I was given this website as a place to find mentoring opportunities. I don't know much about this organization so check it out for yourself.
http://lemiinstitute.com/
Kerry
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Love of Learning Phase
Once your child has a foundation for learning and service in the Core Phase, he will move into the Love of Learning Phase. This is one of my favorite times with my kids because there are so many possibilities in learning. Your child should be given opportunities to get to know "what's out there". A child successfully completing the Core Phase will be excited about "what's out there", interested in everything and believing they will be able to succeed at whatever they choose to do.
Personal decisions and accountability should be stressed and respected. Hopefully, your child will see what his mission from God is during this phase. Encourage direction in your children as they seek to find out where God is leading them.
Students should become competent in the skills of learning (reading, writing, math skills, experimentation, library research, oral persuasion, etc) throughout the Love of Learning Phase. These skills are not mastered in one year, but taught and encouraged over multiple years. How many years? That depends on your child. Each child is different. Since you are the expert on your children, you will know when they are ready to transition to the Scholar Phase.
Remember the concept: Structure the Time, Not the Content! Daily schedule time for your Love of Learning child to study. This does not mean you pull out workbooks and expect learning to occur. Content will vary from day to day so pay attention to your child and see what interests him. Make this a regular time of your day so your child will know it is time to study. If the first scheduled time you plan doesn't work, be flexible and choose another time of day. My guess is mornings are best for most families.
Activities during Love of Learning Phase include reading together as a family and the child reading alone, discussing with parents what is read. Use the personal reading journal to make very simple reading journal entries. A few words or a few sentences are fine. Paragraphs will come in time, after writing techniques have been taught. Other writing activities should include correspondence with family & friends, creative writing, and simple imitation writing activities.
Offer a wide-range of reading selections. If your child is interested in history, start with history, but also encourage math stories, science stories and so on. Remember: wide-range!
Use your child's interests to develop projects for your child to complete. This integrates multiple skills, including research, material prep, price comparisons for materials, making a finished project, presenting the project and so on. My son loves projects so I plan to start the school year with a project. Last year he wanted to make a "volcano" the first week of school. I'm sure he still remembers taking his finished project to his friends' home and exploding volcanoes on the lawn.
I'll stop for now. Next post will be continuation of Love of Learning
taken from A Thomas Jefferson Education in our Home
Kerry
more info in the Love of Learning Lecture Notes and Love of Learning CD
Personal decisions and accountability should be stressed and respected. Hopefully, your child will see what his mission from God is during this phase. Encourage direction in your children as they seek to find out where God is leading them.
Students should become competent in the skills of learning (reading, writing, math skills, experimentation, library research, oral persuasion, etc) throughout the Love of Learning Phase. These skills are not mastered in one year, but taught and encouraged over multiple years. How many years? That depends on your child. Each child is different. Since you are the expert on your children, you will know when they are ready to transition to the Scholar Phase.
Remember the concept: Structure the Time, Not the Content! Daily schedule time for your Love of Learning child to study. This does not mean you pull out workbooks and expect learning to occur. Content will vary from day to day so pay attention to your child and see what interests him. Make this a regular time of your day so your child will know it is time to study. If the first scheduled time you plan doesn't work, be flexible and choose another time of day. My guess is mornings are best for most families.
Activities during Love of Learning Phase include reading together as a family and the child reading alone, discussing with parents what is read. Use the personal reading journal to make very simple reading journal entries. A few words or a few sentences are fine. Paragraphs will come in time, after writing techniques have been taught. Other writing activities should include correspondence with family & friends, creative writing, and simple imitation writing activities.
Offer a wide-range of reading selections. If your child is interested in history, start with history, but also encourage math stories, science stories and so on. Remember: wide-range!
Use your child's interests to develop projects for your child to complete. This integrates multiple skills, including research, material prep, price comparisons for materials, making a finished project, presenting the project and so on. My son loves projects so I plan to start the school year with a project. Last year he wanted to make a "volcano" the first week of school. I'm sure he still remembers taking his finished project to his friends' home and exploding volcanoes on the lawn.
I'll stop for now. Next post will be continuation of Love of Learning
taken from A Thomas Jefferson Education in our Home
Kerry
more info in the Love of Learning Lecture Notes and Love of Learning CD
Harry Potter or Not
I thought I'd throw in two views of the Harry Potter debate. Should we let our kids read Harry or not? I don't have much to worry about because none of my kids ever became interested. But, I did read the first book to see FOR MYSELF if Harry was appropriate reading. In the end, I decided they could read the first one but wasn't sure about the later ones since they become darker as you go.
George Grant has this to say in his blog
He's a wildly lauded pop-culture phenomenon. He's bigger than anything since the iPod Shuffle. Even Hollywood blockbusters have a hard time keeping pace with his box office booty. He's enmeshed in a world of wizzards and magic and evil sorcerers. Can he possibly be good? I mean really! On the face of it, isn't it obvious that Harry Potter--to say nothing of the craze that swirls about him--has to be dangerous, dispicable, and desultory from a Christian worldview perspective?
Well, not necessarily. In fact, according to Jerram Barrs, the J.K. Rowling novels featuring Harry Potter may actually be all they are cracked up to be--and more. In his latest Christian Counter-Culture essay from the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, this renowned professor of apologetics and evangelism makes a powerful case for Harry, Hogwarts, and Hermoine. If it seems more than a little paradoxical to you that a thoughtful Reformed theologian would be wild about Harry but wouldn't even think of touching the Left Behind novels--much less actually reading them--then you probably ought to read this!
For a totally contrarian view, my friend Doug Phillips, raises grave concerns at his Vision Forum site about the themes of sorcery in the Potter books. Be sure to read the whole essay carefully--Doug artfully uses sarcasm to make his point.
After you have read the to-and-fro and pillar-to-post discussions that Barrs and Phillips have launched, you may still find yourself wondering what a Christian ought to think about Harry and Hogwarts. If you've made it this far into the discussion then you may want to try to go further by tackling John Granger's book, Finding God in Harry Potter. I have found it to be the most thoroughly informed work--from both a theological and a literary perspective--on the subject thus far.
But, one thing is clear: this is not a simple debate--it is fraught with the complexities of language, definition, literary form, thematic purpose, and cultural differences (remember that Rowling is a European not an American, so the metaphysical terminology she uses may rankle the average Evangelical unfamiliar with the Medieval traditions and forms she borrows from the fairy tales, myths, and legends of continental Christendom). Thus, this not a debate that will be won or lost with simple sloganeering, however impassioned or emphatic.
I haven't finished the articles listed above, but plan to this week.
Kerry
George Grant has this to say in his blog
He's a wildly lauded pop-culture phenomenon. He's bigger than anything since the iPod Shuffle. Even Hollywood blockbusters have a hard time keeping pace with his box office booty. He's enmeshed in a world of wizzards and magic and evil sorcerers. Can he possibly be good? I mean really! On the face of it, isn't it obvious that Harry Potter--to say nothing of the craze that swirls about him--has to be dangerous, dispicable, and desultory from a Christian worldview perspective?
Well, not necessarily. In fact, according to Jerram Barrs, the J.K. Rowling novels featuring Harry Potter may actually be all they are cracked up to be--and more. In his latest Christian Counter-Culture essay from the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, this renowned professor of apologetics and evangelism makes a powerful case for Harry, Hogwarts, and Hermoine. If it seems more than a little paradoxical to you that a thoughtful Reformed theologian would be wild about Harry but wouldn't even think of touching the Left Behind novels--much less actually reading them--then you probably ought to read this!
For a totally contrarian view, my friend Doug Phillips, raises grave concerns at his Vision Forum site about the themes of sorcery in the Potter books. Be sure to read the whole essay carefully--Doug artfully uses sarcasm to make his point.
After you have read the to-and-fro and pillar-to-post discussions that Barrs and Phillips have launched, you may still find yourself wondering what a Christian ought to think about Harry and Hogwarts. If you've made it this far into the discussion then you may want to try to go further by tackling John Granger's book, Finding God in Harry Potter. I have found it to be the most thoroughly informed work--from both a theological and a literary perspective--on the subject thus far.
But, one thing is clear: this is not a simple debate--it is fraught with the complexities of language, definition, literary form, thematic purpose, and cultural differences (remember that Rowling is a European not an American, so the metaphysical terminology she uses may rankle the average Evangelical unfamiliar with the Medieval traditions and forms she borrows from the fairy tales, myths, and legends of continental Christendom). Thus, this not a debate that will be won or lost with simple sloganeering, however impassioned or emphatic.
I haven't finished the articles listed above, but plan to this week.
Kerry
Core Phase of Thomas Jefferson/Leadership Education
During the Core Phase period of Leadership Education, your children should gain a foundation for all future learning and service. "Curriculum", if you want to use that term, would include
Abstract lessons at this stage of a child's life will include what is success, what is maturity, how do I resolve conflict, what is home, what is my relationship with God, what is my relationship with others and so on. I'm sure you get the picture.
Structured academics at this age may cause your child to dislike academics because "everything is hard and boring". Or, you may use an unstructured time of academics that will encourage faith, good works and accountability in learning. Lessons at this phase should come from daily experiences in your home without the pressure of academic achievement.
As a parent, you should model an active spiritual and scholarly life as you nurture relationships within your own family. Your child will see this for the rest of the time they are living under your roof. When you model this and your child is young, he will see spiritual and scholarly life as a natural part of every one's life.
Reading aloud should be normal part of your family life. Sometimes this can be difficult because we are so busy in activities outside the home. Be sure to choose the "best". Don't settle for good at the expense of not spending time reading and discussing good books. When my oldest daughter was in 4th grade, I don't recall reading books together or reading the Bible as a family. We immediately withdrew her from the private school and began homeschooling her and her sister. Ever since we have had more time to read aloud as a family (& laugh/cry together through fantastic books).
Other ways to endeavor in traditional academics would be listening to and discussing good music, watching and discussing good media programs, playing at art, building lego/erector sets and other similar activities.
Remember you want to set an example of excellence and instill this in your child as he does his chores (makes his bed, puts away his dishes and other simple tasks around the home). You don't need to make an academic assignmetn to instill excellence. Be sure to encourage self-discipline and perseverance in his work at home. If he develops these qualities at a young age, they will be with him the rest of his life.
Basics of your faith in God should begin as soon as you talk to your kids. As you share your faith with your children, show them what is truth and how to arrive at truth. God's Word has the truth and all answers to life questions ultimately come from the Bible. Begin at an early age showing simple answers from the Bible.
taken from A Thomas Jefferson Education in our Home
If you have any other ideas about the Core Phase of A Thomas Jefferson Education, please post a comment.
Kerry
- right & wrong
- good & bad
- family values
- value & love of work
- true & false
- learning accountability in your actions, decisions
- relationships
- family routines
- family responsibilities
Abstract lessons at this stage of a child's life will include what is success, what is maturity, how do I resolve conflict, what is home, what is my relationship with God, what is my relationship with others and so on. I'm sure you get the picture.
Structured academics at this age may cause your child to dislike academics because "everything is hard and boring". Or, you may use an unstructured time of academics that will encourage faith, good works and accountability in learning. Lessons at this phase should come from daily experiences in your home without the pressure of academic achievement.
As a parent, you should model an active spiritual and scholarly life as you nurture relationships within your own family. Your child will see this for the rest of the time they are living under your roof. When you model this and your child is young, he will see spiritual and scholarly life as a natural part of every one's life.
Reading aloud should be normal part of your family life. Sometimes this can be difficult because we are so busy in activities outside the home. Be sure to choose the "best". Don't settle for good at the expense of not spending time reading and discussing good books. When my oldest daughter was in 4th grade, I don't recall reading books together or reading the Bible as a family. We immediately withdrew her from the private school and began homeschooling her and her sister. Ever since we have had more time to read aloud as a family (& laugh/cry together through fantastic books).
Other ways to endeavor in traditional academics would be listening to and discussing good music, watching and discussing good media programs, playing at art, building lego/erector sets and other similar activities.
Remember you want to set an example of excellence and instill this in your child as he does his chores (makes his bed, puts away his dishes and other simple tasks around the home). You don't need to make an academic assignmetn to instill excellence. Be sure to encourage self-discipline and perseverance in his work at home. If he develops these qualities at a young age, they will be with him the rest of his life.
Basics of your faith in God should begin as soon as you talk to your kids. As you share your faith with your children, show them what is truth and how to arrive at truth. God's Word has the truth and all answers to life questions ultimately come from the Bible. Begin at an early age showing simple answers from the Bible.
taken from A Thomas Jefferson Education in our Home
If you have any other ideas about the Core Phase of A Thomas Jefferson Education, please post a comment.
Kerry
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