BJU Press Blog

BJU Press Writer

Passport to Learning Another Language

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One of the keys to helping your children succeed in learning a foreign language is giving them lots of linguistic input that is both understandable and authentic. (If you want to know how important this kind of foundation is, you can read about it here.) BJU Press has developed its elementary Spanish curriculum based on that principle.

Called Pasaporte al español, it’s an introductory Spanish curriculum for grades 1 to 6. The material comes in two sets—Kit A for first through third grade and Kit B for fourth through sixth. Each kit is chock full of tools you can use to whet your child’s appetite for foreign language learning, including a hand puppet, various kinds of visuals, songs and stories on CD, read-aloud books, and much more.

Comprehensible communication

Pasaporte uses a total physical response method to teach grammar and vocabulary. Rather than translating and analyzing sentences, children watch your motions and observe the context to figure out what they are to do. At the beginning stage, the emphasis is on action and movement (standing, sitting, walking, pointing, etc.) rather than on responding verbally.

◊ Fostering openness to another culture

Communication is a cultural act, and language is only one aspect. So this curriculum introduces children to the richness of Hispanic culture through fascinating visuals about various countries, recipes, holiday celebrations, and cultural notes.

◊ Engaging all the senses

The lessons use visual and contextual clues to make the foreign language input comprehensible and compelling. The kid-friendly mascots (one for each grade level) as well as the versatile animal hand puppets (named Choco and Nacho) serve to get children involved in uninhibited communication.

◊ Instilling a biblical worldview

Like all the content we develop at BJU Press, this curriculum has an underlying worldview that is based solidly on Scripture. We know that God wants individuals from every linguistic group included in His kingdom (Revelation 5:9), and communicating with people in their native tongue is an effective way to demonstrate Christian love. That perspective comes through in Pasaporte in the explanations of Bible verses, missionary moments, the lyrics of songs, and the stories.

Extracurricular input

Regardless of what program or curriculum you use, here are some other steps you can take to expose your children to Spanish (or another foreign language) to facilitate their learning.

  • Attend a foreign-language church service. Many churches have Spanish-language congregations or Bible studies. This can be a great way to connect with native speakers.
  • Travel to Spanish-speaking areas. Whether it’s a mission trip or just a vacation, going to a place where Spanish is spoken will give learners’ comprehension a boost. Even a field trip to a local Hispanic grocery store is something to consider.
  • Visit your local library. It likely has a collection of picture books, story books, periodicals, and videos in Spanish.
  • Exercise hospitality. Invite Spanish-speakers into your home, especially families with children the same age as yours. Have a cookout; play games; celebrate a holiday together.
  • Explore the internet. You can access a wide variety of audio, video, and print resources in Spanish, but keep in mind that research shows that interaction with a person rather than a screen will result in more progress in learning the language.

Take a closer look at Pasaporte al español Kit A and Kit B.

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An editor at BJU Press until 2020, Dennis and his wife spent seventeen years homeschooling their three sons. Dennis occasionally teaches at their church and in his spare time enjoys running, playing racquetball, and interacting with their five grandchildren.

¿Hablas español? Misconceptions About Teaching Your Kids Spanish

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your kids could learn a second language as they’re growing up? There are some great benefits—especially in today’s increasingly globalized society. When my wife and I began homeschooling our three boys, I had high hopes of teaching them Spanish. After all, I had majored in it and had a graduate degree in language teaching. But in spite of those advantages, it didn’t happen. My plans fizzled out before we even got started—mainly because I didn’t make learning Spanish a priority for the boys but also because I had some misconceptions that got in the way.

If you want to give your kids a good foundation for learning another language, don’t allow the following four misconceptions to keep you from making Spanish part of your homeschooling or to derail your efforts in the early stages.

“If they hear lots of Spanish, they’ll just naturally pick it up.”

It’s true that the best way to bring up fully bilingual children is to immerse them in both languages from the very beginning. Ideally both parents speak the two languages, and the children have plenty of opportunities to interact with a variety of native speakers. But few families have those ideal circumstances.

Work with the resources you have, but remember that unplanned, unstructured exposure to the language probably won’t have much impact. What will help learners of any age is input they can understand about activities or topics they are interested in. (And by all means, if you do know Spanish, speak it to your children often!)

“I should have started sooner.”

Younger kids do very well at picking up pronunciation, but school-age children (and even teenagers) have definite advantages when it comes to other aspects of language learning. For example, they understand better how language works, and they’re more skilled at deducing patterns. So no matter what age your child is, the best time to start teaching him Spanish is now. Thinking that some magic moment of opportunity has already passed may be just an excuse on your part.

“It’s too hard to teach a foreign language.”

While it is more difficult to teach than some skills because language involves a complex set of abilities, making Spanish a part of your homeschool curriculum is likely more doable than you think. It’s essential to have reasonable expectations and to use the most productive approach. Your goal should not be for your child to master a certain number of vocabulary items or verb tenses.

A better initial goal might be to create lots of positive “Spanish-friendly” experiences that can set the stage for later learning. Instead of mind-numbing drills and endless lists to memorize, think in terms of playing with language—having so much fun with Spanish that your child will pick it up almost without realizing it. Of course, on your part it will take discipline and a good bit of work (thinking, planning, arranging, etc.) to make it happen.

 “I can’t teach a language I don’t know.”

This is a big hurdle but not an insurmountable one. Obviously it will be easier and you can do more if you do speak Spanish, but here are some balancing points to keep in mind:

  • You can commit to learning along with your children. Homeschooling parents often have to do this in other subjects they have no expertise in, whether it’s geometry or economics. It’s not easy, and we all have limitations, but for the sake of our children’s education, we tackle these subjects. (Warning: If you take this on, set a realistic goal and be sure you’re willing to stick with it. If you give up before reaching the goal, your student will have little motivation to keep trying.)
  • See yourself not as the teacher (as the expert who provides content) but as a facilitator (one who provides access to content). In language acquisition, the learner’s success largely depends on receiving comprehensible input (i.e., hearing and reading authentic, understandable communication in the target language). This is something you can do without knowing the language.
  • Similarly, an essential part of your facilitator role is to guide the learning by means of an organized, systematic approach. Usually that means using a curriculum that is designed to present things in a logical sequence. It should provide a framework without being rigid and limiting. In a future post, we’ll take a look at one such curriculum.

Perhaps you’ve had more success in teaching your children another language than I did with mine. What has worked for you?

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An editor at BJU Press until 2020, Dennis and his wife spent seventeen years homeschooling their three sons. Dennis occasionally teaches at their church and in his spare time enjoys running, playing racquetball, and interacting with their five grandchildren.

Inspiring Women in Science

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Behind every woman in science, there is often another woman.

History is full of women in science who we may not have noticed before. Rosalind Franklin was an emerging chemist at the University of Cambridge when she met Adrienne Weill. Adrienne, a chemist herself and a French refugee, was a former student of physicist/chemist Marie Curie. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Adrienne tutored Rosalind in French and eventually helped her get a job with the French government doing x-ray crystallography. X-ray crystallography involves using x-rays from atomic crystals to make images of the shapes of molecules.

At the same time (in the early 1950s), James Watson and Francis Crick were working on building a model of the DNA molecule that contains the code of life in the cell. They were having a hard time determining the shape of DNA. Rosalind’s work in x-ray crystallography on the DNA molecule convinced Watson and Crick that DNA was a double helix. Rosalind’s experience in chemistry opened up doors of understanding in biology for generations to come.

inspiring women in science

As a woman involved in science myself, I have a BS in chemistry and a MS in teaching and learning. It was my mom, who studied biology and chemistry, who inspired me to study science. However, I’ve largely stayed away from biology, working for the past thirteen years at BJU Press on textbooks for physics, earth science, physical science, and chemistry. But that changed two years ago when I started collaborating with several other people to write Biology (fifth edition).

While working on the first chapter, I realized that the story of Rosalind Franklin’s contribution aptly illustrates the way science works in the real world and how women can be a part of that. My hope is that our work on Biology (fifth edition) will inspire both young women and young men alike to investigate God’s world and use their knowledge to help people for generations to come.

If you’re interested in learning more about Biology (fifth edition), I’ll introduce the book to you in this video.

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Rachel is passionate about helping students engage, learn, create, and experience the joy of learning. And she wants this enthusiasm to be contagious. The same sense of wonder that sparked her curiosity in childhood spurred her to pursue a degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in education. She wants to share her passion as she draws from her teaching and writing experience to provide academic oversight for writing teams at BJU Press.

The Pilgrims and God’s Providence

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The following account of the Pilgrims first Thanksgiving demonstrates how much they had to thank God for. It’s a celebration of God’s preserving grace.

A small group of English Separatist Christians waited to board their ship, the Speedwell. They had lived in Holland for twelve years and were longing to taste freedom. They set out for the New World to spread the gospel, preserve their own language and culture, and bring up their children according to the dictates of their own consciences.

The voyagers loaded food and cargo onto the Speedwell. William Brewster brought along his printing press and almost two hundred books. On July 22, 1620, with a fair wind, the Pilgrims knelt and prayed for God’s blessing. They set sail for England, where they would join the Mayflower.

Both ships sailed for the New World on August 5, 1620. Within three days the Speedwell began taking on water and twice had to turn back. All the Pilgrims had to board the Mayflower.

Finally, the Mayflower set sail a month behind schedule with 102 passengers. With travel provisions already consumed, supplies would last only two months more. But they had sold their houses and could not turn back.

They faced not only shortages but also harassment from some of the sailors. One self-appointed leader jeered at the Christians’ seasickness and boasted that he would soon sew them all into shrouds. Ironically, within hours, he himself died of a strange fever. His was the first shrouded body to go overboard. The mocking ceased.

Halfway across the Atlantic the Mayflower encountered a violent storm that snapped the crossbeam supporting the mainmast. The situation was desperate until someone remembered the great iron screw of Elder Brewster’s printing press. Placing the press beneath the beam, they raised it back to its proper position. It held for the rest of the voyage.

By now their food was almost inedible. The bread was rock hard, the grain bug-infested, and there was no fresh water. But on November 9, the Pilgrims heard the cry, “Land-ho!” Tears of relief mingled with shouts of joy and prayers of thanks.

illustration of pilgrims signing the Mayflower Compact

Captain Christopher Jones informed them that they had reached Cape Cod—far north of where their patent entitled them to settle. But winter was too close to permit any more searching. As they had begun their long voyage by kneeling on the dock at Delftshaven to ask God’s guidance, so they ended it kneeling in gratitude on the sands of Cape Cod.

Providentially, they found land already cleared at Plymouth. It seemed as if unseen friends had prepared this very spot. But the summer growing season was over, and a bitter winter would follow.

By April 1621 the Pilgrims had lost twenty-eight of their original forty-eight male adults and forty-seven people in all. But in God’s mercy, an Indian named Samoset, who had learned to speak English from fishing captains, walked into their camp! He had a remarkable story to tell the Pilgrims.

According to Samoset, that area used to belong to a large hostile tribe that killed every white man who had landed there. But four years before, a mysterious plague had devastated the entire tribe. Convinced that some great spirit was responsible, neighboring tribes had shunned the entire area.

In October of 1621 Governor William Bradford declared a day of public thanksgiving. The Pilgrims furnished turnips, cabbages, carrots, onions, parsnips, cucumbers, radishes, and beets from their gardens for the feast. Ninety Indians joined them with venison and wild turkeys.

Elder Brewster led in prayer to God, whose providence had guided and protected them. “We have noted these things,” said Bradford, “so that you might see their worth and not negligently lose what your fathers have obtained with so much hardship.”

[Adapted from “The Pilgrims and God’s Providence” by David O. Beale, Faith of Our Fathers: Scenes from American Church History, edited by Mark Sidwell, pages 8–12.]

What are you praising our gracious God for during this season of thanks?

What’s the Best Thanksgiving Harvest?

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All right, we admit it.

For most of us, the bounty of the harvest we celebrate in November comes from the grocery store. The Pilgrims would never recognize our “harvest”—canned, prepackaged, pasteurized, and processed—as bearing any resemblance to theirs.

Not long before their harvest made it onto the table, it was either still growing or still flying around in the woods. Their harvest was the culmination of months of ceaseless prayer, backbreaking labor, and skillful hunting.

Does that mean our “harvest” has any less value than theirs did? Not at all! We pray too (for the regular paycheck), labor (to make the most of our grocery money), and skillfully hunt (for the best bargains).

Remember, though, that God provided for the Pilgrims’ needs exactly what was most appropriate to their time and place. Can you imagine gifts of food from Massasoit and his braves containing things like refrigerated pie crusts and prepackaged stuffing? As resourceful as those first settlers were, they probably wouldn’t have known what to do with such gifts! God evidenced His goodness to the Pilgrims with gifts they could use.

pumpkin pie

It’s easy to forget in today’s environment of “have it all” that everything we have is intended by God to remind us of His goodness. And the plain truth is that we would never be able to make use of “all” even if we tried. (Granted, some of us would prefer to learn that lesson by experience!) But just as with the Pilgrims, God provides for our needs in the ways that are most fitting to our times and places.

So while we want to take the best possible care of our bodies by eating healthful food, sometimes our most pressing need is for quality time with our families. And if that means buying a prebaked pumpkin pie instead of making it from scratch or using instant mashed potatoes instead of homegrown ones, does that make our harvest any less real, valuable, or commendable than the Pilgrims’ first? Not at all! We have an even better harvest—one they would gladly have shared.

By the time the little colony at Plymouth was ready to celebrate its first harvest, it had lost almost half the original members to sickness and hardship. The harvest we celebrate when we gather together consists not so much of the food on the table as of the people around it. The young people we do our best to rear for God’s glory, the elders we respect for their wisdom and experience, the family members of various ages who all have their part in shaping our lives—these loved ones are the bountiful harvest of God’s goodness in our lives.

So whether your Thanksgiving table holds little or lots and whether it’s fresh from the outdoors or fresh from a package, remember this: Far more important than the quality or quantity of the food on the table are the loved ones it’s shared with.

May you find His abundance in your life to be far beyond what you can ask or think this Thanksgiving season!

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