Spelling for Jesus

We've been low-key lately, focusing on reasons to be thankful and writing about ways to show we're thankful. I gave him a break from his cursive writing course to delve into Spelling, for which he was very thankful.

Lesson one seemed a little different than what you'd find in most Spelling course books.

Hey, that's cheating!

But Seriously...

Reo is going to use the technique where he studies the words. We think it might be an effective way to study for a Spelling test.

Halloween Week

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I'm not a fan of being scared or horror movies or zombies, but I enjoy the process of celebrating the melding of the spiritual world into the physical world, dressing up and trick-or-treating at night, and just having fun with pumpkins and all the imagery of the holiday (except for zombies). I am also divorced from my older children's father and this is a holiday that I do not have to ever share. That's a big part of it, too. So, we celebrate the heck out of this holiday.

The outline for the week is on the dry erase board

Monday was the day of decorations! We cut out pumpkins, bats, and tombstones. Reo decorated them to his pleasing. The first craft of a bat and jack-o-lantern mobile:

I found a great print-out of several different jack-o-lantern faces, and we cut out each pumpkin. We found another print-out with bat shapes and cut those out, as well. Using yarn, we dangled the pumpkins and bats from a frame we made from construction paper. The end result is simple but a fun indoor decoration.

The next craft were colored in pumpkins that Reo decided to adhere to our front window as a decoration. We found a great full-page print-out shape of a pumpkin and Reo went to work designing different pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns.

We also designed bookmarks using orange foam bookmark bases that I already had in the craft box, yarn, markers, and the left-over jack-o-lantern cut-outs from the mobile project. If we'd had the materials for 50 or more bookmarks, we could have added them to the trick-or-treat bags for Thursday.

The last project we did were tombstones. I had intended to have these cardboard tombstones, cut from a basic shipping box, stay as an indoor decoration but Reo had other plans. He enthusiastically planted them on our front lawn so everyone could see his funny and Dr. Who themed epitaphs.

Today, Tuesday, we learned the history of Halloween. To serve this, I wrote a brief book that gave each version of Halloween, from Samhain to its secular version today, its own page and description. I wrote at his reading level but sought to keep it interesting so I kept it short and to the point. Then he answered five questions I'd provided at the end.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, we get to prepare Halloween-themed food, which I plan to include a great fairy cake which is an old recipe that folk lore says will attract fairies and deter them from being mischievous in your home.

The History Book

History Stories for Children: Second Edition by Dr. John Wayland;

a Christian Liberty Reader published by Christian Liberty Press

This is the history book for my son's homeschool program provided by Christian Liberty Academy Satellite Schools [CLASS]. It's the size of a standard paperback book and each history story is about two to three pages long. There's simple illustrations and it appears to be written at a fifth grade level, although I have not yet submitted an excerpt for proper analysis.

As with American Pioneers and Patriots, I was expecting a white washing of history and glorifying of colonialism. That's what he would have gotten in a public school education, anyway. I was already prepared to supplement his education with factual information.

 

Unfortunately, these were not just white washed versions of history to make America seem great all the time. Those stories are in there, too. We even have the folk lore of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree and not lying about it when questioned.

What children will first learn from this book is contained in the first section, titled, From The Bible. We learn a couple little bible stories, then learn about the first Christmas song, and about Easter lilies, a poem about Jesus' crucifixion, and even a Psalm. History! 

The second section, titled, Around the World, tries to teach us about Alexander the Great, although they skip over his callous military prowess and champion homosexuality. We get to learn about his relationship with his father. Granted, that's a new perspective. There's also short stories for Alfred the Great, Charles the Great, and Peter the Great because why bother learning about leaders unless they're great? But then it gets into Saint Valentine, Martin Luther and other religious individuals. They did actually exist in history so that's passable but still it's all Christian themed.

This becomes predictable, right?

Well, just when you think you have them figured out, that's when they throw the curve ball...

Nobody expects the overt racism!

Adventure Class

Ever since his sister gave him her old point and shoot digital camera, Reo has been an active photographer. I decided to harness that creativity and curiosity so he could see how easy it is to produce something great using only his creativity and curiosity. We started a Photo Journal as part of Art class. Photos are printed out and installed on the blank pages of a notebook. He then dates the photos, names them, and proceeds to add whatever pleases him that's relevant to the photograph.

I started by giving him themes.

Weather was the first theme.

He could take as many photos as he desired that he felt would be relevant to the theme and then choose one to place in the Photo Journal. He did well with this but I noticed that he was taking a lot of photos that he wasn't able to use. While this is often the way that it goes for professional photographers who agonize for endless hours over selecting images for pieces and then selecting pieces for shows, I really could not justify a reason to limit his photo journal to those rules. For the little collage I made for this blog post, it was difficult to select only four weather shots from his folder.

When he started taking photos of his sister's soccer games this season and truly delighted in the opportunities to capture images of motion and experiment with composition, I decided there was no need to dictate weekly themes. The Photo Journal officially left Art class and became its own off-textbook experience, Adventure Class.

In Adventure Class, his photography depicts his adventures, as he sees the world around him, and his Photo Journal is the book that tells the story.

Evolution is foolish

For Reo's required Bible Study class as part of his curriculum from the homeschool program, my Episcopalian husband has taken the reigns. I figured it would be good for both of them if Reo's dad taught him since he's a Christian, and then Reo could continue meditating with me and we'd have additional dialogue about different world religions, what they all have in common, and how they differ.

It may be important to note that Reo feels somewhat insulted by the Bible Study coursework. It's too young for him with coloring and puzzles that have obvious answers. The purpose of the workbook is to make the answers easy so children can repeat the information without being wrong, challenged, or frustrated by the "problems" for each lesson. However, Reo prefers to be challenged so his work leaves him feeling accomplished. He has not caught on that this is programming, not teaching.

My husband has already needed to jump over information that's been provided in the lessons so Reo is not given information that is horribly wrong and blatantly offensive to both of us.

This is a snapshot from the Teacher's Manual. The lesson was about the Wisemen who brought Jesus gifts after his birth. The lesson took a turn to discussing the importance of being wise and not being foolish. This is not a bad concept, however, they took the opportunity to proclaim an example of foolishness that is both Scientifically unfounded and downright offensive.

"Foolish - [...] believing in evolution" set alongside disobeying your parents and playing in the street, Christian Liberty Press and Christian Liberty Academy expect us to tell our eight year old this anti-science, anti-fact garbage and liken it to putting his life in danger or being defiant?

No. Just, no.

If you are wondering, that snippet of text at the bottom of the image is explaining that an example of being wise is believing that God created the universe, as well as reading the Bible, and looking both ways before crossing the street.

This is going to be an interesting school year. I am certain that I unintentionally gave my husband the hardest part.

American Pioneers and Patriots

The first history book in my son's curriculum from Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School [CLASS] is American Pioneers and Patriots.

At first glance, it was expected and nothing out of the ordinary. There was a heavy emphasis on colonialism lacking accountability but Reo would have received that same perspective from the public school. In my fifth grade year, I received that white washed perspective from my public school education.

I already knew I'd have to go off-textbook to provide supplemental lessons to give Reo a complete picture of the history being taught.

As we plunged into Unit 1 and enjoyed the narrative of a fictional family making their way from Spain to the New World in the 1600's, there were some Christian-themed drop-ins but since the people from Spain in this time were Roman Catholic, it was proper context and not preaching.

What was interesting to me was contained in the end Unit questions.

6. Read Luke 8:22-25 and explain why it is proper to pray to Jesus during a storm.

How about no?

The actual story tells us that the men on these ships traveling from Spain to the New World helped the crew manage the ship during the storm while women and children braced themselves inside the cabin. When a door dramatically blew open and the water rushing in threatened to sink the ship, two boys acted quickly to secure the door. Jesus didn't really help there. He wasn't even asked to help. The moral of the story, if anything, was to get off your butt and do something.

Neither Reo nor I could figure out what Jesus had to do with the story told in Unit 1, so we skipped it and moved on to the serious business of drawing ships.

Misadventures in homeschool program selection

I chose Reo’s homeschooling program based on my academic experience. Back in the dark ages when I was in middle school, my mother removed me from the local private school after removing me from the local public school and enrolled me in the Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School [CLASS] homeschool program.

My mother was not very good with follow-through so I almost exclusively autonomously studied, which worked so well for me that I actually completed two grades in one year, placing me as a sophomore when I returned to public school. Now, technically, I did not skip a grade. I completed a freshman year’s worth of school work and testing. However, since I did two years in the span of a partial single school year, I think I’ve earned the right to say that I skipped my freshman year of high school. I was awesome.

My experience with the material itself was positive. The only presence of Christianity was in the required Bible Study, which was understandable since this homeschool program came from a Christian private school. The Bible Study required biblical reading and consideration of non-denominational Christian principles.

I expected the same when I enrolled my third grader.

I was wrong.

"Exploring God’s Creation", part of the God’s Creation Series, is the Science textbook.

Science textbook.

Science.

Leafing through, I found the lesson that would teach my son photosynthesis. Unfortunately, the word “photosynthesis” was not used once. The term replacing the scientific process was, “God’s Water Pump”.

Unfortunately, I had already paid the tuition in full and we were in September, when I was aiming to start his school year. I decided that we would proceed with the program I already committed to use and I would make adjustments as we went along. I have set aside the Science textbook until I can decide exactly how I’m going to adjust the curriculum without hindering my son’s ability to perform on tests.

We are focusing on his Nature Reader, which explores biological life on the planet, and for fun we have Astrological lessons that get to use free apps and the NASA for kids website.