Posts Tagged homeschoolers
Elementary Reading Strategies vs. Whole Books?
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 1: READING on April 12th, 2010
If you are familiar with the main tenets of a classical Christian education, you know that you should read whole books aloud daily to your kids. In fact, books are essential to the effective application of teaching the three skills of the classical trivium.
Well, what you do in your Christian home school is not necessarily what teachers in public schools are doing! My friend recently shared an interesting homeschooling article called “Let Them Read Whole Books” by Joy Hakim, author of the elementary series “A History of US,” which argues that public school teachers spend so much time teaching strategies for reading and analyzing paragraphs that there is no longer enough classroom time for reading whole books! Hakim clearly prefers the reading strategies adopted by homeschoolers:
Today, it is only homeschoolers, and children at a few elite or unusual schools who even read as much as one whole book. Teachers are much too busy teaching reading to actually let their students read a nonfiction book.
I’m sure that you would agree, but don’t let up! Keep reading. No matter how busy you are with daily household chores or teaching the math and science curriculum, make a daily commitment to read aloud to your home school kids. If you need a little bit of encouragement, click on the image above and watch my presentation to the Indiana Association of Home Educators on the real benefits of reading aloud.
Homeschooling Kooks and Science Labs
Posted by Diane in Various Essays for Homeschool Parents on March 19th, 2010
Earlier this month, I was privileged to rebut some of the negative spin about homeschoolers in a radio interview with WIBC 93.1 FM. Originally intended as a pitch for our NCFCA Indy Qualifying Speech and Debate Tournament, the interview took a twist as host Greg Garrison had a broader interest in homeschooling stereotypes and curricular strategies. Although he put his kids through public school, Garrison appreciates homeschoolers and even gave the keynote address at a recent statewide graduation. You can hear my responses to his questions about right-wing “kooks” and homeschool “science labs” at WIBC Garrison. Look for the gray sidebar on the right called ‘GARRISON AUDIO,’ then scroll down to ‘MARCH 4 – Diane Lockman‘ to listen to this 7 minute interview.
What stereotypes about homeschooling have you encountered, and how do you respond? Leave a comment below, and share your story.
Theory without Application is Worthless
Posted by Diane in Post-Trivium Homeschool | High School on October 15th, 2008
A few years ago, my husband, David, occasionally traveled overseas to teach with an international organization that instructs Christian laity in leadership skills. Strategically selected leaders in Estonia, Britain, India, and Kenya were among his students. These men and women received training in leadership, evangelism, and multiplication for the purpose of spreading the Gospel to the unreached people in their respective nations. Theory and strategy were the focus of the conferences. Application of what they had learned had to wait until they got back home.
Every academic discipline is like leadership training. As home school parents, we spend the greater part of every work day teaching our children theory: grammar, spelling, punctuation, composition, logic, speech, math, and science. You might even give them periodic exams to test their knowledge, but you will never know if your home school children really understand the concepts until you see them apply that theory in real life situations.
Grammar rules are antiseptic home school facts until your child has to actually write a sentence that is structured properly like “the boy threw the ball” instead of “the ball the boy threw.” Spelling rules like “i before e except after c” are maddeningly meaningless until the child has to spell real words like “thief” and “deceit” in a written composition. Home school biology is a theoretical system of hypotheses until the high school student steps out into the natural world and proves these speculations by examining the evidence of creation.
So, too, with leadership. Your child has to step out, whether willingly or not, into a real crisis to demonstrate real knowledge. I could take a group of Christian homeschoolers and teach them all about leadership. Abraham, Joseph, and Moses could all illustrate my points on godly leaders. In a perfect situation, every home school teen would look at me with rapturous attention soaking up every morsel of precious instruction. But the truth is this: most of what kids (and adults) hear goes in one ear and out the other ear. We don’t retain most of what we hear. We have to apply knowledge right away to make it stick. That’s why I have my kids take “branch” notes while they are listening to lectures or reading nonfiction, narrate what they’ve learned, then write an abstract summary of the content immediately afterwards. The more ways that I can help them internalize the information, the more likely it is that they will remember it much later in life when they find themselves in a situation where they need to apply what they’ve learned.
My good friend, Sheri, and I are co-sponsors of a local chapter of the National Home School Honor Society. Our chapter has three objectives: academic excellence, community service (specifically in the area of justice), and leadership. Until recently, those three bylaw objectives were just abstract, theoretical ideas that the kids repeated every time a new member was inducted into the society: “I will strive to exhibit character and behavior that will naturally reflect the highest ideals of our local chapter – leadership, scholarship, and service.” Words said in a simple pledge require no immediate action.
Well, like every journey, our home school honor society chapter has hit a few bumps in the road. The most recent issue that the kids have been dealing with has to do with interpretation of our bylaws. These teens are having a rip-roaring, ongoing email discussion about the definitions and direction of our society. It reminds me of the discussion that conservatives and liberals often have over the interpretation of the U. S. Constitution or even of Scripture. Should we interpret the words literally, or should we try to determine the original intent of the writers?
What I have found really exciting and encouraging about this wrestling match is this: some of our teenagers are living out the pledge to be leaders. They are all academic scholars as proven by their GPAs and standardized test scores. They all have to log a certain number of community service hours as a requirement for continued membership. But leadership is not mandatory. Yes, we do have elected officers, but just because you are an officer doesn’t mean that you are a leader. With this recent conflict, we have seen which of the kids are leaders. Courageous in their zeal, they are learning firsthand how to lead in love and humility. They are learning that leadership is exhilarating, but often lonely. They are learning that those whom you are leading do not often appreciate your efforts to advocate on their behalf. They are learning that the Lord is at work in this discussion as He prepares them for more challenging leadership tasks in the future.
So what does this have to do with your homeschooling journey? Give your children opportunities to apply what they are learning. Don’t be surprised when unscheduled demands surface. Use these challenges for teaching. The Lord is at work in your life, too. He provides the theory and expects you to provide the action. Abraham had to embrace Sarah before he became the father of many nations. Second in command to Pharaoh, Joseph had to actively store grain before the nation escaped famine. Moses had to lift the rod that God gave him before the Red Sea swamped the Egyptian army. The potential for greatness was there all along, but each man had to act on his knowledge before theory became reality. Home school theory without application is worthless.
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Read other pertinent homeschool articles and essays by clicking on the “Articles” tab above.
Leaders Empowered for Obedience
Posted by Diane in Post-Trivium Homeschool | High School on October 6th, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want leaders who don’t know the Lord. Even the most immature Christian with a tender-hearted desire to obey, is better than a stiff-necked woman who believes that she alone is sovereign.
Those of you who know my testimony, know that I spent the first eighteen years of my adult life as a disobedient, hard-hearted woman. Bitter over a drunken dad and perverted pastors, I renounced my childhood faith, and left the church. During those years of spiritual exile, I refused to acknowledge the Lord’s presence and authority. In fact, I pretended that He was dead. What I didn’t realize until many years later was that I was the one who was really dead.
Spiritually dead that is. Nothing satisfied. Nothing could heal my pain until the day in October 1997 when I came face-to-face with Jesus and cried out for mercy. In the midst of my heaving sobs, He quietly and gently told me all was okay now. He forgave me. Ever since that day, I have been desperate to follow Him because He is my life and my hope. His Law is no longer repulsive. Rest is possible when we obey because He has our best interests at heart. He has proven himself faithful and worthy of my total trust.
According to Richard Hays, author of The Moral Vision of the New Testament, “the great difficulty with the Law of Moses…was that it could only point to righteousness, never actually produce it. There is a powerful and inexplicable ‘law of sin’ at work in human hearts that constantly defeats our solemn intention to do the good and to obey the will of God. Consequently, even where the hearer of the Law applauds the vision of the moral life conveyed by the Torah – as indeed we should, since the commandment of the Law is ‘holy and just and good’ (Romans 7:12), the Law can produce only condemnation and frustration.” The Apostle Paul agonized in Romans 7:14-24 over this life “in Adam” under the Law but before the rebirth “in Christ”:
For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
The Apostle Paul leaves the reader feeling desperate and hopeless at the end of Romans 7:24. He outlines our basic problem and asks who will save us? In verse 25, he reveals the solution: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul starts chapter 8 with the exhilarating revelation that Jesus condemns sins and releases those who follow Him from deserved condemnation. We are reborn from the old “in Adam” to the new “in Christ.”
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do; by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Why does God do this? So that we, His people, can fulfill His ‘holy, just, and good’ Law. The Holy Spirit empowers us to obey, and when we walk according to the Spirit, our desires and actions are totally aligned!
Hays again: “God is present in power in His people (the church), changing lives and enabling an obedience that would otherwise be unattainable. Obedience is a consequence of salvation, not its condition. The Holy Spirit is not a theological abstraction but the manifestation of God’s presence in the community, making everything new. Those who respond to the Gospel have entered the sphere of the Spirit’s power, where they find themselves changed and empowered for obedience. Obedience is possible at all only because God has broken the power of sin and begun the work of conforming believers to the image of Jesus Christ.”
Scripture makes it clear that God establishes human government, and often as in the story of Pharoah of Egypt, God uses stiff-necked leaders to accomplish His purposes. So we cannot exclude nonbelievers from positions of authority, but we can prepare our homeschoolers for godly leadership in case the Lord calls them. How do we do this? Create an environment at home in which our children experience the love of Jesus on a daily basis. Tell them the stories of His faithfulness. Let them see His power at work in our lives. Immerse them in love and forgiveness. Perhaps one day your son or daughter will obediently lead like Moses with a heart inclined toward the Lord. Hard-hearted leaders are a curse and make foolish decisions that cause unnecessary pain. Leaders who walk with Jesus are empowered by His ever-present Spirit and end up blessing the people.
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If you want to read more of my story, Trivium Mastery: The Intersection of Three Roads, gives a fuller picture of how my Lord has shown mercy and grace.
How Do You Measure Mastery?
Posted by Diane in Personalized Homeschool Curriculum on June 27th, 2008
Before releasing your homeschoolers to experience the thrills of the socratic paideia in which dialogue drives instruction during the high school years, you need to determine whether mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium has been attained.
How do you measure mastery?
The Race
I live in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the “world’s greatest racing spectacle,” the Indianapolis 500. Every May, nearly 300,000 people gather to watch this exciting 200 lap, 500 mile race. Adrenaline rushes as the cars fly around the track, traveling the length of a football field in one second, at speeds exceeding 220 mph. As drivers compete for placement in the turns, they endure G-force of four times the weight of gravity which is comparable to the G-force of the space shuttle take offs. The sleek fiberglass shell of the Indy car hides a powerful engine that can run at 675 horsepower which is 4 times the speed of an average car. Experienced pit crews perform mechanical magic as they refuel and replace worn tires in an astounding 20 seconds or less. Aggressive, careless, or tired drivers occasionally lose control of their cars, and the yellow caution flags come out when fiery crashes bring the manic race to a screeching halt. Unlike horse races which are over in a few minutes, the Indy car race is a marathon often exceeding three hours!
Imagine for a minute that classical home schooling is an Indy car race. As in the Indy 500, other factors enter into the equation for a successful homeschooling race such as unforeseen circumstances (weather), finances (sponsors), and the community (spectators), but for this post, we’ll focus on the three factors which most impact mastery: your homeschooler (the driver), the content (the car), and you, the parent (assuming the roles of both pit crew and clean up crew). But before we tackle the driver, the car, and the crew, let’s define the end of the race.
The Finish Line
Every Indy Car driver dreams of winning the Indy 500. Completing the race is the ultimate goal. In homeschooling, we’re not concerned about finishing before our peers, but we want to finish the race in God’s perfect timing for our particular homeschooler. The first race that we need to finish is “Teach the Skills of the Trivium,” so that we can then move on to finish the second race during the high school years, “Socratic Paideia in which Dialogue Drives Instruction.” Both steps culminate in mastery.
According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, the primary definition of the verb “master” is
“to conquer, to bring under control, to overcome, to subdue, to own, to rule, or to solve.”
Powerful images of domination and achievement arise, and, in the purest sense, to master something is to dominate. However, I prefer the second definition in Webster’s which is “to become skilled or proficient in the use of.” To complete the thought left dangling by the above preposition, your task as the homeschooler’s parent is to teach until your child is:
- skilled or proficient in the use of the English language
- skilled or proficient in the use of critical thinking abilities
- skilled or proficient in the use of oral and written communication
Once the trivium race is finished, your job is then to supervise the continued acquisition of knowledge and skills in areas of interest so that your homeschooler is on his way to mastery in areas of personal interest.
You know your child has reached mastery when he or she has consummate possession of the skill. Theoretically, full command of language, thought, and communication signals the end of the first race and the beginning of the second race. Practically, your son or daughter needs to have such command of the English language that the vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and literary style of the classics is not overwhelming. The ability to comprehend and wrestle with the meaning of the text is also necessary. Finally, the child who is ready to move on to the socratic paideia of high school has the skill to write extensively about the themes of the classics.
The Driver
Some glamorous Indy Car celebrities grow up in renowned racing families, but no matter how famous Daddy was, junior doesn’t just inherit the raw DNA ability to drive. All champions have to learn the basic rules of driving just like every other licensed driver. Once the basics are mastered, then they can then move on to more sophisticated concepts. Your homeschooler is no different. He starts as a novice, moves on to apprentice, and eventually becomes a master in his craft.
The Crew
The highly-skilled mechanics who work on Indy Car crews are some of the best in the world. They receive regular training as technology advances. They know their cars and drivers so well that they can anticipate problems and solutions before they crop up. Quick to respond, they are proactive, monitoring the status of the vehicle with wireless radio and detailed gauge readings. To give your child an authentic classical education, you need to be current on all that you are teaching. Plan time to refresh your memory if you are a little rusty (Mom’s continuing education) or do a little advance reading before you need to teach a concept. You’ll be more confident and serve your homeschooler’s needs better if you are prepared. If you find yourself unprepared, that’s okay, too. Declare a reading week and catch up! Your classical homeschooler will love the break!
