Barnabas Way » barnabas way

Why Would You Torture Your Kids with Summer School?

Michael — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:03:27 +0000

Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh – but I’m sure your kids will relate. They think that they deserve a break after a long tough school year. But there are benefits for you and them if you pick up a few books over the summer.

There’s nothing like fighting the feeling that your brain has become soggy as you try to get started at the beginning of a new year. If fact if it weren’t for the treasure of a new box of 64 Crayola’s I don’t think I would’ve made it some years.

You can avoid this by just taking a little time each week – not even daily to review some of the lessons from the end of the year or reading an article or two on topics to keep things fresh in the mind. This will avoid such a shock to the mental system when the school year kicks off. Not to mention the fact that it will begin to build that all important habit and philosophy that learning is a lifelong and lifetime activity.

Don’t just review last year – move ahead!

There’s nothing that says you can’t take a sneak peek at some of the topics coming up for next year. In fact if you take a little bite out of the workload for the next grade, you might be able to go at an easier pace through the whole year. This can teach your kids that attacking an upcoming task early and often can really pay off in dividends and avoid the whole experience of cramming at the last hour to get things finished. This never worked so well for me in college and it has become a hard habit to break for projects at church and at work! Get a handle on it before it gets ingrained in their character.

Making it Count in the Real World

Of course you don’t have to limit yourself to learning about your studies over the break. A great thing to do over the summer is to focus on finding ways to make what they’ve learned count in the real world. They think math is pointless? Have them balance your check book for a week or two. They don’t think social studies is important? Talk to them about how the decisions their national leaders are making can affect them and how being informed can make a difference. Or take them to a concert or a museum and show them how people have taken their artistic talents and used them to impress and inspire others.

I guess to sum it up, don’t think of the summer as a break. In life there are no breaks, just a change of focus. That’s the beauty of homeschooling – you aren’t boxed in, spread your wings and find unique ways to challenge and teach your children.

What do you do with your kids over the summer? (Maybe we’ll ask you what they did over summer vacation when school starts… get a head start on that essay today!)

Barnabas Way is Getting Ready to Pre-Debut

Michael — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:26:44 +0000

Barnabas Way (the blog) has been chugging along since the beginning of the year and hopefully you’ve had an opportunity to get to know us a little bit. We are gearing up to create a community of families interested in banding together to improve their homeschool. In order for everything to be ready for the 2009 – 2010 school year, we need to get going pretty soon. That way we have all summer to work the kinks out.

We want to create a place where parents can get help with questions and encouragement. We want to provide an online opportunity for kids to meet other homeschool students in a controlled environment. We want allow isolated homeschools the connectivity available through the Internet. We want to enable technically challenged homeschools to gain the skills and confidence to be responsible and fully capable Internet citizens. We also want to build relationships and share our collective journey with one another.

We plan to make Barnabas Way all those things, and also to hear ideas and suggestion brought forward and see what we can do about that as well. Sound good? Well what can you do? Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. You can comment on a blog post. Just click the link at the bottom of the post that says “Comments” and fill in the message box with your thought, ideas, suggestions, reactions, or questions. A blog is a great way to interact with people through the comments. You can put your input up on the web attached to our blog post.

2. You can sign up for community updates by filling out the form at the top of the page with your name and e-mail address. We will then be able to get in touch with you and let you know when new blog posts come out or when something exciting is happening.

3. You can keep coming back to see what’s being talked about in the blog. We keep adding new information all the time. That’s the beauty of a blog, it’s always being updated by new articles, thoughts, and tidbits. So be sure to mark this site as a favorite and stay informed.

4. If you are real savvy and know what an RSS feed is all about, you could click on the RSS icon and subscribe to our feed. If you don’t know what that’s all about. You really need to do one of the other options, because it’s stuff like that and how they can be used by you and your homeschool that we’ll be all over here at Barnabas Way.

So consider loading up your U-haul and moving to our virtual neighborhood…

(Comments are just below here. Yes, right here.)

Having an impact on your child today is our big WHY.

Michael — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:00:30 +0000

The time to affect your child’s life is now. There are so many moments of discovery. There are so many times when the events of the moment move a child towards a greater understanding of their world or of themselves. As homeschoolers, we have the privilege of participating in many of these moments.

Our aspirations for our children may soar so high that they might just reach the realm of the unrealistic.

One of my favorite illustrations of taking action is the story of the child walking out on the beach early one morning after the tide had rolled out. He saw thousands of starfish flopping in the wet sand. He walked down to the waters edge and began tossing the one by one back into the surf in an effort to save them.

An old man observed the little one’s valiant but ultimately hopeless efforts. He approached and commented, “You’re never going to be able to make a difference, there are thousands – tens of thousands of starfish all along this beach.”

The young one turned around with a starfish in hand and replied, “I’ll make a difference for this one,” and tossed it back into the sea.

Homeschooling cannot protect our child from every hurt, we cannot fully equip them for every possibility or challenge that they will face along their road in life. But we have today. We can make an impact with this one. And being there makes the difference.

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.” — Stacia Tauscher