BJU Press Blog

Successful Learning

You want your children to succeed in their education. We do too. We offer practical tips for teaching your children math, science, writing, and more! These tips can be applied to any homeschool curriculum. There are also highlights of our new textbooks with examples of how our curriculum trains your children to have success in their learning.

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Val the Mailbox Gal and Other Crafts for Valentine’s Day

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How do you let people know they are important? One way is to give them gifts. Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Most children may associate gifts with tangible objects, such as dolls, army men, or sweaters, but words—written and spoken—can also be gifts.

“Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24

Valentine’s Day centers around the gift-giving of words related to love and friendship. It’s a great day to teach children how pleasant (or harmful) their words can be. Giving valentines is a practical way to apply this lesson. Valentine cards can be handmade or store bought. It is the thought behind them that matters most! Here are a few different kinds of valentine crafts to get you started.

WP-Val-Valentine-Mailbox-2-2015When it’s time to share the valentines, use Val the Mailbox Gal. She’s great at collecting valentines around your house, at school, or even for Sunday school. But come February 14, she may need assistance sorting and delivering all of the messages. Seeing people’s joyful faces as you deliver the valentines is the best part.

If you have found another helpful resource for creating valentines, share the link in a comment below!

Create—Communicate—Illustrate

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We’re celebrating forty years of BJU Press art! An integral part of our products is the art our employees create to further communicate the meaning of the text that our authors write. Create, Communicate, Illuminate: The Art of BJU Press presents more than sixty pieces that show how the work of our employees in the department of art and design furthers our educational mission. Art media represented include colored pencil, watercolor, oil, acrylic, gouache, fiber, collage, digital, and polymer clay. If you’re in the Greenville area, come see the show in the exhibition corridor of the Sargent Art Building at Bob Jones University. It is on display until January 29. You can find directions here.

For those of you who are unable to attend, here are some photos of several pieces included in the show.

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Main entrance to the Sargent Art Building
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Entrance to the show Create, Communicate, Illuminate: The Art of BJU Press

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“Booker T. Washington” by Paula Cheadle from Book 4 of Take-Along Stories Set 2 from JourneyForth (watercolor)
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“Toucan” by Lynda Slattery from Science 5 (watercolor)

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“Drip Drop” by Cynthia Long from Reading 2 (fiber)

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From left to right “Heritage Studies 6 Cover,” “Heritage Studies 2 Cover,” and “Heritage Studies 3 Cover” by Ben Schipper (paper)

 

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“God’s Big Picture: Timelines” by Michael Asire and Del Thompson from Bible Truths B (digital)

 

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“Baseball” by Sandy Mehus from Math 3 (watercolor)

 

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“Old Ironsides” by Preston Gravely from American Republic (acrylic)

Images by David

What’s your favorite image from a BJU Press textbook or JourneyForth book?

Journaling: Tips to Get Started

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I wrote my first journal entry when I was ten years old. It wasn’t particularly interesting. Life as a ten-year-old was pretty mundane, and at that time I was not very skilled at expressing my inward thoughts and emotions. But it was a start, and I was excited about the prospect of filling up all the blank pages in the lovely green journal that I had received just days earlier as a birthday gift.

person writing in a journal

I filled up all the pages of that green journal, as well as the pages of many other journals over the years. Sometimes I wrote fairly regularly, but sometimes hardly at all. Now, when I occasionally thumb through the pages of those old journals, I can see the benefits of them. I am a better writer because of all the practice. I learned how to express the emotions, dreams, and innermost thoughts inside me. Best of all, I have a record of many answers to prayer, many unexpected blessings, and many dark hours. I can clearly see the faithfulness of God.

If you want to encourage your children or students to journal in this new year, here are some tips.

  • Buy each of them a nice, lined journal.

Journals themselves can inspire writing. I always got excited whenever I received or had the opportunity to buy a new one. Look for one with a spiral binding or one that will lie flat when opened.

  • Assure them that you won’t read what they have written without their permission.

Resist the temptation to grade their writing. If you do evaluate it, they will never feel free to express themselves.

  • Set aside times to write.

Your children or students should be free to journal whenever they wish, but at the beginning it is helpful to have them set aside a dedicated time once a week.

  • Let them write about whatever they want to.

Don’t assign topics. If your novice journalers don’t know what to write about, you can offer suggestions, but you should encourage them as much as possible to just start writing. The ideas will come.

Do you keep a journal? If so, how has it benefited you?

A Special Dinner Guest

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What changes do you see outside in the winter? Cooler temperatures, snow and ice covering the ground, fewer hours of daylight, and plants and trees losing their leaves are all familiar aspects of winter for those of us in the northern hemisphere.

But how do animals handle the wintery changes? Some migrate, others hibernate, but many stay active where they have been all summer. Food sources are more limited in the winter than in the summer, however, and that’s why bird feeders can be so important in the winter.

Black-capped Chickadee at a Salem, Oregon birdfeeder.
Black-capped Chickadee by Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife/Wikimedia Commons/CC-By-SA 2.0

People of all ages can enjoy watching birds at their feeder. In fact, a feeder can also be the stage for a variety of science experiments, so it’s a great option for an indoor science experiment for your class.

First, identify and make a list of the birds you commonly see around. Your students can share the birds they see at home or elsewhere. Definitely take note of the birds around your school though, so that you know what to expect when your students put up their bird feeders.

Second, put your students in groups. You won’t want to have one bird feeder per student hanging around your school building. So choose the most manageable number and put students in that number of groups.

Then guide the groups in choosing the foods they want to test. Hardware stores usually have some seed varieties individually packaged. You may want to limit the experiment to seeds or include other foods such as suet and fruits. Each group should choose one type of food to test.

You will also need to make or purchase identical feeders. You can make a simple feeder with a plastic container and string. Punch holes in the bottom of the container for drainage. Then punch three evenly-spaced holes around the rim. Cut three pieces of string about eighteen inches long and tie each at one of the holes. Tie the loose ends of the string together. Use this loop to hang the feeder.

Next, help your students choose locations to hang the feeders. (Make sure that all the feeders are hung at the same height.) If possible, set up one or more webcams to observe the birds. You and your students should plan a schedule for measuring and adding food to the feeders and making observations. Use a spreadsheet or some other worksheet or tool for your students to record their observations. They should include photos and sketches with their observations if possible. At the end of the experiment, guide a discussion drawing conclusions from the results.

• • • • •

Peggy has worked for BJU Press since 1999. Debra has worked for BJU Press since 1986. Both are currently elementary science writers.

Have you done an experiment like this with your class already? What other experiments do you like to do in the winter?

Fun with Snowflakes

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Make a Snowflake with snow falling

One of my favorite things about winter is snow. But living in the South means that I don’t often get the opportunity to enjoy any snow. Thankfully, I can still enjoy some of the beauty of snow by making my own snowflakes.

Do you remember making paper snowflakes? Growing up, I used to make or find a square piece of paper that I would fold into a tiny triangle. Then I would cut a pattern into it, unfold it, and . . . instant snowflake! But instead of going with just the traditional square piece of paper this time, I thought it would be fun to make snowflakes out of a couple other shapes too—a circle and a hexagon.

You can see the shapes I used for my snowflakes by clicking on one of the links below. The first document has just the shapes (square, circle, and hexagon), while the second document has the shapes with the initial fold/crease line shown.

Documents
  1. Snowflake shapes
  2. Snowflake shapes with fold line
Materials needed
  • Paper (construction paper, regular paper, scrap paper, or any other kind of paper you have around)
  • Scissors
Instructions
  1. Cut out one (or more) of the shapes.
  2. Fold the shape in half.
    • Square—Fold the opposite corners together so you have a big triangle.
    • Circle—Fold in half so that you have a half-circle.
    • Hexagon—Fold in half so that two corners meet. You should have an odd-looking triangle with two distinct points and the third “point” looking like the side of a square.
  3. Keep folding the corners together until you have a small triangle-shaped piece of paper
    • The square and circle should be easy after the initial fold. The square takes on a triangle shape after the first fold and the circle will resemble a slice of pizza.
    • The hexagon is a little harder. After the initial fold, fold again so that the two distinct points meet. You’ll still have a triangle with two distinct points and one odd-shaped “point.” Fold so that the odd-shaped point and the distinct point (opposite it) meet. By then your triangle should be small enough.
  4. Cut a pattern into the edges of the triangle shape.
  5. Unfold your triangle and see what you created.

Making snowflakes is fun and (relatively) easy. Try making snowflakes out of all three shapes to see how different each one looks. I hope you enjoy making snowflakes as much I did!