SonLight Education Ministry (SEM) has released several new items this week that are ready for free download.
For those who are not aware, SonLight Education Ministry is a sister ministry to Adventist Home Educator. SEM offers free .pdf downloads of True Education curriculum/materials on a well-organized Google Drive page. SEM Google Drive
Take a moment to visit the updated Released Materials page at the SEM website.
In a presentation from the 2015 Adventist Agriculture Assn. conference,
homeschooling mother Pamela Dysinger shares what she has learned about ‘The Very Best School”.
https://www.audioverse.org/english/embed/media/13718
As Seventh-day Adventist parents, we are blessed with a wealth of inspired material to aid us in helping each of our children grow in their walk with God. Ellen G. White’s Messages to Young People is an especially beloved resource for guiding our youth as they grow up into christian manhood/womanhood.
It helps to have a study guide to use along with reading the book to aid in the comprehension of this book. E.J. Dold’s Messages to Young People- A Study Guide is an extremely helpful resource perfect for guiding a student thoughtfully through the book.
What I appreciate most about the study guide is that is not solely a list of questions requiring rote answers. There are many questions where it is appropriate to lift the answer directly from the reading. However a large percentage of the questions require the student to use higher level thinking skills for summarizing passages or making a personal application of the principle discussed. The student may also be asked to make connections with Bible characters or stories. The variety of ways the student is required to interact with the material keeps the study guide interesting.
The book Messages to Young People is divided into fifteen main sections, and the study guide organizes the questions into several smaller sub-sections for each main section, making it easy to assign manageable portions of reading for the student. Interspersed within the sections are inspirational stories and readings that further reinforce the theme of that particular sub-section.
This study guide is appropriate for personal study for a high school aged student. Upper elementary and middle school students can also benefit from this guide, but may need occasional assistance with some of the vocabulary. Taking the time to work through any unfamiliar vocabulary can easily add a cross-curricular component to the study with English/Language Arts. Some students may find the space for writing answers to be a bit small for legible responses, however that can be easily remedied by having the student complete their work on a separate sheet of paper.
Although the study guide was largely intended as a resource for individual learning, I can attest that it also works very well in a group setting. I am currently ‘teaching’ the book to a group of adults and youth as a Wednesday prayer meeting study which includes my own children. The study guide questions have generated valuable discussions among our group of both new and seasoned believers.
Currently Messages to Young People – A Study Guide is available for purchase online through the following links:
Laymen’s Ministries Resource Materials- MYP Study Guide
and
“Very early the lesson of helpfulness should be taught the child. As soon as strength and reasoning power are sufficiently developed, he should be given duties to perform in the home. He should be encouraged in trying to help father and mother, encouraged to deny and to control himself, to put others’ happiness and convenience before his own, to watch for opportunities to cheer and assist brothers and sisters and playmates, and to show kindness to the aged, the sick, and the unfortunate. The more fully the spirit of true ministry pervades the home, the more fully it will be developed in the lives of the children. They will learn to find joy in service and sacrifice for the good of others.”
The Ministry of Healing, 401.
Parents, help your children to do the will of God by being faithful in the performance of the duties which really belong to them as members of the family. This will give them a most valuable experience. It will teach them that they are not to center their thoughts upon themselves, to do their own pleasure, or to amuse themselves. Patiently educate them to act their part in the family circle.
The Review and Herald, November 17, 1896
Need help getting started with Sonlight Education Ministry materials? Join Sonlight counselor Yolanda on Periscope for a Lunch and Learn Q&A – Friday, December 9th at 12:00 noon Eastern Time. The focus for this lunch and learn will be on the Road Map and Route– have your questions ready! If you are not able to participate in tomorrow’s lunch and learn, you may leave a question for Yolanda on the Sonlight Education Ministry Facebook page and watch the replay at your convenience.
You can find Yolanda’s Periscope page HERE as well as download the app to able to participate.
Link to the Road Map and Route
Another lunch and learn Periscope session is scheduled for December 30th.
See you tomorrow!
A nice balanced look at country living, with thoughts on character development and True Education.
“Honor thy father and thy mother,” is one of the commands spoken from Mount Sinai. It is the only one of the ten to which a promise is attached,—“That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Jesus was the Son of God; yet the Bible record tells us that he was subject to his earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, the humble peasants of Galilee. He did as he was told, even when the task assigned him was not agreeable to his feelings.
Consider the nature and the necessity of obedience. Children are not always taught this important lesson. The duty of obeying from right motives, and the sinfulness of disobedience, are not urged upon the conscience. Children must learn to submit to their parents; they must be trained and educated. No one can be truly good and great who has not learned to yield his will, first to his parents, and then to God, and to obey with alacrity. Those who learn to obey are the only ones who will be fitted to command.
By learning the lesson of obedience, children are not only honoring their parents and lightening their burdens, but they are pleasing One higher in authority. “Honor thy father and thy mother,” is a positive command. Children who treat their parents with disrespect, and disregard their wishes, not only dishonor them, but break the law of God. The earlier the will is made to yield to the will of the parents, and the more complete the submission, the less difficult it will be to yield to the requirements of God. And none can hope for the love and blessing of God who do not learn obedience to his commandments, and stand up firmly against temptation.
Children, you want will, but not a self-will that will not endure advice or listen to the counsel of experience. If you have younger brothers and sisters, do not set them an example of disobedience to your parents. Your influence will tend to lead them in the right path, that of peace and safety, or it will prove an injury to them. If you are pursuing a course of disobedience and vanity, will you not think candidly and soberly, and turn about? Cease your folly and transgression, and the Lord will forgive and bless you, and avert the evils which such a course would surely bring upon you.
Seek to be useful; help your parents by being care-taking and thoughtful. Do the duties nearest you, taking them just as they come, and doing them in a patient, cheerful spirit. You compose a part of the family, and add to the family work and expense; and you should be ready to do your part without a word of complaint. Do not frown and fret when any task is required of you, but cheerfully carry the little burdens, and thus relieve your parents of extra care. They are nothing but plain, homely, every-day duties, and may appear to you very small and insignificant, but some one must do them. If you go about them with quick step, and a heart glad because you can do something to lighten the cares of your parents, you will be a blessing in the home. You do not know how much good you can do by always wearing a cheerful, sunny face, and watching for opportunities to help.
It is by faithfulness in the minor duties of life that you are gaining an experience that will fit you for bearing larger responsibilities. Remember that your characters are not fully formed, but that day by day you are building for eternity. Fashion your characters after the divine model. Weave into them all the kindness, thoughtful obedience, pains-taking, and love that you can. Educate yourselves to possess the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price.
Cultivate quick sympathy; always have a cheerful, happy face, and be ready to lend a helping hand to those who need your aid. The faithful performance of the loving acts that seem so small is entered upon the ledger of heaven. God will make no mistake; he will make an accurate entry of every deed done to his glory. Go forward children, step by step, in the humble path of obedience, walking in God’s ways; and in the great day of final accounts you will receive a glorious reward. You will be satisfied with long life in the beautiful new earth, “the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
Mrs. E.G. White, The Youth’s Instructor- Sept. 24,1884
The Adventist Home Educator 