Homeschool Update

At one point this past year, we had contemplated the possibility of eventually sending Caleb out for school due to my chronic ailments. But God's grace has sustained us thus far with the conviction to continue to homeschool Caleb. God has taught me so much in seeing the sufficiency of His grace each and every day. His mercies are indeed new every morning no matter how much my flesh tells me otherwise.

It's been almost a year since I started with a formal curriculum for phonics with Caleb. We are halfway through the book and it has worked very well. The phonics primer was recommended by a friend from my sisters' study group, a faithful blogger and mother of 4. I would highly recommend this guide as well because it uses no gimmicks and is very systematic and easy to use. Even I myself have learned a few new things from it!

As for math, Caleb does not demonstrate any sign of an engineer despite the presence of two in the home. He has trouble even counting to 20! And for writing, he can write his own name without any guiding, and that's about it. The Startwrite writing software recommended by the same sister has been very useful. I can customize each writing assignment according to Caleb's development and interest. We also print out bible verses that Caleb has learned and he'd trace over them during part of Pastor Ken's sermon on Sundays.

I had always thought I could do teaching. But not until Caleb came along did God show me more each day how much patience I lack and desperately need. It is no wonder children are a reward from God for He has used mine to humble me and break me and mold me.

I don't know what the future years of homeschooling will look like as it gets more formal academic wise. But we just take one step at a time. And for one, I am simply thankful for God's grace in blessing us with the means and conviction to impress His commandments on our child, to talk about them when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up (Deuteronomy 6:7). It is worth infinitely more than any earthly education we can give him--all by His grace.

One hymn a week

During our morning worship time together, Caleb and I would read a Psalm and sing a song and pray. I had previously picked songs randomly from a song book for this time. But recently, I began this "one hymn a week" thing with him. On Sundays at church, the first song we sing is usually a hymn. So I decided to use that as a guide. On Monday mornings, we would look up that hymn in our hymnal and sing it for the remainder of the week. Caleb sometimes joins in at the chorus, or he would just pick an instrument from his "instrument basket" and play along. This is a good way for him to be familiarized with hymns.

This past Sunday we sang "Angels we have heard on high" at church and so this is our hymn for the week. Gloria in excelsis Deo!

From phonics to folklores

Caleb loves to play with Andy's older brother Chris who lives quite close to us. Recently Chris has started playing little "magic" games/tricks with him and he is fascinated by them.

This morning, as we were doing our phonic lesson on words that end with the two-consonant blend lf, we came across the word "elf" and Caleb asked me what an elf was. I didn't know the exact definition of it and so I said, "It is a little magical being." He asked me, "What's a being?" I said, "It is a magical person." He responded, "You mean like Uncle Chris?" "Well, not quite..." which then diverted me into this little research on elves and folklores. Perhaps this is the fun part of homeschooling?!

Power of the Word

Caleb is at an age where he wants to exert strong independence yet does not have the maturity to handle his desires and emotions. There are times he would get into a frenzy or burst into crying and whining when he does not get what he wants or cannot get what he wants done. Of course, the bottom of this is he's a sinner. One day, while he threw a fit for not being able to do something he was fixed on doing, I remembered one of the Foundation Verses he'd been reciting: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." Exodus 20:4 I prompted him with the first part of the verse and he completed the rest in a progressively calm manner. I then explained to him that he had made that something and his desire an idol and that our happiness is found only in God. Ever since, we've been able to use this verse to explain to him the different forms of idols we make in our lives, and apply an increasing number of the 76+ verses that he has learned from the pack.

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." 2 Timothy 3:16 God's grace has enabled me to see and apply this truth even with a 3-year-old. And it is a sober reminder for myself as well that I am a sinner desperately in need of the daily sanctifying power of His Word.

"I can read!"

Caleb had shown interest in learning how to read early on. For the past months, he'd been only reading out words by recognition. One of his favorite words was "God" and for a while he would scream out "God!" each time he saw it on the screen during singing in Sunday worship. And he started recognizing "O LORD my God" since we've been reading through the Psalms in our morning worship.

I started teaching him systematic phonics using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading back in July as we embarked on a more structured homeschooling schedule. After going through the vowels and consonants and their sounds, we finally got to the first lesson last week where he was asked to read three complete sentences. I watched as he moved his little finger across slowly but surely sounding out the words. What joy! Thank you God for the giving of the ability to read!

Self-Esteem?

A friend recommended Susan Hunt's My ABC Bible Verses. I've been reading it with Caleb and would highly recommend it as well. One thing I prize in this book is that each lesson focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit, and any good done by the children characters in the book is attributed to the grace of God, never the child himself. Very God-centered.

We also have a devotional book for children (Blessings Every Day: 365 Simple Devotions for the Very Young) that Andy casually picked up years ago at a book sale at work. I was reading through it with Caleb the other day and came across one devotion (which is representative of the other ones) containing these lines:

But when God looks at you, he sees everything about you, like how friendly or smart or kind you are. Most of all, God sees that wonderful person he made. And that's what he loves most.

And a little saying in the bottom:

God sees inside me, he sees in my heart. To him I am wonderful, lovely, and smart!

I almost choked reading it, though I know I probably would not have seen anything wrong with it years ago. Our exodus from "modern evangelicalism" was God's blessing.

So often in today's evangelical world, we are taught to hold high self-esteem. I was even taught in the first lesson of a discipleship class years ago that it was important for me to have high self-esteem. God was not taken out of the picture. I was to have good self-esteem because God loves me and sent Jesus Christ to die for me. It sounded good to me. And it is true God loves me, but it is not the whole truth! To fail to see and admit the total depravity in us and the wrath of God that we deserve in the first place is nothing near Truth; God's love is cheapened and misconstrued. When God looks in my heart, no, he does not see how lovely and smart I am, but how sinful and foolish. If there is anything good, it is by the grace of God because of the cross of Christ and His righteousness alone.

Andy reminds me often to not tell Caleb that I am proud of him (and to not even think that of him). Let him who boasts boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:30-31). May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). Anything that Caleb can do well in, we humbly embrace it as by the grace of God. And we tell him the same.

As I learnt from John Piper, it is not self-esteem we need, but Christ-esteem. Pray that not only do I say it but live it as well.

Dinner Prep

It has been two weeks since I started with a more structured homeschooling daily routine with Caleb. God has been gracious to us and Caleb has not lost his interest yet in this new adventure. Another of our activities is "Dinner Prep" during which time we prepare dinner together. Since he's only 3-1/2, he obviously cannot use the knife or stove (or at least the way it is intended to be used for cooking). So what I have him do these days is washing vegetables and fruits for me. And at dinner time, he would point at the vegetables and tell Andy, "Daddy, I washed the Gai-Lan [or bitter melon or cilantro or whatever veggie is in the dish]."

Though I enjoy Caleb's helpful spirit (or part water-playfulness), I pray that we are, more importantly, instilling in him a servant attitude that he will own one day only because of the Gospel.

Getting Started

Now that my mom has returned to Hong Kong and all the major summer family activities have subsided, and realizing once again that my engineering career has ended, and while waiting for God's timing in the healing of my post-surgery GI problems, I tell myself I'd better get a homeschooling routine started before I slip into a slack-off mode. So started today, I actually made up a daily schedule for Caleb and me to follow. He got really excited about all the color-coded activities on the schedule of which I made two copies (one posted on the wall in his room so he gets to see it when he wakes up and one posted on the fridge so we can refer to it throughout the day).

One particular activity I put on the schedule is a morning worship time. We prayed together this morning, read Psalm 1 from this Family Worship Bible that was given to us as a wedding gift 12 years ago, and sang a song in the music section at the end of the bible. Caleb actually recited Psalm 1 with me since that was part of his learned Foundation Verses.

Another activity I've included is phonics since Caleb has learned all his alphabets early on and has been showing interests in learning how to read. Thanks to our friends' recommendation, I've started using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading with Caleb and am liking it.

Well, this first day has not been easy but by God's grace we are both learning in many ways.