“Parents, set apart a little time each day for the study of the Sabbath school lesson with your children. Give up the social visit if need be, rather than sacrifice the hour devoted to the lessons of sacred history. Parents as well as children will receive benefit from this study. Let the more important passages of Scripture connected with the lesson be committed to memory, not as a task, but as a privilege. Though at first the memory be defective, it will gain strength by exercise, so that after a time you will delight thus to treasure up the words of truth. And the habit will prove a most valuable aid to spiritual growth.”
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 137, 138.
How about a fun nature study curriculum for your older student courtesy of Pathfinders! Your student may enjoy becoming a Naturalist Master using the Pathfinder Club honors for a curriculum. Your student will need to complete six of the following honors:
Don’t know enough about fungi to work on the honor? That’s okay, the Adventist Youth Answer Book at Wikibooks is a great resource for completing the honor requirements. If you’d like the patches that go with each honor, ask your pastor to put you in contact with the Area Coordinator for Pathfinder Clubs in your conference.
As your student moves into his late-elementary and middle school years, you may find that your student is beginning to use textbooks for independent study. Give your student a strong start in independent study by teaching them the habit of “pre-reading”.
Teaching your student to pre-read his textbooks and other non-fiction text is a valuable reading comprehension and study skill. Many students make the mistake of just opening their textbook and starting to read the assigned chapter “cold” without any prior preparation for reading.
Taking time to learn how the reading assignment is structured, and what will be taught helps your student organize his thinking before beginning to read. Learning the habit of pre-reading or previewing a chapter before actual study will improve comprehension and retention of material.
Here is a helpful organizer chart to help you and your student practice the skill of pre-reading.
Click on the links below to print a copy of the organizer sheet and instructions.
As your student moves into his late-elementary and middle school years, you may find that your student is beginning to use textbooks for independent study. Give your student a strong start in independent study by teaching them the habit of “pre-reading”.
Teaching your student to pre-read his textbooks and other non-fiction text is a valuable reading comprehension and study skill. Many students make the mistake of just opening their textbook and starting to read the assigned chapter “cold” without any prior preparation for reading.
Taking time to learn how the reading assignment is structured, and what will be taught helps your student organize his thinking before beginning to read. Learning the habit of pre-reading or previewing a chapter before actual study will improve comprehension and retention of material.
Here is a helpful organizer chart to help you and your student practice the skill of pre-reading.
Click on the links below to print a copy of the organizer sheet and instructions.
As your student moves into his late-elementary and middle school years, you may find that your student is beginning to use textbooks for independent study. Give your student a strong start in independent study by teaching them the habit of “pre-reading”.
Teaching your student to pre-read his textbooks and other non-fiction text is a valuable reading comprehension and study skill. Many students make the mistake of just opening their textbook and starting to read the assigned chapter “cold” without any prior preparation for reading.
Taking time to learn how the reading assignment is structured, and what will be taught helps your student organize his thinking before beginning to read. Learning the habit of pre-reading or previewing a chapter before actual study will improve comprehension and retention of material.
Here is a helpful organizer chart to help you and your student practice the skill of pre-reading.
Click on the links below to print a copy of the organizer sheet and instructions.
This parent-teacher conference was to discuss a particular young man who sullenly dragged himself into class each day as if it were a terrible inconvenience. Every day he sat in his desk without opening a book or lifting a pencil. As was her custom, the school counselor started the meeting by asking the mother to share about the young man daily life at home. The counselor asked if the young man had any chores or work responsibilities at home. No, the mother responded, he was not expected to do any chores at home. Not even take out the trash? The mother responded that she took out the trash, and did not ask him to do anything in the way of work around the home. With that response, the school counselor stood up, declared that the conference was over and that all of the teachers could leave the meeting. Incredulous, the mother asked why. I’ll never forget the counselor’s response:
“If you have never taught him to work at home,
how do you expect that we will get him to work at school?”
“He doesn’t even take out the trash?”
Of all of the parent conferences I attended in my years as a classroom teacher, that particular conference will forever stand out in my mind. The look on the poor mother’s face as she realized her mistake! Thankfully, the counselor sat back down to discuss with the stricken mother ways to begin to solve the problem. As I left that conference, I was convicted anew of the eternal importance of teaching children the value of work. Now, as parent-teacher to my own children, teaching habits of industry is a vital part of my True Education goals.
“Parents cannot commit a greater sin than to neglect their God-given responsibilities in leaving their children with nothing to do; for these children will soon learn to love idleness and grow up to be shiftless, useless men and women. When they become old enough to earn their living and are taken into employment, they will work in a lazy, droning way and will think they will be paid just the same if they idle away their time, as if they did faithful work. There is every difference between this class of worker and the one who realizes that he must be a faithful steward. In whatever line of work they engage, the youth should be “diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”; for he that is unfaithful in that which is least is unfaithful also in much.”
The most important thing that you can teach your preschooler is obedience. This is often true for kindergartener too, and maybe for some students that are even older. Before starting on a phonics program or a writing program, teach obedience. Consider the mastery of obedience a prerequisite to all other school subjects. If you do this, your homeschool journey will be so much easier. If you don’t and you spend your days in a power struggle, not much learning will take place. Your child will end up hating homeschool and so will you. So teach your child obedience before anything else.
Teach your child to be obedient as a result of his/her love for you. If you do not have a good relationship with your child, that will be where you will need to start. Some children obey out of fear and some obey from love. Love is a much better incentive. Children will not learn to love you if you do not love them first. So teach obedience with love. The Lord will bless your efforts.
“In His wisdom the Lord has decreed that the family shall be the greatest of all educational agencies. It is in the home that the education of the child is to begin. Here is his first school. Here, with his parents as instructors, he is to learn the lessons that are to guide him throughout life—lessons of respect, obedience, reverence, self-control. The educational influences of the home are a decided power for good or for evil. They are in many respects silent and gradual, but if exerted on the right side, they become a far-reaching power for truth and righteousness. If the child is not instructed aright here, Satan will educate him through agencies of his choosing. How important, then, is the school in the home!”Adventist Home, 182
Not only will your homeschool venture be so much happier if you teach obedience first, you will prepare your child both for this life and the life to come.
“Parents, set apart a little time each day for the study of the Sabbath school lesson with your children. Give up the social visit if need be, rather than sacrifice the hour devoted to the lessons of sacred history. Parents as well as children will receive benefit from this study. Let the more important passages of Scripture connected with the lesson be committed to memory, not as a task, but as a privilege. Though at first the memory be defective, it will gain strength by exercise, so that after a time you will delight thus to treasure up the words of truth. And the habit will prove a most valuable aid to spiritual growth.”
The Adventist Home Educator 