#8-10: In Praise of Order
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>
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THE HOPE CHEST HOME SCHOOL NEWS
with Virginia Knowles
#8-10 on June 17, 2005
In Praise of Order
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The Hope Chest is a free monthly e-mail newsletter with encouragement and practical teaching tips. The writer is Virginia Knowles, wife of Thad, mother of soon-to-be ten children, and author/publisher of:
* Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade (http://www.TheHopeChest.net/CSE.html)
* The Real Life Home School Mom (http://www.TheHopeChest.net/RealLife.html)
* The Learner's Journal lesson planner and resource log (http://www.TheHopeChest.net/LearnersJournal.html)
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Contact information
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Dear Hope Chest readers,
I know that many of you like hearing simple things from our familys experience, so thats what Im sharing this month! For those of you looking for educational ideas, Ive tucked in plenty of those along the way.
June 5th was a very special day for our family Marys high school graduation through our churchs Regent Academy home school program! Parents and graduates gathered in the late afternoon for a dinner at which the moms and dads honored their children in short speeches. Then, I rushed home to pick up our other kids for the actual commencement ceremony. The fourteen graduates marched to the front of the sanctuary while pictures of their lives flashed on the screen. After a short speech by our youth pastor, the students and their parents were called, one family at a time, to the podium. The student would be presented with any academic honor cords he or she had earned, then honor their parents with either a speech or a song. Then Dad presented the diploma, and Mom moved the tassel. One thing that Mary said was that she was glad I "forced" her to write a paragraph a day when she was in third grade. She didnt like it at the time, but now that she intends to be a professional writer, she appreciates it! She also lauded Dad for his help in teaching her high school math, among many other things. After the ceremony, everyone munched on yummy desserts. In the church lobby, parents had set up display boards which they had designed to showcase their students photos, achievements, hobbies, and samples of schoolwork. Awesome! Our guests all exclaimed how touched and impressed they were with the evenings festivities. Many asked the question, How does it feel to finally have one finally graduate? My reply It feels great! One down, nine to go!
Before I go on to the rest of this issue, Id like to share two prayer requests for our family.
First, for the Bolivia mission trips: Julias team to Entre Rios in southern Bolivia will depart as originally scheduled on Wednesday, June 22, since they will not be entering any high risk areas. Marys team to La Paz is tentatively scheduled to leave on Friday, June 24. The pastor there (Johnny Dueri of Iglesia en La Paz, http://www.iglesiaenlapaz.org) reports that the political crisis has calmed down, and that there is an adequate supply of food, water and fuel. There is still a chance that this La Paz trip may be postponed even longer. Please pray that God will grant peace to this poor nation, wisdom to the team coordinators as they make final adjustments to travel plans, and health and safety to all the team members.
Second, please pray for my health in the last six weeks of pregnancy. The gestational diabetes is under control with a modified diet, but Ive had some other bothersome health issues, including an inflammation of the chest wall (costachondritis) which causes pain that can mimic heart trouble but is not dangerous itself. (We learned this after 8 hours in the ER last week!) We also need a name for this little girl!
I also want to mention that I will be doing a print run of the Learner's Journal lesson planner and resource log within the next two weeks. I'll send more details about features and ordering in a few days. I think this is the fifth year that I've published it, and, as always, profits will go to missions projects. So far I've had a lot of satisfied repeat customers! If you have already been using the Learner's Journal and have any suggestions for improvement, send them along!
In this issue you will find:
* In Praise of Order
* What Were Doing for School Next Year
* Tribute #2 to My Husband Thad: In Praise of His Orderliness
* A Final Note on Keeping My Soul Happy in God
Blessings,
Virginia Knowles
P.S. Im doing another non-HTML issue to keep the file size down. I hope it comes out OK!
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In Praise of Order
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Drop Thy still dews of quietness
till all our strivings cease;
take from our lives the strain and stress
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of Thy peace.
(John Greenleaf Whittier, from the hymn Dear God and Father of Mankind)
Browsing through the tables at the Willow Creek used curriculum fair a couple weeks ago, I found an autographed copy of Elisabeth Elliots book THE SHAPING OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY. You can be sure I snapped it up since she is my favorite author. (Her missionary novel, NO GRAVEN IMAGE, totally shaped my world view when I was in college.) What intrigued me about THE SHAPING OF A CHRISTIAN FAMILY is that its not just a how-to book but the story of her Christian family heritage, starting a few generations back. What is it that made these generations so productive for Gods kingdom? Mrs. Elliot traces many themes, but one of the most prominent is orderliness including a respect for authority, disciplined child training, wise time management, and organization of the home.
As most of you know, orderliness and organization are constant challenges for me. I often have to be reminded that there is no virtue in living sloppily, and so many benefits to getting things together. We do need structure in life. Flexible structure, yes, but structure nonetheless.
I wrote a whole chapter (Life Management 101) about order and organization in The Real Life Home School Mom (http://www.TheHopeChest.net/RealLife.html). Here is a small introduction:
Home school moms cherish flexibility and autonomy, but some of us overdo it to the point of rejecting any structure. We try to wing it, making up our lives and school from scratch as we go along. We end up feeling frazzled, exhausted, unproductive, unfulfilled -- and guilty. We start to wonder if we really need a system after all, and relish the new idea of taking control of our lives with a schedule, routine, budget, and lesson plan. We realize that we don't have to be victims of circumstance anymore. Now that I am finally in the process of putting my life in order, I realize that this gives me peace from the storm. Life makes sense when I follow a plan, and an added bonus is that I now have more liberty to focus my newfound spare time and energy on creative pursuits. My brain is less cluttered by loose ends. Order and organization allow us to live on purpose, to see our dreams and goals come to fulfillment. We can make a plan and make it happen.
I still havent arrived. I have to keep at it. Summertime and pregnancy provide real temptations to let things slide. Thad continually encourages me to add structure to our days and keep the kids busy. I figure that one way I can do this is to have an afternoon cleanup time each day when all of the kids are working together in one room at a time and I sit on the couch and give out orders while I fold laundry! In this way, we can grow in four vital areas at once: tidiness, diligence, obedience and cooperation.
Ill write more about structure in home schooling in the next article, but Id like to add some other thoughts about order. For example, here are just a few other things that Ive done to organize our home recently:
* I put a small bookcase in my bedroom near my comfy recliner chair. This holds my Bible, my Bible study and prayer notebooks, my very favorite books and current home school magazines, and my main Moms Brain organizing notebook. I also have a small trash can and a few basic office supplies to add functionality. I do supposedly have a desk in our computer room, but found I wasnt working at it. We ended up putting a bookcase on top of it to store commonly used family items. I am much more comfortable working in my bedroom a little haven of refuge in our busy house. DO YOU HAVE A QUIET PLACE TO READ, THINK, AND PLAN?
* I labeled the edges of our wooden inset puzzles, to make it easier to find which one we want or to put away stray pieces. Then I reorganized our game bin. Most of our boxes have been squashed and discarded over the years, so I store game pieces in zip-closure plastic bags in a big plastic bin, and put all the boards together on a shelf. I store puzzle pieces the same way in another bin. I also moved the boys workbooks to a bookshelf in our living room. We rarely do these at the dining room table anymore since Im pregnant and will be nursing soon. Its much more comfortable on the couch, so I wanted to store the materials nearby. However, I banned colored pencils, scissors and tape from the living room because they were always scattered on the floor. Art projects must now be done at the dining room table. A place for everything, and everything in its place! HOW CAN YOU MAKE YOUR LEARNING AREAS MORE EFFICIENT?
* I rounded up my stray paper piles and organized them into their appropriate notebooks or file folders. I also consolidated all of our immunization records into one notebook, in order by child. I still have a few bins of papers to go through, but none of them are high priority current stuff, so I can get to them later. CAN YOU FIND YOUR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS EASILY?
And, here are a few things weve done for a while to increase our efficiency:
* I log on to our public librarys web site to search for what books I want. I put them all on hold, and a couple of days later, they are ready for me (or someone else) to pick up at the front desk. Because it is hard for me to walk around and bend over this late in pregnancy, this simple process has been a Godsend. And yes, we sometimes check out 100 books at a time! WHAT ARE SOME WAYS YOU CAN USE TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER?
* I delegate! Our children do most of the housework, such as dishes, sweeping, bathroom cleaning, etc. The older ones are responsible for their own laundry from start to finish, and the younger ones at least fold and put theirs away. Some of my girls also know how to paint bedrooms, buzz cut their brothers hair, plant flowers, weed the garden, and numerous other valuable life skills. Mary runs errands for me, too, making my bank deposits and sending out book shipments. WHAT CAN YOUR CHILDREN DO TO GROW IN RESPONSIBILITY AND LIGHTEN YOUR LOAD?
* I try to organize and simplify grocery shopping. I have a computerized master grocery list organized by aisle. I can print it out, check it off, go to the Wal-Mart Super Center with Joanna (12) and Lydia (10) and have them do the food shopping while I pick up what I need from the other part of the store. It works! When we get home, I rest while all of the available kids put everything away. They also help fix meals, though we could do a lot better organizing this. Lydia and Joanna blessed me yesterday by making whole wheat pizza and peach cobbler for dinner while I was running errands. HOW CAN MASTER LISTS MAKE YOU MORE EFFICIENT? HAVE YOU TAUGHT YOUR CHILDREN TO SHOP AND COOK?
So is there time for recreation? Yes! Thad recently installed an above ground pool in our backyard so the kids could get some fun and exercise without me having to cart them all over town. This gives me a healthy workout, too! A few of our kids will attend basketball day camp at church next month. And theres often a good Scrabble game going in the afternoon! The older girls go on frequent outings with friends, but they still take time to read aloud to the little ones. One book choice this week was FLAT STANLEY, a very old but hilarious picture book. Mary chose different dramatic voices for each character, which I could hear mixed with raucous laughter from the boys.
If youd like to explore the topic of order and chores more, please check out these blog articles by Lori Seaborg (thanks to Cindy Rushton for these links):
Raising Servants ( er, I Mean Children)
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/606/
Chores: You Are NOT Doing Them All By Yourself, Are You?
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1054/
Chores: What 1-2-Year-Old Walkers Can Do
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1053/
Chores: What a 3-5-Year-Old Can Do
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1052/
Chores: What Elementary-Aged Children Can Do
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/KeepingtheHome/1051/
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What Were Doing for School Next Year
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Our family has been home schooling for what seems like forever. Yet each spring, we spend hours and hours mulling over what to do for school the next year. Yes, there are some things well do as weve always done them, but theres always something new. People change, options change, schedules change so our school plans change too! So we talk and talk and talk. We pull out the home school catalogs and surf the web. We jot down titles, page numbers and prices. And I start typing it all into my infamous annual curriculum spreadsheet.
This year, as is fitting with the theme of this issue, weve decided to pursue more structure at all grade levels. For the past few years, some of our older girls have been involved in EXCEL co-op classes which provided their assignments AND a healthy amount of structure. But that program has changed, and only one of our girls will be taking one class there this year. We considered joining another co-op program which would have had me out of the house all day once a week with eight kids (including a newborn!). We finally decided that wouldnt be prudent because our little ones and I would be totally stressed out!
So, were on our own a lot more this year, and thats OK. We havent nailed everything down yet, but here are our tentative plans at each grade level. I should note that Rachel, Joanna and Lydia made most of their own curriculum choices, with my approval and occasional suggestions. They are pretty ambitious, preferring structure and accountability even though they are quite independent and don't need me as much. They may have chosen similar themes and overlapping resources for history and literature, but they will NOT be working together either. Group learning just isn't their style anymore!
I have provided web links so you can check out the curriculum on your own.
Mary (age 18) will be in college at UCF full-time. She is taking Honors U.S. History, Honors Philosophy, Psychology, Geology and Honors Symposium. On top of this, she has offered to assign, coach and grade writing assignments for Rachel, Joanna and Lydia this year! That is a blessing to me for two reasons. First, I will be busy with the new baby and teaching the little guys. Second, she is much more experienced with the writing formats that are taught at the middle school and high school level since she has been a professional essay grader and writing tutor for a classical Christian home school program. Not to mention that she has excelled at so many formal writing assignments herself! Thank God! Mary has often used the following web site for research:
American Rhetoric texts (and sometimes audio) of famous speeches
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/
Julia (11th grade) will take her courses in some combination of dual enrollment at Valencia Community College (English, Spanish and Economics), weekly tutorial classes at church (Anatomy and Geometry), and Florida Virtual School On-line (SAT Prep) and basketball team. Therefore, we dont need to choose curriculum for her!
Florida Virtual School -- http://www.flvs.net/
Valencia Community College -- http://www.valenciacc.edu/
Rachel (9th grade) will take an EXCEL Biology class every other week using Apologia, our favorite high school science curriculum. For math, she will do Saxon Algebra I. Rachel will integrate World History and Literature from the Ancient times until the Middle Ages. (She studied Reformation to modern times last year in EXCEL.) The core of her history will be Streams of Civilization, Volume One. We have also decided to use the World History literature guide and history unit studies from For Such a Time as This, written by James Stobaugh. Fortunately, we already own an almost complete set of the Harvard Classics, which includes many of the titles he covers in the literature course. Mr. Stobaugh also recommends Writers Inc. to go along with his program, which is good since we already like that series and had planned to use it anyway. I am impressed with his customer service; he is quick to answer questions by e-mail, and will frankly tell you if youre planning an overkill by using too much of his curriculum at once. As I mentioned before, Rachel will get help from Mary on her written assignments which pertain to her literature selections and history. Since she is studying the Ancients she would like to do a full credit of Latin / Greek (especially in preparation for languages in later high school years), and a half credit of Logic (probably Traditional Logic published by Memoria Press), though she may decide to swap the Logic out for Rhetoric or something else. Im not so sure about THAT much Latin this year, but if she does, we need to find a good curriculum that is not overly dependent on Mom! (Any recommendations?) For a credit of Music, she will work on piano, guitar, penny whistle, and possibly choir. To rack up another half credit, she will take a yearbook class with Near Him Home Educators, which includes designing the yearbook, getting printer information, writing yearbook budgets, etc.
For Such a Time as This James Stobaugh -- http://www.forsuchatimeasthis.com/
Christian Liberty Press publisher of Streams of Civilization -- http://www.christianlibertypress.com
Writers Inc. composition and grammar series -- http://www.thewritesource.com/INC.html
Saxon Math -- http://www.saxonhomeschool.com/index.jsp
Apologia Science -- Christian texts for elementary through high school -- http://www.highschoolscience.com/
Memoria Press publisher of Traditional Logic by Martin Cothran -- http://www.memoriapress.com/
Joanna (7th grade) will also study World History and Literature this year. She will use some of the literature selections that Rachel is using, and some of the history resources that Lydia is using, as well as other materials still to be chosen. She did Apologia General Science in co-op last year and doesnt want to start the next Apologia course, Physical Science, until 8th grade. She wrote to Dr. Wile (author of Apologia) asking for his recommendation, and he advised her to do an extended creation science unit study in the interim. We have decided to focus on earth science in the fall and life science in the spring. Our core resources for the first semester will be several titles from Master Books, including Geology, Weather, Astronomy and Oceans. Joanna will also use Saxon 87, Write Source (same series as Writers Inc.), and Vocabulary from Classical Roots.
Master Books creation science books and videos -- http://www.MasterBooks.net/
Writers Inc. composition and grammar series -- http://www.thewritesource.com/INC.html
Saxon Math -- http://www.saxonhomeschool.com/index.jsp
Apologia Science -- Christian texts for elementary through high school -- http://www.highschoolscience.com/
Lydia (5th grade) REALLY likes structure and is willing to work hard. She has decided to do World History and Literature, using many of the same classics as Rachel and Joanna. She plans to read Famous Men of Greece, Famous Men of Rome and Famous Men of the Middle Ages by Greenleaf Press, photographic fact books in the Eyewitness and Living History series, AND the Around the World in 180 Days geography program. For science, she will use the Apologia Astronomy and Botany texts written by Jeannie Fulbright. (They are designed to take a year each, but Lydia wants to do them both.) She will the following workbooks: Horizons Math, Italic handwriting, Language Mechanic (grammar) and Latina Christiana.
Jeannie Fulbright author of Apologia elementary science curriculum -- http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/
Apologia Science and Around the World in 180 Days geography program -- http://www.highschoolscience.com/
Greenleaf Press publisher of the Famous Men series -- http://www.greenleafpress.com
Alpha Omega Press publisher of Horizons Math -- http://www.aop.com
Italic Handwriting series (Getty-Dubay) -- http://www.cep.pdx.edu/titles/italic_series/books_in_series.htm
Memoria Press publisher of Latina Christiana -- http://www.memoriapress.com/
Andrew (3rd grade) and Micah (1st grade) will work on many of the same kinds of things. They will both use our perennial favorites, Horizons Math and Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting. Andrew can finish up Daily Grams, which he barely started this year. Their older sisters have recommended that I "bump it up a notch" with them and use a core curriculum with daily lesson plans that won't require a lot of teacher preparation. Good advice! We have tentatively chosen Adventures in My Fathers World, a Bible-based integrated unit study which covers U.S. history and geography, literature, science, and art. Barry Stebbings art program, I Can Do All Things, is included in the Deluxe program. My boys love art, so were definitely going to do this part! Rachel will also continue to teach them to play the piano.
My Fathers World Bible-based unit studies -- http://www.mfwbooks.com/
How Great Thou Art art curriculum from Barry Stebbing -- http://www.howgreatthouart.com/
Alpha Omega Press publisher of Horizons Math -- http://www.aop.com
Italic Handwriting series (Getty-Dubay) -- http://www.cep.pdx.edu/titles/italic_series/books_in_series.htm
Naomi (4) and Ben (2) will do typical preschool stuff listening to stories, playing with puzzles and pattern blocks, drawing pictures, etc. I will probably buy Naomi some sort of colorful workbook.
Baby Girl will learn to count to two as she nurses! (Left side, right side .) Then shell start to recognize the voices and faces of the 11 people who love her most!
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Tribute #2 to My Husband Thad:
In Praise of His Orderliness
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I wrote a little tribute to Thad in one of the high school issues, expressing my appreciation for his prayers for our family.
This issue, true to the theme of In Praise of Order, Id like to thank him for his keen sense of orderliness and his priceless gift of administration. You see, I am great at reading and writing information, but Im not at all good at organizing, planning and overseeing details of things that need to be done. Thad excels at this! He is so conscientious about details, budgets, schedules, safety hazards, phone calls that need to be made, paperwork that needs to be at a certain place by a certain time, things that need to be put away, etc. He constantly reminds me of many of these things, or he just does them himself. He walked Mary and Julia through community college dual enrollment, shepherded Mary through the entire application and scholarship process for her continued college education, and attended two days of orientation with her at UCF. I am so thankful! (I am so blitz brained!)
For the past two and a half years, Thads career has taken an odd, yet providential, turn of events. As many of you know, in October 2002 he quit his management job to finish up some facility management courses and to take care of his mothers out-of-state property holdings. He intended to go back to regular employment a few months later, after little Benjamin was born. Little did he know that his mother would be diagnosed with a second case of lung cancer this time inoperable just several weeks later. He spent the next several months personally caring for her and setting up the financial arrangements for her estate. After her death in September 2003, he set about the lengthy process of liquidating her real estate holdings and managing the trust fund for his handicapped older sister. He has also had to transition this sister into an independent living situation. It has been a full time job! Somehow during this busy time, he also managed to oversee our house renovation, and even did much of the design work himself. There is no way I could have kept track of all of the contractor and materials ordering details, but he did it expertly. In all of these tasks, his gift of administration has shown through. Now that these affairs have pretty much settled down, Thad is ready to transition back into traditional employment which will use his mix of skills in facility, property, and financial management.
I encourage each of you to sit down and think about what you appreciate in your husband's life. How does he serve your family? What is it that makes him special? Have you communicated this to him recently?
Happy Fathers Day to Thad and all of the other Hope Chest dads!
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A Final Note on Keeping My Soul Happy in God
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In closing, Id like to share a few quotes that Carolyn Mahaney included in her presentation called Keeping My Soul Happy in God at our church's Surrender ladies retreat. I know for many of us its a struggle to keep our priorities in perspective so that we can start the day out right! Heres some encouragement to keep going
The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists of shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. C.S. Lewis
Even on days when every cinder in our soul feels cold, if we crawl to the Word of God and cry out for ears to heard, the cold ashes will be lifted and the tiny spark of life will be fanned. For the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. John Piper
In His Sovereign Grace,
Virginia Knowles
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