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Category Archives: Parenting & Family

Review of Christianity Cove’s Freedom Ride

There are many ways to start the homeschool day. One way is to begin with a time of spiritual reflection and discussion using lessons in Freedom Ride: 12 Lessons of Faith for Today’s Teens by Christianity Cove.

Recent studies show that an alarming number of young people walk away from their faith during their teen and college years. The only way to counteract this trend is to help kids learn how to build their own relationship with God, nurture a vital prayer life, minister in their community, and find ways to impact the world around them in a unique way with their individual God-given gifts and talents.

Freedom Ride: 12 Lessons of Faith for Today’s Teens is intended for use in Sunday School classes, and many of the activities and discussion topics work best in a group setting. However, homeschoolers are quite creative when it comes to adapting a variety of resources to fit their home education needs. These lessons can be used as a 45-60 minute Bible class with a group of kids in a co-op situation, or use part of the lesson as a short 30-minute devotional with your teens, or incorporate the suggested dialogues as conversation starters through the week.

We received Freedom Ride for this review as an 83-page .pdf download that includes preparation info, a materials list, printable pages, the lesson script, and ideas for student involvement with “Help All Week” exercises to help kids form good habits. Lesson titles are:

How to Get Started: Building a Sincere & Awesome Relationship with God
How to Talk with God (& not break out in hives and actually enjoy yourself)
How to Hear God (& not scoot under the bed or break out in more hives)
3 Reasons We Don’t Hear God (& how to get the wax out of your ears)
Following God’s Leading (& not ending up in Catawangawanga)
How to Behave: Keeping it Real All Week (especially Friday & Saturday night)
Loadies, Cokeheads, Drunks, Stoners (& the psychology of stooping so low)
Gossips & Other Trumpet Mouths (& how not to join the band)
Peer Pressure 1: You’re Not a Zit (so don’t let people squeeze you)
Peer Pressure 2: You’re like a Balloon (so don’t end up deflated)
Facebook Fights & Texting Wars (& how not to get your face blown off)
How to Grow: Getting Beyond the Self Esteem Wars
Finding Your Gifts from God (& therefore some meaning in life)
Putting Yourself in the Other Guys’ Shoes (& not catching his foot fungus)
Loving Your Brothers ‘n Sisters (even when you feel like clobbering each other)

As you can tell by the chapter titles, the approach has a young, casual, hip, and contemporary edge. If you and your kids enjoy this tone and method of Bible study, you will enjoy Freedom Ride. While I personally use quite a bit of slang and goofy metaphors in my every day speech, we take a more serious tone when we do our Bible studies. We also prefer the reverent and eloquent language of the King James Version. I used Freedom Ride as fuel for conversation, reading the lesson to them and asking them if they agreed or disagreed with the points presented, the illustrations and object lessons, and the application of Scriptural principles.

Maybe you’ve looked at the chapter titles and thought “My teens don’t go to public school and face intense peer pressure, or hang around other kids in trouble with drugs, sex, or criminal activity”. I know I don’t worry very much about loadies and stoners in my kid’s lives now, but that will not always be the case. I don’t know when those kinds of issues will arise in their lives, or in their friend’s lives. If you feel uncertain about how to begin these tough conversations, Freedom Ride has some helpful suggestions for how to present reasons for your children to think twice before giving in to those temptations.

Some of these topics will go over the heads of younger kids, but several are still applicable, especially to tweens just entering the physical and emotional tug-of-war of puberty.

When you click on the embedded link to purchase Freedom Ride, ($29) you will first see an audiovisual presentation about the reason and inspiration for Freedom Ride and other products by Christianity Cove. If you don’t want to listen/watch it, just scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Order “Freedom Ride” Teen Lesson Plans link, which takes you directly to the secure order page.

To read more Christianity Cove product reviews by the Schoolhouse Review Crew, click on the banner below.

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Posted by Susan Raber on June 11, 2013 in Bible, Homeschool High School, Parenting & Family, Schoolhouse Crew Reviews

Tags: Bible lessons, Christian teens, Sunday School lessons

Publishing posts about personal issues

10 Jun

I often wrestle with how much personal information to publish online. Not so much for privacy concerns, (because really- is anything private anymore?) but because I doubt anyone wants to hear about the details of my life. Isn’t everyone a bit burned out on reality television (and ain’t that an oxymoron!) and the Montel-ization of America, where folks publicly talk in great detail about about their troubles, their feelings?

But then I run into a friend and as we chat about our lives, I am inevitably told that I should write more about the issues of life that we, as the Raber family, deal with now and in the past. They seem to believe that sharing our struggles in a transparent manner helps others dealing with the same problems.

While much of what I write is based on things I’ve learned through personal experience, I don’t write in detail about particular incidents. Maybe because I want to write more about principles that can be applied to a variety of situations, and maybe because I am really uncomfortable when it comes to writing about my family.

This blog is mine, but I don’t feel that I can write too much about my husband, kids, or mom without invading their privacy. So then, how much is too much? Is it OK to write about health problems or financial struggles? Should I go into more detail about our family dynamic? Can I include specifics about caring for an elderly parent without breaking an understood sense of confidentiality?

How do you decide what to include/not include in your writing?

Do you find personal stories encouraging?

How much information is too much information?

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Posted by Susan Raber on June 10, 2013 in Parenting & Family, Writing/Blogging

Tags: online privacy, personal information, publishing

Homeschooling: much more than academics

21 May

In our efforts to make sure our kids are ready for college or a vocation, we can become focused on academics and forget the character traits and learning skills that will carry our young people through any decision, circumstance, or challenge. It is much more important that we give our children these tools than they become math geniuses or musical prodigies, or knit their own sweaters from llama wool.

One of the primary desires of Christian parents is that their child have repented and been converted to Jesus Christ, have developed solid habits of Bible reading and prayer, as well as a firm foundation of sound doctrine on which to base their faith and practice. We also have a responsibility to teach them to be moral, ethical, and responsible citizens.

Have they learned coping skills- dealing with stress, peer pressure, emergency situations?
Do they possess self-control in areas of temperament, health, finances, time management. . .?
Do they have a sense of empathy and compassion for others?
Are they self-motivated with a strong work ethic?
Do they know how to persevere through difficult situations?
Are they forgiving, generous, and merciful?
Do they know how to anticipate needs and problems and be proactive in avoiding trouble and finding solutions?
Can they work well with others to complete a project?
Do they understand that their true character will be revealed when they are on their own?

An exercise to help them think through the impact of the decisions they make now is to write an essay:

Where do you want to be in 5 years, then 10 years?
If you could talk to your 20-years-from-now-future-self about some of the paths you could take, what would you ask them?
Imagine that you are sitting in a room with your children and grandchildren- what would you like to be able to tell them about the life you lived when you were young?

There are also some basic skills our students need for college and vocation that are not purely academic:

Communicate clearly in both written and oral formats
Manners and behavior appropriate to a variety of situations
Prioritize, organize, and budget time, money, and possessions
Understand instructions both written and verbal
Research a topic with reliable sources
Use basic technology, such as email, online banking, and making secure purchases online
Clean a house, cook a meal, wash and care for their own clothes
Think deeply and critically about information and be able to follow an idea to its logical conclusion

As you think about these life skills, many more will probably come to mind. Some of them are likely to be Things You Wish You Had Known. We’ve learned from our many mistakes, and Lesson #1 is often the nature of regret.

But just as we made mistakes and learned from them, so will our children. Some of their most important lessons will be learned because they made a poor decision, acted on impulse, didn’t pursue all the facts before moving forward. Our heart may break for the pain they experience, the struggles that follow, and the opportunities lost, but if we have given them the tools they need to cope with life, they will most likely come out the other side stronger and wiser. This is the bittersweet truth of parenting.

So don’t get too caught up in Algebra 2, vocabulary lists, college applications, and SAT scores. Your children can always conquer those things later if the need arises. It’s these other less tangible and testable skills that will help them reach their dreams of an excellent life.

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Posted by Susan Raber on May 21, 2013 in Christian Life, College and Career, Parenting & Family

Tags: life skills, preparing for college, teaching good character, vocational skills

Carnival of Homeschooling at the NerdFamily Blog

15 May

Pay a visit to a pro-nerd family of pro-family nerds at the NerdFamily Blog, and check out all the posts about homeschooling the news, as well as the nuts-and-bolts of home education.

If you are considering homeschooling, or getting ready to plan next year, a homeschool carnival is a great way to explore a wide variety of homeschool related subjects, as well as the tremendous diversity of homeschool families.

The Carnival of Homeschooling is a weekly homeschooling blog carnival, an opportunity to learn from and be encouraged by fellow homeschoolers. Would you like to participate in the Carnival? Check out the submission instruction page at Why Homeschool.

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Posted by Susan Raber on May 15, 2013 in Carnivals & Memes, Encouragement, Homeschool styles & methods, Issues in education (public & home), Parenting & Family

Tags: carnival of homeschooling, homeschool families, parenting

For some fresh air in your homeschool, open the windows

14 May

The role of teacher often seems to be distant, and even adversarial to the average student. The teacher makes the Top Secret Lesson Plans using the mysterious Teacher’s Editions which are always kept out of reach. Teachers exercise unquestioned authority over the student’s education – awarding grades with either an indelible red pen or the more merciful bell curve – but either way, the student’s fate is in their hands. Assignments are etched in stone, and deadlines carry with them all the dread the term implies.

A parent who spent 12 years in the traditional classroom may be conditioned to act in this way in their role as homeschool teacher. There are the same sort of clearly drawn lines between teacher/parent and student/child – the same authority and actions on the part of the parent, the same passive compliance in the student.

And then the parent gets frustrated because their child doesn’t seem to be motivated. Can I just say, “Duh?”

Breathe some fresh air into your homeschool by getting your kids involved in planning their own education. Open up those Teacher’s Editions and give them the lesson plan books. Ask them what they’d like to learn, and how they’d like to learn it. Let them set their own goals and stand back in a supportive role while they find the pace that is right for them. Give them the answer key and scoring rubrics, and have them grade their own papers and give reports of their progress.

And how about that classroom? Does your child spend most of their learning time inside? Is there a defined education space in your home where notebooks, school books, and supplies are kept in neatly labeled rows? Do the kids immediately put their books away when ‘school hours’ are over?

Nothing wrong with being organized, but have you looked out the window lately? Let the sunshine in to your homeschool by taking the books outside and enjoying the warmer weather. Sit in the swing or spread a blanket on the grass and read together, or just look at the clouds, trees, birds, and other assorted critters, and talk about whatever.

Instead of your home using you, why not use your home as an educational tool? The kitchen is a place where physics and chemistry come alive at every meal. The living room can become the family library, where kids and parents can curl up in comfy chairs to read and discuss literature and history. Why not use the walls for maps, timelines, and the children’s artwork? Who are we trying to impress anyway with our decorating skill? Let your kids know how important their education is to you by making their efforts and goals the centerpieces of your home.

Many of us have spent many years in the rigidity of the classroom, and it takes time to shake some of those ingrained habits off and learn to enjoy the education process. We’ve kept home and school separate for so long that we still tend to try to find ways to separate the messy learning stuff from the neat-as-a-pin homey stuff.

Any attempt to divide learning from the rest of life is an artificial one that causes frustration and confusion. Open the doors and windows and books, and reunite the elements of school and family in your homeschool.