Baptism

My firstborn, Rebekah, was baptized today! She became a Christian last year, when she asked Jesus to forgive her sins, and to come into her heart, promising to follow Him. She went forward at the end of the service at our church, to tell the pastor and the congregation. However, being only 5, she was a little too nervous to declare her belief very loudly, and while she became a member of the church that day, we decided to wait on baptism for a while. We, and the pastor, talked with her quite a bit, and were convinced that she understood enough to have made her decision. But we told her she could wait until whenever she felt comfortable enough to be baptized. (She is also afraid of being under water, so we figured it would go more smoothly when she was older.)

She had talked and talked about waiting until she turned 7 (which isn't until July), but last month, after another person was baptized, Rebekah told us that she was ready. My in-laws were planning a visit in a few weeks, so we decided that weekend would be a perfect time for it. We met with the pastor, visited the baptismal, practiced at home, and so this morning, Rebekah was baptized. She was nervous, but was very brave, and was so excited afterwards that she couldn't stop talking and hugging everyone she met!

It has been a nervous week this past week, though. My dad had to make a trip to the emergency room last Monday night, and was admitted to the hospital for 2 days. They think he had a TIA (or "mini-stroke"), but he recovered very quickly, and was able to come to our church today for the baptism. They changed my dad's medication again, so hopefully he won't have any more episodes like this one.

My in-laws will be here this whole week, and they will be keeping my 2 little ones under control while I give Rebekah her first standardized test - the IOWA 1st grade level test. Homeschoolers are not required to give standardized tests here in Texas, but I wanted to anyway, for my own knowledge. We'll see how she's doing, after almost 2 years of school, 1.5 of those being homeschooled. I have a feeling she's going to do great!

Online Preschool Games

We've been trying out some online fun stuff lately, mostly for my younger two, though my 6-year-old has been enjoying them just as much. First, I went ahead and subscribed for the year to More Starfall, which is an extension of the free Starfall website. For $35/year, you get a lot more math, and some additional phonics and books and nursery rhymes and other neat things, for up to 3 simultaneous users.

The kids have loved it! My 4-year-old was doing all the addition games, and she absolutely loved the geometry - shapes and symmetry and puzzles. I have discovered that she really has a good eye for geometrical design.  And my 3-year-old has been equally fascinated by the site (he has just recently - finally - made the connection that the mouse controls the cursor on the screen, so he is so eager to try out everything he can on the computer now). In fact, the other day he started running around the house counting to 6 over and over again at the top of his lungs! This is my boy who, though I suspect he has known many of his letters and numbers for a year now, has refused to recite them to me out loud. And my 6-year-old also has found things to challenge her on the site.

So More Starfall is definitely a success.

We also signed up for a 1-month free trial for ABCMouse. This is mostly for preschoolers, as my 6-year-old finds even the highest level a little too easy. She still likes playing it though, as do the other 2. What they mostly like, though, is spending their tickets and playing with their hamsters. The way ABCMouse works is that for each activity the student completes, they get a certain amount of tickets, which they can then use to go shopping. The more tickets they have, the better things they can get (yes, just like real money). I think my kids aren't too enthused about many of the activities, but they really like spending their tickets. The songs in the music activities are too long for their attention spans, usually. They do like the puzzles and the coloring activities, but they are a bit repetitive. Most of the time, I find my 4-year-old sitting there staring at her hamsters as they roam through her extensive collection of tubes and cages. She has "bought" more tubes than she has room for on the screen, but she keeps buying more! They also try to con me into doing activities for them, to earn them more tickets for a particular item.

One of the issues I have with the program is that the kids can switch users too easily, and they end up playing as their brother or sister without permission, messing up their sequence of activities. Also, they can change their own level, instead of staying on the path for their age and ability. I've even gotten 2 emails trying to confirm I wanted to change my password since somehow, one of the kids ended up trying to sign in as me!

So I probably won't continue using ABCMouse after the trial period. I think the kids learn more on Starfall, and they've stopped using that since they prefer playing with their hamsters! What I wish is that I could find a similar hamster game (for free, preferably, or else for just a 1-time price) that lets them try out different cage configurations without all the tickets. Then that could be their reward after a certain amount of time playing Starfall or doing other school work!

Integrated Worldview

One of BJU's strong points is how integrated their curriculum is. Their classes sometimes cover the same theme at the same time, history tidbits are described in English class, science is mentioned in reading, Bible study is incorporated into most classes, and so on. Due to this, if you use all their classes together, your student will get more than the sum of the parts: extra cultural information is shared throughout their day, classes reinforce each other, and a broad spectrum of knowledge is imparted. It's like your student is attending a school where all the teachers are working together to provide a cohesive and complete learning experience throughout the whole year.

However, this is only wonderful primarily if you share the same worldview as BJU. With their worldview scattered throughout every class, your student will encounter those beliefs everywhere. I had known from the start that I disagreed with BJU in a few key points (young-earth beliefs being the primary one), but thought that if I just skipped the science classes and some of the history classes, I could avoid that belief. I'm finding more and more that this is not going to be the case. I've previewed some of the books for later grades at our local Mardel's store, and have seen young-earth aspects in 4th grade handwriting, 5th grade reading, etc. With the videos, I can never be sure if the teachers might mention something else I disagree with, without having to prescreen all the videos, which I don't have the time or inclination to do. I have been reading more and more issues that others have with BJU (race relationships, disapproval of Catholics, etc.), and find that I have some of these other issues too.

For many people, a few young-earth comments isn't a big deal, but it is to me. It's just like those who don't want their child to be taught that evolution is true (or fill in the blank with any other hot topic you think is wrong), especially in their early years. That's one of the reasons we homeschool instead of sending our children to an outside teacher, whose daily comments (as well as those of the other students) are out of our control and even knowledge. Of course, you can always use it as a teaching experience, discussing with your child why you don't agree with that teaching, but with the BJU videos, these year-long teachers are becoming very close to your student (even if the relationship is one-sided). They look up to these teachers, enjoy them, and trust that they are teaching them the truth. To have to say later that, yes, your teacher said that, but she was wrong - well, that just undermines that teacher's authority and your student may never trust them again (or might even side with the teacher and say that you - the parent - are wrong!). With a textbook or workbook, or a one-time teacher who has not created a relationship with your student, it is much easier to contradict it/them without any detrimental effects.

Now if you do agree with BJU's worldview, then their distance learning classes really are wonderful. I wish there were a company producing such high quality material where everything did agree with my own worldview! But alas, there isn't.

I will continue using the videos for the rest of 1st grade, pre-screening as we go and skipping a few things here and there, but after that, we will try something different, something more eclectic. I have thought of teaching the BJU material myself, just eliminating any aspects that I disagree with, but as I have noted earlier, their material is very teacher-intensive, and I need a more independent curriculum.

I struggled a lot with my oldest daughter for kindergarten and early 1st grade, as that is a time that needs a high level of teacher interaction. BJU 1st grade videos were a lifesaver for us at that time. But now that she can read so much better (BJU did do a wonderful job of teaching her to read - and I know she will just get better in the remaining months we have with 1st grade), we have many more options for independent learning. I think that was what made the biggest difference in her attitude - being able to do school on her own more, without me hovering over her continually. So I will look for material that will allow her to be somewhat independent for at least some of her classes - such as CLE for English, and Math Mammoth for math, perhaps adding in videos from Discovery Education to add interest and some of the "extra-curricular tidbits of interest" that we got from the BJU videos.

For my younger ones, I'm not sure what I'll do, since I do now have the teacher's manuals for BJU K5 and 1st grade. Maybe I'll just use them (we're still doing K5 videos with my middle child now), maybe we'll do a combination of things. I'll have to wait and see what their learning styles are like, I guess.

More to come later, on our continuing saga of curriculum choices!