing that your Comforter will be with you. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Let Christ Carry the Weight of the World

Technology and social media usage are constantly increasing in our world. As they do, we are going to be more aware of the struggles and trials of people we’ve never met. Most of these people we never will meet. Through social media and news reports, you may inadvertently take up the burden of grief of a young family, half a world away, who has just lost their father or mother. And it is right and good that we should empathize with their pain and lift them up in prayer. After all, we should “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep” (Romans 12:15).

But only Christ could carry the weight of the grief and sin of the whole world alone. You weren’t meant for that. When the sins of the world and the grief and sorrow of pain and loss would overcome you, step away from social media. Step away from the news. And most importantly, pray and give it all over to God.

Count Your Blessings

When you are at your lowest, that’s when you need to remember the blessings God has given you the most. A new child born, a homeschool win, answered prayers, a friend or loved one who’s showered you with love and support—these are the daily reminders God has given us of His grace and love. If you have been working on a thankfulness project this year, now is an excellent time to use it. You can look back on the blessings from this year to remember that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

For all we hope that 2021 will be a year of reprieve, we can’t know what will come next. The faith in God you are developing now will be necessary to weather the storms you may face next year. So in the last few weeks of 2020, cling to God’s promises, and thank Him for the opportunities to grow this year.

Learn Your Child So Your Child Learns Best

November 17, 2020 by Megan

I have four daughters, and they are all very different. They are individuals who have different interests, different personalities, different strengths, and different weaknesses. And I have found that I can’t homeschool them all in the same way.

One of the great strengths of homeschooling is the ability to tailor instruction to your individual child. But in order to do that well, you have to learn some specific things about your child. Here are a few to start off with.

1. What motivates your child?

My two oldest daughters are night and day different. One is a bookworm and a bit of a tomboy, the other is an artsy girly-girl. So it’s no surprise that different things motivate them. It’s fairly easy to motivate my bookworm—she loves to read so much that she checked out the library’s entire shelf of Civil War books when she was studying that period in history. But there’s no way my girly-girly would do that. She would be much more motivated to learn about the Civil War if she could dress up in a hoop skirt and give a video presentation.

You can probably figure out what motivates your children by paying attention to what they choose when given a choice. What do they do in their free time? What do they order off the menu at a restaurant? For birthdays, what do they want?

Whenever you have the opportunity to incorporate your child’s interests into their schoolwork, do it. Let them make a video of themselves reading or doing a science experiment. Let them dress up as a story character, write silly sentences in English, or create and decorate their own multiplication tables. When your child is interested and engaged in what he or she is learning, that learning is going to stick.

2. What is your child really good at?

When I was in school, I never particularly enjoyed studying grammar, but I was really good at it. It made sense to me. Unfortunately, it didn’t make sense to a lot of my classmates. So those grammar lessons were excruciatingly slow. I got bored while my teacher explained concepts over and over.

If your child is really good at something, it’s okay to speed up your instruction. You can even skip over lessons if you’re confident that your child understands the material. Remember that you are in charge of the curriculum.

3. What does your child struggle with?

Our children aren’t perfect. Each of them has unique struggles. Maybe you have a struggling reader like I do, or your child is barely passing math class. Maybe you have a horrible speller or a child with illegible handwriting.

Don’t be discouraged. You as a homeschool parent are in a unique position to help your children through their struggles. You can slow down instruction and customize it to get more senses involved in the learning process. And you can tweak assignments and many other things to help your children learn best.

4. How does your child learn best?

A lot of homeschoolers will talk about learning styles. There are basically four types of learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and read/write. As I wrote in a previous blog post “Learning Styles and Multisensory Learning,” knowing your child’s preferred learning style isn’t essential for homeschooling, but it is helpful. Paying attention to your child’s learning style can help you figure out how to help your child understand difficult concepts.

Not every homeschool is the same because not every child is the same. Learning how to motivate your child, recognizing his or her strengths and weaknesses, and paying attention to his or her individual learning styles will empower you to help your child learn best.

Preserving Leaves: Fall Color, All Year Long

November 10, 2020 by Guest Writer

I will never forget my most stunning experience with fall color. I was in high school, taking a driver’s education course, and it was time to practice our freeway driving. My driving buddy and I didn’t know where we wanted to go. So, the instructor suggested we drive to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. When I was driving, I barely looked at anything but the road. It was only my second time behind the wheel! But, when my driving buddy took over, I was able to look out at all the beauty of God’s creation around me. And what a sight it was! I didn’t take a camera with me, so all I have are memories. Wouldn’t it be exciting to keep that fall color around? Preserving leaves with glycerin is easy!

Preserving Fall Leaves

If the beauty of fall has a special place in your heart, you might want to try preserving fall leaves with glycerin. Glycerin is a natural preservative that you can find in the health and beauty section of your local store. You’ll find the rest of what you need around your house and neighborhood. Take your kids on a neighborhood walk to pick some fresh leaves from the trees. If you can find a variety of colors, this activity will be the most interesting.

Pour your small bottle of glycerin into a pie or cake pan. Then fill the container with water twice, adding that to your pan as well. Mix well. Snip the end of the stem off your leaves and pile them into the glycerin mixture. Then add a second pan or a Styrofoam plate with something heavy on top to keep the stems of the leaves submerged. The last ingredient you need is patience. The process takes several days. Small leaves may be done in a couple days. Larger ones could take a week. When they are done, the leaves will be shiny and flexible. They will maintain their leafy feel, and the color that remains will last for years.

How Leaves Change Color

Fall leaves change color when the trees cannot produce enough chlorophyll as the days shorten. Chlorophyll is a green substance stored in chloroplasts that allows plants to make energy from sunlight. The yellow and orange colors are also in the chloroplasts of the leaves, but they are hidden by the abundance of green. Some leaves will make a red pigment in fall that helps the leaves stay on the trees longer. This allows the trees to draw most of the nutrients back into the branch before the leaves drop. Harsher, colder fall weather tends to result in more red color.

How Glycerin Preservation Works

So, how does preserving leaves with glycerin? Glycerin follows the water transport pathways that already exist in the leaves. Plants have a tissue called xylem which is specialized for water transport. Cut flowers can soak up water from a vase and remain fresh looking for several days. In the same way, the leaves are soaking up the glycerin which will prevent them from drying out. They are also losing the water they had as the glycerin replaces it. Because the red pigment is not stored in the chloroplast, it will leak out somewhat during glycerin preservation.

Taking It Further

Several variations of this experiment will maximize the learning that takes place.

Compare leaves taken freshly from the trees to leaves collected off the ground. Which ones work better and last longer? The fresh ones will work better, because they were more recently involved in active transport of water. The ones from the ground may have already started to dry out.
Try leaves of different sizes and compare how long it takes for them to incorporate the glycerin. Since the glycerin can only enter the leaves through the cut stem, it will take time for it to travel to the tips. The farther it has to go, the longer it will take. You may want to check all of the leaves after a couple days. You should notice a difference in the large leaves near the stem versus the tips.
Include leaves of multiple colors, and find out which ones maintain their color the best. Some of the leaves will not be as vivid after the glycerin bath. Yellow and orange leaves tend to maintain color the best, because those pigments are stored in the chloroplast. The red chemical is water-soluble and turns the water a reddish-brown color as some of it leaks out.
Put some leaves in water instead of glycerin, and watch what happens to them over time. The leaves in the water bath will eventually dry out and turn brittle. The glycerin leaves will last for years and bring the joy of fall color to your home throughout the year.

• • • • •

Valerie is a wife and a mother to a very busy toddler. In her free time she enjoys reading all kinds of books. She earned a B.S. in Biology from Bob Jones University, minoring in Mathematics, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Ohio State University. Valerie has 15 years of experience working in research laboratories and has coauthored 8 original research articles. She has also taught several classes and laboratories at the high school and college levels. She currently works as a Data Analyst and a freelance writer.

6 Time Management Tips for Your Homeschool

November 3, 2020 by Arianna

As a homeschool parent you juggle teaching, housework, cooking, shopping, loving your family, and working from home daily! Perhaps you want to be better at time management, but you don’t know where to start. Time management is not as far out of reach as you might think. Here are a few tips you can implement into your routine to help you manage your schedule better.

1. Get in the Right Mindset for Time Management

If you’re like me, you may see time management tips and roll your eyes, thinking, “Yeah, I’ve already tried that, and it didn’t work!” I’ve learned that when strategies don’t work or stop working, it’s often because I have the wrong mindset. Instead of following a formula, time management is about committing to change. Learn to recognize patterns that don’t work for you and your family and remove them. Be prepared to make mistakes and take the time to learn what is best for your situation.

2. Spend Time Getting Organized

Taking time to organize your home and your schedule is an investment that saves time later. Begin working on one thing at a time and don’t get distracted by everything else that needs to be organized. Setting realistic expectations for what you can get done alleviates discouragement and frustration.

When it comes to your homeschool, you may want to work with one child at a time to figure out an organizational plan that works for that child. Another approach could be organizing the plan and materials for one subject at a time. Involve your kids in the process! Make it fun by color coding subjects or types of material. Giving everything a proper home and labeling it will help the kids know exactly where everything belongs.

3. Use a Calendar

A calendar can help you visualize in advance what the schedule for a day or week will be so you can avoid overbooking. You can use a weekly or daily calendar to create cushions between tasks and events. Generally, plan for things to take longer than expected. It’s better to plan ample time between events rather than having to rush if things don’t quite go as planned.

Consider the amount that you can handle and work around that. Being a rushed and overwhelmed parent does not benefit your children. This principle applies to your kids’ homeschooling as well. Evaluate the amount of work and assignments your kids do each day. Having fewer subjects or homework assignments in one day may mean that your kids can then spend more time working on difficult concepts or the most important projects. Be flexible!

4. Write Everything Down

Practice starting new months, weeks, and days with a list of things to accomplish. Write them in a journal or in an app so that you can reference them later. Once you’ve written everything down, prioritize your list. Put them in categories such as “urgent,” “to do later,” and “if there’s time.” Writing things down frees up your mind to not have to worry about remembering them later.

As your kids grow older, encourage them to keep lists of their own assignments and chores for the week. Keeping track of their own work fosters children’s independence and their ability to prioritize and schedule their own workload.

5. Don’t Multitask on Important Things

If you have work to do that requires concentration, find a block of time in your schedule to do uninterrupted work. When your mind jumps between work and homeschooling and what to plan for dinner, you won’t be productive! Designate focused time for each significant task. Set a timer and work until the timer goes off. If things pop into your mind that you need to do later, write them down, move on, and address them when you finish.

Setting focus time for lessons and assignments will also help your children’s work. Encourage them to sit down and work on one thing, without doing anything else, for a set amount of time. Doing this helps them learn to focus and gives them independence so you can work on your own tasks.

6. Plan for Rest

Rest is just as important to plan into your schedule as anything else. God intended rest to be a regular part of our rhythm of life, and He modeled it by resting on the seventh day of Creation. Times of rest are reminders to enjoy life, and to let God be in control. Resting is a practice that is important to teach your children. Times of fun and play and relaxation help reduce stress and make the brain more profitable when you return to work. Set regular times in your schedule to take a break on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis.

The most important thing to keep in mind about time management is that it is not about doing more. Being so busy you do not have time for one more thing does not necessarily mean that you have mastered time management. Learning to manage time wisely is learning when to say “no” so that you can say “yes” to more important things, like enjoying family time and being available for your kids when they need you.

Tips for Teaching Left-Handed Writers

October 27, 2020 by Arianna

If you have young lefties, you may be unsure of how to teach left-handed writers. But don’t worry! At first their natural tendencies may appear backwards or confusing to you but teaching them writing is very similar to teaching a right-handed child. There are just some important things you should keep in mind when you start teaching them.

Proper Pencil Grasp

Just like righties, they should use either tripod or quadrupod grasp. You should emphasize how to correctly hold a writing utensil. Holding the utensil with poor positioning, like using every finger or wrapping the thumb over the index finger, makes it difficult for lefties to see their own writing. The tripod grasp involves the thumb and index finger pinching the sides of the pencil while the pencil rests on the middle finger, allowing for better control. The quadrupod is a similar grasp but they will pinch with both the index finger and middle finger while using the ring finger for support. Also, having a higher grasp, about 1 to 1.5 inches from the tip, allows them to see the paper better.

Proper Paper Choice

Use loose leaf paper with your lefties as they are learning to write. Try to avoid three-ring binders and spiral notebooks, because these are uncomfortable for lefties to rest their arm on when they write on the right-hand page. It’s the same discomfort right-handers feel when writing on the left side of the page. The best writing situation for young writers, regardless of which hand is dominant, is to write on loose leaf paper with a hard surface right underneath. All of our early worktexts and activity books in K4 through Grade 3 use a hinge binding, so the pages can be easily removed and used outside of the book.

Proper Paper Placement

Teach your lefties to tilt the paper to the right. Paper tilting allows your children to naturally rest and move their arm and wrist. The hooked wrist associated with lefties is a compensation so they can see the text to the left of where they are writing. However, hooking the wrist results in smudged ink or graphite on the side of the hand and poor penmanship habits. Having students tilt their paper helps them place their wrist in a comfortable, correct position and keeps the text to the left of their hand visible.

Model Character Placement

Most traditional worksheets place character models on the far-left side of the page. However, it’s harder for lefties to see models on the left-hand as they write. Instead, models should be either the row above where the student is writing or on the right-hand side of the page. Here are some worksheets for our cursive font that place the models in a place where lefties can easily see them while writing. If you have worksheets with the model on the left side, you can create your own model in a different place for your children’s reference.

Proper Letter Formation

Your left-handed writers should learn to form letters in the same way that a righty does. For example, they should make their o with a counterclockwise stroke. Learning the strokes this way will increase the speed of their writing, because proper letter formation involves minimal strokes and naturally leads to the next letter.

The only difference in strokes will be that lefties will likely cross their letters right to left, “pulling” instead of “pushing,” specifically with lowercase letters “t” and “f” and with capital letters that have a bar like A, G, H and F. This difference is fine, and shouldn’t slow them down.

Correcting Mirror Writing

Some lefties may initially default to “mirror” writing where they form letters backwards and write from right to left. One way to train them out of this habit is to put a sticker or mark on the left hand of the page where they are supposed to start the line.

Keeping these tips in mind can help you and your left-handed writers have a solid start to handwriting. Some things may be confusing or difficult for your lefty at first. But with proper techniques and practice, they can become comfortable and confident in their writing.