Lessons for mind and heart

We can't help it; if we love and fear God, we love His story. It is an account of peace, then conflict in which paradise is lost, then the Prince comes and paradise is restored.

An illustration of the tale Cinderella

This is reflected in the good myths that have survived. It is in the tale of Cinderella, of which 354 versions have been found. It is even found in pagan stories once told around ancient fires.

Modern literature, by and far, has purposely eschewed God's story. Therefore, most contemporary literature is stuck in the "conflict" portion of the narrative.

Man is in a wretched state, at odds with his environment. Sometimes he acts heroically, nevertheless, but often his very existence seems absurd to the non-believer. 

This explains why some literature seems depressing to Christians, who, while they know that man is fallen and in a state of sin, live with the hope of regaining paradise. If you and your children choose not to wallow around in the mood portrayed by writers who are stuck in the middle part of man's story, there is no reason why you should, even if one of these selections is in your literature book, and even if the author is a "great" writer. Ruth Beechick, You CAN Teach Your Child Successfully

With this in mind, the McGuffey readers are such a sweet breath of fresh air! They delight both the mind and the heart. Here is an example from McGuffey's third reader (revised),

I often enjoy reading these stories before bed to myself--catching up on the wonderful education I never received!

 

Bringing children home from public school

Ellie working by the garden

It's a very fine and lofty idea, this homeschooling, but where does one start? How can parents bring their children "home" successfully?

A dear mother asked me this question recently and I thought our conversation would benefit many:

Hello, 

I am bringing home my 15 year old daughter after having been in traditional school. I am wondering with three years left of high school can I realistically change her over to this type of learning. I am currently reading homeschool sanity and am very interested in this type of learning but very uncertain as to how to do it. I am a mom to eight. My oldest two children have already graduated. Unfortunately, with a modern education. I am hoping to save the rest of my children from this. I will have five children schooling this fall plus a toddler.

Here is my response:

It was not clear whether or not your remaining five children were being pulled out of government education, so please forgive me if I do not communicate clearly on that point. 

Sarah with math in her room

First of all, you and your children need some time to do what we call "decompressing". To begin to teach your children without allowing them to have a break from all of the pressures and distractions of public schooling is next to impossible for all of you. 

What does this mean? Just taking time to get to know your children, for one thing. It is also time to cleanse your home from distractions you may never have noticed before, such as limiting or eliminating electronic and social media. I know this may seem harsh, but these old methods need for children to have time to develop their own personalities and interests (not in the narcissistic sense, but only as God has created them to serve Him and others). 

We do have Internet access in our home, but only as a rare privilege, under great supervision. We do not own any electronic game equipment whatsoever, and we also own only two cell phones, but these are only as emergency devices, and they are the most basic models.

Patience with colors and stickers

Specifically for your 15yo, you may need to have her take a break from her public-schooled friendships until you establish a new order in your home. At her age, you need to find a way not only to capture her mind, but her heart as well. If she does not have friends to lean on as things are changing so drastically, she may learn that you and your husband, along with her siblings, are indeed her best friends (please forgive me if this is not a problem for you, I am writing this with a few assumptions).

Here are some things I would prescribe for you this summer: 

--go on long walks together
--read aloud a few really interesting novels ("Little Men" is a great one to set the stage)
--give out paper, pencils and crayons and let the children create what they will!
--watch a lot of old films together--the black-and-white ones from the late '30's and '40's that encourage values ("The Big Trail" with John Wayne is a great one, "You Can't Take it With You", "The Angel and the Badman", "Sgt York", "Titanic" [1953 version], etc.).  

Lorilee illustrates her own book

Make it all fun--your enthusiasm will eventually rub off on your children.  

Set a schedule--get up by a certain hour, then do household chores together. Then have a nice brisk walk or something out-of-doors (yard work does wonders for children), and sit down to reading, drawing or other crafting. Have your oldest make lunch for you daily as you catch up on mail, calls, etc.  

Joshua with his McGuffey's work

Create a "culture" in your own home; everyone doing things together, instead of a whole bunch of disjointed activity. Let there be time for individual pursuits, but only after a hefty amount of family interaction.  

And establish respect--if your children do not obey you and your husband, you will not be able to accomplish anything! We even correct for bad attitudes around here, which helps so much! 

This is the best way I know of to set the stage for this new type of education. If you are interested, I could make recommendations for actually starting the formal side of things, but I believe this time of laying a foundation is paramount for you and your family. 

When I asked this reader if I could share with you all, she was more than willing. I know that there are many other families who are struggling with these very issues. I hope this helps!

Rediscovering old authors

I really do live in the 21st century, at least most of the time.

But I also love my jaunts into the past--at least before humanism took hold of our culture. There was always vice and sin, but it was not published and flaunted as it is today. Most folks would have blushed in shame to even speak of some of the things that were done without any remorse in our Oval Office!

But the so-called "classics" that have survived and are being sold in stores are not necessarily the "cream of the crop". With my study of the McGuffey readers, and others like them, I am rediscovering some wonderful treats, which I can then find through avenues such as Internet Archive, which has collected listings of all sorts of scanned and digitized books from the past.

Here are a few of the authors which I have uncovered:

Thomas Hughes


Frank R. Stockton


Grace Greenwood, especially her Records of Five Years

And currently I am reading the novel, The Foresters, by John Wilson. This book is so explicit with Christian sentiment and thought, and it is of a family that reads the Word, sings hymns, and prays together more than once a day! And yet, it is very interesting and full of human pathos. I would highly recommend it!

A study of the yucca plant

From time-to-time I get questions as to the "how's" of nature study. Here is one example of a spontaneous one that was initiated by my twelve-year-old daughter.

 We live in a semi-arid climate in the West, so we are surrounded by yucca plants!

Yucca blossom dissection with labels

This time of year they are in bloom, so my sweet Ellie brought some blossoms home with her. We proceeded to study these flowers, dissecting them and placing our findings on a large sheet of paper. Then we went on the Internet and found help in labeling the different parts.

Then, for her essay this week, I asked her to research and write about the usefulness of this desert plant. This is what she wrote:

Yucca Plant

by Ellie, age 12

The yucca plant is very useful. The Pueblo Indians used it for food, rope, paint brushes, and shampoo. The fruit could be eaten raw, dried, baked or boiled (it tastes kind of like potatoes). Sometimes they made the pulp mixed with berries into cakes that were dried.

The stalks were eaten also. The stalks have a fiber that was used to make rope (sometimes they put human or animal hair or even feathers into it). The stalks would be soaked in cold water and pounded with a stone that would separate the fiber which would be braided together after that. The stalks could also be used as paint brushes (just bite the tip and it will fray).

Shampoo came from the roots! It was first pounded and then mixed into cold water. This would create suds that the Indians used to wash with.

Many Indian Tribes used the yucca for sacred ceremonies. Native Americans also used it as one of the main dyeing substances.  If you burn yucca leaves (stalks) to ashes and put these in bread dough, the bread will turn blue and very thin. The tips were also used for needles.

The pronuba moth is necessary to the plant. The pronuba (or yucca moth) needs the plant as much as the plant needs it.  The pronuba pollinates the plant while it lays its babies (or larvae). The larvae eat the maturing fruit and, when they are at the pupating stage, crawl down the stem and go into the ground. 

Nowadays we have a root beer with yucca in it (yucca creates foam).

Yucca is used for healing cuts, sunburns, scratches and dry cuticles. If you have arthritis or rheumatism take a yucca root and boil it for about half an hour and then drink it as tea. I can guarantee it will relieve you! 

Homeschool mother's journal

I have been feeling like I wanted to share some of my life in "real time", and my other blog has more of a serious, magazine-like feel to it now, so I thought I would come over here and write about what's on my mind and in my life! I am thankful that The Homeschool Chick has made this possible!

Here are the questions and answers:

In my life this week...

We were toying with the idea of selling and moving, so we spent four days getting our house "show-ready" so that a realtor could walk through. On the plus side, this was a great way to do some spring-cleaning, on the negative side, it reminded me of just how much work it takes to move! We probably will not sell, so I am really enjoying my clean, organized, and beautified domain!

In our homeschool this week...

I came to the realization that I had been letting my "mommy sensibilities" cloud my judgement, and so I was not expecting the level of academic work I should from my children. I have since changed things up a bit and even stooped to assigning letter grades (horror!) to an essay once a week! Amazingly, they can all write, spell and structure sentences much better than they were letting on...

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share...

There are so many ways to schedule. I have gone through all sorts of seasons when different ones worked better than others. This is spring, with so much to enjoy outdoors, etc., and also my children have been only "dabbling" in one area or another. Therefore my dear husband and I feel lead to dedicate each day of the work-week to a separate portion of their studies, so that we might focus our attentions and energies more fully.

For instance, Monday will be all about McGuffey--I so dearly love these readers! Tuesday will be about non-fiction reading and studying (this is the day for history, science, geography and the like), with a bit of "Greek roots Jeopardy" (I make my own boards to go along with the book) thrown in for fun and instruction. Wednesday will be a 5-page (double-spaced) essay (3-pages for the youngest of the readers). Thursday will be dedicated to math drills, instruction, problems, and games. Friday will be anything my children deem interesting.

I am inspired by...

Ray Comfort. I have been reading one of his books lately and revisiting the "why's" of my salvation, as well as the "how's" of reaching the lost.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

My dear son, Timothy, came over today for a haircut. As I was clipping the blonde curls on his head I was remembering him as a toddler, his blonde curls were so long and huge on his tiny head back then that we put off giving him his first hair cut for a long time. Now he is a young man on his own, and I love him so much!

My favorite thing this week was...

Kissing the cheek of my precious 2yo Patience and asking her where she got her pretty blue eyes, to which she replied, "From Jesus. He gave them to me and to you. I want Him so much!"

What's working/not working for us...

(See above on homeschooling tips and advice)

Questions/thoughts I have...

I am hoping I have sufficiently communicated the Gospel message to my oldest children out of the home. They are all good, solid citizens, but I still wonder if I could have watered it down a bit. I can't change all that, but I am striving to live a more Spirit-led life with this "batch" at home.

Things I'm working on...

Crocheting doilies--I really enjoy creating these things with my own, free-wheeling patterns. I am also building a whole mess of math helps links that I am trying out and hope to share sometime.

I'm reading...

The Way of the Master, Ray Comfort with Kirk Cameron. More Power to You, Merlin Carothers

Good Morals and Gentle Manners, Gow Up From Slavery, Booker T. Washington.

I'm cooking...

Southwest chicken casserole, one of my own concoctions! It tastes great, but my pickiest eaters like it because it doesn't have any "strange" ingredients!

I'm grateful for...

The rain last night. We are experiencing a bit of a drought here--this last March was the driest on record--so our grass was so thankful, and it was like God was speaking of His love to us.

I'm praying for...

My dear daughter, Anna, whom I love and miss dearly.

Here is a picture I would like to share...

This is an ink sketch done by my son, Ryan.

Good morals and gentle manners

From McGuffey's 2nd reader (revised)

Once upon a time, in the land under our feet, the Bible was the unquestioned sovereign of all books. In this land, parents, teachers and all other officials, including the president, public representatives, and Supreme Court justices agreed that children should all be taught from this book.

It was during this time that a textbook company chose to publish a text that explained morality and manners from a Biblical perspective. Its title was "Good Morals and Gentle Manners".

I have been reading this text aloud to my children. There is no mention of "self esteem" and no promises of having a "perfect life now". In fact, the whole focus is on one's duty to God and man.

Way back when, the word "duty" was not dirty. Certain things were expected ("musts" Charlotte Mason would have called them), and no apologies were made, no excuses offered.

There is a danger in reading this book; if a child (or adult) were to read these pages, he/she would be accountable. There would not be any hiding in ignorance, and so such a person would probably experience...GUILT!

But the most marvelous, wonderful thing of all is that this guilt could lead to the realization that everyone needs their sins to be atoned for, and so the fallow ground would be ready, it would be broken up and made pliable and receptive for the seeds of the Gospel--the good news that Jesus came to forgive, He came to die and bleed for the trespasses of mankind!

As I have been so enjoying books by Ray Comfort lately, I am greatly enthusiastic about sharing this with my children. I don't want them to grow up with a "pseudo" faith, I want them to be genuinely converted.

I have often wondered that the reason we had experienced so many sweeping revivals in the past is that people of the past were well schooled in what depravity and separation from God really meant. It was only in the realization that Jesus died to save them that they experienced any relief from their own consciences, which had been trained from birth to understand sin and guilt.

But, thanks to ministries such as Dollar Homeschool and other online digital resources, we can turn back the clock a bit, and perhaps return to God's original plan for parents and families.

Learning to write--homemade copywork

My little eager beaver!

My little five-year-old daughter is chomping at the bit to produce real words. She takes every opportunity to practice; she gives us papers, chalkboards, and magna-doodles filled with lines of letter-looking shapes in various sequences and asks us to "read" them for her.

Of course, most of these are unintelligible, but we do our best and try and read them aloud to her, sort of like interpreting a strange language.

But these hieroglyphics are serious business to her, and so we tend to them as being serious. They are her beginnings, and they should be encouraged.

I have seen this pattern over and over in my beginning readers. They are seeing that everyone who is grown-up (or is growing-up) is writing words, so they want to keep up!

I like to use the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons to tiny ones (while using the original McGuffey's primer, of course). The first 15 or so lessons in this text take a child from seeing words as blocks or blurs on a page to seeing them as sequences of sounds strung together. It also teaches them some very important reading skills--such as how to track words from left to right, and how to sound a word out slowly, then say it fast.

My children tend to lose interest if I go past the first part of the book--this is when the McGuffey's works can be used to their best benefit.

Along with initial reading and decoding, I like to take a small child's enthusiasm for writing and run with it. Of course, it is very important not to discourage all of the free-writing they do; even if they do not keep within lines or even make all the letters backwards! A blank page is the best canvas for their first artistic attempts at written language.

But there is a place for more structured study of letters. This is where their first copybooks come into play. I like to order mine from Sam's Club--the Roaring Spring brand that are lined for beginners (at this writing they were $1.16 a piece, shipping included!).

While skipping around the Net on different homeschooling blogs I stumbled across a method of creating copy pages for very young ones that I thought to be so simple, yet so ingenious! It involves the use of highlighters. I have since improved on the original idea and come up with a method that keeps my children on track. I use different colors for the "boundaries" of the pages--such as the space between lines, etc. I then use a different-colored highlighter for the letters and words themselves. I also put a dot with a regular pen at the point which a child should begin a letter (my children have all had a tendency to begin their letters at the bottom, instead of the top). A picture example follows:

I skipped a line on the 2nd page because of the scribbles of the 2-year-old trying to help! 

These pages take only a few short minutes to create, and yet I believe just the fact that I have done them myself makes them more valuable to my tiny one. There is a sort of emotional connection that happens with things done by hand, and small children need this--after all, they are just coming out from under our hearts into the wide world.