How often do we really look at how much God loves us? I did today. Site Map
Lorraine Curry's
Easy Homeschooling Eletter
Issue #79 November 2006In this Issue
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He Loves Me! & Decide to Be Happy Illustration and Articles from new nature devotional More about this book $12.99 Add to Cart
He loves me, He loves me not, He loves me, He loves me not.
When young, we would pluck petals off daisies to discover the verdict.
He loves me!
How do I know? I put my nose up to a Purple Vervain wildflower. It is everywhere this year! Our Joepyeweed will bloom soon and we have lots of it too. I also investigated another forb that I call "Arms of God." It is mostly green with white edged leaves. One small flower is nearly hidden and protected in the center of four slightly larger flowers. He loves me!
He loves me not.
Don't we sometimes feel like we are far from God's love? Sometimes we just don't feel worthy.
How could he possibly love me?!
Yet we are told that nothing shall separate us from his love, goodness and blessing . . . unless we let it! Greater God sees us through the perfection of His Son, and through the offering of His Son who make us "perfect."
He loves me!
Rom. 8:31-39 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Decide to be Happy
You can decide to be happy. These things will also help.
Decide that joy is the hue you want your heart to be. Then start making the little and large choices that over time will paint your heart happy. -Thomas Kinkade
General Edition Techniques More about this book $18.99 Add to Cart A World of Options for High Schoolers by Janice Campbell
When you make the decision to homeschool through the teen years,
you open the door to many exciting options for your student. Teens
not only have the opportunity to develop as individuals, but they
can also pursue special interests, start microbusinesses, travel,
accelerate their education, sample different careers, and more.
Let's look at each option.
Special Interests. Have you noticed who is winning spelling
and geography bees, music competitions and chess tournaments,
debates and robotics competitions? Homeschooled students are often
at the very top of these competitions. Why? It's because they
have time to pursue special interests. If they want to spend three
hours a day practicing violin, there are no deadlines. They don't
have to put down the violin after 45 minutes and go rushing off
to Algebra or soccer. A homeschooler's world is a world almost
without deadlines, which means that time can be spent for things
that really matter.
Microbusiness. What could be better than a summer job flipping
burgers? Entrepreneurship, for one thing. Just think-instead of
spending time in a mindless entry-level job, teens can start and
run small businesses, and not only earn money for the future,
but also learn about planning, budgeting, organization, marketing,
and customer service, and perhaps even gain experience for a future
career.
What kind of businesses can be operated as a microbusiness (small
scale, no loans, minimal overhead)? Service-based businesses include
tutoring, web design, pet sitting, calligraphy, landscape maintenance,
and many others. Product-based businesses include selling produce,
flowers, or baked goods, jewelry making, leather- or wood-crafting,
or selling items on eBay. Almost any business that can be headquartered
from home has potential to be a microbusiness.
Travel. There are few things more educational than travel.
Homeschooled teens have the flexibility to travel at any time
during the year, and if they happen to have a microbusiness and
need to travel for it, they may even be able to deduct some of
their travel expenses from their taxes! Family vacations tend
to be less expensive and more pleasant when taken during off-peak
seasons-homeschoolers don't need to wait for summer break! I took
our boys on a two-month trip around the country one year-it was
a geography, history, and culture lesson rolled into a very memorable
package. We've also taken a wonderful 2-1/2 week trip to Europe,
and several shorter trips in the States, all on a very tight budget.
Homeschooling offers families the opportunity to travel for competitions,
for business, and for pleasure whenever and wherever they want
to go.
Accelerated Education. Why spend four years just doing
high school, when you could exert a little more effort and earn
college credit at the same time? By taking full advantage of college-level
exams, including AP and CLEP, community college and online classes,
and other opportunities, it is completely possible to graduate
from college at the age most teens are graduating from high school.
Two of my sons have taken this route-one graduated with a bachelor's
degree at twenty, and the other graduated at nineteen. Acceleration
doesn't just save time, it can save thousands of dollars in college
costs. It's well worth it!
Career Sampling. In traditional school, you're lucky to
get one day off each year to shadow a worker at his or her job.
Homeschooled teens can try different careers through informal
mentoring relationships, formal apprenticeships, or volunteering
opportunities. Although formal internships and other programs
exist, it is possible to make private arrangements for a teen
to volunteer in the workplace. It is easiest to begin with personal
friends and acquaintances with potentially interesting careers,
but it is possible to approach strangers with a polite business
letter and a resume. Career sampling is a wonderful way to try
out a job before committing to several years of college or other
training. You can think of it as the Goldilocks option!
These are just a few of the many options open to teens who are
homeschooled. The thing I have most enjoyed about homeschooling
my boys through high school and into college is seeing them develop
as individuals. Without excessive scheduling or peer pressure,
they were free to learn things they really wanted to know, to
sample small business ideas and careers without the pressure of
having to immediately earn enough to live on, and to get a jump
start on life by accelerating through high school and college.
There's nothing more exciting than seeing your teen become the
person he or she wants to be!
© 2006 by Janice Campbell.
Janice Campbell is an alternative education specialist, writer, and speaker, and the author of Transcripts Made Easy: Your Friendly Guide to High School Paperwork, Get a Jump Start on College! A Practical Guide for Teens, and the Zeitgeist Literature series. Gor more articles and resources to help you homeschool through high school and beyond, visit her website at:
Morality Subject by Subject: "Introduction" More about this ebook $5.50. Add to Cart
The earliest educational activity is oral work, particularly 1)
reading aloud to the child and 2) having the child tell back to
the adult.
If you are able to begin this when your child is very young, you are blessed indeed. There are untold advantages to beginning these methods with the youngest child. We must not limit our great God, but some say that if a child has not been given a taste of, and acquired a taste for, age-appropriate great literature by the age of ten, he may never do so. Without this concentrated technique, your child could become scatterbrained instead of learning the habit of undivided mental attention.
With the youngest child repetition of favorite character-building
stories and poems is not harmful. The child will be thoroughly
familiar with the story and soon perhaps even recite back a rhyme,
word for word. The story and the lesson will be a permanent fixture
of the mind, laying the foundation for true culture as well as
character.
Do not wait to introduce literature until the child can read (see
Easy
Homeschooling Techniques
to find out how to teach your child to read). At about age ten,
or before, children will be able to read stories for their own
enjoyment, but from age four or earlier they can receive an abundance
of mental stimuli and instruction through being read to, listening
to books on tape and being told stories and other educational
facts. Such a mind become productive, inquisitive and receptive
to the printed word when it begins to acquire knowledge through
individual reading.
The suggestions herein can be tossed and combined for all of your
children in these approximate grade levels. Works that are read
aloud in the earlier grades, can be reread, topics researched
and reported on in the later grades. However, specific grade level
suggestions will be made. Read all the text of this book to get
the big picture and then go back and plan your ideal curriculum
based on your children's ages.
See details for planning in Easy Homeschooling Techniques and actual diary entries from our own school in Easy Homeschooling Companion. For the most hands on help, consider enrolling in our planning eclass, "Design Your Days."
Cassic literature for
this age group includes nursery rhymes, folklore, fairy tales,
fables, the classic myths and Robinson Crusoe. Some of the best
selections for rhymes come from Shakespeare, Ruskin and Kingsley.
Young children, being naturally joyful, can relate to rhymes
more than any other age. The musical language is remembered and
quoted for years. Fairy tales appeal to this age group, for this
genre speaks to the young child's soul.
Is fantasy appropriate for Christians? Children are closest to
heaven, with their innocence and creativity. They are made by
God with an aura of fantasia. There is spontaneity and vivid imagination.
We do not hesitate to allow fiction for older children and adults,
why then should we disallow it for those who are that much closer
in their natures to it? The child lives in this world, whereas
the adult only sees it in relation to their storehouse of experiences.
However, I believe that even in our adult lives we should maintain
a touch of this dreaminess, this awe. Indeed, if we did, life
would continue be more alive and joyful, as the child's naturally
is.
We are led to reality through fantasy. Although fiction, these
stories model real standards, real character, real personality.
Children naturally put life and personality into inanimate playthings.
Reality and fantasy are intertwined. Children see a real bridge
and village, they build one from their imagination in the sand;
they read a fairy tale, they act it out in the here and now. While
some will stand numb and helpless when faced with barriers, the
child who's imagination is allowed to run free at this age will
have more real problem-solving ability and confidence as an adult.
Should we then quench this vivid imagination and deny such literary
feeding? Although we differentiate between Bible truth and fantasy,
we allow our children to enjoy the story-making artistry of early
literature. Our resources would be quite meager if we did not.
History, although our most important subject, is not introduced
until grade four, when its concepts are more readily grasped.
The exceptions are short historical studies related to holidays
such as Thanksgiving. For all of these grade levels-for the Christian
homeschooler-the Bible is preeminent. Bible resources for these
ages are the King James Bible, especially for memory work, and
Bible story books such as Hurlbut's
Story of the Bible.
Bible teaching was covered extensively in Techniques and Companion.
Many titles are suggested in Morality-Subject by Subject. Look for older copies of the books mentioned at:
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