family

Remember These Dates in September

August 27, 2015 by Meredith

September 2

The US Department of the Treasury was instituted by an act of Congress on this date in 1789. This organization does a lot more than choosing Presidents’ portraits and printing them on our coins and currency. It primarily manages our country’s monetary resources. Take the family on a virtual field trip to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing with this Field Trip to the Money Factory video. It’s amazing to see the detail artists use when creating our currency.

September 8

Donate some books on International Literacy Day to a library, thrift store, or local prison. Literacy is an important key to an education worldwide. It is also a skill needed so that we can learn what God reveals about Himself to mankind in Scripture. Going on a scavenger hunt, dressing up as a favorite character, and making a comic book are all included in this list of International Literacy Day activities.

September 11

You and I have memories of what happened on 9/11, but your kids probably don’t. Remember why we should always observe Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance. You might want to have a discussion with your kids about this act of terrorism and how it impacts today’s world.

September 13

Nana and Papa deserve a hug on Grandparents Day! Find ways to celebrate the influence of older generations on the lives of your kids. A homemade card, a phone call, or a quality visit can communicate that grandparents (or “grandfriends”) are loved. Spend time learning family history by completing this simple family tree.

September 17

“We the People” have the opportunity to observe Constitution Day. On this date 228 years ago, the United States Constitution was signed, creating a stable national government for our young nation. The key principles in this document reflect the need for government because of man’s sin nature and the tendency of that power to corrupt those who hold it. Use brief biographies of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention as examples to teach your kids how citizens can serve their country.

September 22

Celebrate the birthday of Michael Faraday (1791–1867). A Christian physicist, Mr. Faraday is best known for his work in electromagnetism. He discovered that alternating magnetic fields can produce electrical currents, an essential principle in the development of our modern electric power industry. Children have also benefited from his experiments through a series of scientific lectures Faraday started just for them at the Royal Institution of London. Conduct an experiment with the kids and make an electromagnet.

September 23

The autumnal equinox is when the sun is directly over Earth’s equator. It marks the point when the South Pole begins its tilt toward the sun. (Our planet’s axis always points in the same direction, but the inclination of the axis toward the sun changes as Earth revolves around the sun.) In everyday terms, it’s the first day of fall. I think that’s a wonderful excuse to bake these pumpkin muffins!

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3 Ways Dads Can Lead in Homeschooling

August 11, 2015 by Ben

“Mom’s the teacher, and I’m the principal; she teaches, and I foot the bills.” When I was growing up as a homeschool kid, I heard several homeschool dads humorously relate this sentiment. As dads, we know we’re supposed to take the leadership role in homeschooling, so we put on the mantle of a school administrator. Even though we’re not usually engaged in the day-to-day homeschooling of our children, we end up paying the bills for the cost of education and thus feel that we’ve checked off our responsibility.

God gives fathers the responsibility of bringing up children in the nurture of the Lord. When it comes to the stuff of education, we have a tremendous opportunity to lead and partner with our wives in the homeschooling of our children. Scripture gives us as dads three specific responsibilities related to our wives and children.

To love our wives by sacrificing for them (Ephesians 5:25)
To live with our wives in an understanding way by listening to them (1 Peter 3:7)
To take responsibility for our children’s development (Ephesians 6:4)

Here are three ways we can lead our families in homeschooling.

1. Setting the priorities

Homeschooling provides our families with unlimited opportunities, and we need priorities to determine which opportunities should be labeled “good,” “better,” or “best.” When my wife and I were first married, we enjoyed discussing all the activities we wanted our future children to be involved in such as art, sports, community outreach, music, speech, and debate.

Now that we have three children and our oldest will soon be the age when she can begin participating in some of these additional activities, we’ve realized that there’s only so much time during a week. So we’ve prioritized. When T-ball sign-up came along, we declined.

On the other hand, my wife and I believe that biblical-worldview-based curriculum materials are a non-negotiable. We’ve made that the most important point in evaluating educational options for our family. This is our family’s choice, and you may have different priorities. Here are some priorities to consider:

Biblical-worldview-based curriculum materials
Curriculum for main academic subjects
Bible courses
Music and arts
Volunteering
Sports

Know your priorities and let them guide your decision-making.

2. Finding the best approach

I remember walking around the vendor hall at homeschool conferences when I was a kid. Even then, families had a wide variety of curriculum choices. Today, husbands and wives can be overwhelmed by the multitude of choices available as various vendors tout the success of their products. Where to begin?

Begin with your family’s educational philosophy or approach. Over the past thirty years, homeschoolers have innovated or rediscovered a variety of educational approaches. There’s everything from unschooling to classical education. As families, we need to evaluate these approaches and choose the one that will be the foundation of our homeschooling. There are different ways a dad can be involved in setting a direction.

If your wife eagerly embraces homeschooling:

Support her by listening to her ideas
Ask questions so that you understand
Be able to explain your family’s approach so that you can own your children’s education
Prepare to fund materials that fit the approach

If your wife is overwhelmed by homeschooling:

Ask questions so that you understand her concerns
Research educational programs and share your findings
Listen to her responses
Choose your family’s approach together but remember who will be doing the day-to-day teaching

Don’t be passive. It’s your children’s future. Get involved and stay involved.

3. Stepping in when there are challenges

I remember the day I fought my mom all day over a math concept. I was getting every problem wrong, and I had the wrong attitude. When Dad got home, my exasperated mom asked for help. He got involved, and it made a huge difference—for everyone. As dads, we need to step in when things come up. Here are ways you can step in:

Know your own strengths and weaknesses as well as your wife’s
Maintain your children’s respect for their mother
Help teach or tutor a specific subject
Do a household job so that your wife can set up a hands-on activity
Encourage your wife to continue on with the educational program at the first signs of trouble but speak up when you know it’s not working
Take the kids for a day so that your wife can regroup

Homeschooling is a challenge. Be alert to ways you can sacrifice for your wife and help your children grow.

Dates to Remember: August

July 30, 2015 by Meredith

Most people—especially students—would agree that learning should be fun and memorable. The question is how to meet that goal? One way is to include different events in your everyday life. With this idea in mind, I’ll be putting together a list of events to watch for each month. Here are some activity ideas for the month of August. Enjoy!

wood engraving of Francis Scott Key — Francis Scott Key/Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

August 1

Celebrate the birthday of Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) by singing our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He wrote the lyrics after seeing the American flag proudly wave as “the bombs [were] bursting in air” during an important battle in the War of 1812. Did you know that there are four stanzas to the song? Read all the lyrics online and then have everyone in the family pick a part to sing. If you need a soprano, let me know.

Christopher Columbus arrives in America by L. Prang & Co., Boston/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

August 3

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” This little rhyme helps me every time to remember the year that Columbus came here. This day marks when Columbus left Spain on his first voyage to the New World. He and his crew would arrive in the Caribbean several months later. Columbus’s discovery changed the course of history despite the fact that he never made it to the North American continent. Don’t Celebrate Columbus Day? offers discussion points for how Christians should identify this explorer.

August 9

It’s officially National Book Lover’s Day. Taking a trip to the library or acting out a story are just two ideas mentioned in Summer Fun Meets Summer Reading. But if it’s a rainy day, spending time reading aloud together would be my vote.

"Composite Photograph of all visible Perseid meteor activity on August 12th 2013 from 2:28 - 3:32am, as seen from Bracebridge Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. Image contains grain as a result of the high ISO and long exposure required for this type of photography. — © iStockphoto.com/SHSPhotography

August 12–13

Watch the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower from your backyard, an open field, or a campsite. The meteor shower will last all night long and is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. Putting away electronic devices, dressing appropriately for any cool breezes, and looking at the sky for thirty minutes with the naked eye are all tips mentioned in this list of Meteor Showers 2015 from NASA.

August 13

Raise your left hand for International Lefthander’s Day! If you’re left-handed like I am, we can celebrate the fact that we’re always in our right minds. But sometimes our sanity doesn’t help when it comes to completing daily tasks in a dominantly right-handed world. We lefties often have our own “angle” for doing things as the article Tips for Teaching a Left-handed Child points out. Get out some paper and pen to see what each left hand can do; it’ll be fun, ink smears and all.

poetry in letterpress type — © iStockphoto.com/marekuliasz

August 18

If you aren’t very poetic, don’t worry because this day is National Bad Poetry Day. Maybe your family would enjoy a bad poetry competition. Share a haiku, sonnet, “Roses are red / Violets are blue” rhyme, or autobiographical poem on the BJU Press Homeschool Facebook page.

Street in Pompeii overlooking the Vesuvius. Pompeii is an ancient Roman city died from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. — © iStockphoto.com/scaliger

August 24

Get ready for an explosion of volcanic proportions! On this day in AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying Pompeii, Italy. The city remained covered up for centuries until it was discovered and archaeologists unearthed it. Make Your Own Volcano to demonstrate the force behind a natural eruption.

August 25

Visit the great outdoors for the birthday of the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS is ninety-nine years old! You’ll want to start planning the trip now since this day is a free entrance day for many national parks. Get tips on preparing for an enjoyable family hike and download a hiking trail journal from Hiking—A Learning Experience.

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Off to a Great Start: Kindergarten and BJU Press

July 28, 2015 by Megan

Closeup of cute little girl coloring drawing with mother 10415184 — © iStockphoto.com/vgajic

Two years ago, my oldest daughter started using the Footsteps for Fours curriculum from BJU Press. Since she was my oldest child, I was both excited and apprehensive about her starting school. She was young at that point—two months shy of turning four. But everyone assured me that she was ready. Even at the age of three she loved to learn. She would sit for hours and listen to me or my husband read books. And she asked questions constantly.

As a parent, I wanted my daughter’s introduction to formal schooling to be a good experience. I didn’t want her to suffer through her schoolwork every day for the next fourteen years—I wanted her to like it.

It was also very important to me that what she learned in school would reinforce what my husband and I were teaching her. In our home, we do our best to live out the Word of God in all areas of life. I wanted her schooling to help us with that goal.

BJU Press was perfect for her. She grew so much that first year—not only did she learn foundational skills that helped her learn to read once she reached K5, but she also grew in her understanding of God and the Bible. For example, she learned through stories about Jake and his family (fictional characters that appear in the Footsteps curriculum) the importance God places on loving your neighbors and sharing your faith. That year she was so burdened for one of our neighbors who was unsaved that, on her own initiative, she invited him to an Easter service at our church.

She also learned to love school from the very beginning. The Footsteps for Fours curriculum includes a lot of active learning. Instruction is carefully balanced with the use of learning centers where kids can learn through play. And there’s no dry lecturing—instead there are a lot of stories, singing, action rhymes, and hands-on activities. I also appreciated the fact that what she was learning was not only age appropriate, but the concepts built on one another in a logical manner. She was never frustrated by her schoolwork.

My daughter completed the BJU Press K5 materials about a month ago. But, in a way, she never finished school. She loves learning so much that she’s always doing school in her imagination. I often find her and her younger sister up in their room playing school with their dolls. She is usually the teacher, but sometimes she is the student. A few days ago, we took a walk to a nearby playground. When we arrived, my middle daughter immediately headed for the swings, but my oldest daughter sat down at a picnic table, pulled a pencil and small notebook out of her pocket, and informed me that she needed to work on her schoolwork. She had assigned herself the task of writing the names of the days of the week in order. School is fun for her, and I attribute that, at least in part, to the BJU Press curriculum.

A Five-Minute Portrait of God’s Providential Means

June 25, 2015 by Cosette

Have you ever had your portrait done at a fair or festival by a speed artist? I haven’t, but I have watched one at work. The result may not be something you’d frame and hang in your living room or pass down to future generations as a treasured family heirloom. Nevertheless, a skilled artist has the knack of capturing your most prominent features so that, in about five minutes, you have a remarkably recognizable representation of yourself.

Jonah presents a five-minute portrait of providence. Have you ever noticed the tools of providence employed in the story of Jonah, and how explicitly each incident is connected to the direct intervention and activity of God?

After Jonah’s initial disobedience to the Lord’s call (when he took a ship sailing in the opposite direction God wanted him to go), “the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea,” a “mighty tempest” that threatened the ship itself and the lives of all those on it (Jonah 1:4). Once Jonah was cast overboard (“and the sea ceased from her raging”), “the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (Jonah 1:17). When that encounter had accomplished its designed effect, “the Lord spake unto the fish” and it unceremoniously deposited Jonah onto a nearby beach.

Jonah finally made it to Nineveh. But he still balked at what God wanted to do through him, so God wanted to make a point. Consequently, “the Lord God prepared a gourd” (Jonah 4:6), a plant to shade Jonah from the heat. But the very next day “God prepared a worm” (Jonah 4:7) to eat the plant and destroy the very gift He had just given to Jonah. To make matters worse (and to make His point more keenly), “God prepared a vehement east wind” to chase away the clouds so that the hot sun “beat upon the head of Jonah.” There are a number of implications and applications of what God was doing in Jonah’s life. But our primary interest here is in God’s providential use of means to accomplish His will.

The Holy Spirit’s inspiration of the wording of this story is not accidental or insignificant. God directly, personally, and providentially employs such common, “natural” means as weather (Jonah 1:4), whales (Jonah 1:17, 2:10), weeds (Jonah 4:6), worms (Jonah 4:7), and winds (Jonah 4:8). (I know Jonah 1:17 says “great fish” and not “whale,” but I needed a w. Besides, if God providentially controls “great fish,” He certainly providentially controls whales too.)

[Excerpt adapted from Not by Chance by Layton Talbert (Chapter 7, pp. 114-15). ]