BJU Press Blog

OLD

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Our Lord would have due reverence given to “old” things. He instructs us, for instance, that departure from time-honored truth is perilous in any generation. The devil’s bandwagon is always ready and waiting with tantalizing new trends, and his sales tactics are clever. Jeremiah 6:16 offers this command:

“Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”

However weak or irrelevant the old paths or old persons may appear, we must not regard them as a hindrance to progress. They may well be our surest means of avoiding a by-path meadow.

cover image of Wonderful Words

“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25). “Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth” (Psalm 71:9). “Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not” (Psalm 71:18). “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age” (Psalm 92:14). “Children’s children are the crown of old men” (Proverbs 17:6). “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge. . . . But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (2 Peter 1:5, 9).

GOLDEN THOUGHT: They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.

Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (July 13 reading).

How Do You Plan Your Homeschool Year?

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Planning Your Homeschool

One of my earliest homeschool memories is that Mom had a plan. She might not have printed it out for me to read, but it was clear that our day followed an organized schedule. Some homeschool days we stayed at home; other days I took my textbooks with me while we ran errands. Some were longer; others shorter, like the Fridays I attended art class with other homeschool kids.

Having a plan meant Mom could leave the room to take a long distance call and expect me to do what was next on the schedule. It also was a way to make sure that I reached the academic goals that she and my dad had set for me. But the plan was also flexible enough to allow for events that interrupted our day, like days at the park or doctor appointments.

As you prepare for the new homeschool year, what thought have you put into planning a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule? Here are some tips and helpful suggestions to plan your homeschool.

Now please don’t fall into the trap of “over-planning.” Some people might argue there’s no such thing, but I have learned that there’s a balance that must be learned, and it looks different for every family. You might be a minute-by-minute-schedule person, but that kind of planning overwhelms me. The real key is to keep Isaiah 46:8–10 in mind. God is in control of all (including the “interruptions” to our plans) and always works out His good pleasure. There’s comfort in that truth.

What does your homeschool schedule look like?

Intrigue and Energy in Ellanor’s Exchange

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BJU Press JourneyForth book cover for Ellanor's ExchangeRising to the occasion becomes a daily exercise for young Ellanor Fitzhugh as she comes of age in JourneyForth’s captivating historical thriller Ellanor’s Exchange by Linda Hayner. Atop her beloved horse Charlemagne, Ellanor gallops into young womanhood in the wide-open spaces of Bishop’s Manor, her girlhood home. Unbeknownst to her, she is all too quickly becoming “eligible,” and the time soon arrives that she must leave the scenic countryside she loves to be trained in the fine points of the seventeenth-century London court. Because she is the only heir to the Fitzhugh estate since the death of her brother, Ellanor’s marriage to someone of nobility is a cause taken seriously by her family and friends.

Placed in the care of a long-time acquaintance and trusted neighbor—the Baroness of Wilthrop─the debutante shows a natural aptitude for the social graces. With a proper curtsy here and a demure greeting there, Ellanor applies herself and before long is the toast of the town. A variety of suitors join the cast, and the delicate process of matchmaking begins.

But many of the players on this lustrous stage have much more than silks and brocades on their minds. England chafes under the rule of a weak king, and Ellanor’s naïve innocence attracts the attention of those bent on propping him up at all costs. Intrigue and danger become her companions as it dawns on Ellanor that she has unwittingly become hopelessly ensnared in a web of espionage. Aware that every move and judgment she makes will either further endanger or secure her family, Ellanor must decide who to follow and who to flee. Disguises, harrowing carriage rides, the freezing waters of the Thames, and secret passageways are all part of the unladylike risks that come to test Ellanor’s loyalties and her very survival.

Oh, and there are Lord Whetherby, Lord Limbourne, and Lord Netherfield as well─all of whom seem eager, each for his own reasons, to connect themselves to Ellanor Fitzhugh.

Let the rich historical detail and engrossing energy draw your debutante into the dizzying world of English nobility in Ellanor’s Exchange. Read the opening pages on our website.

3 Organizational Tips for Your Homeschool Space

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My husband and I are getting ready to homeschool for the very first time. There’s a lot to think through, but perhaps the most pressing question recently had to do with how to organize all our stuff. My husband and I just unboxed five boxes of textbooks and distance learning materials (check out the unboxing video on YouTube). To be perfectly honest, it was overwhelming. And I’m only homeschooling one child! I still don’t have our homeschool space exactly the way I want it yet, but I thought I’d  share a few organizational tips that have helped me get the mess under control.

1. Storage space for all your homeschool materials

My husband and I bought a storage-cube organizer (eight-cube) to place next to our homeschool desk in our dining room. We use two of the cubes as shelf space for our textbooks (teacher’s materials on one shelf and student materials on the other), and I purchased four fabric bins for four of the other cubes. The lower two cubes store coloring books and art supplies.

WP-Organizational Tips for Homeschool Space; 7/2016; Megan

2. Organizing the little things

I love buying school supplies. Markers, crayons, erasers, pencils—I can hardly wait to stock up every back-to-school season. But I did need to figure out how to store it all. The best way I have found to organize these miscellaneous supplies is to store like things together. I remember that my parents did a lot of color-coding when they homeschooled my two brothers and me, and they found it very helpful. We’re using jars and some small plastic containers to separate supplies in our fabric storage bins, but you can also use tin cans, plastic cups, or small kitchen canisters. Be sure to label the containers!

WP-Organizational Tips for Homeschool Space; 7/2016; Megan WP-Organizational Tips for Homeschool Space; 7/2016; Megan

3. What to do with the BJU Press Distance Learning printed packets

We are using three BJU Press Distance Learning DVD courses in our homeschool this year—Bible Truths 2, Science 2, and English 2—so when we opened our boxes, we found six printed packets. Three of the packets are parent/facilitator guides, and three are student handouts. I found the Distance Learning Getting Started Videos very helpful in figuring out how to organize these materials. Although you can organize these packets several different ways, I chose to purchase two 2-inch, 3-ring binders to store these packets in. I put all the parent/facilitator guides in one binder with tab dividers separating each course, and I did the same thing with all the student handouts in the other binder. I also found it helpful to separate the different sections of the parent/facilitator guides with sticky tabs.

Depending on your distance learning course, these packets can be pretty hefty. You may need to purchase separate binders for each course.

WP-Organizational Tips for Homeschool Space; 7/2016; Megan

WP-Organizational Tips for Homeschool Space; 7/2016; Megan

WP-Organizational Tips for Homeschool Space; 7/2016; Megan

I hope these tips help you with your homeschool organization. Do you have a favorite organizational method? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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OBEDIENCE

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One of the most venerable aspects of the life of our Lord is His perfect obedience. It is one thing for Him never to have visibly stumbled. But when we consider His utterly chaste, perfectly God-honoring thoughts, we are completely enthralled. In the purity of His motives and His inward holiness, we see most vividly the great gulf between the Redeemer and His redeemed.

cover image of Wonderful Words

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). “For your obedience is come abroad unto all men” (Romans 16:19). “He remembereth the obedience of you all”
(2 Corinthians 7:15). “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God . . . bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4–5). “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). “Be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance” (2 Peter 1:13–14).

GOLDEN THOUGHT: Be sober as obedient children.

[Excerpt adapted from Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer (July 6 reading).]