BJU Press Blog

Meredith

Mrs. Walker’s Secrets to Unforgettable Teaching

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Phony and fake or true and genuine—kids can spot it a mile away. That’s why Mrs. Walker puts more than the usual preparation into her Distance Learning video lessons. She knows that most elementary-aged students don’t watch her math, reading, heritage studies, and English video lessons because they just love those subjects. There has to be something more to motivate them to learn. Here are three ways she does that in her teaching.

The “Hook”

Now this idea might sound scary if you know the story of Peter Pan, but with Mrs. Walker you have nothing to fear. Her “hook” is used to help your child make a connection. As she prepares lessons for a subject, Mrs. Walker asks herself, “What can my student relate to?” Teaching the lesson this way means that sometimes Mrs. Walker seems to go off topic, but she’s really using her hook to help your child build a bridge of understanding. She provides encouragement along the way, pausing to speak directly to your child so that he can think independently and draw connections.

Dinner Nugget

No, Mrs. Walker isn’t talking about something to eat even though she would probably love to have an excuse to make chicken nuggets on camera. What Mrs. Walker means is a nugget of information your child might share at the family meal. She does this by including in her lessons personal stories, such as the time she went skydiving (yes, really!) and various interesting facts as in this Math 2 video lesson, which introduces the baobab tree. You won’t have long to wait before your child says, “Guess what Mrs. Walker told me today!”

End on a Giggle

Learning is a great big challenge for your child at times, especially when he is just beginning to learn to read. But Mrs. Walker wants to teach him that learning is also fun. She tries to end almost every lesson on a positive note—most often with an amusing comment or story that causes a giggle to escape from your child’s mouth. (Just watch him and see!) It’s Mrs. Walker’s goal to use humor as a way to encourage your child to keep coming back to learn more.

By the time your child completes a Distance Learning course with Mrs. Walker, he’ll consider her more than just a teacher. She’ll be a true friend.

See Mrs. Walker in action with Reading 3—a favorite course for her Distance Learning students!

3 Ways to Grow in the New Year

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How do you prepare for the new year? Whether you celebrate the first day of the year with a party or treat it like any other day, now is a good time to think about the challenges (and blessings) of the past year and to set goals for the brand-new year.

But we can’t make assumptions about changing for the better without some prior preparation (Proverbs 21:31). Make the choice now to grow. A large part of growing is making an evaluation and setting a goal to change. God delights when we actively pursue changes that develop Christlikeness because it honors Him and reflects His grace to others. Take inspiration from the following practical ways to grow in the year ahead.

(Image use) WP 01/2017

Grow as a Mother

Bring on the New Year’s Resolutions! Find a tip for making each of your goals attainable.

5 New Year’s Resolutions Moms Will Want to Keep can deepen the relationship between you and your spouse as well as with your children. Which one will you focus on?

Grow as a Teacher

10 Tips for Your Homeschool Year offers ideas for refocusing after the holiday season. Choose one of these tips to apply to your homeschooling.

How Do You Plan Your Homeschool Year? Sometimes schedule changes take place in the middle of a school year. Be inspired with these resources.

Grow as a Homemaker

Use meal planning ideas from $5 Dinners on Pinterest! There are tons of yummy recipes to choose from, including meals for those in your family who have dietary restrictions and food allergies.

Household Management Forms can help guide you on the path from chaos to order. Download these printables that include cleaning lists, daily chore charts, and meal planning worksheets to get started.

How to Embrace (and Love) a Cleaning Routine keeps things simple by setting aside different days of the week for specific tasks. Learn how to develop a cleaning routine that works for you and your family!

Whatever goals the Lord lays on your heart for this new year, create your plan for growth so that it is laid out one simple step after another. Then share your plan as well as your goals with someone else. This action might be the hardest of all, but we all need motivation and encouragement along the way in this journey. Here’s to a blessed year of seeing God’s grace and strength at work in you!

10 Ways to Make Christmas Memories

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One of my earliest Christmas memories is of sitting with my family as we read aloud The Story of Christmas, a children’s book full of captivating illustrations depicting Christ’s birth with text from Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2.

Why is this memory so vivid to me? Probably because my family repeats this scene every year. No matter who is with us or how old we all become, it’s a wonderful way to focus our attention on the true meaning of Christmas. And we always do it before any of the presents are opened.

Whether your family is just starting to create some simple Christmas traditions on your own or you’ve developed quite a few over the years, here are a few ideas of ways to celebrate this season.

Christmas Crafts

Tell the Story of Christmas

  • “My Gifts”—A beautiful poem depicting the Christmas story through the eyes of Mary, Zacharias, and the shepherds.
  • The Story Behind Benjamin’s Sling—About a beloved JourneyForth picture book, this post offers insight into why the author chose to write a story about a poor shepherd boy.
  • Learning About the Big Story in Reading—Our Reading 2 and Reading 3 textbooks provide your children the opportunity to retell key events of the gospel narrative through what they learn. A homeschool mom tells how this activity was a blessing.
  • A Tale of Three Trees—Decorate your Christmas table around the theme of this traditional folktale.

Give Gifts with Homemade Crafts (and Printables!)

Make Family Memories

My wish is that these activities provide you with an opportunity to remind your children why Christ chose to humble Himself and be born as a man (Philippians 2:5–11).

A Chocolate Chip’s State of Matter

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Chocolate chip cookies—does your family like them gooey or crunchy? Either way, I’m sure everyone is a fan of this delicious treat. Some of you probably have the homemade recipe memorized, but if you’re like me, the boxed cookie mixes are a go-to especially when baking with kids. (Thank goodness it keeps things simple yet still delicious.)

Getting kids involved in the baking process is quite valuable in the long term, but sometimes it’s extra messy at the beginning! Not only does it give them the opportunity to apply math and science skills, but your kids also can show the ability to follow specific directions. Getting kids involved with hands-on learning experiences allows them to take an active role in their education and makes the lesson memorable.

So why not bake chocolate chip cookies to teach about matter and its different states? You probably won’t have any complaints!

Things You’ll Need

  • Kitchen helpers
  • Bowls, utensils, cookie sheets, cooling racks
  • Your family’s favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (or this recipe)
  • Ingredients for the recipe
  • Extra chocolate chips for “experimenting” (and eating)

This object lesson is a great time to use a “Know, Want to Know, Learned” (KWL) chart. It helps you guide the lesson as well as gauge your kids’ knowledge and then compares it to what they learned through the activity. Download this KWL chart for them to fill out.

KWL learning activity chart with chocolate chips

Know

Have your kids list what they know in the first column of the KWL chart. You can simplify the exercise to focus on a specific ingredient like I’ll do here with chocolate chips. The most obvious things your kids will likely write down are related to our senses (for example, shape, color, and state of matter). Place a few chocolate chips on the counter to help them get started if you’d like.

Want to Know

In this column on the chart, your children can put anything they want to learn about the chocolate chips. If they need help thinking past how many you’ll let them eat, suggest these questions for their chart.

  • How much does an average chocolate chip weigh? (You’ll need a kitchen scale for the answer.)
  • What causes chocolate chips to change their state of matter?
  • How much space (volume) does a chocolate chip take up?
  • What is the density of chocolate chips?
  • How long does it take a chocolate chip to change from one state of matter to another?
  • What is the melting point of a chocolate chip?

While your children fill out these first two columns on their KWL charts, you can begin gathering all the needed ingredients and kitchen supplies for the cookie recipe. Then let the mixing and measuring begin! As the cookies are baking in the oven, take time to work through the questions in the second column, helping your kids answer as many of them as possible.

Taking the cookies out of the oven gives you a great opportunity to explain the changes that matter can go through. For example, the chocolate chips go through a physical change. Your children can observe that the chocolate chips only change their state of matter from solid to liquid (melted) and back to solid again. Other ingredients (particularly the liquids) undergo a chemical change. These ingredients have lost their individual properties to become a new substance with different properties—the cookie!

Learned

The third column can be filled out as your children discover the answers to their questions during the baking time. Or they could fill it in while enjoying a nice warm cookie. Either way, be sure they record what they learned through this very scientific baking experience.

Learning charts like the one suggested for this exercise can be applied to many different subjects. Choose a holiday, historical event, literary genre, or another science topic to explore in this same simple way. Don’t forget about this downloadable KWL chart for your immediate use.

Inspiration for this science lesson came from chapters 3 and 5 of BJU Press Science 5 and Science 3, respectively. You can dig deeper into matter and find more teaching ideas in both of the corresponding Teacher’s Editions.

Making Math Enjoyable with Themes

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Memorizing math facts may come easy to many people, but some (myself included) have a harder time visualizing a numerical problem and solving it mentally. It’s not that we can’t do it but rather that numbers have little value when they’re separated from a real-life situation.

It’s the application of math that helps us understand the importance of knowing how to solve an equation. But sometimes learning best takes place when there’s an example of how someone else has used math in daily life whether that’s through household chores or an occupation. This type of example does two things. It shows how math can be used, and it also gives motivation to use it.

BJU Press elementary math introduces themes in every grade to help kids understand math and see how it applies to our everyday lives. Each grade has a unique theme that makes math more enjoyable but also relatable. Lower-elementary kids are introduced to special characters. Rhymes, songs, and stories about these characters are included in different lessons throughout the entire course.

MathK5

In Math K5, Cheddar the mouse lives on Kindergarten Lane in Mathville. He uses math to help Farmer Brown keep an eye on what’s happening on the farm. In one lesson, your child works with Mrs. Brown to count the number of cabbages in the garden row. Another day on the farm, shapes are found on Farmer Brown’s outfit (like buttons that are circles).

Math6

Once students reach the upper-elementary grades, themes provide your child motivation for using math. For example, Math 6 includes a search-and-rescue theme with read-aloud stories about search-and-rescue events for each chapter. Chapter 7 opens with the true account of Balto and other dogs that delivered a special serum to people who were sick in Nome, Alaska. The concepts learned in this chapter are multiplying fractions and decimals—an important skill for measuring out medicine just like Dr. Curtis Welch did when he treated the people of Nome.

See more examples of these themes in BJU Press math curriculum.