Teaching Missions

 Here are a few ideas and resources for teaching your children about missions.  Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples and I think it is important for children to learn at an early age to be a part of what God is doing in the world, that He made us for that very purpose.

• Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) - This organization publishes material perfect for teaching about missionaries.  There are picture stories, often in 5 or 6 parts, that work well for Vacation Bible school or Sunday school type settings.  Our church used the one on Hudson Taylor this summer for our Mission Club.
• Wycliffe for Kids - some downloadable curriculum to do with your kids or church group.  This summer I used "Bread for All" lesson and "Phonics Lesson"
• Some books that our on our reading list for the future include some of YWAM publishing, a series of biographies of heroes of the faith.*

And a book that my husband and I are currently reading: Becoming World Changing Family

*We just finished reading the books about David Livingstone, Jacob Deshazer, and George Mueller.  They are very inspiring and we have learned a lot about history and other parts of the world.

CC Week 23 Cycle 3

History

We enjoyed watching Barney Fife attempt to say the preamble to the constitution.

Geography

An opportunity to learn about swamps and the animals that live in them

• Okefenokee Swamp information
• Draw Write Now, Book 6 Animal Habitats

Math Learning Games

Have fun with this hands on math learning game!

Here are the items you need to begin for a two player game:

1. 1 dice 
2. 10 sticks of 10 blocks.  (I have two of the sticks broken apart into "ones" while the other 8 sticks are "tens.")

Players take turns rolling the dice and taking that number of blocks from their "ones" pile.  Since there are only ten "ones," players must trade in ten "ones" to receive a ten stick.  The first player to have five "tens" sticks (that is 50 blocks) wins.

So, for example, player one rolls six.  He takes six blocks.






On his next turn, he rolls a five.  He takes four ones - that equals ten.  So he trades in all ten "ones" for a ten stick of his color choice.  But he still needs one more block.

He now has one ten and one one, totaling eleven.

In playing this game, kids learn about tens and ones, simple addition and they learn to relate facts such as 5 + 6 = 5 + 5 + 1 = 10 + 1.  This hands on approach to math teaches place value and mental addition that will aid in calculating higher numbers.


They can see that 9 + 2 = 11 and 19 + 2 = 21 and relate those facts mentally, in a fun way.  My children love to play this game and I have found they are learning math facts and concepts way faster than through quizzes, flashcards or worksheets.

The game can be modified to more players, especially if there are more blocks than 100.  Also, the game could go to a more challenging level with more dice involved.  However, we are enjoying our simple version for now.

How to Make it Work

Some may perceive unschooling as zero structure and not very goal oriented or that the students are "getting enough."  And to some extent they are not getting everything someone in public school grade level is getting that year.  The student is probably behind in some subjects but ahead in others.  

Here are some suggestions on how ensure you are making progress without completing a formal curriculum or having grades or a completed binder, etc.

1. Mom needs to be learning along with the kids.  Learning can be contagious.  

• I think it is good for mom or dad to be reading lots or watching documentaries on various topics.  This leads to mom being able to talk with her children throughout the day, teaching them informally.  I have really enjoyed watching some history documentaries that go along with their history sentences.  I have learned so much and then when they have questions, I can actually answer them and elaborate on what they are learning.  
• Reading to our children is also very valuable.  For example, we are currently reading missionary stories together as a family at night.  We now all have the same context when discussing missions and then when we are reading something about Africa in a different book, we can say to them, "hey, remember what happened in Africa with David Livingstone?..."  A common context with books, movies, sermons, Scripture, etc certainly accelerates learning.  
• It is also helpful for mom to be learning about education in general - reading blogs or books about learning styles, curriculum, what are other kids learning or what books are they reading at various grade levels.

2. Making use of everyday life as opportunities for learning.  Make it a point to talk with your children during lunch or snack time.  Read together at night.  Have conversation while doing chores together.  Play word games or other games together.  Have the older kids teach the younger kids something. Sing together.  Watch TV together (and this doesn't have to be just "educational" TV).  Go for walks or get outside together.  

3. Create some structure, habits, expectations with your children.  Just because you are not having school at the same time every day, does not mean there is no structure.  My children expect that most days we will do math, have some reading time, and work on AWANAS.  Make monthly or weekly assignments such as: write in your journal three times a week, or read a chapter book a week and write a summary, or complete a handwriting sheet on a Bible verse a few times a week.  We make these type of assignments into habits so that there is not fighting or stress about doing school and many of these type of assignments are expected to be somewhat independent work.

4. Being part of a homeschool group.  I feel like this can fill in the gaps of things we might not get to at home.  These groups can be more formal ones like Classical Conversations, or could be a group that goes on field trips or that focuses on one area like science, music or athletics.  Our church also provides an important outlet for our children - they get the social environment, the structure of a classroom, and get to have other adults teaching them.

5. Being flexible and teaching your kids to be flexible.  Some weeks we don't accomplish much.  Those are usually weeks when someone is sick (or all of us) or when we aren't sleeping well.  And maybe some days we take off just to have a fun day or to catch up on other projects.  We as a family try to plan for these days.  The kids are usually motivated to do a little extra work on some days if they know we will have a playdate later in the week.

6. Have access to some learning resources.  These do NOT have to be expensive. 

• internet access
• books (we use the library lots!)
• a few general reference things to own (like an atlas, a Bible)
• math manipulatives
• lots of paper, pencils, crayons

Why We Are Unschooling

It happened almost on accident, out of necessity.

1. Life happens.   There are always interruptions to schooling.  Even if the kids were in public school, they would be out for sick days, holidays, and various vacation days.  The past two years I have had two hard pregnancies back to back.  (My boys are not even a quite a year apart!)  So, we did our best at making progress with school.  Hours of bookwork would not have worked for us.  A more flexible approach to schooling was a lifesaver.  We read lots of books together and had lots of conversation.  And I invested in teaching the kids to help me around the house, which has paid off dividends already!! We may not have completed many grade level workbooks, but we have learned to read, memorized Scripture and learned to cook.

2. Having a large family. Because I have many children, all at varying grade levels and ages, it is easier if everyone is learning something together.  We can all work on the same Scriptures or listen to the same books being read.  This is also why Classical Conversations works for us - we are all learning and reviewing the same facts.  I don't need separate curriculums for art, science, history, geography, music, etc.  For more of why we use Classical Conversations, see our reasons.

3. It's working better than curriculums we purchased.  I love books and curriculum and as a former teacher and student, I loved workbooks and school in general.  But many things I tried with my children DID NOT WORK.  We have had many tears and struggles over reading and writing and spelling and math.  

• I think part of our struggle was that I was over zealous to do too much too early.  A wise homeschool mom told me that the tears were because I was asking my child to do something she couldn't do.  There is a difference between making them do work that they don't want to do and asking them to do something that is too hard.  Also, I have learned that there is a lot of value in going slower to build up confidence and mastery of a subject.
• Another reason it didn't work was I was not able to give enough time and energy to a subject because I was too distracted with all the other kids and responsibilities of running a household.  Maybe we could have used those other curriculums had I been able to have one on one focused time with each child for long periods of time.  But then again, maybe not because of #3
• A third reason is that traditional curriculums and workbooks do not always work well for all learning styles and student personalities.  What we are doing now is working because we are able to tailor our schoolwork to fit their individual personalities and learning styles, which in turn, makes real learning happen more readily.

4. Our philosophy of education. Over time my philosophy of education has evolved.  

• Just because teaching is happening and workbooks are filled, does not mean that learning and understanding is occurring.  I don't want to fill our days with busy work.  Real learning happens more often when the student is engaged - when they ask the questions, when they choose a book or discover something.  I think it good for the parent or teacher to frame those discussions and discoveries and not just leave it all to chance.
• Furthermore, real life is not just academics.  I did well in public school, but felt like I was lacking in practical life skills.  For example, I knew nothing about cooking or gardening. The way we homeschool will hopefully allow our children to have both.

5. It frees up time for other important pursuits.  In the last year, for us, that has mostly meant just surviving pregnancy and toddlers, but it has meant a lot more over the years and hopefully for the future.

• art and music
• sports and exercise
• learning skills such as sewing, crocheting
• learning to cook, and run a household
• working on projects (we make lots of homemade gifts at the holidays)
• church activities
• starting a small business
• service to others (cooking a meal for someone, babysitting,construction projects with Dad)
• more time for relationships with others
• involvement in the community

Overall, I enjoy the flexibility that unschooling offers.  I don't have a set curriculum or structure that ties me down, that keeps me from doing important things.  Unexpected circumstances cause me less stress, because we are not trying to complete a book by the end of the year. Of course, we do have overarching goals of what I would like to accomplish in a year, but we just make learning and working a way of life day to day, week to week.

Teaching your Child to Read

A Review of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Ugh!! Trying to teach your child to read can be very frustrating. The English language is phonetic, right? Well, sometimes. But even words that at first seem phonetic, are only phonetic when you know this spelling rule or that rule. There are so many spelling rules and letters make multiple sounds. So where do you start? If your child already knows the letters and one sound for each letter, then teaching a child to sound out words should be easy right? They should be able to read a simple children's book right? Well, right, if the child knows all the spelling rules, but a child will get easily frustrated at having to learn a new pronunciation rule every few words.   For example, in my last sentence:

• right - gh is silent
• the – th makes a diffent sound than t and h separately
• child - ch makes a different sound than c and h separately 
• knows – k is silent, the ow is the long o sound, not 'o' as in on, not 'ow' as in how
• all – the a does not make the 'a' sound as in apple

And there are many more such examples of spelling/pronunciation rules and exceptions in the remainder of the sentence. All of this can be overwhelming to a child who is first starting to read. This is why I recommend using a reading curriculum that breaks down rules for reading (or decoding) in manageable chunks, in a way that gets kids reading fast and with confidence.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a great book for teaching your child decoding skills. A child who does not know any letters can begin this program. The book makes reading manageable by:

• introducing one sound at a time, so that children learn a sound well before moving on
• teaching the skill of putting sounds together 

• it starts by introducing only lowercase letters and adds capital letters later
• it notes rhyming words and spellings

• letters are written slightly differently when they have different sounds, so that decoding skills are learned and there is still exposure to the real spelling of words
  
  
  • for example, th are written closer together for one sound, long vowels have lines over them, and silent letters are written in a smaller font

• sight words that are not phonetic are introduced one at a time (like “was” or “to”)
• new sounds for letter combinations are introduced slowly so that they are mastered, such as “ow” as in “how”
• there are checks throughout for reading comprehension,
• reading concepts are taught throughout – spacing between words, reading left to right and top to bottom, periods at the end of the sentence, quotation marks for speech, titles for a story, capitalization rules, etc.

Some great things about this curriculum, that make it so easy to use:

• Directions are written so that parents know exactly what to say for each lesson and the only preparation time needed for the parents is to read the introduction
• Children gain confidence early on and can begin reading words within just a few lessons
• Each lesson can be done in under thirty minutes, or even less time if lessons are broken in half

A few caveats about this curriculum

• The markings and fonts are different than what you will find in storybooks, so it is suggested that you work all the way through the curriculum so that the transition from the special decoding markings to regular font is made smoothly. I have found it helpful to supplement this curriculum with flashcards that do not have the special markings – like “see” without the long vowel marks.
• The names of the letters are not taught until very late in the curriculum, only the sounds. This is not necessarily a problem, but something to be aware of.
• Some of the lessons progress rather quickly, so we sometimes repeat lessons until we are ready to move on.

For more information about this book, check out www.startreading.com