BJU Press Blog

Christian Homeschooling

Joy of Learning: Taking Joy at Work

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taking joy in your work
When I was six, my dad took our family on a homeschool field trip to Patriots Point Navel & Maritime Museum in Charleston, SC. I was awestruck from the moment we drove into view of the Yorktown aircraft carrier. After exploring old navy ships, I was hooked—history became my favorite subject and it was fodder for play. And I still love history.

Joy permeates my history learning. Even in times when it became tedious, the thrill of mastering the subject never left me. That experience with my dad set the tone for my learning.

As homeschool parents, we want our children to have joy in learning. I want my daughters to love history as much as I do.

Joy of Learning in the Bible

Do we have a scriptural expectation to find joy in learning? We should start by looking at our expectation to have joy in our work. Then we can examine the connection between learning and work.

Taking Joy at Work

Most Americans view work as a drudgery, a long slog until they get to what they really want: a weekend full of pleasure. One way to summarize the American Dream is “work hard so you can play harder.”

But that’s not a scriptural view of work. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us three times that “a man… should make his soul enjoy good in his labor” (Ecclesiastes 2:24, see also Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 and Ecclesiastes 5:18-19). And for good reason. The Lord intends that we “enjoy the good of all [our] labor” (Ecclesiastes 5:18). Even better, we should enjoy our labor because God gives us the power to work (Ecclesiastes 5:19).

Best of all, the work itself is given by God. In the beginning, God gave mankind dominion over creation. Even before the Fall, Adam and Eve worked by dressing the garden and naming the creatures. So when we take up a lawful task to meet a legitimate need, we are fulfilling one of God’s original intents for us.

You know, we, as parents, experience this every year at Thanksgiving or Christmas. We invest long hours on our feet in the kitchen preparing a feast. Some parts are fun, like making pie filling. Others are tedious, like peeling ten pounds of potatoes. Then there’s the layer of dust to clean from the fine china. And, of course, we can’t use the dishwasher for that! But what a joy it is to cook with your family and see them delight in the meal! Even scrubbing the grease off the turkey roast pan can be satisfying.

Let’s not lose sight of the joy we can have in the work of homeschooling our children. Some parts may be fun, and others tedious, but the final result is priceless. It is God’s calling for us, and we can and should find joy and satisfaction in it.

Work and Learning

Since God intends for us to have joy in our work, can we apply that to our children’s learning? In Isaiah 28, the Lord makes an important connection between learning and working.

In this passage, the prophet confronts the proud farmers of his day. He asks them a series of questions about the fundamentals of farming. Do they plow? Are they planting seed? What about the careful arrangements they make in planting their seeds? “Of course!” the farmers are thinking. Then Isaiah asserts, “For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him” (Isaiah 28:26). You can imagine these arrogant men thinking: “No he didn’t; I figured that out on my own,” or, “My dad taught me that, not God.” But they’re missing the point. God created His world to work a certain way. When we adjust our lives through careful observation to the way He made the world, we are learning from Him. The learning is coming from His hand.

The learning and the work both come from God’s hand. For our kids, their primary calling—their work—is to learn. It enables them to exercise dominion over creation, just like the farmers from Isaiah’s time. And just as God gives joy to the laborer, we can expect God to give joy to our children while they work at their calling of learning.

I love teaching history to my daughters. My dad inspired a lifelong love of learning about the past, and now I get to share it with his grandchildren. Homeschooling is one of our most blessed callings. What a delight it is to be right there, when the light bulb goes off for our children and we see the joy! What we’re witnessing is our children receiving the gift of joy in learning from God’s own hands.

God’s Word to His Creation

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God's word in His creation
Our family enjoys gardening together. Even our toddler likes to explore the climbing pea vines and touch the ripening tomatoes within her reach. In the South, we’re able to plant early. We can put out plants vulnerable to cold by the beginning of April so that we can start enjoying their fruit in May.

However, this spring, we experienced three late frosts. My eight-year-old enjoyed wrapping the plants with rags and towels to keep them safe from the light frost. Despite our efforts, we lost a zucchini plant and a bell pepper.

While we scurried around to keep our plants safe, it was comforting to reflect with my daughter that the Lord was holding all things in His hands.

The World—By His Word

Paul tells us that Christ holds all things together (Colossians 1:17). It isn’t that God created the world and left it to operate on its own without His intervention. He actively maintains it.

And Peter identifies God’s means of maintaining the world: His Word (2 Peter 3: 5–7). God keeps the world by the same word by which He created the world.

Snow—By His Word

In Psalm 147:15–18, the poet meditates on the role of God’s word in the coming and going of snow.

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

These images depict God’s word running across the face of the earth, scattering snow like wool. Then, He sends another word and it melts the snow. God is able to speak to every single particle in the universe. And since He is infinite, He still has unlimited capacity to listen to His people and answer.

The psalmist concludes that “he sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel” (Psalm 147:19). The word of God to creation and His written Word are laid side by side. So let’s compare these two sets of words.

Similarities

The words have the same author. And so those words have the same authority. His commands are perfect. And the Lord is unchanging. He’s consistent. He never fails to hold the sun together. And His precepts will never change.

Dissimilarities

God’s written Word is clear. While interpreters have disagreements about the meaning of some difficult passages, the vast majority of Scripture is plain, while His words to creation are unintelligible to us.

Another dissimilarity is how the words are obeyed. God’s words to creation are never disobeyed. Yet we routinely ignore the written words of God.

God’s Word and Natural Laws

Scientists have identified some theories that hold up under testing so often that they call them laws. I believe that the laws of science persist because the Lord is constantly speaking to creation. Bodies of mass always attract (something we call gravity) because of God’s speech. If the speech of the Lord is observed in creation, we ought to observe the effects of God’s speech in nature. These observation will help us know how to live well in God’s world by living according to His creation.

God’s Word and Creational Norms

When we adjust our lives according to the way God made the world, we are finding creational norms. These norms enable farmers to plow, plant, and harvest in a timely manner to bring in the most produce. In some cases, God gives us explicit instruction in His Word. But we often have little direct instruction from the Lord. So we study creation through the lens of God’s Word. We observe, experiment, and adjust. When we do so, we are “listening in on” God’s speech to creation.

Finding Norms

The education of our children enables them to identify creational norms. Their study of math, science, language arts, and history is a collection of discovered norms that they should incorporate into their lives to live well in God’s world. That’s why education is so important to our children. It’s also reason for the need to learn in the context of a biblical worldview.

Help Your Second Grader with Division

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hands-on division activity
As your homeschool child becomes proficient in multiplication, it’s time to introduce division. Typically, children become comfortable with division in their third-grade year of math. But the end of second grade is a good time to introduce the concept.

Since math models God’s creational order, it helps to introduce division with physical objects. Using objects from God’s world to touch, play with, and observe, we can help children develop a number sense that fosters deep understanding.

Guided Hands-on Discovery of Division

Here’s a fun hands-on activity to introduce division in a non-pressure way. All you need is an empty egg carton with the lid removed and twelve small objects. I used jelly beans, but  dried beans, beads, or any other small household items will work.

Remember, the goal is to develop number sense that leads to deep understanding. We don’t want to overwhelm our children.division activity materials

  1. Have your child place all twelve jelly beans in the egg carton, putting two in a compartment until all the jelly beans are used.
  2. Ask, “How many jelly beans did we start with?”
  3. Ask, “How many compartments are in use?” To find the answer, he can count out the six compartments that have two jelly beans.dividing jelly beans
  4. Ask “How many jelly beans are in each of these compartments? It’s the same number in each one.”
  5. Dump out all the jelly beans and focus on the compartments.
  6. Direct your child, “Fill four compartments so that each compartment has the same number of beans.” Make sure your child feels free to make mistakes at this stage. Have him keep adjusting the number of beans until four compartment hold three beans each.divided jelly beanscounting jelly beans
  7. Say, “This time fill three compartments so each compartment has the same number of beans. Were we able to still use all of our beans? How many are in each compartment?”
  8. Finally, ask, “How many compartments would we use if we put six jelly beans in each compartment?”
  9. After your child makes a prediction, allow him try it out.
  10. Once your child becomes comfortable with the process, explain that he has done division! Division is simply making equal groups or sets out of a larger number. So we could say that 12 beans divided into 6 sets equals 2 beans in each set. Or 12 beans with 3 beans in each set makes 4 sets.
  11. Now write out the equations that your child has already worked out with beans: 12 ÷ 2 = 6, 12 ÷ 3 = 4, 12 ÷ 4 = 3, and 12 ÷ 6 = 2.
  12. As you write out each equation, have your child recreate it with the jelly beans. This will help your child visualize what the equations mean.

writing out problemsworking it outSustained Learning

This activity shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes. Over the next couple of days, review with your child, and let him practice independently. Keep the egg carton and jelly beans handy, so your child can work out the problem hands-on each time. After he works a problem out with the jelly beans, he can write down his discovery.

Remember, you’re not trying to guide your child to achieve mastery of division right now. You’re introducing it ahead of third grade, when your child will spend more time developing skill with division. So after a week, move onto another math concept your child has more experience with.

My wife and I have found that these interactive math activities ignite a joy of learning for our children. It turns play into guided discovery and develops a strong number sense in our children. Try this activity out toward the end of your child’s second-grade year.

In-Depth Worldview Education

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worldview education globes
Some Christian educators watch with concern as students finish a “Christian worldview education.” They observe that sometimes these students are too quick to label ideas such as feminism and Marxism in order to dismiss them without engaging with understanding.

This can be a real problem. If students fail to understand ideas that they don’t agree with, they won’t be able to communicate thoughtfully about false worldviews. But what can we do to help them think biblically about distorted worldviews?

The problem is not with worldview education but with how worldview is taught. Worldview education must go beyond rote memorization of charts with categories. Instead, students must be taught to analyze from the correct biblical perspective (i.e., through the lens of  Creation, Fall, and Redemption). Only then will they be able to evaluate precisely how false worldviews twist God’s good design.

One way to represent Creation, Fall, Redemption is to illustrate it with the terms structure (God’s creational norms) and direction (bending God’s norms in a fallen direction or bending fallen direction back towards God’s creational design). In other words, children must understand how creational norms and sinful direction work in the formation of wrong ideas.

Creational Norms

We teach our children in order to impart wisdom to them, but where can wisdom be found? It begins when our children fear the Lord by submitting to His wisdom rather than embracing evil (Prov. 9:10). God reveals His wisdom in Scripture, but Scripture also directs us to observe God’s wise design in creation (Ps. 19:1; Prov. 8:22–31).God created His world to work in a certain way—according to His blueprint of wisdom.  So paying attention to how God created the world to work in the beginning reveals principles for living according to His wise design in the present. These principles can be called “creational norms” because they were present at creation.

There are creational norms for marriage (Matt. 19:4–8), economics (Exod. 20:9; 2 Thess. 3:11–12), science (Gen. 8:22), and every other facet of life (Isa. 28:24–29). In some areas, we have direct comment from God’s Word. Others come through careful observation of creation.

Sinful Direction

Of course, each of us is corrupted by the Fall. We inevitably bend God’s creational norms in a way that suits our sinful ways. Some people push against the norms a little and some push a lot. In every case, sinners think of their vision of bent norms as correct and natural. While false worldviews can’t completely ignore creational norms, they bend those norms to fit their vision for individuals and society. The creational norms are still present but in a twisted state.

Redemptive Direction

The challenge for believers is discerning between what part of the sinner’s vision is creational and what part is sinful direction. Christians have an obligation to identify creational norms. Of course, we’re going to engage with many ideas that push these norms in a bad direction. Some of these bad directions have been codified into law and large institutions.

When we encounter these norms, bent in a sinful direction, we should seek to live faithfully in light of redemption by pushing back in a redemptive direction, that is, back toward their creational state.worldview education direction vs. structure

The Case of Marriage

Creational Norm

A discussion of creational norms and sinful direction is difficult to understand without an example. So let’s examine marriage as an illustration of how these principles work out. God created marriage when He made humans male and female. He even gave us a direct word on what marriage should look like in Genesis 2:23–24. This passage outlines the creational norm for marriage.

Fallen Direction

Very quickly after the fall, people started bending marriage in various sinful directions. Polygamy and serial divorce were and continue to be serious examples of bending marriage in a sinful direction.

worldview education bad direction vs. structureRedemptive Direction

When God graciously gave his people the law, He pressed them towards the creational norm. We might have predicted that He would ban divorce, but He didn’t. He regulated it very strictly (Deuteronomy 24:1–5). God put in place legal protections for women being divorced by their husbands.

God still hates divorce; Jesus made that clear. But He understood that the people were evil and were going to divorce, so He established laws that protected a woman when a husband decides to divorce.

Reformation

When the Lord graciously gave Israel laws, He modeled a reformational approach to creational norms that has been twisted by the Fall. In a civil setting, He moved His people towards His creational norms without legally requiring something they would not do. To be clear, God calls us to take radical action against personal sin. But in the civil setting, His laws guided His people like children to make reasonable steps toward the norm.

Reformation requires nuance and understanding of the creational norms and the false worldview. Only then can we discern a corrective step that doesn’t create the chaos that comes with radical measures.

Effective Worldview Education

When we teach our children science, history, math, and literature, we want them to develop skills in finding creational norms. As our children grow, they need to learn to understand and evaluate false worldviews that twist creational norms. Finally, our children need to begin learning to create steps to reform within their context.

This kind of worldview education produces children who do more than dismiss. It enables them to create reformation steps in their generation. To help you equip your children to do just that, BJU Press provides in-depth treatment of these concepts in our Biblical Worldview textbook. 

 

Lego® Role-Play for Learning History

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lego role-play duplos and minis
My oldest daughter learns verbally. She reads with understanding and incorporates new vocabulary into her responses to questions about material she’s learning. That makes teaching history to her easy and enjoyable. I am verbal, too, when sharing historical narratives and explaining conflicts of the past.

So I was surprised when she started struggling early in third grade. She wasn’t failing quizzes or even struggling to answer my comprehension questions, but I could tell she wasn’t getting it. More importantly, the joy was slipping away.

History’s Challenge

Some of the most exciting parts of history revolve around explorers, generals, and inventors. We enjoy teaching the feats of these larger-than-life individuals that feed our children’s imaginations. But some of the most significant turning points in history involve legal documents. These documents addressed the most contentious issues but often feel stale and irrelevant to our young children.

For my daughter and me, one challenging document is the most important document in American history—the Constitution. In talking about it with my daughter, I could tell from her responses and glazed eyes that debates over representation weren’t exciting her. But I knew this was too important for her to miss.

Legos and History

The next evening, I asked my daughter to find all of our Lego, Duplo®, and Playmobil® mini figurines. We were going to do some Lego role-play.

We divided up the mini figurine groups based on type and called them “states.” The Duplo “state” had the highest population of the three, and the Playmobil “state” had the smallest population. Then we worked through the proposals for representation at the Constitutional Convention.

Under Madison’s proposal, we decided that each “state” received one representative for every three “people.” After counting out the representatives, I asked, “Who would like this proposal?”

She responded, “The Duplo people!”

“Why do they like it?”

“They get the most votes in Congress.”

role-play duplos win
“What about the small state proposal?”

“They would get one vote each.” So we worked out representation for the “states” under this proposal.

“Who likes this proposal?” I asked.

“The Playmobil people because they get an equal vote.”

role-play Lego minis win
Finally, we worked through the Great Compromise. By the end of the lesson, I could see the Lego role-play had really helped her grasp an important concept in civics.

Making History and Civics Concrete

Usually when we read about history or civics, it’s abstract—at least to some degree. Illustrations and photographs can help turn those concepts into something your child can see. But many such discussions may be difficult for a child with relatively few life experiences to relate it to.

Role-playing enables you and your child to take these abstract ideas and make them concrete—so concrete that you may find yourself pushing “Lewis and Clark’s boats” up the “Missouri River.” This fun, family-building experience helps your child turn verbal details into active learning.

Checking Your Child’s Learning

Let’s suppose I think my daughter has a handle on the idea of supply and demand. It may even appear that she grasps how railroads and steamboats affected the relationship between farms and cities.

But when we role-play it, I can see what my daughter really understands as she recreates a city and a farm. We can talk through how railroads enable farms farther from the cities to support larger populations in those cities. When she uses supply to describe the “food” and demand to relate to the mini figurines that are “hungry,” I can tell that she gets it.

I’ve found that these hands-on activities make powerful assessment tools for evaluating my child’s learning.

Choosing Hands-on Learning

If your child is beginning to get that glazed-over look as you discuss US history, break out a hands-on activity. We used Legos, but you can use stuffed animals or Popsicle® stick people instead. Help your child by turning abstract readings about the past into active, hands-on learning.