The Attributes of God in Our Homeschool- Compassion

“And of some have compassion, making a difference.” Jude 22

If you have ever needed compassion and did not get it?

 Then you have a good understanding of how precious it is to be on the receiving end of compassion.

Compassion- noun  a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by as strong desire to alleviate the suffering.


Not just a feeling bad for someone and the plight they find themselves in, but wanting to help end the suffering. And I imagine wanting to help enough that something is actually done. That is the kind of faith with works James talks about. Real. Effective.

Think of the ways this can be applied throughout a school day. 

The definition will give you clues as to what to watch for: sorrow, stricken, misfortune.

Spelling, math, science, reading, writing, grammar…..pick your poison.
What is easy for you might be a source of suffering for your child. Compassion.

While compassion may not seem like one of the more popular attributes of God that we tell our children about, it certainly is one of the most frequent we moms rely on for ourselves. We need it and we seem to claim it without a moments hesitation. Or much thought. And certainly without much appreciation.

Psalm 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Psalm 111:4b The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Psalm 112: 4 / Psalm 145:8


Today a certain frustration came between me and my son during school. He was struggling a bit and when he struggles, everything feels “off”. Tense. Anxious. It was within my power to diffuse the moment. I chose a moment of compassion- a gently hug, a light head/hair rub, a jocular moment, food (which always works with a teen son!). The issues were still there and needed to be addressed. But a moment of compassion did what an hour of teaching could have accomplished.

I am equally divided on which end of the compassion specter I like being on more: the giving or the receiving. I love being able to give that gift to my loved ones. Especially in school time.

As we are the primary representative of Christ in our children’s eyes for a limited amount of time, we need to be diligent to represent all of the Attributes of God to our children.

Hang the word COMPASSION up in key places around your home where you will be visibly reminded to represent this attribute to your kids. It is one of those things that can seem so small yet make such a wonderful difference in that swing moment between total frustration and suffering.

Applications:

• if a child is struggling in a particular subject, consider the curriculum. Should it be more tactile? Less colorful and distracting? Is the font size too small or hard to read? A look at the possibility of a curriculum change in that subject might set you back a few dollars, but alleviating the struggling shows compassion.
• schedules and lesson plans are guides, not the law. If your child is exhausted or worn out from either a busy weekend or a growth spurt, show compassion in adjusting the schedule. They are more important that the lesson plans. 
• if the struggle is spiritual, take the time to do devotions with the child. This requires more time and more accountability for you, but compassion here is shown by giving your time and effort instead of sending them to their room with a Bible and a list of verses.  

Related verses for further weekly study:
Matt. 9:36, 14:14, 15:32, 20:34, Hebrews 10:34, I Pet. 3:8

~Shannon

Latin, Anyone?

Visual Latin, huh? I thought I'd give it try. We did a few Latin courses that were workbook based.
Once again, with this very peculiar child, I wasted my very hard earned money. He does the work, he just doesn't absorb the information and let it become a part of him. So what I am saying is- he doesn't learn. He just filled blanks and boxes. And he did it well. But there was no connection.

Visual Latin. I have the first 10 lessons. Let me share with you why this program is working for us:

1. The instructor is engaging. I think he is a bit corny/funny, but Jesse loves him. He speaks slowly and clearly. The visual part is good. Nice big chalkboard. Visually, there are no distractions for my easily distracted son.

2. Jesse is reading Latin. This was the biggest reason I wanted this program. Reading. Latin. This is huge in helping Jesse with his dyslexia. When Jesse gets to a big word his eyes don't recognize or for some reason scares him, he makes up something and passes over it like that was indeed the word. Sometimes it is quite hilarious and other times it is quite frustrating. But he has to be trained to slow down and break the word apart. It is SO much easier for him to do when he sees a bit of Latin in the word. His temptation to speed over it is gone. His ability to slow and take apart the word jumps in and no one is embarrassed. This is exactly what I was looking for. This is why I wanted him to learn Latin.

3. Affordable. $30 for the first 10 downloadable lessons. We do 1-2 lessons per week. That is one day of all three videos, three worksheets, and then two days of quick review of every lesson. Building. Reading. Speaking Latin. This is worth the money. Quality and effective. Not too many products like that.

4. Independent. I only sit next to him and watch because I want to. Not because I need to. All Jesse's subjects are about independent learning this year. This is not to free me. Heavens, NO. I am still feeling lost without my 4 sons around the table and teaching 25 subjects a day. This is for him, because he is the baby. And because he doesn't know how or like to do things alone. Except hunting. I did offer to go with him and he said he wanted to be alone. But I digress. This is a good program for independent learning. The other Latin products I had- not so much. They never even heard their voice.

In our homeschool we have studied Farci and Spanish. I regret that I didn't invest more into Latin with the others. Farci. Yeah, wise decision here in West Virginia.

This one is going to carry over into adulthood. And THAT is how I pretty much have learned to gauge everything we do now for school. Thank you, Visual Latin.

Check out Visual Latin here.

Blessings,
Shannon

An SAT Course and A Dyslexic Son

I never, ever, in my wildest dreams thought one day I would be able to use a course for SAT prep for my son.
I am genuinely pleased that Master Books/New Leaf Publishing has issued this course. Well done, James P. Stobaugh, and I shall tell you why.

1. I will pick up any curriculum/book and give one glance. You can lose me as a customer in a mere 3 seconds. What am I looking for? Font size and spacing between the lines.  My functional dyslexic son needs a sized text that won't strain his eyes. Once we have eye strain, it's over. The concentration needed to just focus is all he can handle. There will be no comprehension. I will never again waste money on something he can't use. And that is pretty sad because there is a lot of good stuff out there. They just didn't consider anyone with any eye strain when printing their book. Thanks, James. Now this book is at least an option for us. I will now look further and see if this will benefit us.

2. A Christian perspective- I can't say with total certainty, but I do not think there is anything that has the focus on Scripture for SAT prep that this course does. Not a sporadic reference, or honorable mention.....but the Scripture is part (and a large part at that) of the resource to learning how to think. Just in case you may not consider the incredible implication I just made, let me explain. Once these little kids hit 18 (I know it's some stupid magical number and we never gave it any credence in our home), there are very few resources that are going to carry over into their daily lives. We hope reading continues, but the books will vary. Pretty sure a calculator is going to stay with them forever. They successfully learned the value of a dictionary and thesaurus. But the number one tool/resource I NEED for them to keep is the Scriptures. And I want them to learn from it. So I appreciate anything that uses the Scripture for learning. It is a simple concept  yet one that most publishers haven't learned yet. The quality education within their Bible. Nicely done, James.

3. The varying size of the daily lessons- most days are a one pager for the lesson. Every 4th or 5th day is a two pager. Life happens. I cannot sustain more than one page most days. Clearly, James Stobaugh has children.

4. Active reading is taught- a concept that is not natural to most children! This course is training and this concept is explained well on day one. While this course can be self taught, I am going to have to spend some time teaching this concept to Jesse. Connect, question, predict, visualize, clarify, expect, and evaluate. We spent a couple years overcoming the hurdle of just being able to get through pages of text or pages in a book as a dyslexic, now we need to connect. And it won't happen by me just giving him a book and having him read it. I have to teach this to him. Train him. I have no doubt of his ability and now I haven't a doubt about how to do this. Leading questions and purposeful activities within the course are given not to keep a student busy, but to teach him to think as he reads. And that is gold.

5. The Lesson: Grammar, Math, Sentence Completion, Critical Thinking (comparison/analysis).  Not each one every day, and not pages of one thing. Short. To the point. While I think my son is unlike everyone on the planet, he cannot be the only one with a "you lose me after 15 min." mentality. And this idea not only carries over into life- K.I.S.S.(keep it short stupid) but Twitter even understands it. We do not need 3 pages of one concept. Brevity. My son can handle depth. He cannot tolerate longevity. Unless he is in a tree stand in the woods. Then we can not move for hours. I digress.

6. Tips and Strategies- there are tips on the sides of most pages. And my sons are all about strategy. Teach how to beat the test. And from an offensive point of view. Jesse will respond to this. Specific strategy. Such as- "You must not miss any of the first ten questions on each portion of the SAT1. Remember- each question counts the same and the last questions are usually more difficult. The bottom line is that if you can get all the simple and average questions, you will make about 1250 on the exam. Getting a few hard ones will only put icing on the cake."  This information was unknown and OH, so valuable! This not only takes a tremendous amount of pressure off, but puts a positive approach to test taking- a touchy subject with dyslexics. Any advantage is a gift.

7. Books- I love the book list. Most of all I love that books that are a huge accomplishment for Jesse to read are on there! Some of our children are never going to read The Scarlet Letter. They are never going to be able to read Bonhoeffer's works. The Last of the Mohicans is going to be movie mode only. And the Illiad- we went to comic book mode. BUT...books that are a victory to our reading list are not given with any condescension at all. Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, The Call of the Wild, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...these are all books Jesse can conquer. We will have to go slow, but no one should be made to feel that their best is not good enough. One of the reasons for our success in teaching Jesse has been the change of the mindset that learning = suffering. We just aren't going to play that game anymore. And this curriculum doesn't require it. Bravo.

There are a few, wee, little things that I am going to have to tweak. And I am a tweaker. I will not forgo a tool because it is not perfect. I will adapt it to be as close to perfect as possible.

SAT & College Preparation Course for the Christian Student can be purchased here.

Plan: We plan on completing the 3 year course. I am very thankful to have this in my hand early enough that we can take it slow enough. There are 2 and 1 year courses.

Blessings,
Shannon

Sizing and Spacing

I am pulling books off the shelves in preparation of Jesse's school year. I wish I had kept a more detailed list of which books were read by which children. Books I read aloud to sons #1-2 were sometimes forgotten about for sons #3-4. I had assumed they were listening when I read aloud!

And maybe they were, but comprehension for The Last of the Mohicans probably wasn't real strong when they were 4 and 2 years.

So now I have this HUGE pile of classics that need to be read by Jesse in the next couple of years. And alas, he is a slooooowwwww reader.

Not only is he a slow reader, but the size of the font in the book is terribly important to him. Jesse is mildly dyslexic- very functional- would never have known this was the problem except that if affected his love to read. If his eyes start to water then the text is too small. Too much strain. They tear up. Even within one or two sentences. Large print is too big and his little man ego would probably prevent him from reading something in the large print edition. Hmmph. Men.

Spacing between lines is also another issue I have to deal with. There needs to be some spacing between the lines.

So even the books I have on the shelf, and oh boy, do I have books- these aren't going to work for him. I considered the Kindle so that he could adjust the size of the font. He is really not too keen on the idea and I am not sure I want to share. I love my Kindle. I won't share it with anybody. And I am never more than 10 feet from mine. So this is an issue.

I had bought a new The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis last year and the sizing and spacing will be perfect. So that will go to the front of the reading list. My Side of the Mountain is also adequate. The Yearling, however, is not.

Robinson Crusoe is not.

The Deerslayer is not.

The House of Seven Gables is not.

I have to go book shopping. I can't even shop on my beloved Amazon because I need to see the books and decide if they will work for him. Jesse will need to go with me and test out a few sentences. I could go by myself. I know what will work. But I want to train him to make these decisions for himself in a book store.

Dyslexics who are understanding how their eye-to-brain function works have to learn how to learn. And that includes understanding how they are designed. Just different. Acknowledging design is liberating for us. A little more costly for me, but I would much rather have two copies of these books on the shelf and them both read by all the sons than one copy and one not able to read it.

This is why I need more bookshelves!

Founding Fathers

It is IMPERATIVE that our children understand

the Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers.

Notebooking for The Politically Incorrect Guide

to The Founding Fathers

Chapter 6

The antithesis of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams' part in the founding of our country is detailed. He is not one of the most likeable men in the Big Six, but lessons can be learned from him. While learning about his character- flaws and all- his passion for this country is sure. One thing is learned- every group needs one man to challenge thinking and sharpen ideas through debate and disagreement. John Adams was that man. He brings to the Founding Fathers lessons mixed reactions to his personality, character, and intentions for this country. It seems tolerance was required in days of old as well as today.

Categories covered:
The Revolution
"His Rotundity"
The Insecure President
Retirement

Download now for $1.50!

Notebooking for The Politically Incorrect Guide to The Founding Fathers