Sonlight Science vs. Science in the Beginning

We have been a Sonlight-only, multi-subject package homeschooling family since the beginning of our homeschool journey.  We have appreciated the ease and variety of Sonlight both for teacher and student.  And, it’s been well worth the cost to have everything come together in one box so all we need to purchase are a few pencils to start our school year.  In my naive mind, I thought we would do Sonlight Kindergarten through 12th grade.  But after two years using Sonlight, the honeymoon phase is over.  What worked for us in the beginning didn't necessarily work in its entirety two years later especially in regards to science.

With Sonlight Core A and Core B Science, we studied a variety of topics throughout the year so we never grew tired of science.  It was always new and fresh to my child.  We used several books to cover one area of science rather than one textbook.  We enjoyed fairly easy and age-appropriate science experiments using the things we had around our house plus the pre-made Sonlight science kit.  And, the science worksheets that came with the Sonlight Cores helped us gauge our child's comprehension level.   

Yet there were two negatives to Sonlight that we just couldn’t seem to work around.  The first was that fact that Sonlight uses mainly Usborne books for science.  Usborne presents the majority of its science from an evolution viewpoint.  Sonlight tries to compensate for that through shallowly sharing a Biblical viewpoint and a few accompanying verses in the Instructor’s Guide.  The second is that the Sonlight Core A and Core B science is an overview of science and it rarely goes beyond the surface.  However, I don’t think a science program can go beyond the surface if it’s not rooted firmly in the Word of God. 

So we were determined to find something different to use for science for second grade that had the Biblical, hands-on approach to science mixed with the variety of science that we love from Sonlight.  We really liked Apologia and how it is rooted in the Word, but we didn’t like how it focused on one area of science all year long.  That would quickly get old for my child (and for me).  A friend in a homeschool Facebook group recommended Dr. Jay Wile’s new science book, Science in the Beginning.  I had never heard of Dr. Wile before but when my friend mentioned that he wrote the high school science textbooks for Apologia, my interest was piqued.  Surely his Biblical worldview would carry over into his writing.  And knowing Apologia's reputation for science, surely he would bring a certain level of depth and knowledge to science that Sonlight didn’t afford with its Core. 

Dr. Wile sent us a copy of Science in the Beginning to look through and review, and we found the perfect compromise between Sonlight and Apologia!  Science in the Beginning is geared toward elementary students and can be done with one child or it can be done with several children of varying ages.  Each lesson ends with a review for the youngest students, older students and oldest students.  These reviews are centered around keeping a science journal and drawing or explaining the experiments and/or lessons.  At the end of first grade, we found ourselves going between the youngest and older student reviews based on my child’s writing vs. drawing capabilities. 

Like Sonlight, every experiment in Science in the Beginning (which there is one per lesson) can be done with household items.  There is a thorough explanation of what to do, and Dr. Wile explains the "why" behind every experiment (something that is hit or miss with Sonlight).  The plus to Science in the Beginning is that the experiments actually correspond with what you are studying; whereas, there is no coordination between Sonlight’s experiments and what is currently being studied (at least in Cores A and B). 

Science in the Beginning also relates science back to the Days of Creation.  The First Day of Creation Week (Lessons 1-15) deals with light where children learn all about light, colors, reflection, energy, the human eye, etc. The Second Day of Creation (Lessons 16-30) deals with everything water.  The Third Day of Creation (Lessons 31-45) centers around the land, rocks and plants.  Day Four of Creation (Lessons 46-60) focuses on the sun, moon and solar system.  Day Five of Creation gives an overview on birds and fish (Lessons 61-75).  And Day Six of Creation (Lessons 76-90) focuses on land animals, people and our senses.  Then, there is a page on Day Seven of Creation which talks about the need for rest. 

There is also a small supplement, Helps & Hints, to Science in the Beginning.  This guide contains the answers to the review questions in Science in the Beginning as well as contains corresponding tests and answer keys.  It is nice to have, but it is not necessary to complete the textbook. 

Science in the Beginning debuts Dr. Wile's new elementary series where he walks students through science in a historical context.  When we first received our book in December 2013, I was hesitant about jumping on board since the second book had not yet been released.  However, the second book, Science in the Ancient World, was released last month and there are plans for more to be released each year.  I see Dr. Wile’s series truly complementing the history portion of Sonlight’s Cores as science and history walk hand-in-hand.  We are picking up Science in the Beginning as we go into Sonlight Core C.  It is a great review and Science in the Beginning further reinforces the things we learned in previous Sonlight Cores.  For more on Dr. Wile’s approach, visit his blog at http://blog.drwile.com/?p=11016. 

I was concerned about Science in the Beginning being a duplicate of Sonlight Core A and B science, but there is enough difference between the two programs that it is worth going through Science in the Beginning in its entirety.  I was also concerned about Science in the Beginning being a “real” textbook since this is our first “official” textbook ever.  However, there is enough variety and science experiments in this book that we do not miss Sonlight science at all.  Plus, I secretly like having a little extra room on our bookshelf since we no longer need eight different books just for one year of science.  Science in the Beginning is a great starting point, and we use the library or find books at yard sales that complement Science in the Beginning for extra learning and enjoyment.  Also with Science in the Beginning, we are fully in control of the book selection rather than simply accepting what comes with the Sonlight Science program from an evolutionist standpoint. 

Science in the Beginning fills that niche for Sonlight users who aren’t ready to make a big curriculum change but who prefer science from a Biblical standpoint.  And Science in the Beginning provides both Biblical and educational depth that Sonlight simply cannot achieve using Usborne books.  It's definitely a great compromise for our family!  To find out more about Science in the Beginning, visit www.bereanbuilders.com/rl/index.php?8 .

Please note:  Other than receiving this product for free, we received no other compensation. 

The Book in the Trash Can

Several books we received with our Sonlight Core B this year have prompted more indecision than anything else as education and secular worldviews collide with Christianity. While I believe homeschool children do need to know about other religions (including famous false gods) and various theories like evolution that contradict the Bible so they may speak up for truth intelligently, I believe there is a time and a place for these discussions. 

All year long, I've felt this battle between teaching what is presented in our books versus sharing God's truth and imparting a Biblical worldview to my child.  Christians will argue all day long that our children need to know other religions, but do four, five, and six year olds need to know about other religions when they are still learning about their own God and learning the basics of John 3:16?  Do you teach your young child about statues, idols and mosques when they are still trying to figure out who God is and what church is all about?  Do you teach your young child about the Big Bang when that child is still learning that God created the world with order and the basics surrounding the Days of Creation?  Or, do you teach your young child what is true first so that they always have a foundation and point of reference (the Bible) that they can fall back on whenever theories and religions contradict what they know is true about God? 

It's fascinating to see the many answers and debates to these questions in Christian circles.  However, it seems like many people fail to take age into consideration. 

I wouldn't have thought twice about any of this and the effect of exposing children to other viewpoints at a young age until this winter when I heard my child role playing with his Lego minifigures.  His minifigures were "talking" about reincarnation and nirvana.  WHAT?!?!  No, no, NO!!!!  What happened to role playing about David and Goliath, Noah, the parables, and heaven and everlasting life?

While I thought covering world religions as presented in age-appropriate history books was "education" and what he's "supposed" to be learning (compared to public school counterparts), my child was picking up waaaay more than I thought he would.  That role playing incident opened my eyes to the fact that, as homeschoolers, we have complete say as to what our children learn and WHEN it is appropriate for them to learn it.  It made me go back to the reasons why we decided to homeschool and what we hoped to accomplish with homeschooling--knowing about world religions isn't on our list, but cultivating a relationship with Christ is.  So, if what we're allowing in our homeschool doesn't push us toward our goals, then why are we wasting time with it?  When I ran everything through that lens, it meant omitting pages in books or skipping several books altogether that contradicted what we believed.  Sometimes, it meant comparing a secular book with the Bible side-by-side in order to make sure my child can "see" and begin to understand why certain things are important.  As I reflect back on our school year, I spent more time correcting wrong ideas presented in our books than I did teaching the Truth outright (outside of Bible class and family devotions).  And while I have beat myself up for this many times this year, a situation happened today that reminded me that truth always wins and that God redeems our mistakes! 

Today, I was preparing Sonlight Core B books to sell when my child started flipping out over the Usborne "Greek Myths" book on top of the pile because we haven't read it yet.  I explained to him that it's a book full of stories about mythical gods and their adventures.  We have been exposed to plenty of religious ideas and all types of gods through our Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome studies this year and it was time to fill our minds with things about the one true God instead.  Well, my child freaks out and respectfully but urgently asks, "Mom, why would you sell [this book] to another kid?  So he can learn about other gods?  Do you want to teach him about the other gods or the one true God?"

I admit that I thought my child was being a bit dramatic and I rationalized it away by silently thinking that it's just a book, it's untouched and I could get full price for it!  But as I continued on with preparing the books for sale, I could see my son's silent questioning glances and the wheels spinning in his head.  This is one time that I didn't pray for God to help me make the most of this teachable moment because I knew this meant laying down even more for Him.  God has been asking so much of us lately as we seek to align our lives closer to Him.  With each thing He convicts of us of and that we see that sends a mixed message about Him to our child and to others, it's like we become that much more "weirder" in the world's eyes (even in many Christians' eyes and even in our own eyes sometimes), so I was determined to hang on to that book this time!  Well, a few minutes go by and then my child speaks up with curiosity, not condemnation, in his voice, "Mom?  How important is telling others about the one true God to you?"   

All I could do in that moment was grab my child, hug him tightly, thank him for respectfully speaking the truth and then cry and pray at the same time.  When we were done praying, I asked him what he thought we should do with the book and he suggested we throw it away.  To his surprise, I handed him the book and it is now laying in the bottom of our trash can.  I quickly threw trash over it so not to be tempted to pull it out later.  As I thought about that book in the trash can, Proverbs 14:1 kept running through my mind: 

"The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands." 

Also, Phillipians 4:8-9 came to mind: 

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you."

Those two verses provide courage to go against the grain, even the Christian grain, and to make sure only Truth is taught in our school first.  When that truth has been established in our child's heart, then it will be time to go more in depth with evolution, world religions and other controversial topics.  This doesn't mean we get rid of every secular book in our house, but rather it means we become more discerning and intentional in what we use as our main textbooks in educating our child. 

Homeschooling.  No one tells you how much it will change YOU, not just your children.  No one tells you how much your words will come back to you through your child's own mouth as they watch to see if your words and actions make sense and question when they don't.  And no one tells you that before you can "train up a child in the way that he shall go", God will have to train you first and His training can sometimes be the most painful, heart wrenching, on-the-job training that shakes up your current way of living and pushes you into a deeper place of relationship and conviction with God and with your family! 

Days Like Today...

Some days, I seriously question why in the world we are homeschooling!  Mainly these questions pop up after an exhausting battle-of-the-wills type of day where even Lisa Welchel would be stumped to come up with a "Creative Correction" for my creative child! 

But, these questions faded off into the distance as some major prayer, perspective, alone time (well, it was in the form of a solo trip to Walmart, but I'm not ashamed to claim it), and a mom-only splurge at Dairy Queen refreshed this worn-out mama! 

Of all of the clever (but defiant or attitude-filled) things that my child said today, three moments really stand out! 

1.  My 6 year old was at the window longing to be outside riding his bike with the neighborhood kids.  But, since it was a struggle all day for NoNut to pay attention or to even have motivation to do his work, our school day was done in chunks.  By 4:30 p.m., we weren't even halfway through our day because character training, discipline, nap time and time outs took precedence over education.

I told NoNut that he could not play outside until all of his school work was completed.  He moped over to the kitchen table and sat down roughly with his copywork.  Then, he said matter-of-factly, "I'm going to shortcut the system!" (Huh???  From a 6 yr old???!!!)  And my child proceeded to "shortcut" his handwriting assignment in hopes of riding bikes.  After what we had gone through today, NoNut did not disappoint (he is a cross between my husband and I after all)! 

NoNut's idea of "shortcutting the system" was to write the first and last letter of each word of his copywork and hope I didn't notice that the rest of the letters were missing.  He proudly turned in his work with no reservations and was even appalled that I made him redo it correctly! 

2.  Earlier this afternoon, NoNut was whining over math.  (Did I mention that everything was a struggle today?)  He made a comment about needing to get on his superpowers.  And that is when I had had enough of all the make-believe play and talk.  I informed my child that he is not Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, or any other Ninja Turtle!  And his look was one of pure shock, horror and disbelief that I would tell him that he was not a Ninja Turtle.  That was one of those mom-phrases that I never dreamed I'd be uttering in my lifetime, but the look on his face was priceless!  

3.  We ended our long, drawn-out school day by closing out our zoology unit.  We were discussing ocean life and why fish travel in schools.  I asked NoNut to pretend that he was a fish all by himself in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  Of course, we had the map and globe and he had to point out exactly where he was swimming (which at that point, my patience was shot).  I then went on to tell NoNut that a shark was coming up on him.  What would he do?  Where would he hide?  What happens next?  I was writing down notes from today and was waiting for NoNut to tell me his answers.  But, all I heard was silence.  Oh, I felt the emotions rising and I was done...no more!  However, out of the corner of my eye, I see this little smirk and noticed NoNut's eyes were looking at his finger which was pointed upward toward heaven.  All of a sudden, I realized that NoNut was answering my question after all!  And, he was right!!  Laughter bubbled out of me as I realized that we had quite a day and that we will have really off days (thankfully, it doesn't happen quite often over here), but it truly is okay!  At the end of the day, this is my child, not my student!

NoNut has a unique, creative, humor-filled brain that is so opposite from my serious, task-oriented brain and it's such a joy to see how his brain works.  These are moments with him that I'll never get back and moments to be cherished rather than wished away out of frustration.  And while some moments bring out the worst in us, other moments bring out the best in us!  All of these moments become reminders that I'm every bit of a work in progress as my child is.  Heidi St. John, author and homeschool mentor, summed it up perfectly in her blog today: 

"I should know…I have been there. I’m the mom who watches the school buses drive away and wonder what those other moms do all day. My husband has watched me have total meltdowns, and he has helped remind myself that this homeschool journey that I am on is as much about me as it is about our children.

I want you to know that homeschooling IS hard, marriage is hard, parenting is hard."

(You can read more at Heidi's blog:  http://heidistjohn.com/tbmb/hope-floats/.)

Hard it is...especially on days like today!  Yet in it all, God was there.  He took every question I had this afternoon and replaced it with love, forgiveness, reassurance, peace and laughter!  And He refreshed me to the point where I can say with anticipation, "Bring on tomorrow!"  It can only get better from here!  :)

Turning Weakness Into Strength

There have been moments this school year that I feel like I truly cannot get my act together.  It's not the curriculum.  It's not my child.  It's me!  I find myself demanding perfection from my child, getting upset with him when he wants to goof off during school, and just expecting him to maintain these impossibly high standards.  I find myself reacting to him as I react to the stress of this new and unpredictable season of life that I have no clue what to do with. 

Our days start off well and centered around the Word.  But as the hours creep on and I see all the chores that aren't getting done around the house or all the things that I'm missing out on or could be doing, I begin to rush my child and his learning so I can "get on with life".

I have been in tears several times this past week over how many times I've told my child, "Hurry up!"  "Come on, you need to focus and hurry and get this done so we can get our other things done!"  There is this spirit of impatience that has permeated our education lately and I hate it.  There have been moments where I've cried out to God wondering if I'm doing more harm to my child by having him next to me as I go through this personal wilderness rather than sending him off to school for someone else to teach him (forgetting the fact that they might be in their own wilderness as well). 

As I stop to reflect on what's going wrong and why I can't get it together, I notice where my daily time with God is being rushed, too.  I notice where it's easier to breathe prayers as I rush about trying to catch up on everything after 2 1/2 months of sickness rather than take the time to sit and enjoy being in the presence of God.  I also notice where I've become sucked into this vaccum of myself as I've lost sight of God's purpose for my life after being bombarded with sickness.   Everything that has been comfortable and familiar to me is gone, including that security that comes from having great health that you don't realize you're banking on until it's taken away. 

But thankfully, I'm starting realize that I don't have to be a slave to my circumstances nor my runaway thoughts!  It doesn't have to stay this way! A change of focus is much needed.  It's not a coincidence that nearly every time I log onto Facebook or turn on the radio or do family devotions (which we've been focusing on courage via Character Trails by Character Concepts these past 3 weeks), Joshua 1:9 is being quoted. 

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

I've let the dismay or discouragement of being stuck in this season of sickness drive me farther and farther into the desert.  I feel like there are days when I'm wandering around aimlessly missing a life that was once mine but still wanting to cling to the fact that God has a distinct plan for my life.  It becomes all too easy to take it all out on those I love the most and in the process, damage relationships that were once flourishing.

Joshua 1:9 powerfully reminds me that God has called us out of that place of weakness.  For when God is right next to us, we have no excuse for weakness because He is completely opposite of weakness!

Being strong and of good courage means being strong in all areas--mind, body and soul.  It means facing the unknown with the security that God is with me regardless of life circumstances.  And it means thoughtfully responding to life or to my child (aka strength) rather than reacting to life or my child (aka weakness).

There is so much to lose, including harmony in the home and harmony in our homeschool when this mama is acting from the place of fear or discouragement.  Yet there is much to gain when this mama claims Joshua 1:9.  May I let the truths of this verse infiltrate my mind and soul so that I may become strong once again during this unknown season of life.

The Missing Ingredient

We have struggled the past 5 1/2 weeks of homeschooling to have a "normal" day.  The transition from kindergarten to first grade has been bumpy as our typical 45 minute to 1-1/2 hour school day jumped to three, four, sometimes five hours a day!  It blew my mind how much time we were taking for school when we only added in reading and spelling to our Bible, history, language arts, math and science.

After Week 4, I sat down to compare last year to this year in order to figure out what was drastically different and why things weren't "clicking" as much for us. One thing really stood out. We were doing Bible last instead of first!  My child was so eager about starting off with handwriting first (getting the worst over first) that I didn't want to lose his eagerness by taking time to do Bible and pray first.  And in turn, I lost sight of our homeschooling priorities. 

As I reflected on this year, I saw how much we rushed through or even skipped our Bible lessons because we were tired by the fourth hour of school.  My son was no longer alert and essentially shut down.  I would then get frustrated with him because he wouldn't pay attention.  And of course, I instantly felt guilty for getting upset with him as the Bible lay open on my lap.  ...You know the cycle!

Last week and this week, we purposefully moved Bible back to the beginning of our school day.  The first day we did that, I was reminded of the sweetness of sharing the Word together and the priceless, unrushed moments of hearing what was on my son's heart as we shared prayer requests and prayed together over them.  That sweetness was rarely there in the hurry and tiredness.  After Bible, our day went without a hitch and we were done with school in two hours!

I was a bit skeptical that one day of "doing school right" (with Bible first) really could make that much of a difference.  But, the trend continued the rest of the week and into this week, until today.  Today we couldn't get our act together and everything took much longer than usual which made our school day five hours long (with breaks).  The difference:  we rushed through Bible and forgot to pray because we took a rabbit trail that tied into science.  

After today, I know that our homeschool needs God first before any other subject is discussed.  It's non-negotiable!  We need God's Word to instruct us.  We need His insight to teach us how to love one another. And, we need that quiet time before Him to invite Him into our day and into our school.  It requires intentionality.  It requires trusting that God will help my child do those harder subjects later.  And it requires knowing what is most important for a godly education; otherwise, my child would just be getting an education and God has called us to more than that!  

Unpredictability & Callings

It seems like with every day of homeschooling, we are slipping farther and farther away from my picture of what homeschooling should look like.  I'm also coming to the conclusion that every year is different from the previous year which leaves room for major unpredictability!

I feel like I'm tweaking so much with Sonlight Core B and Sonlight's Language Arts 1 as we naturally speed up in some areas and slow down in others.  The neat, orderly Instructor's Guide that I lived by last year has already become a jumbled mess this year as the days, weeks and pages no longer coordinate with each other as we jump around (yes, I'm Type A to the core).  And then, I hear this tiny voice in the background saying, "Welcome to homeschooling!"  Everything I read about in blogs last year, I was like, "Oh, I'm glad that's not us!" or "They must not be doing something right if they are having those problems."  Oh man, little did I know that would soon be me and now I'm feverishly running back to those blogs searching for answers! ;) 

Last year, our homeschool worked like clockwork. For the most part, my child was very compliant and excited about school.  Yet this year, a month into our school year, and we've yet to have a "normal" school week, much less school day.  My child is compliant when he wants to be, but it's not been without a power struggle despite our classroom rules and consequences.

Today was the never-ending school day as we just couldn't get our act together.  I'm feeling the pressure of deadlines and other things outside of our school life as I try to pick some ministry-related things back up.  The juggling act is starting up once again as I'm feeling the pull between home and ministry.  I want to be focused on homeschooling yet my mind is in a constant whirl with thinking, planning, writing and prepping for some ministry events ahead. 

Each day that I say "yes" to something outside of our homeschool realm, the more I feel the pull and struggle to stay focused here at home. That translates into a rushed school day where we get school done to get it done rather than slow down and enjoy the learning process.  Needless to say, that easily fuels power struggles and impatience.  ...Not a place I want to go back to! 

Yet at the same time, I keep asking "What about the call to lay ministry and local missions that God put on my heart all of these years?"  What do I do when I see that God wants me here at home to disciple and educate my child more than He wants me serving the local church?  I've tried hard to mix the two but both are full-time callings and I'm only one person with limitations.  Yet every day as my strength and health improve, I try to pick back up the old things only to realize all over again that that season has passed.  It's bittersweet.  Some days, that fact brings tears as I feel a grieving period for what once was.  And other days, it brings much joy because I'm finally beginning to accept that God wants me at home for a season.  I keep wrestling over the big question of "Who am I after I lay down that call to ministry for a season?"   

Despite the fact that I really don't know the answer to that, God keeps using the unpredictability of this school year to show me that there is more to His calling than the church.  I've been living life in one way through one channel for so long that I've never considered any other possibilities.  What if being wife and mom is the highest calling of them all?  What if it requires more to disciple my child than it does to disciple others?  What if it means altering everything including my educational ideals for my child in order to focus on the things that really matter long after the textbooks have come and gone? 

So far this year, the days that we have enjoyed the most were the days when our curriculum challenged our thinking and prompted conversations with my first grader that went way beyond education.  There have been days when I couldn't push reading and math anymore because there were basic character issues and heart issues that needed to be addressed.  Sometimes, these character and heart issues are more of a hindrance to learning than anything else.  I refuse to keep putting on temporary band-aids in order to check off a box in our Instructor's Guide because the boxes will always be there to check off, but this teachable, pliable moment with my child might not be. 

As I wish God would make it ever-so-clear to me what my calling is, I'm seeing that He has already made it clear and is continuing to make it clear in spite of my questions and hesitations.  As scary as unpredictability is, it is where I see the beauty and blessings of life the most.  It's where God is working.  And, it feels like home to me...literally and figuratively.

Lessons From the Bookshelf

We just finished building a new bookshelf for our living room.  We've outgrown our Kindergarten bookshelf.  And, we've pretty much outgrown our first grade bookshelf, but it'll have to do.  ...You know how it is!  We just love books, learning games, math manipulatives and videos.  And, I like the fact that NoNut can easily access these things and play with them now rather than have them hidden in bins and forgotten about until next summer! 

As I put NoNut to bed and listened to his bedtime prayers, I heard him say, "Thank you, God, for such a fun time with mommy tonight!  We had fun building my school shelf!"  He was my little helper and was so excited to build the new bookshelf. 

However, it wasn't all a picture of roses.  And the fact that he had such a great time and thanked God for it after my desire for perfection and impatience won out is such a sad testament to what his life is like, and he doesn't even know any different.  About five minutes into building the shelves, my desire to control the situation and get it right the first time without messing up the shelves took over.  Sure, NoNut helped some, but every time he asked if he could do something and took awhile doing it, I would come up with excuses as to why he needed to stop and I needed to take over.  NoNut finally went off to play with Legos, leaving the building and arranging to me. 

Sadly, this par for the course.  How many times has NoNut wanted to help with something and I took over for him because he wasn't doing it quick enough or my way?  How many times does he get so excited over something only for me to crush his spirit with constant instruction and critique as to make sure something gets done right?  How many times does he want a simple "yes" but instead he gets a "no" followed by long explanations as to why not and it usually boils down to inconvenience? 

To hear NoNut's prayer tonight was a stab at my heart.  Such innocence and desire for fun!  He has this uncanny ability to find fun in everything even in the midst of continual nagging and correcting over trivial things.

This week has been really eye opening for me as I see how many times I speak for my child, prod him to be perfect and use perfect manners, do for my child because it's quicker to do it for him and then rob him of trying things because I'm too pressed for perfection or time.

Ephesians 6:4 keeps coming to mind this week as God is seriously pruning away at my life.  It's painful as no stone is being left unturned.  How much I need God to infiltrate my heart and my parenting before my child turns a deaf ear! 

"Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master."  (MSG)

"And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord."  (NKJV)

The Matthew Henry commentary says the following (emphasis mine):

 "Though God has given you power, you must not abuse that power, remembering that your children are, in a particular manner, pieces of yourselves, and therefore ought to be governed with great tenderness and love. Be not impatient with them, use no unreasonable severities and lay no rigid injunctions upon them. When you caution them, when you counsel them, when you reprove them, do it in such a manner as not to provoke them to wrath. In all such cases deal prudently and wisely with them, endeavouring to convince their judgments and to work upon their reason.”

“Bring them up well, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in the discipline of proper and of compassionate correction, and in the knowledge of that duty which God requires of them and by which they may become better acquainted with him. Give them a good education.” It is the great duty of parents to be careful in the education of their children: “Not only bring them up, as the brutes do, taking care to provide for them; but bring them up in nurture and admonition, in such a manner as is suitable to their reasonable natures. Nay, not only bring them up as men, in nurture and admonition, but as Christians, in the admonition of the Lord. Let them have a religious education. Instruct them to fear sinning; and inform them of, and excite them to, the whole of their duty towards God.”

As I read that, I have to stop and wonder what education I am giving my child through high expectations and the implied messages that comes from taking over for him because he's not doing something "right".  What alternative messages would be sent if I took the time to slow down and let him explore and slowly guide him through projects or experiences...walk next to him instead of five steps ahead of him urging him to "hurry up"?  How do my current actions and responses excite him toward God?  And if children are "in a particular manner, pieces of yourselves", what does it reveal about me and my heart when I treat my child in impatient, nagging ways?  The answer to that gives a more accurate picture of myself than I care to see...ouch!! 

As hard as it is at times, I'm thankful for the correction and instruction in God's Word.  What makes it even more powerful is to consider just how many times God has "[taken me] by the hand and [led me] in the way of the Master."  What would my son's life be like if I were to truly learn from tonight and live out Ephesians 6:4 and "Take [him] by the hand and lead [him] in the way of the Master?"

Our First Day of First Grade

First grade!!  Can't believe it!  I've had a touch of nostalgia lately as I think about how quickly my baby is growing up!  It is such a blessing and joy to be able to homeschool him again this year! 

We postponed our first day of school last week because of sickness and prayed that we could start this week.  Though I'm still not up to par, I've been ready for our first day and thought we'd give it a try by relying on God's strength!  I wasn't sure what to expect because NoNut was NOT looking forward to school and wanted to keep having summer break.  He loved homeschooling last year so I wasn't sure why the big change of attitude.  However, it didn't take long before he was full of smiles and saying, "Wow!  This is fun!  This is like last year!"

Our first day was three hours long...much longer than our typical 45-60 minute school day.  But we also added in a couple extra things and adopted a much slower pace.  The other difference is that I wanted to let go and be flexible enough to go at his pace rather than rush through our agenda to get everything done and move on with our day.  I also wanted to work on saying "yes" more than "no" and not being so "serious" about everything all the time.  It was a definite change of pace, but a very special and rewarding day for both of us!

We started the day with "first day pictures" and then moved on to handwriting.  Last year, I didn't realize that handwriting was a process and in my impatience, lost it with my son those first weeks more often than not because he just wasn't getting it.  We ended up in tears several times--him because he couldn't get it and me because I didn't like my attitude and the words that came from my mouth.  It didn't take long before copywork equaled frustration in his mind and he gave up before he even got started.  His defeated spirit revealed a lot about my spirit and changes were made both in my attitude and expectations.  However, this year was a totally different story!  I removed my hands from it and gave NoNut his book and ownership of his book.  He was soooo excited when he opened his book and realized that he already knew how to write the letters!  It was such a boost to his confidence!  We did the first couple pages in Handwriting Without Tears, the "at" pages in Explode the Code Book 1 and followed it up with Sonlight Language Arts 1 Copywork.  It was a lot of writing for him, so I may alternate HWT and ETC. 

We then moved into reading where NoNut surprised himself with each word he read! He enjoyed Lesson 1 of Sonlight's I Can Read reader and even laughed pretty hard at what he was reading (second picture).

After reading, we did Lesson 1 of Horizon Math where he was greeted with a dot-to-dot!  The dot-to-dot was a picture of a boy going to school, but NoNut wouldn't hear of it!  He colored the boy's books blue like his Bible story book from last year and colored the school the same color as our church since "the boy was going to church, not school"!  I got to thinking about how NoNut has no concept of what it's like to walk into a school building every morning (not a bad thing) and why he thought it was crazy someone would walk to school instead of church.

We then ventured into history (Sonlight Core B) where we had a special time talking about the 10/40 Window and THUMB.  We discussed the tribals and how they are animists and that prompted an insightful discussion.  It always amazes me how perceptive NoNut can be, even at age 6!  In the picture below, he's showing off the cross he made a month ago--he wanted to hold it when he prayed for the tribals. After THUMB, we dove into Usborne's Peoples of the World and talked about the differing characteristics of countries and began our own "country collection."

NoNut was all excited about science and doing science experiments.  It became evident that this day wasn't going to pass without a science experiment (we reserve one day a week just for experiments).  So after we began our study in zoology, we went to the kitchen to do some pop bottle science experiments.  My parents had dropped off a pop bottle science kit with tons of experiments to do last week...it was such a God-send on those sick days!  There was a lot of excited laughter and shrieking as the experiments proved to be successful! I love how the second picture captures a little bit of that science excitement!

We then did Bible.  Last year, we started off with Bible and I intended to do the same, but since NoNut wanted to do handwriting and reading first, I took advantage of it.  This year's Bible is different.  We are supplementing Sonlight's Bible with Positive Action.

Though Positive Action has a detailed teacher's guide that's more geared toward a classroom setting, I wasn't really sure how it would translate into our home setting.  It's not divided up by day but rather by week.  I penciled in each day but with the natural conversations we were having as we worked through Genesis 1:1-5, we ended up covering half the week and doing a couple extra activities.  Last year, we didn't do a lot of crafts or drawing, etc. so it was a novel concept to NoNut when I told him we were going to make a creation poster.  The whole idea of making a poster was lost on him so we are starting from scratch (lol, it's a learning experience)!

 

We were using Sonlight's Bible plan for family devos but NoNut loves Leading Little Ones to God so much that we might forgo the Instructor's Guide (which only does two lessons from Leading each week) and just do our own thing.  I really like Leading Little Ones to God because it's basic theology.  It also introduces a hymn with each lesson.  It's well-rounded, deep for a child's devotional, and asks follow up questions to gauge your child's understanding.  I had no clue how many of these questions my son was wondering about God until we read the first few chapters of Leading last week.

We did decide to keep Sonlight's Bible memory program (over Positive Action's) because we love the "Sing the Word" CD.  We try to make scripture memory lively to make Bible memory fun!  I still remember hand motions, tiny songs and voice inflections that my own mother did with me when I was a child...so it works (no matter how corny the hand motions or moves may be)! 

Then, we concluded our day with art.  We are rotating between a scissors skills book I picked up at a local bookstore and Barry Stebbing's I Can Do All Things (How Great Thou Art) program.  I broke down and bought the corresponding DVD to teach us how to do art and it took a load off my shoulders!

It was a great day filled with learning and fun...a great start to our new school year!  

So much for our first day plans...

We were starting our first week of school tomorrow at 9:15 a.m.  However, these colds we developed last week have turned into something more.  Mine went from strep to something else and morphed into bronchitis leaving me winded and drained.  Thankfully, my son's virus has not developed into pneumonia nor did his asthma flare up, but we had another rough night (the 7th in a row) and decided to turn our sickness into fun.  We pulled out the futon in the living room and had a "sickies only" camp out where my sleeping child tried pulling me under his head.  When he finally woke up, he looked at me surprised and confused saying, "Whoa! I thought you were a giant pillow pet!"  I can only imagine what fun he was having in his dreams to discover such a large pillow pet and the crushing disappointment to realize it was only a dream. 

Anyway, while it would be nice to start school tomorrow, I have such peace about letting our plans go!  Never dreamed I'd ever get to a point in my Type A, planner-doer life where I could let something as big as the first day of school go!  But seriously, there is no point to pushing our first day when neither of us feel like getting out of our pj's to smile for our annual first day photo or to make a special breakfast that no one is going to eat!  The thought of trying to jump into spelling words and making my child read (not his favorite) while I barely have the energy to watch a full TV show makes my head hurt.  And I must admit that the extra time to rest sounds like such a luxury! 

Sonlight Core B, Week 1

So, while I've got our dry-erase calendar all filled in with our first week's assignments, our "cheat sheets" laminated (number line, alphabet, graph paper, etc.), the brand-new folders labeled for each subject and freshly sharpened pencils ready to go for the morning, I'm thankful for the common sense, peace and flexibility to let it go another week (or even mid-week...we'll see how we're feeling)! 

Ahhhhh...the beauty of homeschooling! 

First Grade Jitters

We begin our journey into first grade on Monday!  My thoughts are a jumble as I look at our calendar and our curriculum and try to juggle the two.

As I stress over coordinating everything and leaving room for the unknown activities and last minute trips, I am reminded to take a breath--this is homeschooling!!  We don't have a set calendar nor way of doing things.  We can come and go without the confines of a school calendar.  And this year will look even more different than last year.  We've done this before and we can do it again!  We now have two years of homeschooling under our belts--one year of failure (preschool) that we really learned from and one year of success (kindergarten) that showed us that we really can do what God wants us to do so I need to leave it in His hands, not mine!  

I finally have the time (aka last-minute motivation) to sit down with my massively huge Instructor's Guide (have you ever seen a Sonlight Instructor's Guide??) and I'm overwhelmed and wondering how in the world we are going to fit everything in this year.  Then, what about adding in our art and physical education and swapping out Bible curriculum?  And how am I going to get my child to do all of this copywork and language arts when he hates to write?  How is my child going to learn these reading rules when it's like pulling teeth to get him to read (but he loves it when someone reads for him)? 

And then I begin to read the Instructor's Guide for our first History lesson and my worries fade away as God blesses me once again with answering those secret heart desires (Psalm 37:4-5) for cultivating a missional heart within my child.  "...Pray with your children for various peoples around the world.  Most weeks, we read about a specific people group, and several weeks we give an idea to stimulate your prayer times."  The Guide further goes into what missiologists do and the "THUMB" principle to help us remember the top five unreached people groups (Tribals, Hindus, Unreached/unchurched Chinese, Muslim, Buddhists).  The Usborne Peoples of the World book that had me riled up because they depicted life of other cultures in its accurate form (though viewed as complete nudity in my culture and the unclothed instantly became clothed thanks to my black sharpie) becomes a prayer guide as we explore other cultures and use it as a springboard to discover how God's Word is (or isn't) getting there, where His servants are and what we can do to reach everyone for Christ.  Missionary Stories with the Millers by M. A. Martin revisits some of the great missionaries we were introduced to last year in I Heard the Good News Today by C. Lehn.  And George Muller by J. Benge takes us to England where his prayers and faith translated into caring for orphans. 

This is the heartbeat of our family's homeschool as we lay aside some of the traditional textbooks and ways of doing school so we can learn from real men and women throughout history doing whatever God called them to do wherever He placed them.  Our history is rich with big and small people and moments that changed our world, our history and our future (take today, Independence Day, for example).  I want our family to be known as a family that serves God wherever He puts us.  I want my son to grow up as I did with the firm belief in Psalm 32:8, and that God can lead us down some pretty unbelievable paths to reach people we never even knew existed for His glory.  That is something you can't find in the traditional classroom and it leads me back to why we have chosen to homeschool.

So, while I still feel a bit overwhelmed with the technical stuff (reading, writing and arithmetic) and figuring out the best way to tackle it with my child, I find myself purely excited for the first time this summer to start first grade on Monday!

I'm thankful that God keeps bringing me back to the "why" behind homeschool.  Our motivations, reasons and convictions for choosing to homeschool refresh me and keep me committed to the task that God has placed before our family for this upcoming school year!

From Unraveled to Alive

"Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets.

And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you’ve come out of this with purity of heart."

II Corinthians 7:10-12

A month ago, several things unexplainably unraveled.  Things didn't make sense but then they did.  I kinda knew who was behind it all and why--God was trying to pry open my hands once again.  It's hard to let some things go, but the things that we cling to the tightest are representative of something larger, something deeper that we don't want to let go of--the habits, attitudes, faults, beliefs, etc. that we'd rather just pretend didn't exist but somehow make their way out and permeate everything.

Through all of this "weirdness", I'm starting to really embrace it because, although painful at times, I see what it's doing and how it's bringing rhythm and redirection in several key areas.  Mainly, it's been a time of getting rid of all the mental, emotional and relational clutter and getting back to the basics ... faith in its simplest form!  And, there's no better place to see childlike faith than to experience it with my child.  So rather than recreate a new post, let me just copy a portion of an email I sent to my mentor the other day that sums up September 2012 perfectly: 

[My son's] new missions project w/Sonlight started today.  They are doing Phoenix Phaxx, a 13 yr old who explores 4-5 countries (mainly in Asia) and their religions (http://phoenixphaxx.com).  The kids are raising money to buy radios for Far East Broadcasting Company and Sonlight will match every dollar raised up to $150,000 so my child has already been doing odd jobs and extra chores to earn coins.  Today, he learned about Russia via the Phoenix Phaxx video and wow, I got the goosebumps listening to my son pray for Oksana...this girl in an orphanage who received a radio and accepted Christ thru a kid's program.  It still blows me away how God is taking these little desires of my heart and weaving them into homeschool (especially in developing a missional heart within my child)!

Last week, our history lessons were all focused on the first missionaries where we learned about St. Augustine, Boniface, St Patrick, Columba and Queen Margaret of Scotland and saw how everything all intertwined with the history we have been learning this month!  It adds a whole layer of depth to history when you see behind-the-scenes like that ... it's not just the Vikings, but rather the monks at Lindesfarne who were afraid that the Vikings would find their Gospel and/or it'd get burned and the lengths they went to protect it only for the Gospel to be lost at sea via a big storm.  However, it got washed up to shore, completely in tact and only a few pages wet, allowing it to be translated and preserved.  God's hand can be traced even waaaay back then.

And then as my child and I do Bible class every morning and read from Ergermeier's Bible Story Book, I'm seeing God in a whole new light.  He's a God who wanted His people to love Him.  He gave them soooo many chances to repent yet they continued on in their ways (been reading about Moses this month).  It's stuff I've heard all my life, but I still hold that childhood/conservative-college-girl-view that God is the Judge, He's hard to please, a God of do's and don't's and grace is something for Charismatics (and I sit here and wonder why consistency is so hard for me to maintain w/a God like that)!  But, that's not God at all....His judgments aren't randomly given without ample opportunity to turn to Him first.  All I see is mercy and grace where I've never seen it before...and all of this from my child's Kindergarten curriculum.

Then, I've been struggling a lot lately bcs I'm not "doing" anything missions-wise except for myMISSION.  Have had to put a couple ministries (and missions dreams) on hold when we started homeschooling (although I really hoped I could do it all).  But then I see where God is placing me within my community via homeschooling.  He is taking the past 9 years of being mere acquaintances with workers throughout our community and giving us opportunities to build real relationships with them through the "field trip" route or just through them wanting to know what exciting things we learned today.  We're seeing so many people outside of the church really rally around us as we homeschool our child ... they've watched my child grow up before their eyes and know the smiles he's brought to them in their check-out lines or in all of the meetings and they are so excited to have something to give back to him.  And my son's insights are so pure sometimes, so "it's God, so no explanation is needed" and definite that it takes people back sometimes (even me) and opens the door for more conversations. 

So, what if "doing" missions looks different in 2012 than it did back in 1980 when the women who tend to criticize myMISSION the most were raising their children?  Just seeing how "seasonal" and transitional 20s-30s are and seeing how having a school-aged child really does put you in another season of life (regardless of homeschooling or not).  And after really wrestling over this in prayer and just seeking God for what am I supposed to do, I see where He has put me right now as the biggest mission field regardless of who agrees or not.  There are all these little opportunities to have conversations and meet people that I've never met before that stems from homeschooling.  And, you can only imagine the conversations that occur when people find out that your child is homeschooled and that's why he's not "in school" right now.

Those that know me best know that when God lays something on my heart, the passion and belief I have in it comes across excitedly and sparks unique conversations.  Through that and just being in the moment rather than stressed out about the details of everything, I get the privilege of letting my child see and hear what missional living really means.  An older woman at the post office teared up last week when my child held the door open for her and said, "Hope you have a great day!" and then excitedly turns to me and asks, "Was I being God's little boy just now?"  It's the little things!!!  What is the point of missions if we're too busy trying to do all these big projects and chase after big ideas and neglect the little things, the here and now?

All of this because of a few unexplained unravelings ... I love the verse above because in the death of letting go, I have truly become alive!  It's affecting everything, even the way I lead.  I don't feel like my mind has to be myMISSION 24/7 yet I'm not shirking myMISSION either.  It's about living one moment at a time, doing a little planning ahead, but mainly just sitting back and letting things happen as they happen.  Am not used to leading that way at all, but it's a welcome change of pace!  There are moments when I feel like I need to be out there actively recruiting new women for our group, but then at the same time, the questions "Why?" and "When?" remind me that God has our group right where He wants it and that He is growing it in His time and in His way!  I have such peace about planting myMISSION seeds again this year rather than running ourselves ragged trying to do everything to attract young women.  Slowing the pace is good for us and removes a lot of the stress!  Am really looking forward to seeing what God does this year especially when it means sitting back and letting Him do all the leading and working and us simply following Him!