BJU Press Blog

Simplified Homeschool

You know that organization is the key to a smooth homeschool day. We share tips on planning your time and lessons as well as advice from other homeschool parents. There are also highlights from our Distance Learning daily video-lesson program, which is designed to simplify your homeschool.

Start here:

Unchanging Truth in Times of Change

by

I just had my third daughter. I thought I was prepared for this major life-event. I had listened patiently to all the three-children horror stories people shared with me while I was pregnant. I had anticipated the sleepless nights, the difficulty of scheduling life around feedings and naps, the piles and piles of laundry. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew life was never going to be the same again. I was right.

But somehow, change is always unpredictable. I didn’t anticipate that my newborn would be in constant danger because of two very curious and overly eager-to-help sisters. I didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to do “normal” things like running to the store for a gallon of milk. My “bring it on” attitude quickly changed to a “take me away, please” attitude as I struggled to juggle three small children, household chores, ministry obligations, and more. Life quickly became exhausting and chaotic.

In the midst of all the upheaval, I found myself taking great comfort in the fact that God never changes. In fact, James claims that with Him there’s not even a shadow of turning. God is still the same God He has been from eternity past. He is still the same God who sent ravens to feed Elijah during a drought (1 Kings 17), who raised a widow’s son from the dead (Luke 7), and who calmed the raging sea (Matthew 8). He is still at work. He is still answering prayers. I can trust him.

Remembering truths about God stabilizes my soul during unsettling times. What truths about God are stabilizing your soul right now?

Image Source

Sometimes I Feel Like a Cat

by

 

The other day on my way home from work, I observed a cat walking beside a house. As he rounded the corner, he froze, overwhelmed by the sight of dozens of pigeons pecking the ground right in front of him. He stood there, indecisive, as if he had no ability to act with so many decisions before him.

I feel like that cat sometimes as I survey the list of things I need to accomplish. One reason our lives are so busy is that we have more information available to us than people have ever had before, and most of that information is vying for our immediate attention. I would like to suggest a couple of New Year’s resolutions that you can make to help you accomplish the things that are really important this coming year, and I’ll throw in some ideas about how to use technology to make it easier.

  1. Resolve to turn off distractions that can wait.

    How much do you think you would get done if your doorbell rang every ten minutes with someone bringing a message to you? The first person might have a sale ad from the grocery store, the second an ad for the shoe store. A family member might drop off some pictures. Then the mailman might bring a long letter from another family member. Hopefully, you’re thinking, “That’s ridiculous! I’d never accomplish anything!” But with an email account or two on your phone and a social media app sending you notifications, you have essentially the same problem. The good news is that you can turn them off. You can find instructions on how to do this at the bottom of this article. Once you’ve turned off notifications, check your email or social media at a designated time. If your job involves a lot of email communication, maybe that’s once an hour. Many of us could probably check only once or twice a day without anyone noticing a delay. The less you can check it, the fewer distractions to keep you from accomplishing what’s important.

  2. Resolve to do the most important things first.

    It’s easy to want to start with things that you don’t think will take much time, but judging how much time a task will take is difficult. Instead, do the most important things first so that they get done. Something that can help with this is making a master list of things you need to do. When you think of something to do, put it on your master list; but keep a separate list for your daily plan. Your daily list can include items from your master list or new items that you really must do that day. When planning for each day, be sure to take a few minutes to prioritize the old and new items on your list so that the most important items are listed first. If you can easily see the most important items you need to do, you’ll be less likely to forget about them.

    Many apps available for smartphones, tablets, and computers will allow you to do this easily. Here are a few simple options: On an iPhone® or iPad®, you can use the Reminders app that comes on the device to make lists and sort them. On an Android™ device, you can use the Google Keep™ notes service to make lists that are easy to sort. Whatever you decide to use, even if it’s pen and paper, remember that a few minutes of planning can save hours, and that it’s best to do what’s most important first. (Don’t forget that what is high priority can change based on time; for example, around suppertime preparing food becomes pretty important.)

God has given each of us the same number of hours in each day. He has also called us to wisely use that time to be effective in each role that we have at home, work, church, and other places. Let’s use the time and tools He has given us to glorify Him in 2015!

Instructions for disabling notifications

On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, and choose Notifications. You can select the app you want to turn off notifications for and then adjust settings as desired.

On an Android phone or tablet, when the notification for the app you want to turn off shows up in your notifications, press and hold on that notification. App info should pop up. Select that; then uncheck Show notifications.

iPhone and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Android and Google Keep are trademarks of Google Inc.

What resolutions are you planning to make this year? Any technology resolutions?

• • • • •

Andrew enjoys helping others use technology in a way that glorifies God. He and his wife help with the children’s ministries at their church. Along with their three sons, they like to read together about other people’s adventures and then go out and have their own.

Food, Friends, and Family

by

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Why? Because of its simplicity. There’s no need to decorate my house, no need to spend hours searching for the elusive “perfect” gift, and no need to stress about how to squeeze fifteen different social functions into three days. Thanksgiving is all about taking a day to reflect on what the Lord has blessed us with and enjoy the company of family and friends (and good food!).

Image of a little boy eating corn bread.

Yes, good food is a big part of this holiday’s appeal. Somehow, spending hours in the kitchen preparing food with my family members and friends ends up being therapeutic. We laugh. We share stories and swap recipes. We make a big mess and enjoy taking the time to clean it up. For this day and this day only, I don’t mind if my preschooler ends up covered with flour. I just laugh, snap a picture, and preserve the memory for years to come. I end the day tired, but it is a happy kind of tired, the kind of tired that comes when you know that your cup of blessings has just overflowed.

A few weeks ago, the Interactive Marketing Department here at BJU Press got together to enjoy a good meal and swap recipes. Below are some of our favorites. We hope you will enjoy them.

Vegetables

Byron’s Cheesy Veggies

Megan’s Corn Casserole

David’s Sweet Potato Casserole

Bread/Stuffing

Meredith’s Cranberry Stuffing

Nick’s Cornbread Muffins

Dessert

Carolynn’s Pumpkin Cake

Soup

Megan’s Comforting Turkey Noodle Soup (great to make with leftovers!)

What’s your favorite part about Thanksgiving?

Apples for My Teachers

by

Autumn is the season for apples. Nearly every teacher has been the recipient of an apple before—at least the glass, gold, or plastic variety if not a real one. Giving a teacher an apple is a student’s way of saying thank you for helping him or her understand something. An apple is both tart and sweet. Like apples, some lessons can be swallowed with joy, and others go down with a sharp tang. Today I would like to say thank you for both kinds of lessons. Here are some apples for my teachers.

Image of a basket full of apples next to yellow flowers.

To my kindergarten teacher—thank you for getting so excited when I told you I had trusted Jesus as my Savior the night before. Thank you for asking me to share the news with the other students. You gave me my first early taste of the magnitude of what Christ had done for me and the importance of sharing it with others.

To my first-grade teacher—thank you for cleaning the blood off my chin when I disobediently ran after you told me to walk and fell on the slippery floor. Thank you for still letting me be a Pilgrim in the Thanksgiving play the next day, and for not allowing the other kids to tease me about my stitches. I still have the scar, and I still have the memory of your kindness.

To my second-grade teacher—I remember all those red checkmarks on the clock page in my math book. I honestly thought I would grow up never being able to tell what time it was. Thank you for working a little extra with me so that I could understand.

To my fifth-grade teacher—thank you for not letting me get out of doing oral book reports, even when I cried at the thought of standing and speaking in front of the class. Now I stand in front of a class on a regular basis. I’m so glad you stretched me to trust God and overcome my fears.

To my high school English teacher—thank you for assigning us so much writing. Thank you for teaching us that we could write “I don’t know what to write” in our journals until we thought of more words to put down. I wrote that statement less and less often as the years went on because there was just so much to say, and I felt like you would be interested in whatever I put on the page.

To my high school math and science teachers—thank you for making me think. Thank you for making me work hard. Thank you for bringing joy even to subjects that were difficult for me.

To my high school speech teacher—thank you for letting me do duet acting with my best friend for the speech contest. You will probably never know how many nights I spent wakeful hours dreading that contest. But being able to act with a friend took almost all the fear away and actually made it fun. Thank you for teaching me that with God’s help, we can actually enjoy doing hard things.

To my high school history teacher—thank you for challenging me to think critically about the events in my history book. Thank you for teaching me that if we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past, we are in danger of repeating them.

To all my teachers—you would probably be surprised how often I still think of you. Now that I’m a teacher too, I realize how much I learned from you—not just from what you said, but from who you were and how you lived. I realize how you prayed, labored, and sacrificed to invest in my life. You deserve so much more than an apple. Thank you is the very least I can say. May the Lord bless you as richly as He has blessed me through you.

Don’t Just Google It: Seeking Counsel Mom-to-Mom

by

Image of two moms drinking hot chocolate and having a conversation at the table.

It was our first house, and it needed some work. One of our first projects was tearing out the old stained carpet in the master bedroom. At a carpet store, we browsed the rolls of discounted carpet pieces, and the salesman convinced us to purchase a lonely roll that was supposedly of much higher plush quality than the other colors. The only problem—the color was white. At the time, we didn’t think having white carpet was a big deal, but we didn’t realize it would spotlight every speck of black sock fuzz and every minor stain.

We have all made major or minor decisions that we now regret. We might have avoided them had we taken the time to ask those with more experience for advice. Proverbs is full of instructions about seeking counsel from others, as in Proverbs 15:22 (NKJV): “Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.”

As I begin homeschooling, I want to intentionally seek out advice from wise mothers. Whether they’ve homeschooled their children or guided them through traditional school, they can lead me down a time-tested route and warn me about detours or potholes.

When I have a question about homeschooling, my first inclination, as a child of the digital age, is to Google it. While I’m thankful for the convenience and wealth of information online, I want to guard against the dangers of wasting time and having information overload. Before I realize it’s dinnertime, I have forty-six tabs open on my browser with opinions of people I don’t know from Adam.

If I lived fifty years ago and had a question on teaching or raising my children, the obvious course would have been to pray about it, talk with my husband, and call a trusted friend or relative. While the Internet brings the world together, it threatens to isolate us from true relationships. I know many wise, godly mothers that I can go to for counsel, and many of them happen to be homeschool moms as well. By approaching them, I’m going to sources I trust, and I’m building relationships with women who can encourage me and pray for me.

Seeking personal counsel is worth the extra effort, and integrating our lives with other believers’ lives is the biblical pattern. In Titus 2, the apostle Paul encourages the older women to mentor the younger women so that their lives might honor God’s Word. He told Titus to teach

the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. (Titus 2:3–5 NKJV)

So what about you? How have you found ways to balance the convenience of online information with the value of a trusted advisor? How do you balance social media with face-to-face relationships ?