Kate and Charity
Can you believe it? There were bubbles along the trail on this nature hike... ;0)
Corey and I really wrestled with what to do school-wise this year. Due to where Kendra's birthday falls, she's two years out from Kindergarten. I'm thankful for that, because I feel like we've got this time to sort of "try on" homeschooling without losing any ground if it's not a good fit for us.
Probably the biggest element that influenced our decision to go this route for now is that we're loving the opportunity to focus on teaching Godly principles and letting the more "academic" stuff fall to the periphery. Throughout the last year, as I have spent time with the Lord reading my Bible, I have been struck with how much of His Word speaks to His interest in our hearts, and how little It talks of His interest in us being smart in worldly knowledge. Not that it's not good and right to challenge our kids academically and help them to reach their full potential--of course it is! But I've just been challenged to acknowledge how much I idolize education in the traditional sense of the word, whereas God's Word clearly shows that we need to put more energy into Godly wisdom--how to interact with God and each other, as opposed to worldly knowledge. Regardless of whether our kids end up in a traditional school setting or being home schooled long-term, I'm thankful that God has revealed to me my propensity for elevating academics that don't include Him to an unhealthy level. I am competitive by nature, and sometimes value academic education beyond its worth. The thought of, "Aaagh! What if Kendra's meant to be the scientist that cures cancer, and I don't have her doing 5 science projects a day!!??!" can send me right into a panic attack. ;0) ...so the Lord is definitely working on me to have a paradigm shift in prioritizing what He values.
...so speaking of focusing on Godly principles and what He values: One of my favorite things is memorizing scripture with the kids, and I thought I'd share a bit on what we're doing in that department, since I've had several Moms ask me how we go about it in our home.
First, some disclaimers:
1) Hardly any of my ideas are original! I love to ask parents I admire for ideas and input, and most of what we do is a conglomeration of things we've heard/read from others.
2) It's not at all like I'm some scripture memorization queen. In fact, it's quite the opposite. For most of my life, I've struggled with maintaining a consistent devotion time; scripture memorization included! But not wanting to pass on my legacy of lameness has been a real motivator for me. Plus, God has been generous and faithful in rewarding any small measure of discipline in this area. Seeing the fruit pour out of Kendra as she has more and more of God's Word stored in her heart has thrilled me and encouraged me and inspired me more than I can express! I'm so, so humbled by God's graciousness to allow me the blessing of seeing scripture transforming Kendra. At the same time, I'm ashamed. Because both of us could, and should, know soooo much more. But I try to just see it as motivation to do better, and memorize more, going forward!
How we pick which scriptures to memorize: 1) We try to incorporate scriptures that encapsulate the basics of the Christian faith (Romans 3:23, Acts 16:31, John 3:16, etc.), 2) scriptures that are easy (1 John 4:8, Philippians 4:13, etc.)-- it's encouraging to get a few memorized fast and can make the whole idea of memorization much more palatable, 3) scriptures that help with "how to conduct ourselves" kind of stuff (Galatians 5:16-26, Mark 12:30 & 31, Philippians 2:14, Ephesians 6:1, etc.)-- we've got enough of these memorized that almost every situation calling for praise or correction can be discussed with scripture interwoven in the conversation, which has absolutely revolutionized our parenting... when we remember to use it, anyway ;0) , and also 4) scriptures that come from different places in the Bible--just to help with overall Bible familiarity. (Oh-- another cool thing I've seen is an "ABC" card ring, where there's a scripture verse starting with each letter of the alphabet. Hmmm... Maybe I'll find scriptures starting with the letters in my kids' names! That could be cool!)
How we get 'em memorized: The kids and I review every verse we know during our morning devotion time after breakfast, and work on whichever new one we've got going. I just call out a reference, and Kendra recites the verse or verses while Micah and I listen. I prompt her as needed. At some random point, I always say, "Your turn, Micah!" and he lights up like nobody's business. I say, "God," and he says, "ah." I say, "is," and he says, "ih." I say, "love," and he says, "uh." I say, "First John," and he says, "ah." I say, "four," and he says, "or." I say, "eight," and he says, "eight!" Then Kendra and I cheer like he's just won a marathon. I don't think you can start too young with scripture memorization. It's like everything else... they're internalizing waaay more than we know! We also review scriptures throughout the day when incorporating them into praise and correction, and we sometimes practice just to get in some extra practice when we're driving in the car.
A final thought on knowing the address: I've talked about a lot of this before, but let me add a thought I had this week about the importance of memorizing not just the verse(s), but also the reference(s). If I heard John McCain say, "Somebody wrote in a book somewhere that Barack Obama likes green eggs," I'd think, "Okay. Maybe." But if John McCain said, "Barack Obama wrote in his memoir on page 54, paragraph 2, that he likes green eggs," I would pretty much accept it as absolute fact. So it made me think that, in addition to all the other reasons knowing the address is important, the power that comes with being able to quote your source with all specificity is a biggie, too. If someone tells me, "The Bible says it's never okay to complain for any reason," I might think, "Maybe." But if someone tells me, "Philippians 2:14 says, 'Do everything without complaining or arguing,'" I'm going to have confidence in their word! And in the same way, if I say to Kendra, "the Bible says to treat people nicely," it just doesn't pack as much of a punch as if I say, "Galatians 5:22 says, 'the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness...'" I notice that I slow down and make sure I've got my words straight if I'm going to share a verse with someone and quote the reference, because there's accountability in stating the address--they can, and should if they need to, go and double check me! But I'm a lot more "loosie goosie" if I'm doing one of those shares where I just say, "I can't remember exactly where, but you know, the Bible says..." In those situations, I'm a lot less worried about getting it right. And that's so wrong, you know? ;0)
