Planning the next school year is always one of my most fun challenges. To extend the fun, I research everything as long as possible and stay up late at night reading other people’s reviews. I’ve even been known to look up reviews on curriculum products I own and have used. I can be pretty pathetic. So to say that I bought a BJUP Online Reading kit last year “on a whim” would be far, far from the truth. (It does have a price tag, you know, and the kid does have a library card and a Bible.)
But on the pro side, there was this. I had a child lagging behind in reading, and he really needed to cover a year and a half worth of reading in one year. He needed good solid reading instruction every day. He needed to learn lots of new vocabulary to improve his reading comprehension, and he needed to continue to LOVE reading. My husband, being an outstanding reading teacher, knew we could do this. I knew technically, we could, but we happened to have a lot else going on. Particularly, we were growing a little one. That typically means I fall asleep for nine months, and my husband sleeps hardly at all. So, I splurged. (I also got the online kit which lasts 18 months and the next kid down could use it too—that made me feel better.)
Samuel absolutely loved his reading class. I don’t think we have ever done anything so exciting as this textbook course with a screen teacher. In addition to a very good (and interesting) review of phonics, we got activities. Lots of curriculums have activities. That’s important because it helps kids think of school as fun and helps them remember stuff better. I see lots of activities in the manuals, but most of the time the kids don’t know they’re there. Samuel has made a bird feeder, a stringed guitar, several recipes (loved that polar bear ice cream), a dog puppet, a picture frame, a balloon rocket, a beaded bracelet among numerous other things. Many times he could do these activities on his own. We did most of the recipes together, and we really enjoyed it. Because I really wanted this child to strengthen his reading skills, I continued to work on a word list. When I’d be surprised he knew a word, he say, “Mom – that’s one of my practice words,” meaning he’d learned it from the BJUP course.
I must share a testimony about the beaded bracelet Samuel made. You know – one with the five different-colored beads that can be used to explain the plan of salvation. When Dad got home and Samuel showed him his bracelet, Dad asked him, “So where are you in that bracelet?” Samuel hung his head down and said, “Somewhere between the black and the red.” It led to a good discussion. What was neat about Samuel was that he really counted the cost. He knew that following Christ could lead to persecution and trials, and he really asked himself and articulated his concern about it. He decided he would follow Christ and trust him to help him endure persecution and trials he might face as a result. That night a younger sister who had listened to the whole conversation decided she wanted to be in the white part of that bracelet too J
Not very many days later, we held what was left of a beautiful baby girl. We found she shook our world even if she never took a breath in it, but God was faithful in working all together for good. We marveled that Faith and Samuel now had covenant relationship with Jesus. We took comfort in knowing they could take the hurt of losing a little sister to Him, even if they couldn’t bring it to us.
I took some time off as homeschool mom to just be a child of God. I let him kiss my owies and I clung to His every word. And, school continued. By now, Samuel and Faith were working through the reading class.
When I re-entered my own little “work-world” of being a homeschool mom, it was SOOOO nice that we weren’t behind with school. I didn’t have to panic. I could still have a little retreat when I needed reassurance that everything was indeed ok, and I didn’t have to stress about school to take that little retreat.
Precious was the day, when Samuel came and told me all about the story called When Singing Came Again. (This is similar to the Charlotte Mason method of narration, by the way, but I didn’t have to ask him to do it. He also didn’t look at me like I was crazy for asking him to retell a story I had just heard. LOL) Anyway, the story was about a family who, like us, had lost a baby. The little girl’s mother used to sing all the time, but after she lost the baby, she quit singing. What the girl missed the most was her mother’s singing. The mother sent the girl to the market, and the little girl heard a little boy singing a beautiful song. The little boy had a little sister he was taking care of because his mother was too sick. With no father, the family was very poor as well. The little girl came and told her mother of the baby, and the song, and the sick mother, and the poverty. The family helped this poor family, and of course, “singing came again.”
Literature is a powerful thing. I have known that it can be powerful for both good and evil, and have closely guarded my children from much literature that event hints at the side of evil. I sometimes forget that literature also has enormous power for good. Let me rephrase that. God has great power for good and often chooses to use literature to accomplish it. He has given us a whole Bible of stories. Jesus often used parables for teaching. I am so thankful that my child had exposure to literature this year that God used for not only for His good – but Samuel’s and mine.
Oh yeah, and we got our year and a half gain in reading skills in about 10 months! Praise God!
Since I am now a consultant promoting BJUP’s material, I think I need a little * that says, “Results not typical.” Honestly, this is my first year using BJUP distance learning, so I don’t know what “typical” generally looks like. This year’s reading class with Samuel, though, has been like a dream come true for a homeschool mom. It’s God though, who leads us to the right decisions when we pray and trust Him, and no particular curriculum or method deserves the glory.
So. . . enjoy the challenge of choosing curriculum this year. Trust God to lead you in just the right path in training up your children in the way they should go. Not the cheapest, or the fastest, or the prettiest, or the easiest, or the hardest, or the most popular – but the one that’s just right for your family to prepare godly offspring to serve Him. (Even if it’s just by telling Mom about his reading lesson.)
