BJU Press Blog

Fall

Activity: Learning with a Pumpkin

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One thing many children look forward to about fall is getting to carve or decorate a pumpkin. As a parent, you can capitalize on that excitement by squeezing some learning in with all of the fun. Here are some ways to practice science and math skills with your child while pumpkin carving.

Before carving the pumpkin, start off by weighing it. A normal household scale will do. If the pumpkin is not too heavy, have your child pick it up and guess the weight. Then he can weigh it. This activity will help build his ability to associate perceived weight with an actual measurement. Our pumpkin weighed in at a whopping 14.5 pounds!

pumpkinblogpost-weight

Next, your child can measure the pumpkin’s circumference using a piece of string or yarn along with a yardstick or tape measure. Once he has determined the circumference, take the calculations to the next level (if age appropriate) and have your child use the following geometric formulas to find the diameter and radius.

C = πd (circumference = 3.14 × diameter)

d = 2r (diameter = 2 × radius)

pumpkinblogpost-circumference

After you or your child cut the pumpkin open (we recommend providing supervision), have your children count the total number of pumpkin seeds by separating them into rows of five or ten. This practice is great for helping younger children understand multiplication.

Learning with a Pumpkin-Counting

Once the inside of the pumpkin is cleaned out, have your child fill it with water using a measuring cup to determine how much liquid it can hold. Ask him to estimate beforehand how much he thinks it will hold and then compare that with his findings. Subtract to see how far off the estimate was. Our pumpkin held just over 5 liters of water.

pumpkinblogpost-volume

I hope you enjoy using this learning activity with your child. Be sure to subscribe to our homeschool email for more fun homeschooling ideas!

The Moral of the Story: How Not to Read the Old Testament

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Have you ever gotten lost in the middle of reading the Old Testament? Getting lost is easy because the Old Testament is long, the culture is foreign, and your recollection of the history may be fuzzy. From childhood, most of us have been taught to approach Scripture looking for morals to apply to our lives today. (Or maybe we just fall into this approach naturally.) But the Old Testament just doesn’t seem to provide what we’re looking for—unless we’re willing to stretch or twist the text out of context.

What’s the solution?

  • First, our approach to Scripture needs to change.
  • Second, we need to focus on the structure of the larger story of Scripture.
A God-Directed Approach to Scripture

Teaching children a foundation of biblical facts is important, and guiding them to make practical application should be an end goal. But the driving focus must be God-directed, not self-directed. Otherwise, children may learn all the morals for how to behave without recognizing the point—a right relationship with their Creator. For example, the point of the David and Goliath narrative isn’t to teach children to find courage in themselves. The point is to trust God because “the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47).

Children need to be taught from a young age to look for what God reveals in His Word about Himself. And from those truths they can learn to look for what God has revealed to humans about having a relationship with Him. If we don’t teach children to approach the Bible this way, they may miss the Person at the center of it all; they may miss the all-powerful, self-existent God overflowing with love—the one all creation points to (Psalm 19:1).

Story of the OT
The Creation, Fall, Redemption Structure

Children need to learn to understand individual Bible stories according to the larger context of what the Bible is all about. The BJU Press textbook The Story of the Old Testament teaches young teens to approach Scripture theologically. That means that they understand the Bible to be the true story of what God is doing to glorify Himself by redeeming His fallen creation (Creation, Fall, Redemption). Why is this important?

The Bible isn’t a random collection of stories or moral platitudes like the Qur’an or the sayings of Confucius. Biblical morality must be grounded in the reality of the larger story of this world. And that story tells your children how to have a relationship with their Creator. No other moral system teaches what the Bible does; every other religion is false, no matter how laudable its morals, because the larger story of the world told in those other religions is false.

Even the truth of our need to trust God (another moral that can be drawn from the account of David and Goliath) doesn’t make sense unless children understand that David’s trust in the Lord rested on the covenant God had made with Israel when redeeming them out of Egypt. Similarly, the New Covenant cross work of Christ teaches us and our children to trust in God. Every story, every moral has to be seen in the larger context of the Creation, Fall, Redemption story line.

When you read the Old Testament and teach it to your children, remember that the morals that you want to teach only make sense when grounded in the overarching story (Creation, Fall, Redemption) that reveals who God is. Right behavior ought to be grounded in right beliefs (Titus 2:11–12).

Putting on Your Worldview Glasses

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BWV_blog3

The Need for a Biblical Worldview

We have always lived in a fallen world, but it seems to be going from bad to worse (2 Timothy 3:13). The issues are snowballing; rebellion against God rages like an avalanche overtaking any chance of escape (Psalm 2:1–3). Will the rebellion of this world swallow up or smother your own children?

Truth claims and moral values that were once clear to many Christian parents are now being questioned by their professing Christian children. Some of the classmates I grew up with—who still profess Christ—have fallen into the traps that seem to be everywhere: justifying their indulgence in immorality, downplaying compromise with evolution, or gravitating toward the edges of orthodox Christianity.

As godly parents, you watch your young people growing up and see that they’re about to depart from home. You’re rightly motivated to equip your children to respond with biblical wisdom to the cultural upheaval: gay marriage, the murder of babies for profit, “safe zones” for the entitled on college campuses, and frequent mass shootings. The cultural situation is grim.1

The biblical worldview team at BJU Press is motivated to provide the tools you need to equip your young people to face the chaotic world in which they live and to stand firm. That’s why we wrote Biblical Worldview: Creation, Fall, Redemption—to protect Christ’s little ones who truly belong to Him by providing them with biblical worldview glasses.

Biblical Worldview: Creation, Fall, Redemption

This one book brings together the biblical worldview approach that is integrated into all of BJU Press’s curriculum. First, it helps students understand what a biblical worldview is and its significance to all of life. Second, it helps students to specifically understand the biblical worldview of Creation, Fall, and Redemption. Third, it guides an application of this worldview to multiple social institutions and disciplines (marriage and the family, government, science, history, and culture and the arts).

In the process, it introduces students to apologetic methods and guides them to discern and refute false worldviews. Particular attention is given to motivating students to contribute positively to the social institutions and disciplines—to rebuild them according to a biblical worldview.

Four distinctives summarize our approach to teaching a biblical worldview:

  • Focus on a biblical worldview: The goal is to focus students on a constructive presentation of Creation, Fall, Redemption rather than to overwhelm them with information about a multiplicity of false worldviews. False worldviews will be evaluated, but always in the context of reinforcing the true biblical worldview.
  • Bible-first perspective: The starting point, the ultimate authority source, is God’s Word. It’s the standard by which all evidence and claims must be evaluated, and not vice versa.
  • Emphasis on evaluation and positive response: Students should be challenged not only to evaluate ideas intellectually but also to apply the biblical worldview as they become salt and light in the culture.
  • Content that is both accessible and compelling: This textbook was purposefully written in a style that’s more enjoyable to read and draws from several conservative Bible translations. Rather than introducing students to an encyclopedic overview of abstract philosophical concepts, our approach to worldview studies is designed to be engaging by being set in the context of the unfolding story of the world.

The Student Text is complemented by these additional resources: Teacher’s Edition, a Student Activities Manual and Student Activities Answer Key, and Tests and Tests Answer Key.

Take a look inside the book to learn more.

1. Ken Ham, “The Chasm Is Widening: Are You on God’s Side?” Answers in Genesis (website), April 29, 2013; D.C. Innes, “The Fight for Religious Liberty,” World (website), January 26, 2015.

Activity: The Seasons Are Changing

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white posterboard with images of the four seasons

Things are cooling off, and the leaves are starting to change color. Nature’s great visual and physical demonstrations make fall a fun time to start teaching young children about the changing of seasons. It’s also a great time to exercise their higher level thinking skills. Here is a fun, fast, and easy activity to get them thinking.

  1. Explain the basic differences of the seasons, and then draw lines dividing a poster board or large sheet of paper into four sections.
  2. Label each section as a different season—spring, summer, fall, and winter.
  3. Invite your child to draw or cut out at least one picture of a favorite thing to do in each season. Examples might be carving a pumpkin in the fall, swimming in the summer, or picking flowers in the spring. If you live in an area without obvious changes, children may identify activities they would like to try.
  4. Help your child place each picture in the section for the corresponding season.

By working on this hands-on activity with you, your child will enjoy learning while reviewing the material in a way that builds true understanding. In step 3 your child is recalling and understanding the key features of each season and then applies that knowledge in step 4 by placing each favorite activity in the proper category.

If you would like more ideas, other activities like this one can be found throughout BJU Press elementary science teacher’s editions.

Taking the Learning Outdoors

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One of my favorite things about being homeschooled was taking a field trip on a whim, whenever the weather was especially beautiful. My brother and sister and I loved going on picnics, taking hikes, or visiting a blueberry patch during the late summer and fall. If a crisp, clear autumn day arrives, bringing with it incredibly blue skies and fresh breezes, call a field trip day and take the education outdoors. Check out these fun, fall-friendly excursions that are also learning opportunities for you and your kids.

two boys exploring nature

Farm or Orchard

If you live in the United States, you probably have an orchard or a farm within driving distance of your home. Autumn weather is never more delightful than when you and your kids are out among the trees, picking apples with your own hands, or scouring a pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkin pie. Often, farms and orchards have a few animals that the kids can feed, a hayride or tractor ride, or other enjoyable activities.

While you’re having fun, you can add an educational emphasis with a discussion of seeds, farming methods, and growth cycles. Your kids may have some questions to ask the farm or orchard personnel, so encourage them to speak up and take an active role in their own learning experience.

Zoo

With the cooler weather beginning, it’s a great time to visit the zoo. Instead of sticking to the shade and staying still as they did during summer’s heat, the animals are more likely to be active, so your kids will find the excursion more fascinating. Remember to bring along water, snacks, and a camera.

If you take time to read the posted information about each animal, the kids learn even more than they would through simple observation. Once you get home, you can look up more interesting facts about the animals that your family encounters.

Nature Preserve or Park

Fall weather gives you the perfect opportunity to take your kids on a nature walk or a hike. If your children are small, try a short walk through a patch of forest. For older kids or teens, a longer hike through a local nature preserve or state park is a treat.

A small bag or backpack for each child will allow them to collect treasures such as colorful leaves, unique rocks, or other found objects. You could bring along notebooks to sketch or write down the interesting things that you see during the hike. Why not give an older child a camera to snap photos of animals, plant life, and interesting rock formations?

If you plan a lengthy autumn expedition to the farm, the zoo, or the park, remember to layer clothing. Jackets are essential during the chilly early morning. Later, when the sun and the exercise warm everyone up, you’ll need an empty tote bag to stuff the jackets in so that you can carry them easily. Whether you’re talking about tree life cycles, crop rotation, or animal habitats, you can blend fresh air and a good education with fall field trips.

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.