Volume 3 - Edition 5 - February 2007
The Winter Blues
by Janet Rainbow
Isn’t it nice when experts prove what we have known all along? For example experts have proven that everyone has their most alert times and their down times. The Vancouver Sun also wrote an article saying the months of January to March were the meat and potatoes of schooling.
What do these two things have in common? Well, I found when I was homeschooling my children, January and February tended to be down months. We always started the school year with a bang, excited about new books and getting back into routine after the summer off. This lasted until about November and then we could work on through with the excitement of Christmas. But what was there to get excited about in January? We were faced with short cold and wet days causing us to stay inside and no hope of a break for nearly three months. I was aware that these were the meat and potatoes of teaching time but shouldn’t even meat and potatoes be met with some excitement and enthusiasm?
...read more
Background on Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)
The main purpose of the assessment is to help the province, school districts, schools and school planning councils evaluate how well students are achieving basic skills, and make plans to improve student achievement. FSA is designed and developed by British Columbia educators. The skills tested are linked to the provincial curriculum and provincial performance standards.
The assessment is administered each spring to Grade 4 and 7 students in public and provincially funded independent schools. Information concerning the assessment is available in several languages in the Brochure for Parents and Students.
FSA instructions, forms and submission timelines are provided to schools well in advance of the writing.
...read more
The Adventure of Raising Boys
by Paula Moldenhauer
Boys are a different breed. Ask any mother of the male gender, especially if she has a couple of boys with no sister in between to tame them. There’s a wildness in boys that just doesn’t appear in girls. And sometimes we moms are left standing with our mouths agape, wondering what planet our bundle of energy came from.
My youngest two boys are only 18 months apart. Several years ago I took them to a Mommy and Me Music course. One day while we were waiting for class to begin my little guys started wrestling on the floor. I honestly don’t know where my head was. Wrestling is not appropriate behavior for a classroom experience, but for some reason it didn’t faze me. I didn’t even notice it until the teacher (mother of two girls), said very sweetly, "Umm . . . is that okay?"
To which I smiled and replied, "Oh yeah. They’re just playing like they do at home."
Thinking back on that moment I hang my head in embarrassment. I guess after watching this male bonding ritual repeated so often on my living room floor, it just seemed normal.
...read more
Parent's Personal Planning
by Chris McGrath
Summary Statement:
Deuteronomy 6:4-9; be sure to read the rest of the chapter.
For further study read Psalm 119.
4 Hear, 0 Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
9 Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;
...read more
Your documents....
by Ted Gerk
Many of you have, over the past few months, been receiving emails or phone calls regarding the documentation necessary to maintain a student file. Most of you have been eagerly co-operative and have provided the materials that we need.
Parents need to understand that the documents we need are actually documents that the Ministry of Education requires us to maintain, as we become the school of record for our students. We do not have the option of being flexible in this regard.
Changes this past fall mean we will no longer require a photocopy of a driver licence. We will, however, require each family to have on file a legal residency form, available here, and a copy of the birth certificate and the Care Card for each student we enroll.
...read more
ANNOUNCING CHEC 2007!!!
Whether you’re just thinking about home schooling, or are already fully entrenched, this weekend will provide you with the information, inspiration and encouragement you need. From keynote speakers who understand the issues and challenges facing today’s home schooling family, to workshops assisting you with the nuts and bolts of home schooling mechanics, to a vast supply of the latest and greatest curricula and resources available, we’ve got what you’re looking for.
Online registration form is OPEN!!!!
HCOS Presents the 2006-2007
It’s Not Easy – But It Is Worthwhile!
We are half way through the Philippians Challenge! How is it going? Are you on track? If you are like me, the Christmas season sabotaged my memorization efforts – I just kept busy in other ‘worthwhile’ things, and never found time to work on my memorization! I hate to admit it, but it was also hard to get back on track: to begin daily going over my verses again, to remember to pull out my photocopy of Philippians 1 and 2 when I was waiting for someone, to again say my verses to myself in the shower, to add that extra time to my quiet time ( I had so many important things to do! J ) . In short, this memorization thing isn’t easy – but it sure is worthwhile!
One benefit is that it keeps my mind on the Lord! The verses I am working on become a vital part of my day and my thoughts. Often listening to a sermon, I think – that’s just like it says in Philippians….! Also I can relate verses I memorized in the past to something I or a friend is going through – the Holy Spirit is able to bring them to mind, because they are in my mind! When a family is working on memorization together, it gives a common theme, a source of many discussions. It is worth every effort!
Here are a few ideas of making memorization a little easier and fun:
Try writing out the new verse on a chalkboard or large paper. Read the verse together. Cover (or erase) a word, and say the verse. Keep doing this until most words are removed or erased – and you will have learned the whole verse!
If instead of writing the verse on one piece of paper, you cut a paper up and write one word per paper, removing a few at a time. As a review, mix the papers up and you have a scrambled verse! If several children are working together, each one can have their own verse on papers (writing practice) and then have races to put them in order. This can also be done by verse – one verse per paper, and then put in order. Time how long it takes and then race against yourself! Can you do it in one breath?
Play ‘popcorn’ where each participant says one word/phrase/verse, and then the next person takes over, going back and forth as quickly as possible. Be fast!
When reviewing, stand in a different posture for each verse.
Use as many senses as you can in memorization: visual (pictures or symbols); auditory – different voices, and volumes – how would Paul have said it if he was reading the letter aloud; tactile – actions (for example for the word ‘right’ or ‘righteous’, always make a check mark in the air, ‘love’ draw a heart etc. Philippians 2:5-11 opens itself to dramatic actions: Have this attitude (make a humble face) in yourselves (point to self) which was also in Christ Jesus (point up to Jesus), who, although He existed in the form of God (make some motion to indicate God’s greatness), did not regard equality with God (shake head)a thing to be grasped (grab at the greatness), but emptied Himself (hands swing down and bow), taking the form of a bond-servant (could touch ear where bond-servant was pieced)and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man (point towards self with both hands going up and down), He humbled….. You get the idea. One of our children does so much better if there are actions, and then those are clues to the verse when reviewing.
Several people have asked about some details of the Philippians Challenge, and I will try to answer some questions here:
- Do all the verses need to be recited at once? Yes
- Who does the child say their verses to before June 12? A non-family member can listen to the verses and then as a parent you will report that to your teacher, and we will enter their name into the draw.
- How word perfect does the memorization need to be? We want the verse to be memorized as close as possible to the translation the person is memorizing from. In other words, just saying the gist of the verse won’t be counted, nor your own paraphrase – the person listening to your verses needs to be able to tell that you have worked hard at memorizing exactly what the Bible says. We want you to remember these verses for life! Mistakes such as ‘And for this I rejoice’ instead of ‘And because of this I rejoice’ would not be counted as a mistake. If several verses got missed, that would be a prompt that is needed.
- Do we need to know the references? For those who have chosen to memorize equivalent verses outside of Philippians – yes for each new passage. People memorizing the 35 chosen verses in Philippians need to be able to say Phil 1: 6, Phil 1: 9 - 11 etc. For individuals memorizing chapters, you will just need to know chapter breaks.
- How many prompts can I have? We want to have a high standard and yet be reasonable. Again the ‘listener’ will need to use discretion – is the child ‘winging it’ (especially on the last verses) or do they have it memorized? If all but one section is passable, the listener needs to tell them to practice some more and try again later. 2 prompts per chapter should be all that are necessary. If you feel this isn’t enough for your child, please let your teacher know, and we can be in discussion on this. Aim for excellence! (But be reasonable!)
Keep up the good work! Please report to your teacher monthly as to how far your family is in achieving their goal. It would be fun to get a total of the number of verses HCOS has done this year! For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Please remember the
Fund raiser for the Philippians Challenge !
Encourage children in their memorization ! Businesses and individuals are invited to make a tax deductible donation to go towards prize incentives for Phil Challenge members. Reward their hard work! All donations up to $500 will be matched by HCOS!
Please make cheque out to HCOS, and designate it to the Phil Challenge to receive a tax receipt.
Join the 
now!
