Hope Chest #47 part 1: Educating for Excellence (Home School Newsletter)
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>
THE HOPE CHEST: Ideas and Inspiration for Home Education
Issue #47 part 1
January/February 2002
Educating for Excellence
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WELCOME TO THE HOPE CHEST!
The Hope Chest Home School News is a free bi-monthly e-mail newsletter
with encouragement and practical teaching tips. The editor is Virginia
Knowles, wife of Thad, and mother of eight, ages toddler to teen.
Virginia is also the publisher of five books: The Real Life Home School
Mom, three volumes of The Best of the Hope Chest, the Learners Journal
lesson planner and record keeping log. (Ordering information is at the
end of the newsletter for these resources and several by Cindy Rushton.)
Virginias note: I sent out a reader survey last month, and the results
are in! The two most popular features are "From My Heart to Yours" and
"Whats New at the Knowles House", with various other features vying for
a distant third. "The Poets Pen" was the item picked as most skippable.
Most of them moms say they like hearing from someone who shares about
real life in a home schooling family. That has always been my mission,
especially when I wrote my book, The Real Life Home School Mom. Thanks
for your feedback! It will be helpful to me as I cut back the length of
the Hope Chest newsletter so I can spend more time doing the top priority
Titus 2 stuff of being a wife, mother and homemaker. That said, this
issue is still one of the longest since I kept thinking of stuff to
include! Some of the readers wanted to know the size of the Hope Chest
e-mail list. It fluctuates around 1600 families all around the world. Of
the countries outside the USA, I believe that Australia and New Zealand
are the most numerous among our readers homelands. Someday, somehow, I
would love to visit Down Under. Wherever you are, Im glad to count you
as part of my cyber family. If you like this newsletter, please forward
it to your friends! THANKS!!
Hope Chest contact information:
Web site: http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html
Resource descriptions:
http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/resourceorders.html
Personal e-mail: [email protected]
Subscription address: [email protected]
Unsubscription address: [email protected]
This newsletter is currently sent out in a few parts per issue. This is
part 1 of 4.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1
>From My Heart to Yours: Excellence in Education
by Virginia Knowles
Eight Essential Elements for Excellence
by Virginia Knowles
Excellence in Education by Stephanie Romero
Part 2
Responsible Hearts, Responsible Hands
An Interview and Resource Review with Gina Widholm
by Virginia Knowles
Part 3
Education at Our House by Virginia Knowles
Excerpt from Education of a Child from the Wisdom of Fenelon
by Francis Fenelon, edited and rewritten by Mark Hamby
Part 4
Whats New at the Knowles House? by Virginia Knowles
Whats Up in the Next Issue?
Resource Ordering Information
Reprint Permission
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FROM MY HEART TO YOURS
Educating for Excellence
by Virginia Knowles
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In the beginning, God... That is the beginning of excellent education. He
is the ultimate source of all wisdom and knowledge. We can trust him to
open up this storehouse for us so that we can explore his creation and
understand his divine intervention throughout history. Discipling our
children is easier said than done. It would be much easier if there were
some little trap door in the human heart that we could open and dump the
good stuff in, but the human spirit (theirs and ours) is a bit more
complicated than that! We are truly in a spiritual battle for the hearts
and minds of our children, but the sacrifice is worth it. I implore you
to give his Word first place in your hearts and minds!
Our children will have many teachers in life. Since they are home
schooled, obviously the primary teacher in these years is us -- their
parents. We must constantly educate ourselves to be freshly prepared for
this privilege. But they will also learn much from authors, personal
mentors, other teachers, friends -- all carefully chosen for integrity
and worldview, of course! Dont overlook your own family as human
resources! Its such a treasure to see my children teaching each other:
making little activity books for the preschoolers, reading to the younger
ones, helping with a tough math problem, or installing new software.
One of the keys to success is to develop respect between the parent and
child. We know that children must learn to respect their parents
(hopefully in VERY young childhood), and that those who dont will only
be hindered later on. We also realize the parents must respect the
individuality of their children. We must KNOW them: how they learn best,
what interests them, what they are good at, what frustrates them all to
pieces. This helps us to encourage them in their studies, and to
customize their education to who they are.
For a good start in excellent education, focus on the essentials: the
ability to get, process, and communicate information. We GET information
through our senses. From birth, children are busy looking, listening,
touching, tasting, smelling. These are all good preparation for learning
one of the academic keys to data acquisition, which is reading. In the
older years, our children also learn how to research, to seek out various
resources to get the needed information. Now that weve got the
information rolling around in our brains, we need to PROCESS it. What
does it mean? Can I put it into my own words and form an opinion about
it? How does it fit together? Is there a logical sequence or connection
to it? Is it trustworthy or full of fallacies? Where do I store it in my
mental file cabinet? How can I use it in my every day life? Now that the
jumble of information is beginning to make sense, we want to express it.
As human beings made in the image of a creative God, we have a
fundamental need to COMMUNICATE our thoughts and ideas. Again, this is a
process that starts at birth, when we only know how to grimace, squirm
and cry to convey our needs. Then we learn other non-verbal communication
(wave bye-bye, reach for a toy) and eventually how to speak, for better
or worse, largely depending on the quality of examples around us. In our
school years, we also learn how to write: first some scribbles, then
letters, then maybe our name. We put words together to create simple
lists and captions and notes, and then move on to little stories or
factual reports. By high school we have hopefully learned the writing
process from first notes to final draft. Communication also includes
artistic expression: drawing, sculpture, singing, drama, public speaking,
etc. To summarize, if we learn the basics of how to get, process and
communicate information, we can learn anything else that we want. In
academic terms, this means we focus first on the 3Rs: reading (input),
math (mental processing skills) and writing (communication skills).
Beyond these basics, we also know we have to integrate the "whole person"
as God made us -- spirit, mind and body. We must learn to see education
in the fullest sense to include not only traditional academic school
subjects ("brain stuff"), but also Christian living, healthy
relationships, personal responsibility, perseverance, organization,
creativity, goal setting, decision making, real life problem solving,
money smarts, manners, household skills, first aid, good nutrition,
physical strength, bodily coordination, and FUN. The beauty of home
schooling is that we have the FREEDOM to incorporate these things into
the learning environment in a very natural way! I know that just thinking
about all of this can make us feel really overwhelmed, especially when we
remember our own lacks in these areas. (I speak for myself here!) But
take heart! Just like we cant instantly morph into the "Proverbs 31
woman" in all her glory, we must see that these things take place over
the long haul. You wont teach every kind of thing every year. You wont
teach any one thing all at once either. It is a little here, a little
there, as situations come up. One month you might participate in an art
class with your home school group, while another time you might prepare a
science fair project. You learn about nutrition and budgeting as you plan
menus, grocery shop and cook together. Preparing for a vacation is a good
time to learn about maps, itineraries, travel costs, listmaking, and
family choices. The trip itself offers an opportunity to see the world
around you or visit a historical site. In a time of crisis or transition,
you learn to cope with the curve balls that life sends. Those chances to
practice relational skills are likely to pop up continually if there are
any brothers and sisters around the house! This kind of education fits a
real purpose, preparing the child for a real life.
Excellent education can be acquired in many different ways, but by all
means, let us pursue it with commitment, enthusiasm, and creativity!
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EIGHT ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF EXCELLENCE
by Virginia Knowles
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The following list briefly summarizes the chapter "Excellent Work!" in my
book The Real Life Home School Mom.
1. Determine the Style and Capabilities of Each Child
2. Write Goals, Set up Routines, and Assign the Work
3. Provide Appropriate Tools
4. Clearly Demonstrate How to Do Each Task
5. Add a Little Adventure
6. Develop a Sense of Teamwork
7. Evaluate Success
8. Encourage an Attitude of Excellence
This 17 page chapter gives plenty of ideas for developing excellent work
habits, both academic and household, in a home education environment.
For more information on The Real Life Home School Mom, and to read the
introduction, click here!
http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/RealLife.html
For chapter summaries, click here!
http://www.homestead.com/hopechest/RealLifeSummaries.html
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EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION
by Stephanie Romero
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Sometimes our focus on "excellence" gets out of balance...we may start to
think like the world does. We may begin to see it as having our children
always on top, number 1. We can easily become like the world: wanting our
children to be reading at the earliest age possible, passing their grade
up and so forth. That's not to say there is anything wrong with striving
for the best in our children, academically. But TRUE knowledge and wisdom
is found in God's Word and living by it. The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge says Proverbs 1:7. This means that our beginning
to knowledge must be in the Lord, not in the world and its ways. This is
how we achieve educational excellence, by making Jesus the center and the
foundation of our homeschools. He will guide and direct us in our
homeschooling efforts. I believe that excellence can most definitely be
found in our materials and curriculum choices. Again, when we are seeking
the Lord's will for what will work best with our individual families. We
use almost all Christian-based material. I believe that in itself is
"excellent." I strive to mold and shape their character into being more
Christ-like, just by the daily occurrences that we face, when doing
schoolwork and when we are not. To truly attain any excellence in
education, it must be based upon the Lord's plans and not our own. Trust
in Him, seek Him daily, and He will meet you where you're at!