Answering the Critics

A friend of mine has a two-year-old daughter that she really wants to homeschool. Unfortunately, her family and friends are far less than supportive. She recently emailed me this question that I am (with her permission) posting here slightly edited for our readership to help answer.

What are some of your rebuttals to homeschool critics? When people say: "The children will not be socially acclimated." or "Can it be a little unhealthy for children to be around their parents so much?"

What are some other ones you've heard and please give me a tactful way to respond to these...

Here is the response I sent her:

For all of civilization, up until the late 1800s, children grew up at home with their families. Take for example the pioneers, who crossed the US in covered wagons. How much time did *they* spend with their parents every day? If you read the Little House on the Prairie series, you'll find out that Laura and her sisters were hardly ever in school until they were much older. They spent all day at home with their family. It was, in fact, a rare thing before the 1800s for a child to spend long periods of time away from their families.

That ought to cover the second question. Unless they think that all of humanity had unhealthy childhoods for thousands of years....

For the first question, I might then ask if they think that these famous people who were home educated were not "socially acclimated": Laura Ingalls Wilder, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington Carver, Thomas Edison, etc. Just google for "famous homeschoolers for a MUCH longer list - public schooling is so very new that most of the famous people of history were home educated.

If they reply that yes, that was fine *then*, but public school is necessary to be "socially acclimated" now, then I would ask which parts of school are important. Then answer the specific areas that they are concerned about. For example:

Spending time with other children? They can do that at church or at homeschool group activities or at scouts or any other activities they're involved in.

Prom? There are homeschool proms.

The experience of being bullied (yes, I know people who think it's important to go to public school so that you know what it's like to be bullied)? 1) Not every child is bullied in school. 2) That's what family is for. Sibling rivalry, anyone?? 3) Are the bullies missing out in public school because *they* are never bullied?

Etc. I would also mention famous modern homeschoolers, such as the Jonas Brothers, Joshua Harris (author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye), and Tim Tebow (UF football player). Also, Will Smith and John Travolta homeschool their children.

Then I would be sure to tell them that scientists have studied the social health and success of homeschooled adults and compared them to public schooled adults. In most areas there is NO difference, and in the areas where there is a difference the homeschooled adults always scored higher.

But the truth is that I haven't really had to deal with critics much, and so I was hoping our readers could help me out. What response would you have given my friend? And what other questions do the critics ask that she should be prepared to answer?

Bird watching, Finale

After 3 months of bird watching, I can now identify

*Robins (by sight and by song)
*Cardinals (by sight and by certain calls)
*Brown-headed Cowbirds (by sight and by calls)
*Purple Martins
*Goldfinches
*Carolina Chickadees
*Summer Tanagers
*Tufted Titmice
*Female Mallards
*Brown Thrashers
*Sparrows (although please don't ask me to distinguish between the various types of sparrow!)

These are all new to me, either because I've never knowingly seen one before, or because I didn't know its call. I am very proud of myself for reaching my goal of 10 birds this spring. This was a lot harder than I originally thought it would be! Now I move on to summer, when I will be learning to identify wildflowers. And, hey, at least the wildflowers will stay still while I bring the field guide over to them!

Korean Grandparents

Some of you might be familiar with the stereotypical Asian parent who is obsessed with grades and school. Long-time readers might remember that in JunkMale's house growing up, B stood for Bad. In other words, the stereotype holds true with JM's family. And apparently it extends to grandchildren.

Pearl is 11 months old. Last night JunkMale's dad asked us if we'd started homeschooling yet.

How to answer that question? I told him that we do a lot of "educational" things in our day, like reading books, singing songs, teaching her the words for various objects, going to library story time (although there are no story times over the summer), etc.

And then he wanted to know when we would start "formal" schooling. I replied with the very diplomatic, "Whenever she is ready to learn to read." That's a pretty accurate picture of what I want to do. I lean very Charlotte Mason, but I know a lot of CM homeschoolers won't start any schooling (even teaching them to read) until the child is 6. That's more than I can stomach. I think that a child should be encouraged to learn anything they want to learn. I certainly don't intend to initiate any school before she is 5 (I have a very light Year 0/Kindergarten planned, which is only a tad bit more ambitious than Ambleside's), but if she wants to learn I'm not going to stifle that.

Plus, I have Korean in-laws. That might mean we need to have "school" time every day starting well before Kindergarten, in order to keep family peace. ;-) But you know what? That's ok with me. School might consist of identifying birds and wildflowers on our after dinner family walk (science! a Korean parent's favorite subject!), a daily read-aloud, and a Bible story. It might include singing folk songs and counting the number of peas in a pod we're shelling. It might include a trip to the Korean store where we can practice speaking Korean. If I have to call these things "school", I'm fine with that. It's not like I wouldn't be doing them otherwise!

Birdwatching Update, April 30

I have seen:

*Robins
*Cardinals
*Blue Jays
*Brown-headed Cowbirds
*Purple Martins
*Goldfinches
*Carolina Chickadees
*Summer Tanagers
*Doves
*Mockingbirds
*Tufted Titmice
*Crows
*A mama Mallard

One more month to go! I'm only two away from my goal of learning to identify by sight ten new birds this spring!

I Think I Spoke Too Soon

Remember this post?

We had a very good walk today. We saw a goldfinch, what we believe was a red-bellied woodpecker (at least, that's the best guess we've been able to make), and what I think was a purple martin (it was glossy black and had a forked tail when it flew off). All in one walk.

There may yet be hope for me. :-D

Bird watching, April update

Bird watching is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I hear birds everywhere (and I even see some occasionally), but I have yet to be able to identify a bird that I didn't already have a pretty good idea of what they looked like.

In the entire month of March, I saw:

*1 bluejay
*A mockingbird or two
*A few doves
*Several cardinals
*Robins galore
*Dozens and dozens of birds flying past me, perched in a tree just past my view, silhouetted against the sun, and chirping somewhere near where I couldn't see them

Despite the fact that bluejays, mockingbirds, and doves were all birds I didn't star on the original post, I had a pretty good idea of how to identify them. It only took a look at a bird book to confirm what I already believed was true. So I don't really consider finding those birds to be a grand accomplishment.

We're going to try a bird feeder, but I am starting to worry that I will not make my goal of learning ten new bird species by the end of May. :-(

Twaddle

Children's books are a dime a dozen, and you could spend all your time attempting to read as many as possible to your child. But that doesn't mean that they're all worth reading. Let's face it, some books are what Charlotte Mason calls twaddle: books that talk down to children, books that do not spark the imagination, books that are junk food rather than a nourishing meal.

But it's not as easy to agree on what is good children's literature as you might think. My sister, for example, is very picky about what books my niece reads. She's even started a website to help highlight the best in children's literature (and guess who's going to be a contributor to that blog every now and then??). But despite the fact that she is in general more picky than I am when it comes to books, there are books she loves that I would consider twaddle.

Dr. Seuss is an excellent example. I'll go ahead and say it: I think most Dr. Seuss books are twaddle. I think the illustrations are awkward, the prose is too dumbed down, and there are far too many made-up words. The only one I've decided I want in my house is Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? The others are perhaps okay for reading while waiting in the doctor's office or at the library, but honestly most of the time I'd rather not. You can all label me a bad mom now. ;-)

I'd much rather read Sandra Boynton's books, which have better rhymes and better illustrations. But I get the impression that my sister considers But Not the Hippopotamus twaddle.

We also disagree on Eric Carle books (although she told me she hasn't read a whole lot of them). I find his illustrations to be largely garish and his prose to be completely lacking. I enjoy Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (which was only illustrated by Eric Carle) because of the delightful rhythm and despite the illustrations. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a decent book, but pretty much every other Carle book I've read has fallen well short of expectations.

And on it goes. So what do we make of this? "Twaddle" is not a strictly defined list of books. Neither, for that matter, can we have a set list of excellent and worthy books. We each have personal preferences, and that is okay. Pearl will not be forever stunted in her education for reading Horns to Toes and in between, just as my niece Savannah will not be stunted for reading Green Eggs and Ham. The important point is that my sister and I are both setting the bar high for our children. We have standards, and while those standards might vary, the end result will be that Pearl and Savannah will both be exposed to excellent literature... with perhaps a few sentimental favorites thrown in for good measure. :-)

So if you're feeling ashamed that your favorite book was labeled twaddle by some list online, or feel embarrassed because you think some highly lauded book is little better than a paperweight, stop being so hard on yourself. Continue to be discerning when choosing books for your children, but stop thinking that someone else's standard should be your own.

Bird watching

I am woefully ignorant of birds, especially those native to our area. I think the last time I "studied" native birds (not ostrich and peacocks and the like) I was four years old. I know about toucans, albatrosses, and emus, but I know almost nothing about wrens, swallows, finches, and sparrows. I would like to rectify this before Pearl is ready to start school, so this spring I am going to learn to identify by sight at least ten birds that are native to our area. I'm not entirely sure how lucky I will be at finding the birds (I've never bird-watched before!), so I put together a rather long list to help me get started. The * indicates birds that I'm pretty sure I can already identify, so I will try to concentrate on the others. All of these birds are year-round residents of our area, based on my research, so we ought to be able to spot 1/3 of them over the course of 13 weeks. I hope.

• American Crow*
• American Goldfinch
• American Robin*
  
• Belted Kingfisher
• Blue Jay
• Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Brown-headed Nuthatch
• Carolina Chickadee
• Carolina Wren
• Chipping Sparrow
• Common Grackle
• Downy Woodpecker
• Eastern Towhee
• Gray Catbird
• House Finch
• House Sparrow
• Killdeer
• Mallard*
• Mourning Dove
• Northern Cardinal*
• Northern Flicker
• Northern Mockingbird
• Pigeon
• Red-headed Woodpecker
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Ruby Throated Hummingbird
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Song Sparrow
• Tufted Titmouse
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• Wood Duck

These are only the year-round residents. I expect we'll come across more than a few birds passing through on their spring migration, too.

I'm hoping to borrow my parents' field guide to birds to help with identification. The next step, should I blow through my list at lightning speed, will be learning to identify them by their calls. Yay for learning!

Institutional Schooling

I often read about homeschoolers' viewpoints on education and this-and-that, and I often read about the comparison of homeschooling versus public schooling.

But there is another faction that they often leave out, namely private schools.

Or perhaps they are actually lumping private schools together with public schools. Some might object to that, and rightly so; private schools (on average) probably achieve better academic results.

I attended a private school from the middle of 6th grade through 9th grade, after which I attended an IB program at a public high school. I really can't speak much on how I "would've" turned out if I'd continued at the local public schools, because I can't observe my parallel universe self who attended those schools, nor can I rewind time and convince my parents to keep me in the then-status quo. But what I can tell you is that in terms of character building (or shaping of self or whatever), it's my opinion that a private school is not much better than a public school.

Sure we attended chapel every morning (you had no choice). Sure the teachers were a bit more free to make the occasional mention of God. Sure we had a religion class every Friday (you had no choice). (memories of my religion classes go something like this: watching an old Lion/Witch/Wardrobe production and laughing at the stupid looking costumes, watching Ben-Hur, and the Episcopal priest telling us that sarcasm is a form of anger, to which I thought "I might be a very angry person.") But the fact is that aside from those things, uniforms, and school size, private schools still do strongly resemble their public counterparts. You still get grades and your scholastic development is completely tied to that fateful range of letters. It's also age-segregated, and there is no requirement of any sort of piety from students or their parents.

This is why when I discuss education with Harmony, I will often discuss in terms of two groups: homeschooling, and institutional schooling, because I have grouped private and public schools together. I do that because, while private schools get better results than public schools, my observation is that private schooled children are still largely being educated by someone else and are spending the majority of time around someone other than family members.

Perhaps I've ruffled someone's fur in this matter. My point wasn't that privately schooled children can't turn out to be wonderful people (just like publicly schooled children can turn out to be wonderful people, for instance my wife); goodness no, if Pearl were to be struck motherless or otherwise unable to be homeschooled some day, I'd do everything I could to get her into a private school. Rather, the point was that it's not really valid for people to trash public schooling while thinking of private schools as proverbial cities on a hill.

What do you think? Are any of you former private schoolers? Do you agree or disagree with what I've said? Am I completely missing some secret point about private schooling? Do you notice a difference between public or private schooled children?

No to Govt Healthcare, but what about Govt Schools?

Voddie Baucham has a very good point: how many of the people that are fervently against government-run healthcare are equally against government-run schools?

(I'm not a Baptist, but I do agree with Voddie Baucham on many many issues)

For those who don't feel like clicking, here is an excerpt:

One of the mantras we hear repeatedly these days is, “we don’t want socialism.” While that sounds good (and conservative, and constitutional, and patriotic, etc.), it rings hollow when you consider the overwhelming majority of the people leading the charge have their children in what amounts to socialized education. What’s the difference? If you’re really against government-run, socialized programs, yank your kid off the yellow prison bus and just say no.

Why exactly is it fine and dandy to protest socialized healthcare, but then turn around and just accept socialized education? While families can reject socialized education by private (still institutionalized age-segregated largely one-size-fits-all, albeit not government-run) and homeschooling, I somehow doubt that there would be a homeschooling equivalent for medicine. (if I'm wrong, let me know) Or maybe more Christians will join Samaritan Ministries and opt for private care, assuming that there will be private care clinics here and there.

If anything, it seems like they should be protesting government schools MORE, because children go to school as a norm. People, by and large, do not go to the doctor as a norm, but only when something's wrong.

Anyways, Baucham lists more mantras stated by people opposed to government healthcare, but then examines those statements in light of government education. Statements like "I support the 10th Amendment!" "I have a right to pick my own doctor!" and "Not with my tax dollars!"

Great Baby Books

Pearl is just over 2 months old, and so I figured it was about time to start reading baby books to her. I have been reading aloud to her from both my books and the Bible since birth, but while I think it's important to read more mature books to her so that she can get the feel for language (and so I don't go crazy by not being able to read all day), I also would like to read books to her that she can enjoy right now.

Currently I have introduced 2 board books to her. One is a book on colors. She is ambivalent about it. Some pages seem to engage her, others seem to bore her out of her mind. The second book, Peek-a Who?, is receiving rave reviews. She stares transfixed at the pages, and never fusses while I'm reading it.

Other books that we own but have not yet read to her include Big Red Barn, Goodnight Moon, and several Boynton books. I am not entirely convinced that she would appreciate these yet, but if you have first-hand experience that proves me wrong, I would love to know about it!

I'm planning a library run sometime this week, and I need more book suggestions. What books did your children enjoy at this age?

I must be an amazing tutor

My most recent O-Chem student got an A in her second semester of Organic. She also got an A in first semester, as my student. Somehow, she managed to do what I did not. I got B's in both semesters of Organic Chemistry. ;-) Now if only I could go back and redo those two semesters, I would so get straight A's!

What Grades Really Meant to My Parents

Anyone with Korean parents will probably tell you the same. But any flavor of hard-chargin' parents will probably have the same definitions for grades. Here's a table with the grade, the meaning of the grade in the education system, and the Korean meaning of the grade. The first letter of the Korean description matches the letter grade, in case you don't notice.

Grade	System meaning	Korean meaning
A	Excellent	Acceptable
B	Above Average	BAD
C	Average	Cut off your head
D	Poor	DEATH
F	Failing	Find another place to live

Where I went to school, the grades seemed to be shifted a bit. B was an average grade, C was slightly below average, D stood for dumb, and F meant..well...F.

I am lucky to have never tested what would happen if I brought home a D or an F. One time in 4th grade, I got a C in math. My parents made me think that the fate of the universe might hang on that C. Nope, none of this "do your best and that's okay" nonsense here ;) More like "do your best or face the fires of Hades."

The only time that my parents were ho-hum about a C was when I switched schools in February in 6th grade. February is not exactly the beginning of the year, and one of the 6th grade subjects at my new school was Latin. So everyone else had about a 6 month head start, and I somehow ended up getting a C.

Sunday School Memoirs: Elements of Charlotte Mason

I also found myself (sort of) incorporating two aspects of Charlotte Mason education: short lessons and narration. Neither of those were conscious decisions on my part. My reasons for doing both were somewhat intertwined.

I probably started last year's quarter doing long lessons. Although I can't remember exactly what I did, I would imagine that lessons got shorter as the Sundays went by. What would typically happen is this: we'd do a long lesson (i.e. directly from the curriculum) and some sort of craft, but due to distractions, attention span, or comprehensive ability, the students would not be able to tell me the whole story behind the craft. That did not sit well with me. When I teach Sunday school, I am not doing it to entertain the kids while their parents are in their own class; my students are there to learn Bible stuff and be able to explain what they learned.

So I began to shorten my lessons. This was easier to do once I finally threw off the chains of curriculum and started making up my own lessons (again, regrettably late this quarter). Towards the end of this quarter, I don't think the actual lessons lasted more than 20 minutes, including distractions. For example, I did a number of lessons on various characteristics of Jesus. My focus was to drill in the one important point and ensure that they knew what Jesus did and how that differentiates Him from us. I also found that when I asked each child about the craft/drawing/whatever, he could explain fairly well what he'd learned about that day.

Student age is probably also a factor. As I've mentioned before, many of my students this year were also in my class last year, due to how we group by age. Longer attention spans + increased comprehensive ability.

If you did long lessons in Sunday school and your students were able to properly recite back what they learned, what were your strategies? Obviously this question only applies for younger ages, since their attention spans are generally shorter.

What My Parents Did Right

In my family, we had a rule that the only TV that was allowed was 'educational'. So we watched lots of nature documentaries, history shows, and (my personal favorite as a young child - which perhaps explains my affinity for geography) Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? PBS was the majority of our TV watching back in those days. I'm also pretty sure we had a limit to how much we could watch, especially in the summer, and we had to finish our homework before we were allowed to watch anything.

Those rules sort of fell by the wayside by the time I was in high school, but by that time I preferred those sorts of shows, for the most part. I think I picked up one or two junk shows, and all the rest of my TV watching continued to be semi-educational.

The same applied to computer games. I don't think my sister or I ever owned a computer game that didn't teach math or geography, or some other skill, until perhaps high school. I still remember my sister and I sitting at the computer playing Outnumbered together. I did all the quick mental math, because I was older, and she helped with the word problems. I also played Carmen San Diego and Mickey's Space Adventure (I can still tell you random facts about the planets thanks to this game).

We spent a lot of time in imaginative play, because our mom wouldn't spend the money on all the toys my friends had. Mom would give us book reports to complete over the summer months, and she took us to science museums and historical sites. It wasn't uncommon to play Bible memory games when we were on long trips, or to be given challenging math problems to solve over dinner. We practically lived at the library.

I used to resent all these things when I was little, because I never was up on the shows or games that all my friends watched, and we never got to anywhere or do anything 'fun'. Now, however, I think my parents probably did the right thing. My sister and I are thinkers - perhaps not deep thinkers, but more so than many kids our age. We have an appreciation for science and history that many of my friends never got.

My parents weren't perfect, but they did a lot of things right. This is just one example, but it's a good one. Thanks Mom and Dad. :-)

Sunday School Memoirs: What I Didn't Do

There are a couple of things that, for whatever reason, I never did this year in my Sunday school class. They are singing and memorization.

Last year, I did both of these. I don't remember how much or how often...only that we did them one more than one occasion. Every now and then, I would come to class with a craft prepared for the children to do, and I'd get so engrossed in having them work on that that I would totally forget to sing and do a memory verse. I believe as time went by last year, I forgot to do those two things more often, and by the end, it didn't even cross my mind.

I don't know why it worked out this way for my class. There's absolutely nothing wrong with singing or memorizing verses in Sunday school (unless you are one who's opposed to the whole concept of Sunday school). In fact, I would say it's important to do so at some point. I suppose I found myself wanting to emphasize strongly the learning of the lesson.

In retrospect, praying and singing probably would've helped spend some time waiting for the later-comers. What usually happens is that the kids stream in and I have a period of free time until I decide it's time to start. At that point, we start in on the lesson, which means starting on the craft, as I try to have the two integrated. Usually someone (who I thought wouldn't be there) will come in later, while the others are halfway done with their activities. This usually results in me either doing the craft for him/her (it's usually a specific her).

Now, if I were the only source of Christian education for the children in my class, I would probably place more emphasis on things like singing and memorization. But the majority of my students come from families with good parents and where everyone comes to church. There's only one boy in my class who comes from a less-than-ideal situation (I don't even know what it is, only that it's usually his grandmother bringing him and his siblings to church). Now that I think of it, during my next tour of duty, I should probably modify my approach depending on the least-ideal family situation in the class.

Sunday School Memoirs: Mr. JunkMale the Friend

I ran into some very minor behavior issues during this year's quarter. You see, a number of the 4 and 5 year olds in our congregation view Mr. JunkMale as Mr. JunkMale The Plaything. This sets the stage for slight difficulties when it comes time for Mr. JunkMale to become Mr. JunkMale The Taskmaster.

Last year, I didn't have many issues at all. Harmony and I were much newer to the congregation, and I hadn't had too much interaction with the children that age up until my tour of duty as a Sunday school teacher. So when the students came in and sat down, they sat down in front of some relatively unknown Asian fellow.

However, this year, there were two factors that made a difference: obviously the passage of one year, but the main one was that many of my students from last year were still in my class this year. The Sunday school group above mine had too many students, and so Harmony and some other women restructured the pre-k/kindergarten age group. This resulted in the aforementioned repeat students.

Last year allowed the students to get to know Mr. JunkMale. The whole three quarters in between last year and this one allowed them to constantly pull at my arms after service, beckoning me to come play with them. I always obliged, of course.

For a class or two, I had some disorderly students who made it a bit difficult for me to teach the lesson. One of them was actually a three year old who would sit in on my class when her teacher wasn't there, so that's a bit excusable, I guess. All that was required on my part was to notify her parents of her behavior and request that they have a talk discussing Mr. JunkMale The Taskmaster vs. Mr. JunkMale The Plaything.

Sunday School Memoirs: Play-Doh

Thus continues my series of Sunday school memoirs. Today I talk about Play-Doh.

Never Use Play-Doh During the Lesson
In our particular classroom, there exist a number of jars of Play-Doh. I have found that Play-Doh can be good or bad. Good if you use it as a reward for Sunday school pupils who behave fairly well. Bad if you're a bad teacher and could not think of a craft and decide to have the students use it to mold into the subject matter at hand as you discuss it. I don't remember which lesson I tried to what I just described, so I'll use the feeding-of-5000 as a hypothetical example.

Have the kids take out the Play-Doh and teach them about Jesus multiplying the fish and loaves. Start out with the kids making two fish and five little loaves of bread. Then have them break those up and make a lot more. On paper, this might seem like a good illustration. In practice, the Play-Doh exerts a powerful distractive effect on young minds. The Play-Doh beckons to the child: "Mash, me, smash me, rip me into multiple pieces! Roll pieces of me into a ball! Make pancakes out of me! But most important of all, pay attention to me and not Mr. JunkMale!" So. I have learned that Play-Doh during the lesson is a bad idea for 4 and 5 year olds.

Let's go off on a non-Play-Doh related tangent and talk about craft ideas for the feeding of 5000 (or 4000). I really wish I'd thought to bake a loaf of bread and bring it in. Seems like it would've made the lesson a bit more "real" to them. Another thing which I only realized after-the-fact was that I should've brought in goldfish crackers for the fish! It would've been very easy to say that we only had two goldfish to feed the entire class, but then give each of them plenty of goldfish to go around (and have many extra left over at the end). If anyone is ever in search of a good Sunday school illustration, there you go.

Bribes
Yeah, I'm a bad teacher. I attempted sugary bribes one Sunday. One of the moms (the homeschooling one...actually there are two now, but she's the "original" one) graciously gave me some Trader Joe's lollipops. (We'd discussed proper bribing materials the previous Sunday...she doesn't just give me lollipops out of the blue.) Personally, I didn't notice much of a difference in the class's behavior, but maybe it's just because I did it once, or maybe it's because I'm a man and I don't see behavioral patterns as well as a woman can. The problem with being health-conscious and bribing your kids with sugary treats is that I can't just stop at Publix on the way to church (what with aspartame, saccharin, and food coloring). No, I'd have to drive 30 minutes to Trader Joe's, and that's if I even remember to go beforehand.

So I just resorted to non-food bribes such as Play-Doh time and stickers, the latter of which the girls are typically much more interested. Almost without fail, my students were good enough to always get their bribe.

Do you have any experience with Sunday school bribes or Play-Doh? I'd like to hear.

Sunday School Memoirs: Crafts and Handiwork

For the past two years, I have been assigned to teach the the 4 and 5 year old Sunday school class in the fall quarter. In an attempt to alleviate the blogging drought we've been having, I thought I would share various things that I've seen and learned in my two quarters. We belong to a small congregation, so I typically had about 4 students each week. The most I had this year was 6. Surprisingly, that day was fairly easy to manage.

(after writing a bit, it seems as though all I had to share about Sunday school teaching would be a bit much for one post. Thus some relief for the Great Blog Drought of 2008 in the form of multiple Sunday school blog posts)

On Relevance

When I first took on the assignment, our preacher said that I didn't necessarily have to follow the curriculum materials. I wish I took that to heart much earlier. Many of the crafts suggested in the materials have little-to-no relevance to the day's topic. For example, last year's overall subject was stories from Genesis, but one week the curriculum had us making paper mats and leaf cut-outs. When a parent asked his son what he learned about in class, the son replied "Mats and leaves!" I cringe when I think that I actually followed the instructions for that day. That boy's response left a mark on me; I'm supposed to be teaching them about Bible subjects but these irrelevant crafts distract them from the stories. From then on I decided not to do dumb activities that have nothing to do with the Bible story.

This quarter's main topic was Jesus. Jesus is, as you know, a tantamountly important topic, and I wanted to ensure that the kids firmly understood whatever lessons they were present for. Halfway through this quarter, I decided entirely to just not even consult the curriculum anymore and focus on what I thought were important attributes of Jesus. I regret that I didn't chuck the curriculum sooner, because it didn't even mention things like walking on water or calming the storm. By the time I decided to do my own thing, the quarter was almost over. The last day was this past Sunday. Anyways.

I often have trouble thinking of good crafts for the kids to do. More than I would like, I've fallen back on the good old "find simple pictures off the internet and have the kids cut and paste." Most of the younger ones in my class had a bit of trouble with cutting. If it's a more complicated picture, then it turns into have Mr. JunkMale doing the cutting. Otherwise the parents will wonder "Was he teaching them microbiology? What on earth does a jagged misshapen scribbly amoeba have to do with Jesus walking on water?"

A Good Standby: Before and After Pictures

Something I thought of about a month or two ago was Before/After pictures. I found that a good way for the kids to illustrate plainly to themselves what exactly happened in the Bible story. For example, the first time I used this was for the lesson on Jesus calming the storm and waves on the lake. This was pretty easy...on one side of the paper, draw rain and scared people in a boat. On the other side, draw a nice sunny sky with fluffy clouds and calm water. I brought in a mixing bowl and put water and bits of paper (so they could better see the turbulence) to illustrate that while they themselves could not even calm a bowl of water, Jesus could.

(I also got nigh-endless inquiries such as "Mr. JunkMale, why are there pieces of paper in the water? Mr. JunkMale, what's that stuff in the water??")

So before/after pictures became my default activity. I only reverted to it once thereafter (like I said, the quarter was almost over), and it was for Lazarus' resurrection. The pictures consisted of dead person and sad people on one side, happy people and one more live person on the other.

What are some (relevant!) good Sunday school craft or handiwork ideas that you have had?

(check in within a couple of days to here about the next topic: Play-Doh)

Self-Ed Three Month Progress Report

Can you believe we've been doing this for 3 months? Yeah, I thought you could. :-) Here's a quick list of all the book we've read thus far:

Animal Farm
Starship Troopers
Little Women
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
War of the Worlds
Winnie-the-Pooh
The House at Pooh Corner
Charlotte's Web
Pinocchio
The Hobbit
A Little Princess
Frankenstein
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne's House of Dreams
Joy Luck Club
Robinson Crusoe
Understood Betsy
Brave New World
Bambi
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
1984
The Velveteen Rabbit
Call of the Wild
The Story of Dr Dolittle
Treasure Island
Romeo and Juliet
I, Robot
Autobiography of Ben Franklin (in progress)
Sense and Sensibility (almost completed...)

Not a bad list, although certainly not complete. Recently, I've been spending more time reviewing Organic Chemistry than I have reading, and we have been spending weekends either out of town or doing the foster parent training. So neither of us has had the time we wanted to do extensive reading. But we're still muddling through. We're about 1/3 of the way through our book list, which puts us one month ahead of my goal of completing the list in a year.