Quote from Forum Archives on June 1, 2003, 4:26 pm

Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

 

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THE HOPE CHEST HOME SCHOOL NEWS

#56: What I'm Learning Lately 

June 1, 2003
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WELCOME TO THE HOPE CHEST!

The Hope Chest Home School News is a free e-mail newsletter with encouragement and practical teaching tips. The editor is Virginia Knowles, wife of Thad, mother of nine children, and author of Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade,
The Real Life Home School Mom, and The Learner’s Journal lesson planner and record keeping log. (Ordering information is at the end of the newsletter.)

 

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I recently asked for feedback as to whether readers would prefer frequent
shorter messages or longer bi-monthly messages. While many like the
longer themed issues, the majority preferred shorter bi-weekly issues.
SO, for the summer, I will do bi-weekly mini-issues, then reevaluate what to do
during the school year. This particular mini-issue turned out to be
not-so-mini. I think you’ll find some inspiration and practical tips to
help you along the home school journey.

 

Before we start, I have to tell you about a conversation I recently had with my almost four year old son, Micah.  He asked me, "What is inside a llama?"  I simply replied that llamas had blood, bones and muscles inside of them, just like we do.  His next question: "Do they have ear wax?"  And who ever said that being a home school mom is boring?

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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• Hope Chest Contact Information
• From My Heart to Yours: Sovereignty
• Nature Walks
• Summer Fun
• Organizing with Bags and Bins
• Resource Ordering Information
• Reprint Permission

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HOPE CHEST CONTACT INFORMATION
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Web site: www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html
Resources: www.hopechest.homestead.com/resourceorders.html
Personal e-mail: [email protected]
Subscription address: [email protected]
Unsub address: [email protected]

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FROM MY HEART TO YOURS:
Sovereignty
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After over a quarter century of being a Christian, I still find myself
learning more and more about the Lord, and revisiting familiar concepts
in a fresh way. I find that this enhances my effectiveness as a home
school mom and helps me to see that there is more to life than just the
routine daily tasks before me. In the summer mini-issues of the Hope
Chest, I’d like to share with you about four of these areas --
sovereignty, salvation, the Spirit, and Scripture -- and how they are
being worked into my life.

Sovereignty

We often hear that "God is in control" but what does this mean? How does
this work out in our families and home schools? If we fully understand
God’s sovereignty, we will TRUST and OBEY.

God weaves together every tiny detail of our lives to fulfill his good
purposes. Nothing is beyond his control. Even as I write this, I pray
that he will give me the words to communicate his message to each of you.
As I plan lessons and teach my children, I trust that God will lead me
along each step of the way. When I run errands, I ask God to guide my van
and my steps so I can see be at the right places at the right times to
meet the right people and see the right things. I am continually amazed
the "divine coincidences" that happen when I do this! I could write a
whole book on this alone! (But I won’t yet -- because God isn’t leading
me that way right now!) When "bad" things happen -- like a child who
can’t seem to learn what I'm trying to teach, or a computer that
crashes, or a box of books that gets lost in shipment, or a phone call that interrupts my train of thought -- I can be confident that God still knows what he is doing!

God has sovereignly chosen each of my children to be part of my family.
Not one of them was an "accident"! When folks see me with my nine
children, they sometimes ask, "Were all of these children planned?" Of
course they were -- by the very best planner in the universe. He gave
each of them their exact DNA. He gave each of them unique talents, learning styles and personalities. He uses each of them, sometimes a little unpleasantly, to mold my character in patience and kindness. (I still have a long way to go here!) I am so blessed to know each of my children!

God’s sovereignty is also changing the way I think of "success" in home
schooling. My job is to be faithful with whatever he has assigned to me,
and then be as patient as a farmer waiting for his seeds to bring forth
fruit. God’s job is to add my feeble little efforts to his divine power,
and then bring forth his harvest for his glory. To be faithful in
mothering means seeking Scripture for God’s will in how to train my
children. If I mess up, which I often do, I pray that God will somehow
use even this for his good purposes, and that he will safely shepherd my
children past my mistakes.

 

Because God is sovereign, I want my desires to be in tune with his desires.  I want to serve him wholeheartedly.  When I am tempted to give up on a tough situation in home schooling, God's sovereignty propels me to persevere.  I know that he has an answer to my problem if I seek it patiently!

If you have been feeling stressed out or sense that you are heading on
the wrong path, I encourage you to open your eyes to God’s sovereignty,
so that you can both trust and obey! In the words of the hymn, "Trust and
obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and
obey!"

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Just as I was finishing writing this article today, I got a phone call
from an older friend with whom we have been trying to share God’s grace.
She confided in me what a terrible burden it is for her to believe in
God’s love and power after seeing some of the awful atrocities of World
War II. How can a good God let such terrible things happen to innocent
people? I wish I had a crystal clear answer for her! Praying for God to
direct my tongue, I did my best to encourage her to let the Lord remove
this weight from her heart. I shared with her about Corrie ten Boom, the
Dutch Christian who suffered horribly in a concentration camp after
sheltering Jews in a secret room in her home. After the war, while
speaking at a church in Germany, a man approached her, thanked her for
the message on forgiveness, and extended his hand. Now he was a
Christian, but during the war, he had been one of the Nazi guards who had
sent loved ones to their deaths! Could she possibly forgive him? In her
own mind she didn’t think she could, but God supernaturally enabled her
to extend her own hand and forgive. God, in his incredible mercy, extends
his hands on the cross to forgive our sin. None of us deserved it, yet he
willingly did it for us. Please pray for my friend, whom we know because
of one of our "divine coincidences", that God would meet her just where
she is!

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"Nature Walks"
Excerpt from
Common Sense Excellence:
Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade
by Virginia Knowles
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[This brief excerpt is from the science chapter.]

Nature Walks

Get outside and see nature! After all, nature walks are free and easy to
do, and observing nature for yourself is one of the best ways to learn
about plants and animals. Children get excited about their "specimens"
and the fresh air is good for your health. Francis Fenelon in his book
Education of a Child says, "A simple walk through the woods or splashing
in a stream brings contentment to the soul and appreciation for God’s
beauty in a manner that extravagant amusements cannot."

Here are some ideas for your own nature explorations:

Start in your own backyard. If you live in an urban or suburban
neighborhood, you may not have much "habitat" at first glance. Still,
I’ll bet you could find lots of living things in your own backyard:
birds, bugs, flowers, lizards, cats, worms... To go farther afield, hike
at a trail, park, preserve, lake, river, or mountain.

Keep your eyes and ears open. Learning to pay attention is so important
to nature study! We often hear a red headed woodpecker rat-tat-tatting on
our back fence.

Be careful not to upset nature. Please remind your children to refrain
from disturbing animal homes. They don’t always know that they shouldn’t
remove an egg from a nest, even if they return it right away. This upsets
the mama, and she may abandon it! Talk about nature conservation -- how
pollution and human expansion affect an ecosystem’s quality of air,
water, soil, plants and animal homes. Read about animals which have
become extinct. You don’t need to be a "tree hugger" to be a prudent
environmentalist! God has called us to stewardship!

Practice nature safety. Learn to avoid poisonous snakes, stinging
insects, irritating plants, and hazardous bodies of water. Wear
protective clothing, sun screen, and/or insect repellent.

Collect and/or identify interesting specimens using a pocket-sized field
guide. (Obtain permission from the landowner before you do this!) Look at
your "finds" with a magnifying glass or microscope. Do a scavenger hunt.
Each person needs to find listed items like an oak leaf, a brown rock, a
nut, etc. You don’t need to take the items, just check them off on the
list. Michelle Demarest suggests buying a plastic divided box in the
sports department to store your treasures.

Savor the seasons of nature. Do special activities related to winter
(snowmen), spring (flower arranging), summer (beach trip) or autumn
(pressing leaves). My uncle in Pennsylvania hosts home school groups for
syrup making when the sap starts running in the maple trees. What makes
each season special? Flowers have their own annual timetables for
sprouting and blooming. Northern trees bud in spring, stay green through
the summer, turn brilliant colors in autumn, and are bare in the winter
(except for evergreens, of course)!

Take field trips to organized nature study areas. Go to the zoo, petting
farm, botanical garden, nature center, science museum or county fair. Out
of their natural habitats, you can find specimens organized by category.
When you go to the zoo, have your child identify whether an animal is a
mammal, bird, insect, amphibian, reptile, etc. What are the characteristics of each group? (Before you go, you can learn about this from books.)

Find an experienced nature mentor. This human resource can answer your
questions and help guide your explorations. It could be an adult who
works in this field, but don’t overlook home schooled kids as resources.
When we had questions about catching bugs or growing pineapples, we used
to call two middle school boys in our support group.

Keep a nature journal. Have your children make drawings or rubbings of
what they see, and then label them, also telling where they found the
specimen. For language arts, they can also "paint" a word picture to
describe a flower or other nature object. A nature journal is also handy
for recording changes in the seasons or the weather from day to day or
week to week.

Take pictures. Show your child how to take landscape pictures or close-up
shots.

Bring portable field guides. I recommend Peterson’s or Audubon. At the
minimum, you should have one each for birds, insects & spiders, and
flowers. Trees, reptiles, rocks & minerals, and other guides will be useful too, if your child is interested. A regional field guide will focus on species which are most commonly seen in your area.

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SUMMER FUN
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We just finished up school around here this week, and as usual, we went
out with a whimper instead of a bang. In other words, "Let’s just finish
our math, and call it a school year!" Honestly, though, most of my
children are avid readers who will educate themselves quite nicely during
the summer. They have, however, been complaining of "nothing to do" and
don’t seem at all humored when I point to the mounds of laundry that need
to be folded!

I decided last week that I’ve got to come up with a battle plan. I want
to come up with some specific activities, and be prepared for them! I
checked out several activity books from the library, and told Joanna (10)
and Lydia (8) to go through them and get ideas so that I can buy the
supplies ahead of time. I went to Dollar Tree and bought craft foam
sheets, wooden spoons (for making puppets), colored craft sticks, extra
child-sized scissors (some with wavy edges), and several trays of water
color paints to add to our craft box.

I also bought another tub of Legos for Andrew (6) and Micah (almost 4). I
had nearly banned these from the house because they were getting
scattered on the floor (ouch!), but decided to just confine them to the
table. I filled an extra Lego container with larger wood and plastic
blocks for Naomi (2).

The older girls are already planning summer activities for themselves.
Mary (almost 16) will be volunteering for a few weeks at the children’s
day camp at the Crealde School of Art, and then starting a paid
internship in a law office. Julia (14) is going to the Winning Ways
basketball day camp for a week. Rachel (12) is going to take the Safe
Sitter babysitting course with a friend. These three have also been
invited to various activities with other families throughout the summer.
Each of them also intends to do some math to get a jump on next year.

Other halfway educational summer ideas:

• Play board games like Scrabble and Rummikub.
• Write country or state names from memory.
• Get some extra CD-ROM educational games.
• Plan just-for-fun day trips to who-knows-where.
• Let the kids help plan a neighborhood party or backyard Bible club.
• Have a garage sale.
• Do a scavenger hunt or treasure hunt.
• Let each child use a personal unit study theme for delight-directed
  independent study.
• Learn to bake, sew or do special home projects.
• Put all of your photos in albums.
• Indulge in a hobby that you don’t have time to do during the regular
  school year.
• Join your library’s summer reading incentive program or start your own
  family reading incentive program.

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ORGANIZING WITH BINS & BAGS
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A couple of weeks ago, our church’s home school ministry brought in a
special speaker on home organization. I already knew most of what she
said, but it was nice to be reminded and freshly motivated. She said that
the five step process for decluttering an area goes like this:

1. Take everything out.
2. Sort it into categories.
3. Eliminate what you can (throw away, give away, put away elsewhere).
4. Put the rest into containers.
5. Put it back.

The next day, I went to Dollar General Store and bought a whole bunch of
inexpensive little bins in two different sizes (3"x10" and 6"x9"). I
organized our school supply shelves -- one bin each for black lead
pencils, colored pencils, pens, scissors, miscellaneous office stuff,
hair bands, hair brushes, stray game & puzzle pieces, etc. Then I labeled
them with permanent markers. I am very insistent that things get put in
the right places! It is SO nice to be able to reach into a bin and pull
out a pencil without wading through everything else! Yippee! Since then,
I’ve been back to Dollar General to buy more bins for the girls to
organize their bedrooms.

I also bought some more pint and gallon size zip lock bags. I use these
for games and puzzles after the boxes get all banged up, as well as messy
craft supplies. After labeling with a permanent marker, I store the
puzzle bags in one bin, the game bags in another, and the craft bags in
another. Game boards go in a neat pile under the game bin. It works -- as long as someone doesn't leave the whole game bin on the table for the little ones to scatter! 

 

(More information on organizing the school room can be found in both of my books, The Real Life Home School Mom and Common Sense Excellence.)

I’ve organized our diaper bags with zip lock bags, too. I have an extra
"diaper" bag that I keep in our van for emergencies. Besides the usual
diaper stuff, it has a hairbrush, sanitary supplies, first aid kit, extra
undies for the little kids, etc.

Another fruit of my recent organizational attempts can be seen in the
kitchen cabinet that holds our plastic food storage containers. This has
been a source of frustration in the past, because it seemed like it never
stayed organized! The way the girls stacked things was so haphazard. I
finally pulled it all out of the cupboard and culled everything that was
throwing a kink in the system. Pretty much the only things left are
Rubbermaid, which have an imprinted code on the bottom to match lids to
the bowls. My new rule is that you can only put ONE code in each pile,
with all of the lids underneath the stack of bowls. The cupboard shelves
are labeled with the Rubbermaid codes so that each stack can be put in
the right place. I had to give everyone a little "home ec" lesson on
container stacking, but it works!

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RESOURCE ORDERING INFORMATION
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Resource ordering web page:
www.hopechest.homestead.com/resourceorders.html

Since this is a mini-issue, I am not including full descriptions of any
of the resources. You can click on their individual web pages, or e-mail
and ask for more information. If you want to order, e-mail me and I will
give you instructions, information on quantity discounts, and shipping
and sales tax charges.

Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade -- $20
www.hopechest.homestead.com/cse.html

The Real Life Home School Mom: A Book of Help and Hope $14 (discount price)
www.hopechest.homestead.com/reallife.html

The Learner’s Journal lesson planner and resource log -- $10
www.hopechest.homestead.com/learnersjournal.html

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REPRINT PERMISSION
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You may freely copy material from this newsletter in other non-profit
publications (unless otherwise marked in the article), but you MUST
include the author’s name (not necessarily mine) and this entire notice:

Reprinted with permission of Virginia Knowles from the Hope Chest Home School News. For a free subscription, send an e-mail message to [email protected] or visit
http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html

Please send a copy of the publication which includes the material to:

Virginia Knowles
1925 Blossom Lane
Maitland, FL 32751

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