BJU Press Blog

Jenna

Jenna

About Jenna

Jenna, lead copywriter at BJU Press, holds a BA in creative writing and an MA in English. Though her homeschooling experience was somewhat unstructured, she appreciates the flexibility of homeschooling since it allowed her to spend most of her time reading. Now Jenna enjoys reading and writing fiction in her spare time. Read more posts by Jenna.

6 Types of Learning Experiences for Your Homeschool

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Learning experiences are the heart of teaching. A learning experience is any interaction with a student that leads to understanding new information. That may sound broad, but God’s creation is so wonderfully complex that learning can happen anywhere and at any time. Learning experiences aren’t limited to planned lessons; children can learn through spontaneous activities, dinner table conversations, grocery store shopping, or independent playtime.

Children’s minds are basically blank slates—they are constantly gaining new information. Education should gradually build on this foundation with new information and help children develop important learning skills. Successful learning experiences encourage children’s confidence and willingness to learn. Let’s explore some effective forms of learning experiences and tips for continuing successful learning.

Get ideas for creating learning experiences!

Will Group Learning Work in My Homeschool?

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children doing group learning with notebooks
“Can I teach this subject in a group learning setting to students of different grade levels?” This is a common question from homeschooling parents who are struggling with the time requirements of teaching multiple children of different ages. Specifically, parents want to know if they can do group learning with their textbooks. But often, questions like this just don’t have a simple answer. One family might be able to make it work, while another might not. Alternatively, it could work in your family with one subject, but not another. Before you give group learning a try, here are a few tips that might help you on your journey.

Keep reading…

Teaching Reading Comprehension: The BJU Press Approach

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BJU Press textbooks for teaching reading comprehension
Reading is perhaps one of the most valuable life skills taught in school. But the process of teaching children how to read is very different from the process of teaching them to understand what they’re reading. Just because a child can understand the meaning of individual words, or decode them, doesn’t mean that the child is actually grasping the meaning of what he or she is reading.

At BJU Press, we have crafted our reading program to develop reading comprehension skills, rather than just decoding, from Reading 2 through Reading 5. With the upcoming release of the Reading 4 and Reading 5 video courses, all of our elementary reading materials will use the Reading Process Approach to teaching reading comprehension.

So how does our approach work?

Scriptural Responses to Earthly Leadership

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earthly leadership nero
As we approach Inauguration Day, you and your children may be having regular conversations about the outcome of the elections, how leaders are chosen, and how Christians should respond to leaders who do not value God’s commands. The Bible should always guide our responses to the major events in our lives. However, our world often appears differently from the way it did in Bible times.

In Bible times, when leaders were often born into their roles, it was easy to see how God chose leaders. In a democracy, the people choose our leaders. Certainly God remains sovereign over all the choices of man, but is it possible that God intended for us to have a better leader but allowed the people to choose a worse leader? Are our current leaders not the leaders He chose for us? How should we as Christians respond to earthly leadership?

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4 Simple Options for Modifying BJU Press Curriculum

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boy using spelling 3 modifying curriculum post
Have you ever noticed that life and homeschool curriculum just don’t always see eye-to-eye? The days are either too short or they somehow get too full. How can you possibly get every subject done and all the extras, too? If you’re overwhelmed with life events, if you’re transitioning to a new curriculum, if you’re just getting into homeschooling, or if you’re spending way too much time each day just getting through curriculum, it may be time to consider modifying your curriculum to make it simpler for you and your children.

This doesn’t need to be another daunting task for you to accomplish. Modifying your BJU Press curriculum doesn’t usually mean rewriting it or finding additional resources to add to your day. Modifying either your parent-led or video course curriculum usually means deciding which resources provide the most value to your family and focusing on those. Our writers never intended for students to answer every question and complete every activity. Each book has more than you need for the completion of the course. An important learning principle is that successful education doesn’t mean doing all the things all the time. Successful learning comes when you do the things you have time to do effectively. We will look at ways to modify the program so it works better for you, but first, here are some things to consider before making those modifications.

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