New Beginnings in Learning

  We began a read aloud about Elisabeth Elliot today.  It is the first read aloud of the year for my older girls.  It is the first read aloud for Jasmine since elementary school.  I briefly wondered if reading aloud to a 7th grader and a 9th grader is silly.  Aren't they too old?

 Well, I don't know if I will put an age limit on read alouds.  This is Jasmine's first year being homeschooled.  She hasn't had the benefit of being read to very often, and not at all in many years.  Reading aloud to junior high students is not on a list of public school priorities.  But, I believe, that Jasmine is not the poor student that the public school labeled her.  I believe that the IEP she has dealt with for years has not been effective because it just went about things the wrong way.  Reading aloud has SO many benefits, and I truly feel that reading aloud to Jasmine, even at 15, will encourage her to read more and will expand her brain and heart.

It's a deep conflict within me.  We fought for the right to homeschool my step-daughter in court, and actually won.  I rarely hear of permission being granted to homeschool if the other parent isn't sold on the idea.  We had prayed for weeks, hoped for a year.  And yet, this wasn't because of anything we did.  We wanted God to have His way so that He might be glorified.  He came through in our favor.

The conflict within me is that my beautiful, hard-working, struggling 15 year old is using traditional materials.  While I wanted to use other things, we placed Jasmine in a sort of cover school to placate the courts and her nervous biological mother.  Traditional materials, even Christian ones, are easier to measure from a distance.  There are tests and quizzes to measure apparent progress.  While I don't believe tests and quizzes always show very much, they are a part of a traditional curriculum.

  A part of me feels like it was partially the traditional materials that caused Jasmine to struggle in the first place.  Granted, these materials are Christian through and through.  We can try all sorts of things to help her learn the material in them, and actually have the time now to try those things.  But... a part of me wonders how Jasmine would do with a more Charlotte Mason type approach or something like Sonlight.  I showed Jasmine a couple of literature-based homeschool curriculum catalogs and she was intimidated by all the books.  But I think that is because she has never done things any other way than traditional methods, and even if they don't work the best for her, they are all she knows.  At least with her being homeschooled, I know she will learn the material.  She won't be pushed along too fast if she doesn't understand.  She won't be allowed to just flunk a test, and then move on without learning what she was supposed to.

I've prayed, and for this year we will stick with traditional methods.  Next year, we might deviate a little and add some variety.  We are taking this year by year.  However, as I prayed, I felt that, even if I was using traditional materials, we could try a couple things and see how they help Jasmine.  I began with assigning a fun, engaging book for reading on her own.  I wanted her reading more than just texts.  Today, I began the first read aloud of the year for Jasmine and Laura.  One chapter at a time, I hope to inspire my kids to so much more than boring education and complacent Christianity. 

Missionary stories are a favorite of Laura's.  I am not sure how Jasmine will react to a lot of missionary stories and focus.  This is all relatively new for her.  However, she is enjoying the Christ-centered curriculum and has already read quite a bit about missionaries.  She is writing a biographical sketch of C.T. Studd for an English assignment based on what she has learned about him in her English text.  She seems to be enjoying it, though I don't think any of it has sunk in deep yet.

God allowed for Jasmine to be homeschooled.  I am thrilled with the adventure God has placed us on.  After three or four years of reading about great Christians and missionaries, I wonder how God will use this to work in Jasmine's heart.  She went through many years of a very tough situation.  Now, she has quite a bit of healing to do.  I am praying that God will use not only our home or counseling, but the examples of Christians that have gone before, to heal and give purpose to a girl that hasn't caught many breaks in life up until now.