BJU Press Blog

Jenna

Should Reading Take More Time Than Science in Your Homeschool?

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How to Balance Reading

Have you found yourself spending time emphasizing science rather than the language arts in teaching early learning and early elementary courses?

These days we see a lot of emphasis on science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities in early education. That pull towards the sciences can change the emphasis of a child’s education. While it does encourage you to focus on a subject that’s often left behind, it also means giving less attention to another subject.

As a parent, you know that your child needs a balanced education, and this growing trend toward the sciences can cause you to take a closer look at what your child is learning. You may notice that, in the early grades, language arts can span across four subjects, and of those four, reading takes the most time. It makes sense to start balancing your child’s education by looking at the balance between reading and science in early grades—which leads to the following question.

How do you balance your child’s education?

Do you balance subjects by spending more time on one subject? Does equal time mean equal importance? Not necessarily.

Just as different kinds of matter have different weights, different subjects need more or less time for mastery. So a balanced education doesn’t mean equal time spent on all subjects. It simply means that you give your children enough time with each subject to develop mastery.

Why should reading take more time?

Since the best time for your child to master reading is by the end of Grade 4, it’s better to spend more time on reading in the early grades. Reading and the other language arts subjects are critical for your children’s early development. Proficiency in reading skills creates a foundation for their mastery of almost every area of study. Unless they first master reading, they will struggle to become independent learners, even in subjects they enjoy.

As much as one of your children may love doing science, he will be unable to comprehend his lessons or follow directions for experiments if he hasn’t first developed his reading skills.

What should you do?

Take time to build different reading skills—such as comprehension, critical thinking, and vocabulary—before Grade 4. Find topics that your children enjoy reading about and fill their shelves with books about those things. Books with strong visual and informational ties are a lot of fun to explore, and they build a foundation for research skills. Those visual and informational skills will better enable them to excel in the sciences later because they will be capable of comprehending the lessons and instructions that go along with studying those subjects.

As much as you want your children to have a balanced education, encourage them to become readers first!

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3 Ways to Encourage Children to Love Learning

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As a parent, you know that your children are much more likely to succeed at something when they enjoy doing it. In a previous post you met Dynel Fuller, a homeschool mom of ten, who uses routine to foster her children’s independence. Another of her goals for her children is for them to have a genuine love for learning because she knows that if she gives them the freedom to do what they enjoy, they will find it easier to succeed in everything they do. Here are some lessons she’s learned as she’s homeschooled her children.

• Let them focus on subjects they enjoy.

Dynel watches her children as they grow into their own unique interests, talents, and abilities. As their interests develop and they begin to set goals for their own lives, she adjusts their assignments so that they have the freedom to spend more time on subjects they enjoy while still taking all the basic academic courses. She encourages them to follow an interest—as a literature enthusiast, a musician, a mathematician, or a scientist—instead of pressuring them into being what they aren’t. So when one of her daughters expressed a desire to become a nurse, Dynel encouraged her to spend more time on math and science. She still does basic coursework in all subjects, but her studies emphasize the sciences.

• Let them feel the success of their accomplishments, even in weak areas.

Children who know they have trouble with certain academic areas often find it difficult to feel successful in those subjects. One of Dynel’s children has struggled with reading on grade level, but because Dynel doesn’t emphasize test scores and reading levels, that child sometimes comes to her filled with excitement about being able to read all the words on a page below grade level. That excitement for a small success isn’t overshadowed by the knowledge of what still needs to be accomplished. Instead of feeling like a failure, it feels like a milestone.

Dynel doesn’t believe that it’s good for her children to be unaware of what their weaknesses are. But she thinks it’s more important for the children to love to learn.

• Let them be kids.

Schools break up the monotony of the semester with Spirit Week or Crazy Hair Day for a reason. Children need the opportunity to see school from a different perspective from time to time. Dynel breaks up her children’s school year with fun days. They have Clown Day whenever a child completes the clown unit. They sometimes celebrate Pajama Day. She has them  assemble special portfolios that can involve fun aspects of other cultures, such as games, meals, and costumes.

Now see what your children can accomplish when they have something to look forward to every day!

Helping Children Reach Independence Through Routine

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Fuller family photo

How do I teach my children to be independent learners? How do I handle the rigors of a homeschooling schedule? Where do I start? These are some of the questions Dynel Fuller, homeschool mother of ten, had to face before she could dive into homeschooling her first child. She soon found that the key to her homeschooling success would be creating a routine that fostered her children’s independence.

Where did she begin?

She started her first child (now a college graduate) on BJU Press Distance Learning. The Fullers wanted to give their children a quality education that would complement their unique skills and abilities. The clear structure of BJU Press curriculum was a perfect fit. As she began homeschooling more of her children, Dynel found that the structure allowed her to balance multiple schedules with ease. She could even incorporate music lessons and extra activities.

Where has her journey taken her?

Today, three of the ten have graduated and moved on, but Dynel still homeschools six children. Each child has an hour of practice time on the piano and an hour of another instrument in addition to regular studies. She even has a special time when all of the children still at home gather for Reading Corner, when mom reads aloud for about an hour.

A day in the Fuller household would never pass smoothly if all of her children didn’t always know what to do, where to go, and when. Their routine has fostered her children’s independence, so much so that Dynel has confidence that she can go about her errands and not worry about disrupting their education. Her children know how to complete their lessons on their own, and if they need extra help, they also know to move on to a different subject until mom is free.

What bumps in the road has she faced?

No routine can be expected to work perfectly from elementary through high school. A big challenge she has had to overcome is the transition from middle school to high school. During their elementary grades, her kids found it easy to complete all the lessons in the textbooks. In high school, they struggled to finish everything in the normal amount of school time. Her goal of having them complete every lesson was throwing off her routine—until she learned that most high school classes don’t finish the entire textbook. Instead of working to finish every lesson in the high school textbooks, she focuses on lessons that will be valuable for each child’s unique learning goals. Her adjustments have further fostered her children’s independence because their learning goals center on their particular talents and interests. Their routine encourages them to pursue subjects that they have an interest in.

Every homeschool mom has valuable lessons to share, and Dynel’s story is full of inspiring lessons. Look for more about Dynel and her homeschooling journey in future posts!

Telling the Easter Story with a Poem (Printable)

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Your children are being surrounded by the Easter story right now. They study it in Sunday school and family devotions, and they hear it in sermons and cantatas. They even see echoes of the Easter story in the seasons as winter loses its grip and spring begins to bloom, and everywhere the plants are coming alive.

You can find out how much of the Easter story your children are understanding with a fun Easter shape poem. Download this printable shape poem, and have your children fill in the blanks by telling the story of Easter one word at a time. It might turn out something like this.

Jesus
Sin
Lamb
Cross
Spear, blood, tomb, stone
Guards, herbs, angels, clothes
Life
Pardon
Gift
Redeemer
Savior
Christ

In this sample poem, the first section focuses on Christ being sent, the second on His sacrifice, and then the last on our redemption in Him. As long as your child tells the story based on the truths of the gospel, the words he uses to tell the story are up to him.

To ensure that they’re considering where they should put each word, have your children follow a death, burial, and resurrection pattern. They should use the first four lines to talk about the death of Christ. Then the next two should focus on His burial, and finally the last six should focus on His resurrection.

Since your children will be telling the gospel story one word at a time, they should focus on using only a few parts of speech. The sample uses only nouns, but your children could switch between using nouns in one section, verbs in the next, and then nouns again in the last. Remind them that the length of the words they choose will change the shape of the poem they produce. If they choose shorter, simpler words, it will ensure that their poem looks more like a cross.

Download the shape poem printable and retell the Easter story with your children!

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Teaching Elementary Poetry Writing (Printable)

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Have you ever read a poem and felt like what you were reading was a Jackson Pollock splatter painting in words? All that most of us can remember about studying Emily Dickinson’s poetry in high school is reading a bunch of words that are somehow supposed to make sense together but don’t—or perhaps the teacher’s explanation of how the poet’s choice of a certain color expresses her sorrow over a particular event in her life that seems completely unrelated to the poem.

If you’re about to start teaching your child to write poetry, you may be looking back at your past experiences with poetry and asking yourself two questions: why and how?

Why should I teach elementary poetry writing?

Writing poetry teaches your child to use creative description.

Forget splatter paintings and layered meanings. In its simplest form, poetry is about description. It’s using words to express a feeling or an idea in such a way that readers can’t help but say, “Yes, that!” whether or not they’ve experienced that feeling or idea before.

This kind of description is by nature concise and precise. It’s concise because using fewer words eliminates distractions, and it’s precise because in order to create the clearest pictures, words must rely on their exact meanings.

How should I teach elementary poetry writing?

There are hundreds of poetry forms to choose from, in addition to free verse, but one of my favorite forms and one of the easiest to start with is the diamante. Using it encourages your child to start mastering the conciseness and precision necessary in poetry. You can find examples of the diamante in chapter 6 of English 5 Student Worktext.

The diamante is a shape poem that highlights similarities and contrasts. Though it is seven lines long, it only has sixteen words—six nouns, six verbs, and four adjectives. The first line gives a noun that contrasts with the noun in the last line. The second line gives two adjectives that describe the first noun. Line three gives three verbs (ending in –ing) that show the action of the first noun. Line four gives four nouns, two of which rename the first noun, and two of which rename the last noun. Lines five and six mirror lines two and three, except they describe the last noun, not the first. So it comes out looking something like this:

Fire
angry, orange
glowing, snapping, blistering
tongues, ashes, flurries, icicles
glistening, cracking, aching
sad, blue
ice.

Have your child create her own diamante poem that hopefully looks more like a diamond by using this printable template.

Find more diamante poems in the English 5 Student Worktext.