The Habit of Attentiveness

We have a little problem at our house.  The problem is deeply rooted and is second only to disobedience.  It's Inattentiveness.  In reviewing some of my Charlotte Mason materials on habit, I realize I've failed in teaching the habit of Attentiveness to my little beloved children.  So with new determination and encouragement, I hit the shelves.
 
At this year's homeschool convention, I purchased a couple of booklets from the Character Sketch series by the Institute for Basic Life Principles. I had never used these before, but had heard good things and my 6yo LOVES anything having to do with animals, so I believed the correlations to the animal kingdom would be interesting to her.

We began this week with the book on Attentiveness and it is fabulous!  I am thrilled with what we've discussed so far and how foundational it is in teaching.  Jesus is the ultimate example, God's design is clearly celebrated, and the personal application is deeply rooted in God's Word and in building Godly habits and traits that will help us all grow in our personal relationships with Him.

In just a few short days, both my 6yo and 10yo have a understanding and personal desire to have their own quiet times each day.  My 6yo cried as she expressed her anxiety over not quite being able to read God's Word for herself.  When we talked of all the scriptures that she has already memorized and how God would love for her to meditate on them for herself, she was overjoyed! 

My 10yo son expressed his own frustration with not knowing where to read.  I shared with him, what had been shared with me when I felt the same way:  know the date and read the chapter that goes with the date!  Start with Proverbs, or any other book of the Bible!  Well, he loved having the "hard decision" removed from his thoughts and ran for the door, Bible in hand, to the top of the play set, for his QT.


We decided on QT's before they rise from bed each day.  We'll try that and see.  I'm just so thrilled that they are excited and eager to spend time with the Lord!  There's much more to learn, for all of us.  I'm pretty sure there will be more to share!

Kids! Read Thru the Bible in a Year

As I was looking up my favorite Bible reading plan for the New Year, I was curious as to whether anyone had put together a plan for younger readers. As I searched, it occurred to me that my 10yo son didn't really need a special plan, but more time. I then came across this site with a 3 year plan. Perfect! He should be able to manage a chapter a day much easier than the typical 3 chapters per day of yearly plans. As for my 6yo, she is just beginning to read thru her own Bible with me.

Anyone else planning to read thru the Bible in 2010??

Studying the Names of God

Let me just reiterate this for anyone who has never done a study on the names of God: If you want to really know who God is, what He's all about, why He does what He does, then study His names!

My first look into the names of God was many years ago when a good friend, former youth pastor, and Campus Crusade for Christ associate, Dick Purnell, wrote a devotional called "Knowing God By His Names: A 31 Day Experiment". That was a fabulous introduction to someone who didn't even realize that God had "names"!

Recently, my good friend EEEEMommy, shared with me that she was doing the children's "Discover for Yourself: God, What's Your Name?" book by Kay Arthur, with her kids. Being in the midst of total crisis, while listening to my children ask some tough questions about God and why bad things are allowed to happen to those that trust Him, I latched onto the idea as from the Lord, and ordered the book.

Personally, I don't care for a lot of the fluff in this series of books, but the content is superb! So with that in mind, I skipped the fluff and got to the business. Let me assure you! All of my children's questions were answered. All my questions were answered. Before, we knew God was trustworthy; that His promises are true and His grace is sufficient, but now we had a much better understanding of why things are the way they are. Now we have a firmer knowledge of who God is.

I don't think you need to be in the midst of suffering to need to know who He is. Maybe if everyone knew this, there'd be less selfish, sinful choices being made in this world. Maybe it is easier to draw near to a God we know, than a God that we only imagine. I challenge you to consider this study! It's worth every minute.

There are 16 names in the book, plus I added a couple of others that were meaningful, such as Emmanuel: God is with us. It's tempting to list them all out for you, and I did list many of them in my previous post, but I want you to discover them for yourself!

There are some pretty neat resources available for this study. Here's a link that provides artwork associated with the names of God. Here's another great site if you don't wish to purchase a book.

Planning for Holy Week

According to recent homeschool buzz, it's that time of year. That end of year panic and frenzy to accomplish something. I've stared aghast at my calendar for a couple of weeks as I've begun to consider where we are and what we need to do.

Honestly...Charlotte has made such a huge difference in our lifestyle, that I'm left a little perplexed by the usual questions of "completion" and "summer". Since I had to start somewhere, I began with the calendar and the first thing I realized is just how close we are to Holy Week.

After verifying a couple of dates, I pulled out my copy of Robin Sampson's Biblical Holidays and began plotting Holy Week. I love the chart that she shares about the events of Jesus' life in regard to Passover and the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. It's so helpful to see the Biblical events put on a Jewish calendar and then seeing how it fits into our calendar. This is a good year to compare as Easter Sunday actually falls on Nissan 17 (daytime), which, at sunset, is the actual time of the Resurrection.

It's a relief to get this on the calendar and planned! It's a relatively simple thing that can be overwhelming when I'm not prepared. Now I'm ready to look to the rest of our learning for spring-time.

Read more about spring Biblical holidays here.

What We Do, Part 4: Bible

I hope you are enjoying my telling of what we do each day. So far I've shared our singing of hymns and prayer time; how and what we memorize. It might interest you to know that this just completes our first half hour of the morning, and now it's time to open our Bibles!

Bible is the foundation for everything we do. With the advent of Charlotte coming to stay, we've gone through a learning process that has taken us from complicated, to simple. I've written about our Principle Approach to studying much over the years, and I'm really seeing how it has prepared us for this (Charlotte Mason) progression in our learning. While we learned so much with our Judah Bible Curriculum, our emphasis was changing and we are now finding it a true pleasure to just read the Word of God!

Concentrating our efforts on reading scripture has given us a fresh passion for God's story. We chose to read through the gospels first and are using Penny Gardner's lists that you can find here and here. Son and I take turns reading and it really is a great chance for me to hear him read aloud. We are enjoying the fact that the short lessons that Charlotte prescribed, suit us well at this time. They allow us time to discuss what we've read, and lend themselves nicely to have five year old daughter join us. She is learning to narrate and son is loving sharing his own bits of learning with her.

I have to mention that a side benefit of reading the Bible has been our children's increased vocabulary. Well, any reading of real books will do this, but it's amazing to me how a spelling quiz will show no trouble with words like "righteousness", "blessed", or "trial", while "exception" or even "dilemma" bug the tar out of my boy!

One conundrum that I've faced with the decision to go this direction, is what to do with other Bible resources we have and love. For instance our "Child's Story Bible", by Catherine Vos. I love this book! We used it and our Bible for awhile, but there was so much repetition that it got monotonous. Charlotte does not hold to repeating readings, and preferred the actual text, to watered down versions. So while Vos's book is the best of the story Bibles, the Bible is the Bible!

This brings me to another bit that I haven't mentioned for awhile: Translations and simplified texts. We have chosen to use the English Standard Version for our own personal reasons, but with that decision came the effort that we would all use it together. We also chose to put son in a "full", and not "children's" version as soon as he was solidly reading. This was around age 7. It helped that they came out with a Children's ESV that was full text but included pictures! With memorizing, studying meanings of the words God used, etc., we just didn't see it making much sense to use a kiddie version.

Recently we began attending a new church and 5yo daughter's first handout in Sunday School was the Lord's Prayer--in baby talk. No kidding! She has been in the process of learning the true Lord's Prayer and I found it frustrating that they would use baby talk in place of the beautiful words of Jesus! Is it any easier, or hold any value, to teach a child a watered down prayer that's not in the Bible, than to teach what Jesus truly taught? I think not! Enough said.

Lastly, I'll add that "just" reading the Bible is what we feel the Lord wants for us at this time. We've set aside the notebooking and the excessive planning and are concentrating on listening to God and seeing what He has to reveal to us. This was not an easy step for me (the Planner!), but we have been really blessed by it! AND. Bible is solidly the Word of God and not a "subject" that requires a programmed response.

Read about the other things we do:
Part 1: Hymn Study
Part 2: Prayer
Part 3: Memorization

Apostles' Creed

Apostles' Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Read Bible?

I've been contemplating re-reading the Bible thru again this year. Though I read the Bible last year, I didn't read ALL of the Bible last year so it's been two whole years since I had the joy of reading Leviticus!

Someone posted this really interesting article on reading through the Bible in a year. But, nah... I really just want to read some every day and leave something to the Holy Spirit's leading. (Though I'm sure his plan is brilliant and inspired!). And if I was going to be totally honest, I like the things the author mentions contemplating, but I'm not sure you need to read it 47 times to get that. But what do I know?!! :)

Anyway, I've used the one (I think) he spoke of that is always posted at Homeschool World (though the 2009 one isn't up yet). I googled plans and found this great site that has all kinds of options and versions to choose from.

I decided on the chronological ESV. I have four days to catch up on, but no biggie! I've always enjoyed reading the Word!

On top of this, I also found this great series of posts from Understanding Charlotte where she has used the Catherine Vos book, "Child's Story Bible" (love that book!) and created a Bible reading plan for youngsters. I'm not sure how it compares with what we're using for our Bible time, but I do want some kind of a list for son to read through on his own.

Memorization for Two

For the past couple of years we've enjoyed the benefits of the Scripture Memory system from Simply Charlotte Mason. I began this year with a new card box for daughter and recently began to realize that there might be a way to improve things.

I ended up combining the kids' boxes together. I color coded daughters much fewer cards, interspersing them with sons many, many cards. I imagine that they'll eventually have mostly the same verses & things memorized, so this should be a time saver. The cards that son has absolutely mastered, I'll mark with a different marking or color. Son may just have to practice his older verses more often, or at least hear them more. Well, hearing more scripture never hurt anyone!! They will still both have verses unique to them daily, but I may try to make all new items for both of them.

We do our memory time together ever since I found out that son was not really "memorizing", but reading quickly through! Uh-huh. So, now we gather together and have a bit of a competition and a game out of it. We spend 10-15 min a day. Son, who's 9 does not want to be out done by his 5yo sister and she wants to be "better" than him at everything. Boy! Does that make things interesting at our house.

I will add that after 2 years of this, son is more interested in choosing his own things to memorize, which is encouraging. I'll have to see how all the wrinkles come out in the fire.

Deciding Bible

Because I'm a bit ridiculous when it comes to order, I'll tell you that after reading so much about Charlotte Mason, and more to the point, determining that things in our lives need to change and CM is a part of it, I naturally must begin with the beginning. And that is Bible.

Bible lessons up till this year, have been our favorite. We've had three wonderful years with Biblical Principle Approach (BPA) and Judah Bible, however...this year I have found it lacking. Too much repetition for my ideal study. That makes me nuts because we've so enjoyed it and learned so much as the Holy Spirit has guided us through these lessons.

I will tell you, and many of you know this from hanging out here, the lessons are intricate, time consuming to prepare, and time consuming to deliver. Of course, there can't possibly be anything more worth while to spend our time on, so that doesn't so much matter. What does matter to me at this point is (and please excuse the analogy) that we don't keep Jesus on the Cross.

Scripture is God's whole story. Meaning "whole", as in "don't leave anything out". I've most assuredly been convinced that we don't want to miss a thing in God's Word. At the same time, I'm no genius and trying to figure out what to do has been a chore.

The Simply Charlotte Mason forums allowed me to get one answer that was broad, but covered the entire Bible in a six year rotation. (See below) It still didn't give me enough detail to know how to do it. Then there is a wonderful list that Penny Gardner made for OT and NT. This list is very useful as the scriptures are broken down into segments perfect for short lessons.

The biggest difference to me, method wise, and apart from the "short lesson" idea, is that Bible is studied concurrently with History and Geography. While that sounds great, we already have four years invested in a chronological history beginning with the Explorers and American History (I do not agree with teaching small children ancient history before teaching them a foundation of Biblical truths and principles. This article explains this to my liking.)

Here is the six-year rotation from Sonya at SCM:
1. Genesis-Deuteronomy
2. Joshua-Malachi
3. Matthew-Acts
4. Selected epistles
5. Selected epistles
6. Rest of epistles & Revelation

Then for older children, more focused studies:
1. Mosaic Law
2. Proverbs
3. Romans
4. Various Bible Study methods
5. Doctrine study
6. Doctrine study

I like this and find that we would be around year 3-4, and not ready for the older set in-depth, though we've covered some of it.

A few thoughts on what I want to do each week:
1. Read God's Word together! (15-20 minutes/day)
2. Begin Bible Drills with son (finding passages in scripture) once or twice a week. (5-10 min./wk)
3. Continue practicing the memorizing of the books of the Bible. (A couple of minutes at a time.)
4. Include Biblical Principle examination. (5-10 min./day where applicable)
5. Include Character trait focus. (5-10 min./day where applicable)
6. Continue hiding God's Word in our hearts with memory boxes. (10 minutes/a day--during a separate set-aside time)

It's funny to see what appears to be so little time set aside for things that are so vital, yet that's really all it takes to introduce an idea that remains with a child the rest of the day, week...his life. We don't stop talking about a lesson when the lesson is done! This is the part that this super-planning Mama forgets and begins to force scheduled time to the point of bitterness.

It occurs to me, as I think this through, that the problem with using anything but just the Bible for Bible lessons is that anything less than the whole involves an agenda. Whether it's Judah Bible, that I've used, which pounds home seven very important principles over and over, or a purchased workbook/focus study. That makes the CM philosophy of reading the whole Bible and the Bible alone (for Bible) very appropriate, encouraging and appealing.

Using the NT list, we'll get through the gospels by spring. I used excel to list out the lessons by approximate date. It's also a nice "coincidence" that we started it this week with the nativity stories. Works for me! I also took our "Child's Story Bible" (which we love for historical content, relevance and connectivity to the rest of scripture) and cross-referenced the index with the scripture passages.

One last thing I'll mention is "Discovering Doctrine" from SCM. It is an ebook for notebooking Bible according to ten doctrines that every scripture applies to at least one: Bible, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Man, Sin, Salvation, Angels, Church, Future Events. This, like Biblical Principles, is a great way to facilitate discussion of Biblical truths.

There you have it: Bible via Charlotte Mason. At least for this CM beginner!

Prayer Journal for Kids

I'm still working on Bible resources and am adding these prayer journaling pages for our notebook. Our focus this year is on praying scripture, but we've also studied and learned about praying like Jesus prayed (The Lord's Prayer), so we will use both pages alternately.

My children are very thoughtful in their young prayers, so I'm encouraged to teach them more about the power that comes with those prayers and the power that is the Living Word of God!

Leading Ideas

I've been revisiting some of the basics of Biblical Principle Approach as I continue to work on developing our Bible lessons. In particular, discovering leading ideas in passages of scripture. I am, by no means, an authority, however I have gleaned enough from other BPA sources and friends to be dangerous!

So, what is a leading idea? According to the Foundations for American Christian Education (FACE), "A Leading Idea...is an idea that leads the reasoner down a pathway." This comes from researching the word "lead" in Webster's 1828 Dictionary. Some might argue that there is not much difference between a leading idea and a Biblical principle. They could be the same, however a principle will not be as "passage specific".

I really enjoyed Mandi's (can't find the specific post) write-up on "how to tell if you have found a principle" (or a timeless truth, as she calls it). Basically, she asks the questions...

1. Is it a statement about God's character? God never changes.
2. Is it reinforced in the New Testament? Then it's transcultural.
3. Is it a statement about the nature of man? We're still sinners.
4. Is the original audience very broad? Transcultural again.
5. Is it a reason for something? Reasons are often principles.
6. Is it given as a superlative statement? Always, never, everything...etc.

A great resource that I have, and hope to use more is, The Encyclopedia of Bible Truths, by Ruth Haycock. I can't even begin to explain to you all that is in the now four-volume set. Suffice it to say, it gives Biblical leading ideas, through scripture, for most areas of study.

Personally, my objective is not only to teach Biblical principles and foundations, but to more thoroughly examine the heart issues of our daily walk with Him who is greater than all our sin. I say "our", because this as much involves myself, as my children!

I made up a leading idea sheet for our notebooking, to cover our growth through these scriptural leading ideas. The second page can be copied multiple times as you continue your Bible reading. I wrote this, at the top of the first page, so I wouldn't 'forget' what we were doing!:

A Leading Idea is an idea that leads the reasoner down a pathway.
It is a thought that stands out in every single passage of God's Word.
It is always true.
It might be different each time you read the passage
(because of the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit).
And, it will always spur you on to reflection, prayer, and action.

Updating Our Bible Time

I've put myself through the ringer about our Bible time. The first week of lessons, it became clear something had to change. To say I was dissatisfied about covers it. I love our "Judah Bible Curriculum", specifically the scope and sequence. However, what we have done the past two years (routinely) was not coming together with daughter now in the mix.

Some things have been greatly on my heart as of late: having son develop his own time of study, devotion and prayer, leading towards his own quiet times and his growing in his relationship with the Lord, and continuing to teach more directly character and habit. I've also not felt right about having separate Bible times for the kids. As I debated possibly replacing what we did last year with something else, a friend spoke wise words which set me free: "Don't be a slave to anything! Especially curriculum." Amen, Sister!

So, I determined that my newly directed focus (hopefully from the Lord!) would indeed provide son, and daughter, with the things on my heart. Here is our revised plan:

Monday
Read: "Child's Story Bible"--absolutely fabulous, by the way!
Narrate: daughter first/then son
Daughter: Coloring page
Discuss: story (background)
Read: "Our Young Folk's Josephus: (for historic context--here, or 1st thing Tuesday.)

Tuesday
Read: Bible passage
Narrate
Daughter: Coloring page (cont'.)
Write: Memory verse (to card)
Daughter: Trace/copy memory verse
List: Key words from passage

Wednesday
Review: Passage & history
Discuss: Character of Christ, as it relates to passage. (Biblical Principle/Theme for year)
Action: Pray memory verse (or passage)
Write: Prayer (Prayer Journal)

Thursday
Review: Books of the Bible & Habit ("Laying Down Rails") goals (review/accountability)
Habit: Focus on selected habit/Set goals
Learn: Quite Time/Bible Study (Choose one method--or aspect of method--to apply to passage.)

Friday
Overflow day. We do limit our time per day, for the sake of all so don't always get everything done!

Preparing Judah Bible Lessons Using E-Sword

Finally! Here is the much requested post on how I use E-Sword to prepare my Judah Bible Curriculum (JBC) Lessons. (You can read about our Bible lessons here.)

If you've already downloaded E-Sword, check for updates (they just had one at the end of Feb.) and you'll be set to go. If not, you can do that here. Of course, you'll want to familiarize yourself with it a bit, but you'll find it very user-friendly. I'll share some of my own tips and tricks along the way.

The Setup:
After downloading the original package, I selected the versions of the Bible that I wanted to use. ESV (English Standard Version) is our main version. I also had to have Webster's 1828 Dictionary, Strong's linking to the KJV (which comes with the main download) and the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK). These were "musts" in my book! Without them, I couldn't find what I needed for teaching. All are available for free from E-Sword. And much more!

I have my Bible and Dictionary (on the left) of about equal size. [Oh yes! You can adjust the size by clicking on the outlines and dragging, just like in Windows!] The right is reserved for Topic Notes, Commentary, & Study Notes. This is my biggest, because this is where all the work comes together.

I set my lessons up in what is called the Topic Notes. Here you can title your study and keep it. Other options include linking it directly to the passage of scripture, but this doesn't work for more than one verse. I usually title my lessons like this: JBC 3:3:6. This tells me it's JBC (Judah Bible Curr.) Year 3, Theme 3, Lesson #6.

After I put an actual title on the blank topic notes page, with the actual names of the theme, lesson and the scripture passage, I begin with Day 1. I have found that by breaking the lesson into days (I number them), prevents me from trying to cover more than one IDEA each day. This is a Biblical Principle Approach (BPA) thought that has kept me from overwhelming my children.

I do not usually follow "weeks" as JBC is scheduled. Though I TRY to stick to a week, for continuity's sake, if a lesson takes us 10 days, or three, so be it. This will usually be apparent as soon as you review the scripture passage to be studied. There are certain things that I include in every lesson. I have broken those down by days, or daily.

Narration:
We narrate at the beginning and end of each portion of scripture read. At this point in time, we are only using oral narration, but will be adding written beginning next year (4th grade). I could go on and on about this, but I'll send you over here, for the sake of brevity.

Timeline:
Looking at where on the timeline, or Chain of Christianity (COC), we are with this passage. My COC looks like the following and is a combination of the original COC, and my own thoughts on the importance of certain historical times and places. We look at this briefly for each lesson (or week). We especially note how God's Word may tell the story of a "prophet", but also include the last link--the "Restoration: As for Me and My House" link, as we ask what lessons God wants us to learn. My links on the chain have changed as we've grown. They now include:

Creation
The Patriarchs
Moses and the Law
The Flood
Prophets, Priests and Kings
Jesus and the Cross
Paul, and the Early Christian Church
The Bible Restored
Columbus, and the Explorers
The Pilgrims
One Nation Under God
Westward Expansion and Erosion
Restoration: As For Me and My House

Putting the Week's Lessons Together:
First, I look up the passage that I'm lesson planning. Once I have it selected and before I copy the passage over, I mark it up! I'm a big "marker". I write all over my Bible (& books) when I read. Underlining, circling, highlighting. You can do some of this right in E-Sword and it will remain there! Then when you copy the passage(s) over to your lessons, the markings will be there. Then, of course, you can add more marking as you consider the relevance of your lesson and the ages of your children. As I copy the passage of scripture over to the topic notes [*Hint*: You have several options for copy and paste, including drag and drop. I like the "2 papers with red star" button, above your "Bible" that allows you to choose the format you want your verses to appear in.], I also use my actual paper Bible! I have so many of my own notes and marking there that are a great reminder of previous thoughts and prayers. Since I've learned that this process can be long, it's nice to know the passages ahead of time and study them throughout the days and weeks; keeping notes with my more portable paper Bible, before I sit down to prepare the lesson. My husband has taken to only using his laptop now. He even takes it to church with him. Weirdo! :) Now, once the scripture is copied over, I mark some more and even add in my own "spoken" commentary. I do this in red so I don't...ummm...get confused! Ha!

Leading Question:
After I've reviewed the whole passage, I will come up with a Leading Question. The leading question is the ONE thing for the whole lesson that principally stands out. In other words, if I could only have them learn one thing, what would it be. Another way to look at it, is something that "leads" the child through the lesson to a particular conclusion or thought. It is usually not looking for a specific answer, but a process of reasoning that builds their knowledge, heart and character in the Lord. Examples would include: "Why is the past important to understanding the future?" "What is our responsibility toward God?" "How does God reveal Himself in times of peace?" This was one of the more difficult things I had to learn, because I was used to "yes" "no" questions. It takes practice, for sure!

Discussion & Notebooking Questions:
After I have the scripture in place and marked, I will add any other thoughts & questions I wish to share or discuss. Then I'll finish that days plan with a question geared toward that particular section of scripture. I do this for each day, leading up to answering the leading question. I take all the questions for the week and put them on a Word doc with writing lines. Son answers each days question as it comes and then adds the sheet to his notebook. Here is an example of that.

Bible as Literature:
Now, on Day 1 of the lesson, we always cover "Bible as Literature". This is something that I also learned from BPA and since we read a lot but don't yet do "Literature" as a separate topic, I add in this bit.

Basically, we just look at five elements. We identify the type of literature: letter, biography, historical narrative, poetry, etc; and who penned it for God. We'll talk about the setting for our passage, and the plot and theme. Discussing the theme is a good way to perpetuate the leading question. They are usually linked. Lastly, we'll talk about the characterization, or who God is dealing with in this particular passage. This really takes no time at all and gets us thinking about the Bible as a whole story and message from God.

Scripture Memorization:
On Day 2 of the lesson, I introduce the memory selection. Son will write it out on a 3x5 card and insert it in his memory box. You can read more about our memory box system here.

Biblical Principles & the Providences of God
Our Judah Bible lessons would not be complete without looking at the Biblical Principles of the lesson, and the many Providences of God throughout the passage. These are key elements to Biblical Principle Approach. You can read about the seven foundational principles here.

We do this on Thursday, where ever that may fall in our lesson. Because God is so awesome and His word so perfect, we could easily cover every principle we could think of with each lesson! I've done this...it's time consuming, to say the least! I recommend selecting one or two principles as the focus. As you begin to learn the seven foundational principles, you will begin to see other principles shine forth: another benefit of this Bible study methodology. When you find yourself with a profound Biblical truth, you have a "principle". We have a particular one that we are focusing on at least for this year. It's even on my blog. It is something that the husband shared with us and God has used to greatly guide us in all our daily activities.

"A loving relationship always equals obedience,
but obedience does NOT always equal a loving relationship."

We've had a few "wow" moments with that one, and that's the idea of learning and focusing on Biblical Principles!

When we look at God's Providences, we are also looking at the nature of God; who He is and how He works. We do that by focusing on the five P's:

God's Promises
God's Purposes
God's Preparation
God's Protection
God's Provision

As you learn these, you will see evidence of them throughout every subject in HIStory and, of course, the Bible. It truly reinforces how Mighty is our God!

Using Definitions in the Lesson:
Let's face it, there are some pretty "big" words in scripture! I find myself checking definitions just to make sure "I" know what they mean! This is important to BPA lessons (which, if you haven't figured that out yet, Judah Bible is). It builds a foundation of understanding and reasoning through research. This is a great way for kids to begin to see that it's easy to find out about something you don't know. You could go a bit crazy with this, but I try to limit it to 1-3 words per week. I'll use the Webster's on E-sword and copy over the entire definition [drag & drop!]. Then I'll go through and delete any that don't pertain to the particular use of the word. Next year, I'll have son (who will be 9) begin to look up the words himself in the BIG Webster's! This will be a great notebooking exercise.

Using Hymns or Choruses:
Often times the Lord will bring to mind a hymn or chorus from the passage we are studying. I'll just include the lyrics somewhere in my topic notes so that I remember it. [It's great that you can highlight and copy from almost any program, or the web, and paste it into E-Sword.] I love this opportunity to more fully embrace what the Lord is teaching us; to bring it "home", so to speak, and make it our own. We sing daily and can't get enough.

Using Greek or Hebrew:
This is somewhat new to us. I'm beginning to get a better grasp on understanding that our English translations don't always have the same fullness of meaning as the original languages. With the Strongs #'s linking to the original languages, you just roll over the # and see a box pop up with the info! It's very helpful! They don't have duel languages, side-by-side, yet. At least that I know of!

Character Lesson:
We've been incorporating character lessons in our week for about two years. This year, however, I'm using our Bible lesson as the catalyst. We either examine a particular character trait from the main figure in the scripture we are looking at, or a character trait that we are being directly instructed about. [We use the "Bible" (see top menu), "Search" feature.] It is also adding a great personal emphasis to our learning! There are a lot of sources for various character lessons, but the main one we began with was characterjournal.com. After using these lessons for awhile, it's easy to see the main components and come up with your own lessons. They will always include:

A definition
How the trait is demonstrated
Scripture
Examples
"I Will" or application statements

We do these lessons on Fridays.

Other E-Sword Elements:
I've already mentioned the Bible versions, the Dictionary, and even the Greek and Hebrew (which are also available through E-Sword). Another thing I occasionally will look at is Matthew Henry's commentary, though I'm not a big fan of commentaries for they are fallible. It can help your thought process.

I enjoy the TSK because you can see what other verses in the Bible deal with the same info. I like to have other passages, especially from OT & NT, whenever possible--it is one book! These things are very easy to use in E-Sword. Any time you highlight a verse in the Bible window, then click on the supplement, it'll open up to that passage, or reference point. Everything is copyable into your topic notes. Can't beat that!

Another thing I use a lot is the Search feature. If you click on "Bible" at the very top, then "Search" you can fill in and find just about anything you want. This is particularly useful with the Character Lesson, for you can do a key word search, or if you can't remember where a verse is!

There are so many helpful tools available, I've only begun to check them all out and I've been using this program for almost three years.

Another thing I'll mention is fonts. I changed my Bible font, and Dictionary font to be different from the default Topic Notes font. That way, when I copy scripture over, and type my own notes between, you can more clearly see where one ends and another begins. You can do this under "Options".

Using a Template:
Since I use the same elements each week, including the formatting, I created a template that I "fill in" each week. This keeps a bit of continuity for me and helps me remember things such as when I want to look at the Timeline, or when to narrate. You can do this by creating the format (which is just a lesson without the content), saving it under the name "Template", then opening it, and copying the contents to a new topic.

Printing:
I print out the entire lesson and keep it in my notebook, but you don't have to. In the topic notes, if you don't wish to print your whole lesson, you may highlight a certain section, then when you press the "magnifying glass on paper" button, you can print just what is highlighted. This really helps if you are only printing one day's worth at a time.

If you are using Windows Vista, you may have printing problems. The best solution, in that case, is to copy your document over to Word and print from there.

Special Note on Saving Your Work:
Be sure to periodically hit the "disc" button to save. Though it operates on auto-save, I have lost whole lessons before when my computer has died. It's not quite what Blogger auto-save is. It never hurts to be cautious.

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Here is a sample of a finished lesson. I hope that this has been, and will be, helpful to you. I had planned to do this with screen shots, but getting into that was more than I bargained for. If there is anything that I've left out, or if you have more specific questions, feel free to ask me in the comments. I'll answer them there so that I can keep track. JBC is great, E-Sword is great, and God's Word can't be beat! Put 'em all together, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, and you can have some great Bible lessons! God bless your time in the Word!

Search Out These Things

Sunday, in our church bulletins, was a pamphlet for a Crisis Pregnancy Center event. On it was part of Deut 30:19-20.(NIV)

"...choose life, so that you and your children may live...For the LORD is your life..."

As I looked at that verse, written NOT in it's entirety and NOT in a true context, I began to think about how common this is--using scripture this way, and how often we alter God's word for our own purposes. Maybe most don't consider this "altering" His word, but it doesn't exactly seem "honest" when abortion, or even the pro-life movement is NOT what this verse is speaking of. I'm sure they might think, "Oh, well this doesn't hurt! It's for a good cause." Hmmm.

Here stands Moses, speaking to the wandering Israelites and giving them the low down. Either you choose life and blessings by honoring and obeying God, or you are choosing death! With obedience, you get the Promised Land. Without it, your life will be cut short. Pretty simple. But don't take my word for it. Search it out for yourself. Here are the actual verses:

" I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."

Maybe the folks who put the pamphlet together can justify the use of this verse because, obviously, if we are honoring and obeying God, we won't be killing unborn babies, but it still made me think. It made me open my Bible and read and see if what was being said was correct.

I am realizing more and more just how primary, yet little thought of, one of the lessons the early believers taught us, is: Search out these things daily.
Acts 17:11 says,

"Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."

This verse is part of a passage that tells us that there were some Jews who knew the words of God and searched them daily, so when they heard about Jesus, they believed. They'd read the prophesies, they knew God through His word, so they recognized the Messiah. But they were only a few, because only a few were "more noble". But don't take my word for it. Search it out for yourself.

How often we "hear" God's word. Preachers, Bible studies, CPC pamphlets--even Bible Commentaries!! How often we do a Bible Study that uses a verse here, a verse there, and we take the speaker or author's "word for it" instead of searching these things out for ourselves. We are lazy and we "trust". We HOPE that no one would steer us wrong when speaking of the things of God, we don't even give it a thought, and we don't take the time to check. We rely on all feeding to come from another person. As a result, I believe we remain stagnant in our learning and growth in Christ. A lot of times, we wouldn't know the "truth" if it his us in the face.

If we are to truly know His word, we have to be searching out all things in it. We need to open it and read it. We need to hide His word in our hearts. We need to do it daily. We need to read it all, not just a verse here, and a verse there. Front to back, it is one story, with Christ on every single page!

It wasn't until about a year ago that I had a revelation. I was reading the Bible more than I was watching TV! We'd gotten rid of cable, and were only renting movies. For the first time in my life, I was beginning to really learn and be in, the word of God. More than TV.

My prayer is that I always will. That I'll always remain in Him and His word--searching out all things in the light of His word. My prayer is that you will too.

Don't take mere men's word for anything!

Search it out for yourself.

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deut. 29:29